JULY 19-25: PALMER-BARROW-ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

DAY 51, JULY 19:  I spent most of the day preparing for the trip tomorrow before going into Anchorage for a visit with Betty Novotney.  It was good to see her again!  She treated her daughter, Betty Springen,

Betty Novotney

Two Bettys and a Carol

and me to dinner at The Bridge, on Fish Creek.  I got my “king crab” fix—and was it ever good.  Thank you, Betty!


DAY 52. JULY 20:  I drove in to Anchorage and picked up my friend Betty Springen who was going on my next adventure with me.  This time it is a trip north of the Arctic Circle to Barrow, Alaska—a village I have wanted to see since I was in about the 5^th grade.  We flew up on Alaska Airlines, with an interim stop at Prudhoe Bay before getting to Barrow.  I didn’t get my road trip to Prudhoe Bay as planned this year; however, I at least got to see some of the “lay of the land” as we landed and took off.  There are definitely a lot of oil field-related facilities around the airport!  I was also quite surprised at all the potholes with water in them around the area.  They were everywhere! 

Landing at Deadhorse aka Prudhoe Bay

Potholes around Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope

The flight on to Barrow was short and, with the breaks in the clouds, I was able to look out over the Arctic Ocean where I saw floating ice here and there. 

Ice floes in the Arctic Ocean

The terrain around Barrow was quite similar to Prudhoe Bay with LOTS of small potholes in the tundra.

The flight was on a Boeing 737-400 “combi” aircraft.  I had never been on one of these before and the company’s literature onboard indicated they have 4.  (The word on the street is that they will be phased out in the fairly near future.)  Cargo is carried in large containers placed in the forward part of the aircraft where normally the first 15 or 16 rows would be.  It is also carried in the belly like in a normal passenger aircraft.  Passengers sit behind a bulkhead and enter the aircraft through the rear exit—which means you don’t use a jetway and you are subjected to the elements while walking on the ramp between the terminal and the aircraft.  That could be pretty chilly up on the North Slope in the winter!  All in all, this whole operation took me back 40+ years the way it was operated.  Schedules didn’t mean a thing today.  When the aircraft was loaded, it departed; the clock didn’t mean anything as near as I could tell.  We departed Anchorage about 15 minutes early and arrived in Barrow early—even with the fuel stop at Deadhorse (aka Prudhoe Bay).

My first sight of Barrow, AK!

The terminal at Barrow was an old well-used building that made you feel like you had gone back well-over 40 years in time!  Apparently the airline owns it—at least their name was on it.  Security (TSA) is right next to the gate agent and the space is really tight.  It was all very interesting to say the least.

We made it! 

Betty and I walked the 1 ½ blocks to our hotel which is the Airport Inn.  It is owned by a couple who live on the premises and who turned out to be very accommodating and were full of suggestions to make our visit more enjoyable.  We both enjoyed talking with them a lot.  Since we needed to stretch our legs a bit, we took a chilly .9 mi/1.4 km walk against the wind to get dinner.  The wind chill temperature was 25F/-4C!  The sun doesn’t set here until sometime in early August, so we will have sunshine all night long.



Welcome to the Arctic!!!

DAY 53, JULY 21:  We took a private 2 ½ hour tour of the area this morning with a gentleman who had moved to Barrow 45 years ago.  He said his first job was for the Borough (county) emptying “honey buckets” in town.  From that job he progressed into other borough-related jobs before retiring and starting his tour guide business.  His was an interesting tour during which we learned a lot about the infrastructure within the town and how things are built to withstand the severe weather conditions up there.  He provided us insight from a man who moved into the community from the “Lower 48” and who had managed to remain there all these years.  When he arrived in Barrow in 1972, the population was about 2400; now it is about 4400, of which 60% are Eskimo and the remainder came from all over the world.  There are quite a few Filipinos, Koreans, and Chinese, as well as people from other Asian countries, in addition to Hispanics, etc., making up the remaining 40%.  He said the area has lost 150 to 200 feet (46-61 meters) of shoreline since he moved there.  Permafrost starts about 12 inches (.3 meter) below ground level and buildings are built on pilings driven 8 feet (2.4 m) into the permafrost to give them a good foundation.  The town’s water system is buried 10’ down, is insulated with styrofoam, and is heated.  Not all homes were tapped into the water system, in particular those older ones that were not built on pilings and, thus, were at the mercy of permafrost melting.  Some were canted at various angles as a result.  These homes had honey buckets outside waiting to be emptied or that had been emptied. 

Here is what happens when you build right on
 top of permafrost (5 people live in this home)

The village

Seal meat drying

We stopped at the end of the “road” system and dipped our feet in a lagoon that comes off the Beaufort Sea which is part of the Arctic Ocean.  Our guide checked the area out to the end of Point Barrow and found there was no one out there, so he declared at 10:02 a.m. that we were the northernmost people on land in the U.S.!  The natives charge $1500 for an annual permit for him to go out to the end of the point, which he refuses to pay, so we did not get to the actual point of land.  (It would have required use of an ATV to get out there.)

Yes, the back of my boots were in the water!

 Gasoline prices are set once a year when the barges deliver it the end of August or first week in September.  The price this year is $5.90 per gallon.

The afternoon tour, which we had booked before going up there, was the better-known tour and was hosted by two native women, one of which drove and participated in the narration.  Because it was a company (Tundra Tours) that provided this tour, it was more scripted; however, our questions were all answered.  The emphasis was on the culture and living within the community, as well as showing us the normal tourist highlights of the area.  I thoroughly enjoyed both tours as the guides came from different perspectives in some areas of their lives up there.  There were areas of differences not unlike what we hear in the Lower 48 between the Native Americans and the “white man”.  All in all, though, the community recognizes its problems, such as drugs and alcohol, and seems to be desirous of trying to deal with the problems.  Speaking of alcohol, a bottle can cost $100 because of all the associated permits, fees, and transportation costs.  Children start pre-school at age 3 when English and their native language is taught.  Kindergarten is mandatory.  Barrow doesn’t get much snow so the schools do not have “snow days”.  They have “wind days” when schools are cancelled because of winds above 50 mph (80km).  The main industry is tourism and we tourists were taken to the local heritage center to watch some native dancing. 

 

Whaling is done in the spring and the fall—the whole village turns out to help with the butchering when a whale is brought in. 

Everyone talked about the high prices of everything that is brought in.  But, they also talked about how much money they make.  I checked online and found that the estimated median household income in 2015 was $77,793.  Estimated per capita income in 2015 was $28,129.  We were told on the tour that the native population, including children, receives dividend checks from the native corporation which, I am sure, results in the rather high per capita income.  The population has decreased about 4% since 2000 according to figures I found online.



A few prices

 

A group of shanties out on the spit north of the main village were used as places for villagers to go camping and hunting.  Only natives are allowed to own places there and the exterior furnishings were pretty interesting.

Camping and hunting buidings just north
 of the village

One of the hunting/camping "villas" 

(Note the swing has a plastic crate

tied to the bottom of the ropes.) Our

morning guide said he has seen the

 owner sit on the  blue couch and

shoot ducks from there.

A bowhead garden by a hunting/camping cabin

A DEW (Distant Early Warning) line base, located north of town, is still manned by about 20 military personnel; however, the adjacent U.S. Navy airfield has been turned over to the native corporation and is now used for housing, offices, scientific offices, and a college among other things.

Dewline Base

There is a football field in Barrow that has blue and gold Astroturf which was bankrolled by a Florida woman, to the tune of over $1 million, who decided it was needed.  Four games a year are played on the field.  Go figure…  My thinking is that money could have been better spent!  (End of my commentary on this subject—and I like to watch football.)

An ancient (2000 year old) earthen village is in Barrow where tundra-covered mounds show the location of the village’s ancestors’ semi-underground sod dwellings.  A sunken underground tunnel-like entrance was engineered to keep the cold air out and the long jawbones of a bowhead whale supported the roof.  Several whale bones still protrude above the surface of mounds.  Between the sloughing away of the cliff side and the archeological studies of the area, a great deal of information has been compiled about how the ancestral people lived, what they ate, etc.

Earthen mounds

Whale bone protruding from a mound

Another whalebone (Chukchi Sea in
background)

Of course, we could not go all the way to Barrow without finding a geocache.  Actually, we found two; one was a traditional cache in the skull of a bowhead whale (the bowhead whale’s skull is 1/3 the size of the full whale) and the other was a virtual cache by a monument memorializing Wiley Post’s and Will Rogers’ airplane crash about 16 miles southeast of town.

Bowhead whale skull

Bowhead whale skull

Monument for Wiley Post and Will Rogers

We were able to catch an early evening flight back to Anchorage ending this adventurous side-trip.  One more item on my bucket list checked off.  Was it worth the time to put the trip together on short notice and pay the money?  You bet!  I learned a lot and experienced a part of the U.S. that I never thought I would make it to.  I can now say I have been from Key West, FL to Barrow, AK and to the southern-most point in the U.S. on the Big Island of Hawaii, to the eastern-most point in the U.S. at Acadia National Park in Maine, and to the western-most end of the road in North America at Anchor Point, AK.  What fun it is to think back and remember the experiences and things I have learned from all these neat places!
 

DAY 54, JULY 22:  The sun sets at 11:01 p.m.in Anchorage today—the last time the sun sets after 11 p.m. for 305 days!  I spent the day re-organizing from the Barrow trip and working on the blog.

DAY 55, JULY 23:  I met Betty Springen and her Mother, Betty Novotney, in Palmer this morning and got my mail from Betty S. after which I took a drive to the end of the Knik River Road.  I was hoping to get some good views of the Knik Glacier in the Chugach Mountain Range but was not close enough to it for a good view or to get good pictures.  Tom Gummer had flown me over the glacier before landing in the lake at the mouth of the glacier 10 years ago.  That was a very beautiful and memorable flight!  The afternoon was spent going through mail and preparing for tomorrow’s move.  It was a warm (80F/27C) humid afternoon today and the lake was full of swimmers and boaters.

 

Wildlife count:  1 cow moose

DAY 56, JULY 24:  After driving into Palmer to dump the RV’s holding tanks and to refuel, I headed towards Anchorage where I parked in Betty Springen’s driveway.  She was out of town so I joined Tom Gummer for a late lunch.

Road Report:  Roads between the Wasilla and Palmer areas and Anchorage are in good condition.  Extensive rebuilding of the on/off ramps at Muldoon Road is in progress; however, traffic is moving well during non-rush hours.

DAY 57, JULY 25:  It has been a cloudy, drizzly, lazy kind of day in Anchorage—a good day to do laundry and work on the blog.  My friend, Betty Springen, took the stitches out from above my right eye.  She was much gentler than the doctors who have removed stitches for me in the past.  YEA!!!  We went to see her Mother this evening and had some good pizza there.  It has been quite a few weeks since I have had pizza, so it tasted very good.

JULY 11-18, DENALI-PALMER

DAY 43, JULY 11:  The skies were overcast all day with light rain falling off and on.  However, I had a very pleasant 121 mi/195 km drive from Fairbanks down to Denali.  The majestic views of the Alaska Range continue to elude me on this trip because of the low clouds obscuring the mountains.  Fortunately, I have seen them from west of Tok to Denali on a previous trip so I can visualize what I can’t see out the windows today.  I got set up at the RV park and then went to the Wilderness Center to pick up my ticket for tomorrow’s tour.  I would really like to take the tour that goes to the end of the road in the park and figured I had nothing to lose by asking if I could change my ticket to the longer tour.  As luck would have it, I got the last seat on the bus.  So, instead of an 8-9 hour drive tomorrow, I will have an 11-12 hour drive into the park.  I then took a drive out to Savage River, which is as far as you can drive your own vehicle.  I have seen caribou out there on a few occasions before, but not today.  When I got done looking the area over, there was a gull on the hood of my car.  I started the engine to leave and it just stayed there.  Another park visitor walked up to shush the gull away; however, it just went up to the roof of the Jeep.  It finally flew away as I began driving down the road. 

GULL LOOKING FOR CARIBOU WITH ME AT SAVAGE RIVER

I visited a few of the shops in Denali village when I returned from the drive before calling it a day.

Wildlife Count:  1 bald eagle on a nest built in a steel powerline tower south of Nanana.  (Lots of nests on towers in that area), 1 mew seagull

 Road Report:  There were some sizeable frost heaves for the first 10 miles south of Fairbanks.  The road was much better after the long climb up the ridge at that point.  Just the normal frost heaves from then on.  The road is much improved through the canyon north of Denali.  It appears to have been rebuilt and they are putting the finishing touches on it now with new guard rails still being installed.  Roadway markings have not been laid down yet.  The road is still rough for about 5 miles through the Denali village area, but then is improved south of the village to the park entry road.

DAY 44, JULY 12:  Today was a day to cross an item off my “bucket list” as I climbed aboard a bus to go to the end of the road in Denali National Park 92 miles/148 kilometers distant.  Denali is celebrating it’s 100^th Anniversary this year and it’s size is about 6 million acres/2,428,114 hectares.  (I hope I did that conversion right!)  Smoke had rolled into the park from forest fires in northeast Alaska and Canada, obscuring the views all day and preventing good landscape photos.  Clouds also obscured the mountains in the morning, but parted later in the day.  Wildlife views were slow in the morning, but about noon that began to change and we were able to see the “Big 5” in Denali—Dall sheep, moose, grizzly bear, wolf, and caribou during the trip.  Our driver was also a naturalist/interpreter and did a good job with both tasks.  She came to AK from Wisconsin after college in 1975 and never went back; she has worked at Denali for 11 seasons and knows the park well.

 

LANDSCAPES OF DENALI N. P.







TUNDRA



TRANSITION ZONE

 

 

A CARIBOU WITH A "DOUBLE SHOVEL"
(OUR FIRST SIGHTING OF A "BIG 5")

THIS MOOSE DECIDED TO SWIM ACROSS THE LAKE
FOR A CLOSER LOOK AT US

During our drive, we saw several families of willow ptarmigan which is Alaska’s state bird.  Both the female and the male raise the chicks which is similar to the quail I see in AZ.  The males are reddish-brown on top with a white bottom and the females are a mottled-brown, so it is easy to pick them out. 

WILLOW PTARMIGAN

We also saw innumerable numbers of arctic ground squirrels skittering across the road as we drove in and out of the park.  They hibernate for more than half the year and were quite unafraid of people around them when we were parked at view points along the way. 

ARCTIC GROUND SQUIRREL

We came upon one hoary marmot on the road.  They can grow to 32 inches/81 centimeters, so they are quite a large rodent.



HOARY MARMOT

The weather at Denali comes in from the south so much of the park is in the “shadow” of the Alaska Range.  This results in pretty small amounts of moisture—15 inches annually, of which 8 inches comes from snow.  (Not sure how to do the conversion on this one.)  The effects of global warming have been widely documented in the park.  We have all heard about how glaciers are receding in various parts of the world; however, in the Park larger vegetation now grows in areas that used to be tundra.  Studies are ongoing concerning how this will change the ecosystem in years/decades to come.  There are certainly a lot of unknowns.

The end of the road is at the old mining town of Kantishna where all that is left is Fannie Quigley’s cabin.  The Quigleys only went into town once a year to get supplies due to the remoteness of the area.  It was over 100 miles/161 kilometers to the nearest town!  Everything else was grown or harvested locally.  A Park Ranger told us about mining life out in this area and let us tour the Quigley cabin which has been restored.  He also shared stories about Fannie Quigley—she was certainly an interesting personality from that bygone era!  She has been described as one tough lady who thrived in the community during the early 1900s and tales of her exploits abound in the Denali area.

FANNIE QUIGLEY'S CABIN

YES, I MADE IT!

We headed back towards the visitor center seeing the landscape from a different perspective as we retraced our route.  Some of this route is not for sissies if you are afraid of heights because it is one-lane wide with steep drop-offs going down literally thousands of feet.  People uncomfortable with this would want to sit in the aisle seat. 

THAT IS THE ROAD AHEAD AROUND THAT MOUNTAIN!

SINGLE LANE ROAD AROUND THE MOUNTAIN
(THE DRIVER/GUIDE DOESN'T TALK HERE!)

Shortly after crossing Sable Pass, grizzlies were spotted off in the distance to our right.  What unfolded over the next 30 minutes was an unbelievable show.  A sow had 2 two-year-old cubs with her and she was fighting a male grizzly.  Our driver figured he was trying to get the cubs away from the sow so he could kill them and then mate with her.  The two adults were standing up fighting, fighting with all feet on the ground, and chasing each other around.  Meanwhile, the two cubs stayed close by.  We watched this show for at least 30 minutes; however, the bears were so far away I could not get any pictures.  I did get a very good view of the bears through my binoculars the whole time.  (Thank you, Essie!)  Finally, all four bears moved high up a ridge further away and we left them to go on further down the road. 

It wasn’t long before we spotted a lone wolf off to the right.  Two ravens were nearby and they were really annoying him by flying around him.  He would run one way, then back in the opposite direction.  Finally, he trotted right towards the bus, making one gentleman nervous enough that he asked the driver if she didn’t think it was time to close the door.  The wolf veered to the front of the bus as it approached and we followed it for at least a couple of miles as it trotted down the road, crossed to the embankment to our left and right back out on the road, etc.  It was a beautiful animal and I will post a couple of not so good photos that were taken “on the fly” that show the beautiful coloring and the coat it had.  After about 30 minutes of watching the wolf, we left it and continued on to the park’s exit. 


WOLF WITH 2 RAVENS IN FOREGROUND



YES, WOLVES HAVE TO "GO" TOO!

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL!

What was to be an 11 to 12 hour trip turned into 13 hours and 15 minutes because of the spectacular wildlife opportunities we encountered through the trip.  All in all, it was a very successful day in spite of the smoke that obscured the landscape.

DAY 45, JULY 13:  I changed sites today per my reservation.  Gil Glover, a friend from my working years, stopped in for a brief visit while traveling from Fairbanks to his home in Sterling.  It was good to see him again.  Then the owner of the park, as well as everything else on the east side of the Parks Hwy as I found out through our conversation, came by as I was getting ready for the move and we talked about an hour.  While we were talking, the owner of the Bell Road Guides drove in.  The 3 of us talked for about 30 minutes or so and then went on about our other business.  Nice to meet them both.  The park/motel/strip mall owner adds buildings on to his strip mall about every year and they are made so each of them can be detached and moved if needed.  Interesting concept.  Basically, they begin building the next phase the end of Sept. when customers are gone and need to have the outer walls in place by Nov. 1.  There is no water and little heat for the workers as they work on the inside during the winter.  He said to expect freezing temps here at Denali Village by the last week in August.

After getting set up in the new site, I went into the park for one last drive to Savage River.  I saw a young bull moose and a cow and calf moose on the way in.  I also saw a willow ptarmigan family.  It has been so smoky all day that the mountains are barely visible from the valley.  It really rolled in about 10 a.m. when the wind shifted to the north.

While parked at an overlook above the Savage River, I saw a backpacker walking quite fast in the river bottom about a mile or so from the takeout point where the road crosses the river.  I broke out the binoculars and watched as the person stopped on a sand bar, took off the backpack (I had figured out it was a woman by now, although she was over a half-mile away), took off shoes and socks, and proceeded to blow up a mattress.  She then sat down and took a yoga pose.  I took some pictures of her but she was so far away they didn’t turn out well.  She was still there when I drove away after about 20 minutes, continued up to the turnaround point, and drove back (about 3 miles round trip).  Who’d a thought they would see this in the middle of nowhere in Denali National Park!

 

Wildlife Count:  3 moose, 1 willow ptarmigan family

DAY 46, JULY 14:  Today was a travel day as I left Denali Village and drove the 202 miles to the Palmer Elks Lodge located on a lake between Palmer and Wasilla.  Smoke was still visible around the valley; however, as I drove south I went through occasional light rain.  All in all, I missed out again on the grand views of the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains.  It made for a faster trip, though, because I wasn’t making photo stops along the way.  I had dinner with a couple of members of the Lodge and as we were finishing up, my neighbors from the Fairbanks Elks Lodge RV park walked in.  It was good to see them again and to catch up on what they had been doing since leaving Fairbanks.  (They also have a home west of Phoenix, so we are sort of neighbors in AZ, too.)

Wildlife Count:  One porcupine along the road

Road Report:  Generally, normal Alaska driving conditions with occasional frost heaves and short stops for flagmen/women at construction areas.  About 2 miles south of Cantwell, headed south, there are about 2 miles of some pretty significant frost heaves (starts about 4 mi south of Cantwell if headed north).  Some are marked and the white line on the side of the road is in place so drivers can also look for the proverbial wavy white lines.  There is also road construction going through Wasilla—looks like it will be ongoing throughout the summer.

A general observation about the roads in northern Canada and Alaska which may be of interest to future drivers:  I frequently encounter curves that aren’t banked like we are used to in the Lower 48, so I need to slow down when I see one of these flat curves coming up.  They won’t be marked and don’t usually have a recommended speed, but you will definitely know when you are in one of those curves as you hurry to slow down after you are in it.

DAY 47, JULY 15:  Tom Gummer, a friend of mine and co-worker in Missoula, MT 50+ years ago, asked me to go with him on a flight to Homer to check on some property.  He has a Cessna 185 on floats that he keeps in pristine condition and I gladly accepted the offer to go along.  It would take about 3 hours for the whole trip and the weather was forecast to be okay for the quick trip—with conditions continuing to improve.  We took off when we had good weather and headed south.  (Tom and I both quit taking “brave” pills years ago and aren’t into pushing weather—and we both agree we weren’t paid enough when we did it in our young flying careers!)  Well, fog was blowing in from the bay about as fast as we were descending into Homer.  Certainly, this wasn’t what the previous reports had shown, nor was it forecast.  After tying the plane to the dock, we did the quick trip out to see his property and returned to Beluga Lake to check the conditions. 

TOM IS CHECKING WEATHER--AGAIN

 Weather continued to deteriorate, and about 8:00 p.m. we gave up the idea of returning to Anchorage today.  Then, the next part of the adventure began…  Let’s see now, should I say I got into a bar room brawl, should I say my pilot friend beat me up, or should I just tell the truth and say clumsy me tripped on the dock and did a face-plant.  Obviously, the latter was the truth.  Another couple on the dock helped clean my face up some (darn head wounds always bleed a lot) and gave us a lift to the Emergency Room where the Dr. decided 8 stitches should give me a nice looking scar.  Oh, well.  When I was done at the ER, we still had not had dinner and found out that Homer really rolls up the rugs early on Saturday nights, so no dinner.  Fortunately, we were able to find beds—which wasn’t too easy either given it was a summer weekend.  I won’t put a picture up from before the Dr. did his masterful job, but I will show you the swollen eye and “shiner” after they were done stitching me up and had cleaned me up some.

NO CAPTION NEEDED FOR THIS ONE!

DAY 48, JULY 16:  During my first look outside this morning after arising, I saw a bald eagle on a utility pole in front of the motel.  I thought to myself that this is a good omen!  Tom and I took our time getting breakfast and getting back to the airport since weather was slow to clear up in the Homer area.  Finally around noon the clouds began parting quicker and it was time to preflight the plane and fire up the engine for the 65 minute flight back to Anchorage.  It was a good flight back with a few low clouds here and there, but good visibility all the way.  Friends of Tom’s were having a get-together on the dock at Lake Hood and, after meeting some of them, I headed back to the motorhome at Palmer.  After getting here, the first thing I did was put some ice on my face and take a short nap since I was pretty tired after not sleeping well last night.  Thus ended another “adventure” on this trip.

DAY 49, JULY 17:  I worked around the motorhome all day.  The Elks Lodge had a grill your own steak night with large ribeye or New York steaks, baked potato, salad bar, and desert for $18.  I decided to join them and had a nice visit with a local family during dinner.  The view from the Lodge was wonderful with perfectly calm conditions on the lake and the clouds parting from the mountains to the south.  All in all, a very pleasant evening.  Good location, good company, good food—a pretty good combination I would say.

VIEW OF FINGER LAKE FROM
PALMER ELKS LODGE

DAY 50, JULY 18:  This morning I worked around the motorhome before going in to Wasilla.  After lunch I spent time going through the Dorothy Page museum for a couple of hours.  The museum had quite a few items of interest in it; however, the items were poorly displayed which took away from the experience for me.  I then took a drive out to the historical ghost town of Knik.  Not much to see there and the museum was closed.  Light rain/drizzle has fallen most of the afternoon.  It has been a wet summer here.