FAIRBANKS

Today's excursion was an excellent finale to our Alaska Experience.

Our coach driver Emma also offered us a musical safety announcement and sang us the Alaskan National song en route to our first stop, the Alaska Pipeline and Gold Dredger 8. Our guide, Tim, filled us in on the details of the pipeline. Oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the Alyeska Pipeline Company started designing the pipeline in 1970. The pipeline was an epic feat of petroleum engineering. The pipe diameter is 48 inches, spans 3 mountains, 30 rivers and streams and terminates in the ice free port of Valdez. Construction lasted from 1974 to 1977 and cost $8 billion. The pipeline included many elevated crossings to avoid disturbing movement of big game herds and areas of permafrost.

We boarded a replica train of the Tanana Valley railway and before setting off we were entertained with music performed by Emma's (the bus driver) Dad. During the train journey we had a informative talk and stops explaining how much water was required for the dredging operation and how in 1929 the Davison Ditch was built to carry water 91 miles from the headwaters of the Chatanika River to Fox where the dredger is today.

Gold Dredger 8 was built in Pennsylvania, dismantled and transported to San Francisco, then shipped to Seward, and finally taken by train to Fox. It operated between 1928 and 1959. The dredger mechanically dug into the bank, scooping up the gold bearing gravel, it then went into the trimmer and stacker to separate out the gold. The gold was then heated and made into gold bars and finally was posted off to the federal bank.

When we arrived we were given a poke sack of pay dirt and a pan. We were seated at a trough of water and taught how to pan for gold. Tony and I ended up with $28 of gold which we had put in a locket and stuck on a magnet. We also received free coffee and cookies. We were entertained by fiddle playing on the train before we set off back.

Our next stop was for lunch by the stern-boat dock. Our lunch was a stew made to an original pioneers' recipe. We boarded the stern wheeler boat for our 3 hour cruise and were told about the Binkley family who own the boat operation. In 1898 Charles Binkley hiked over the Chilkoot Pass (the Pass we saw near Skagway on the cruise part of our trip), he became a respected pilot and boat builder. His son, Jim Binkley followed in his footsteps and piloted freight vessels on the Yukon and Tanana Rivers in the 1940's. This was a challenging 2,000 mile round trip and involved working with native Alaskans, trappers, traders, miners, missionaries and prospectors. By the early 1950's the railroad and airplanes were taking most of the freight so Captain Jim and his wife Mary started a river boat excursion business in Fairbanks. Initially they purchased a 25 passenger boat in 1950 and went on to build Discovery I their first sternwheeler in their backyard. Their sons and grandsons have continued in the business usually starting from the age of 10 working in the gift shop and eventually becoming qualified captains. There are 11 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

The first entertainment on the boat was to watch a bush pilot takeoff and land a plane on the river. We then stopped at Susan Butcher's Champion Sled Dogs Kennel, and were shown some cute one month old husky puppies by Tekla, Susan's daughter and watched an Experience dog team race around the property. Susan won the 1,100 mile Iditarod Dog Sled Race 4 times and led the only climbing party to conquer by dog team Mount McKinley. Sadly she died of Leukemia in 2006 but her husband has tutored their daughters to become accomplished mushers and the championship kennels continue to flourish. Our final stop and disembarque was at the Athabaskan Indian Fish Camp, here we learnt about how they smoke the fish to feed the dogs and themselves throughout the long winter. We saw how they hunt the game and use their pelts for clothing and bedding and how they built their houses since western men have been in the area and also how they built canoes and dwellings before western men and when they were nomadic. We returned to the boat and enjoyed complimentary coffee and blueberry doughnuts and then sampled smoked salmon and cream cheese on crackers. We passed by Mary Binkley's house and she gave us all a cheery wave. Jim passed away in 2003 but Mary, at 92, still plays an active role in the company.

We returned to the hotel for a quick supper and the quest of ensuring our check in bags only weigh 50 pounds!!! Tomorrow we have to be up at 2.30 am to get the 3.30 am shuttle to the airport, a short night but we know it won't get dark as we are now up to about 20 plus hours of full daylight.

Before going to sleep I took a little time to reflect on our Alaskan experience. Alaska is a state (even though most of the time if feels like a separate country from the lower 48), a place of splendid natural beauty and teaming with magnificent wildlife. It has a feeling of being remote, some places are still only accessible by bush plane or boat, even towns like Fairbanks don't have gas supplies and there are plenty of people that live in dry houses with no running water and just an outhouse. For year round residents Summers, which are short, are about preparing for the long hard winters. Summers is a time for repairing the roads damaged by the winter weather, plentiful seasonal jobs for the tourist industry and 20 plus hours of day light. There are no school snow days in winter you just get your snow shoes on or jump on your snow machine and daylight is between 11 am and 2.30 pm! The Alaskans are a hardy bunch some native First Nation, others with family lines going back to the pioneers of the Gold Rush era and others just came here fell in love with the place and stayed. We 'lucked out', as they say in the US, we had clear blue skies most of the way which certainly adds to the experience but is not normal out here. It is definitely a place for wearing layers, you never know from one minute to the next what the temperature is going to be.

If you have not been, put Alaska on your bucket list!!!Read more