Friday in Fairbanks

Day 51, Friday, August 2

Gosh, it’s hard to believe 51 days have already passed…time is going so quickly!  Although yesterday was a “free” day, a day of rest, we kept quite busy and this morning came way too early!

We boarded a bus to take a tour which included a close-up view of The Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS for short!)  It is really amazing…the pipeline is 800 miles long, and travels from the North slope over three mountain ranges, 800 rivers and streams to the terminal in Valdez.  We learned about the structure, which was designed to flex and move with the movements in the earth.  The special pillars are built to help protect the permafrost, and occasionally they  have to do a “roto-rooter” to clean out the pipes!  Alyeska is the company that maintains the pipeline.  (Alyeska means great land.)  After seeing the operation, it’s no wonder that gas is so expensive!!

Then, we toured Gold Dredge Number 8, another giant gold dredge operated by the Fairbanks Exploration Company.  This dredge took millions of dollars’ worth of gold out of the creeks north of Fairbanks. 

 

We got to see how they used to do it, and then tried a little more gold panning on our own!

We must have refined our technique, because this time we got quite a few flakes of gold which you could actually hear shake in our vial-- $39 worth of gold for our efforts, compared to just a few flakes when we tried our luck in Chicken.  It would be hard to get rich at this, unless of course you find the BIG nugget…check out this 19-ounce nugget which we got to touch and hold!  These nuggets are much heavier than you’d think!

 

 

After lunch, we visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North.  It was an interesting place, that had all kinds of exhibits, art, movies, and special exhibits to describe the culture and wildlife of Alaska.  We saw the world’s only mummified steppe bison on exhibit (and darn, I didn’t get a picture!)A very different experience was “The Place Where You Go to Listen”.  It was a room with sounds created by vibrations generated by the earth, and amplified into this stark, blank room. They said the sounds reflect real-time environmental conditions, including the position of the sun and moon, earthquake activity, etc.  Kind of different, but kind of neat too.  We watched a movie on Winters in Fairbanks…how people cope with the cold and darkness, and lack of running water. (I don’t think I could do it.) 

We wrapped up the evening with a great salmon dinner (cooked by Jim) and we are packing up to leave in the morning for our next destination—Denali!! 

Not sure what the internet situation will be there…will keep you posted if I can!