Our North American Safari: Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle

Civilization: Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks is home to over 60,000 people and is the 2^nd largest city in Alaska. Like most northern cities, Fairbanks has a god-rush history and enjoyed a boom in the early 1900’s. While in Fairbanks we enjoyed many unique Alaskan experiences: dinner one night at the Salmon Bake Buffet, followed by a Gold Rush review at the Palace Theater celebrating the history of Fairbanks There was the 40 Degrees Below 0 Experience, where we had our picture taken while standing in a freezer (yep, pretty cold alright). We had a good cruise on the Discovery III, a sternwheeler modeled after the boats that carried miners, and their supplies during the gold rush; the float was accompanied by very entertaining presentations, commentaries of what we were seeing on the riverbanks and demonstrations. The seaplanes that were parked at almost every property along the riverbanks were interesting to watch take off and land. 0ne out of every eleven Alaskans have their pilot’s license. The cruise stopped at an Athabascan Indian Village where we were told stories about the historical times of the Indians. We enjoyed listening to a talk by a young woman about her sled dogs, who will be racing in the Yukon Quest Dog Sled Race in February 2014. Wow is that ever an arduous activity. The afternoon was spent at a champagne brunch - more food, yet another buffet – oh my, are we ever eating well. One of my favorite tours was visiting the Ice Museum – an old movie theater that has been converted into a showroom of ice sculptures. There were large walk-in freezers where we viewed frozen art works that had been made the previous winter at the Ice Carving Festival in the local park. We watched as one of the sculptors carved a dolphin out of a block of ice – he used drills, dremil tools, files, hair dryers and a fan. Quite an art!

Salmon Bake

Ice Museum

cruising on the Chena, Fairbanks

New sled dog puppies

4:00am, the alarm went off, we jumped up out of bed, fed the Boys and headed off to the airport. This was our day for the Artic Circle Air Adventure. We flew in a small 7-passenger plane over some of the last great wilderness regions on earth, north of the Yukon River, across the Artic Circle: 66 degrees 33 minutes latitude (nope no dotted line that we could see from the air J) and into the Brooks Mountain Range. We could see many miles of the Alaskan Oil Pipe Line as we flew. Most of the 800 miles of pipeline are above ground, because of the permafrost in the region. In approximately an hour and a half we landed in Coldfoot Alaska (home of the Farthest North Bar – not much to look at or drink, but interesting none the less). From Coldfoot we drove to Wiseman and met a real mountain man: Jack Reikoff. He and 13 others live in Coldfoot all year long, very different life style. They survive by giving tours, making crafts, growing huge gardens in the summer, trapping and selling furs and preserving the resulting meat. The trip then reversed itself and we flew back from the Artic Circle to Fairbanks arriving just shortly after noon. It was a great flight and a yet another experience for the crazy North American Safari Travelers. That afternoon we made a visit Santa’s House at North Pole, Alaska – left a note on who we think have naughty and nice.

Farthest North BAR in the World

flight to the Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle, N66-.33

Oil Pipeline

An amazing feature of this Land of the midnight sun has been the bounty of plants, and flowers that appear to be growing everywhere in Alaska. Stores, parks and most homes are decorated with beautiful blooming baskets, colorful flowerbeds, and incredible vegetable gardens. It is a very short growing season of 120 days or less, but they really seem to thrive on the long 20+ hours of BRIGHT SUNLIGHT. Our Wagon Masters live in Fairbanks and we saw their amazing garden (huge cabbages, carrots, lettuce, Swiss chard, potatoes…) Wow our garden has never looked that good.

The Alaska Museum of the North on the University of Alaska Campus was an interesting visit. There were many interesting collections of contemporty and historic materials on display. Gold Fever struck us! – We visited Gold Dredge # 8 that last operated in 1959. This 250’ long, 5-story tall machinery was impressive. Our pockets are much heavier: between the 2 of us we panned out a total of $31.00 worth of gold flecks from the little pouch of dirt we were given, wow!! That could become an addicting hobby J. One of the last tours we took was a visit to a check station along the Pipe Line. This is one of the reasons that Alaska is so successful, 80% percent of the state’s economy comes from oil revenue and related services. The taxes that the oil company pays for the line to run from Prudhoe Bay on the Bearing Sea in the north down to Valdez in the south keep the state from having to depend on sales or personal income taxes. In addition each full time resident receives an annual payment of $1000.00 or more. This sounds pretty good, but when one takes into consideration the high cost of living here, it is probably only a small incentive.