Fairbanks, Alaska

Our first full day here was a stay-at-home day. We had cleaning from all of the fire roads and our first laundry day in 4 weeks. We are also trying to update this website but running into problems. Never fear, a tech team is working on the situation!

We met a guy and his dog, in his side car, in Grand Junction. He told us to meet up with his friend Ralph who owns the Thirsty Dog in Fox. We tried!!!! Ralph is never gone, but was gone to a funeral the day we stopped in.

Dave talked to the guys camping across the road from us. One is from San Francisco, one from Venezuela and three from Argentina. They rode all the way up here! They will find different ways back to the mainland and then will ship their bikes and fly home.

We had booked a tour to the Arctic Circle. At first we were disappointed because we both thought we were going all the way to Purdhoe Bay but only got to the “circle”. It was a long drive, 12 hours round trip and the road was not good. We were both tired of the bouncing by the time we returned. One of the things we had read earlier, by one of the men working on the Alaska Highway is ringing true, “there are miles and miles of miles and miles”!

One of the people we met on this trip was a woman who lives in the wilderness with her son. Her brother lives in Nicollet, Minnesota, just 10 miles from our home!

It was a good trip with driver/tour guide Randy and 2 couples from Houston. There are a lot of pictures below of the scenery along the Dalton Highway and the Alaskan pipeline. We learned a lot about the pipeline and were both super impressed with the technology that went into building it. For example, about 50% of it is above ground because of the permafrost, 18 inches down. Where there is no permafrost, the pipeline goes underground. The reasons for putting it above ground are to preserve the permafrost as well as to keep the oil flowing. It is 800 miles long, running from Purdhoe Bay to Valdez. It crosses 3 mountain ranges and 800 rivers and streams.

This road was originally paved but all the permafrost keeps causing frost heaves. They have given up on repairing the road and let it revert to a dirt road. It is still paved in areas where there is no permafrost.

Only 1%of visitors to Alaska get passed Fairbanks. We made it!

On the way back, we had fun taking pictures of a couple of grizzlies. The second one thought it was a photo shoot and posed for us.

We also saw a moose and her calf. We could see them with binoculars but were not able to get good camera shots. They were a ways off the road, in the trees.

We went to the Visitor Center in Anchorage and it was neat. There was a lot of information about Alaska history, native tribes and how the weather affects life here. We also listened to a talk by a park ranger about caribou. We ended our outing at Hoo Doo Brewery, recommended by our friend Todd Ehlenfeldt.

For our last day in Fairbanks, we toured the downtown area, First Family Park and Pioneer Village.

One last stop in Fairbanks was the Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co. They do not sell flights, but “tasters”.