Alaska_trip4

7/1/96
Half way through my commitment. Time flies when your having fun. It has been just over a month since I left home. In a way it seems like yesterday and another way it seems like I have been gone forever. I miss G but I think I could get used to living like this, full timing. But I have only been gone a month also. I guess I should wait until I have been out longer. I sure can't see right now being home before mid August. I would like to spend at least another week, possibly two, here in Alaska, then 10 days or so to get to Noel's a couple days there and then home. So that is almost three weeks after I finish that I would be home.
Today, I got right up, did the campground cleanup then headed for Birch. Wow, did the rain ever come down there. One of the culverts was apparently plugged and that caused the road to wash out. Fortunately the Air Force Camp is on the same road, so they came out and unplugged it and now the road is passable again. The campground was fairly clean. Someone had left a 55 gal drum there a few weeks ago and it was filled with trash. Better there than on the ground, but the people are supposed to haul it out. I emptied the can and then put it in my truck and took it back with me. I also left a bunch of garbage bags at the campsites. Hopefully they won't need them but if they do they are there for them to use. After I left there it was on to Salcha. The place looked pretty good. I got the count and then came back to Harding, got the count and gave them to Jeff.
I gave Jeff my propane tanks to fill while he was in Fairbanks for his meeting this afternoon. Jeff didn't like the way the phone line was run out to the trailer, and I agreed, it was kind of Mickey Mouse. David brought in some good phone line, I hooked up the new lines to the box dug a trench to the trailer and buried them. I also set up the fax machine so it will receive calls when it is supposed to and not when it is not supposed to. Then I went out with David and fixed some grates in the walk in area. I had to dig a hole deep enough under the edge of the concrete so that I could get to the bottom of the pin that held the grate on so I could put a nail in it. The nail kept the pin from coming out. Then we filled the holes and it was done. David also had to fix some benches. Over all it was a busy and productive day. A lot of physical work, with the digging and trenching but I feel OK. The mosquitoes were very bad in the walk in area, especially when I was digging.
I did a load of laundry so I will have some clean clothes to wear when I pick up G tomorrow. I will go to the Commissary and do another load tomorrow. I hope I remember to bring my checkbook. Jeff got back from his meeting about 8:00. I put in the propane tanks that I had given him to fill for me, ate dinner, played with Shadow for a while, came in and watched a Korean War Documentary David loaned me. Jeff came by shortly before the movie was over and watched it with me. I think he wanted to talk but I am tired and need to get to sleep early (before 1:00AM) because I have a lot to do tomorrow.

7/2/96
Today's the day. I got up before 8:00 AM cleaned the place, put in a load of laundry, went to the commissary and here it is almost 1:00. Now what do I do. I made the bed, vacuumed, dusted cleaned, now all that is left is the dishes and I will do those before I leave.
The day looks bright and the sky look blue, but I can see some rain clouds to the east. I don't know which way the weather patterns blow here so I can't tell if we are going to get rain. Not that it makes any difference. Well, we did get some rain, and it came down quite hard for a while but then it let up and turned into a nice day.
I got Dave at 5:00 so we could do fee compliance and he got here at about 5:30. We ran right through it and I was on the road at 6:00. I stopped by Payless to see if my film had come in, it hadn't. I arrived at at airport at about 7:05, G's flight was supposed to arrive at 7:35. At 7:30 there was an announcement that her flight was delayed until 8:10. At 8:05 there was an announcement that it would be delayed until 8:30. I went to a kiosk to read a magazine and went back at 8:20 and G met me at the security check point. I guess her flight arrived at 8:15. She was disappointed that I wasn't there and I don't blame her. She was also a little frightened, rightfully so. The trip back to Harding was uneventful. We made a quick stop at North Pole for some water and beer then back on the road to camp. We arrived at about 9:30 and Dave was still here. He showed G the Ranger Cabin. I asked him if he wanted a beer and surprisingly he accepted.

7/7/96
Wow, does time ever fly when you are having fun. I don't even remember what G and I did on Wednesday, other than go for a walk. I did my regular campground stuff and I guess nothing exciting really happened. Thursday was the 4th, Happy Birthday America. We started filling up on Wednesday night, and by Thursday we were pretty full. We didn't have as many as we did two weeks ago, but we did have quite a few. I went to a couple parties after G went to bed. Mostly just food and beer left but I had already had plenty of beer so I just had one more and ate some hot beans. Wow were they good. Of course I (and anyone standing near me) paid the next day.
About 7:00 AM in the morning on the 5th someone was pounding on the door. We let them go on for a while and they went away. A little later they came back and pounded some more. I finally answered and a lady told me that some drunk had passed out and barffed all over himself and may have aspirated. She seemed shocked when I told her to call 911. I guess she expected me to go down there and roust him or bring him back to life. A bit later Salcha Rescue arrived and took care of the problem. It appeared that he and his friends had imbibed a bit to much had he passed out near the beach. They all slept it off, better there than on the road, and he got sick. He was properly mortified the next day when he was awakened by SAR, but he signed a release and went back to sleep.
Friday evening we went to Dovina's for dinner. She fixed some chicken, we brought the corn. We also had potato salad and Caesar's Salad. For dessert we had Banana Boats. They were delicious, as usual. We were supposed to eat at 8:00 but Norman, her ex, wasn't back from town. Dinner was finally on the table at a bit after 10:00. G and I came back about midnight and I took an available light picture of her at the Harding Lake sign. Then to bed for a good nights sleep.
While making my rounds that evening an lady told me she had a problem. She said her husband had the checkbook because her son was run over. Her husband was driving them to the boat ramp and her son was sitting on the tailgate. He fell off and was run over by the boat trailer. Salcha Rescue was called, again, and he was taken to the hospital. We found out the next day that he had some staples in his head, a few stitches, abrasions and some tire tracks on his body. He will be OK though. Poor lady, she was so worried about paying and her son was in the hospital.
The 6th was Frogmore day. G and I both slept until almost 10:00. Jeff caught the 10:00 boat and we decided to wait until noon. We went to Salcha and sat and waited. There were some people across from us that appeared to be waiting also. We didn't know them and they didn't know us so we all sat there. Finally as they were about to leave they said something to us, we answered, found out where we were supposed to be and away we went. What a beautiful trip. We went up on a jet boat and the river was just gorgeous. When we arrived there were already about 20 people there, Jeff included. I had a tour of the property. They have and old (circa 50's) Mobil home they brought in and fixed up. They are also building a cabin and a workshop. They have an outhouse and a shower they built. For the shower they pump river water into a 55 gal drum,on a platform about 10 feet high, heat it with a weed flamer and then it is gravity fed through a filter to a shower head. Very interesting.
The Frogmore stew was delicious. I think I heard Sam say that I was named after a sea captain. They put lots of spices in a big pot, boil them for a while, then add Corn on the cob, Sausage, and shrimp. Let that cook for a while, take it out of the liquid, put it on the table and everyone helps themselves. We also had beans, potato salad, brownies and a delicious cherry cheesecake. There was also all the beer you could drink and plenty of booze.
G went back on the 2:00 boat. I stayed for the stew and brought some back for Jeff and G. Overall it was a wonderful day. I went back on an Airboat which is a flat bottomed boat with an airplane prop behind it to drive it. A very smooth ride but quite noisy. If we didn't have ear protection we could have done some serious damage to our ears. The river is so beautiful.
We met some interesting people. There was a couple from Kentucky who just happened to be in the parking lot and there was some extra room on the boat so they were invited. She is really interested in keeping her lawn up and weeds pulled. She and G seemed to hit it off real well. Then there was another couple who live about 15 miles farther up the river. They have been there since 1978. They were living in So. Central CA when they decided to move here to the interior. They bought a moving van started north. He was flying their plane and she was driving. At one time the van broke down so he landed the plane on the road, found out what was wrong flew off to get the part and came back and fixed it. When they arrived in Fairbanks they sold the van to someone who was heading south. They found a cabin about 30 miles up river from Salcha, bought it and moved in. They have since built a workshop where they built and repaired their plane. They also repair player pianos. Their cabin uses solar panels and batteries for electricity. In the winter they have to run the generator for a while to charge the batteries as there is not enough light. They said they have everything you could have in a city, an entertainment center, TV, Computer, microwave. They use a wood stove for cooking though. They have to replace the batteries about every three years at a cost of about $1000. But that is their only electricity expense other than the normal wear and tear. Not to bad. When he was still working in Fairbanks he would either fly in or take the boat to Slacha and then drive. In the winter when the temp. got below -30 they would take a snow machine to Salcha as they didn't want to fly in those temperatures.
When I did my rounds last night everything was fine. Some people who had buried and cooked a pig gave me a plate. The campground isn't full but we probably only had about 20 or so empty spaces. I heard from some people this morning that there was some yelling going on last night but I went to bed about midnight and didn't hear a thing.
G and I leave for China Hot Springs this afternoon. We will be there for two nights and then in Fairbanks for a night. At the hot springs G wants to get a massage. While we are in town we are going to take the Riverboat trip.
We left at about 1:00 heading for Chena Hot Springs. We stopped at the Salcha Country Fair for a few minutes. The midway is about 150 yards long with booths on both sides and a couple of rides at one end. It probably took us about 20 minutes to do the whole thing. It isn't very big but the people are very nice. We left there and stopped at Eielson for gas and to vacuum some of the dirt out of the truck and then it was off again, to Chena.
The road between North Pole and Chena Hot Springs Road is not the greatest but once we were on CHS road it smoothed out quite a bit. At one point we stopped and saw a moose eating in a swamp. We arrived about 4:30 and checked in. The room is small but neat. It has a double bed, a single, two wood chairs, a small table, a free standing closet, and a half bath. Two windows let in plenty of light and we were set.
G and I both took a shower and shortly after that I went to the hot tubs.
I sat in the 100^o tub for a while and listened to some guys try and out lie each other. I came back took a nap and it was time for dinner. On our way out we glanced to the left and there in one of the pools was a moose. Her nose was in the water as she happily munched away on whatever foliage was down there. Every once in a while would raise her head and look at everyone as if to say, "why are you staring. haven't you ever seen a lady eat before?" For dinner G had Pasta Primeval and I had Stuffed Chicken Breast with a creamed cognac sauce. Everything was well presented and delicious. G thought her salad was a little limp but I thought mine was OK. For dessert we split a piece Blueberry Pie with Ice Cream. That also was very good.
G called her mother after dinner and we went for a walk., or at least started to. We hadn't put any repellent on and were about to be carried off by the mosquitoes, so we retreated to try again in the morning. We rested for a while and then hit the tubs again. G was not impressed and neither was I but this is Alaska. We got some ice and came back to our room and now hopefully we will get a good nights sleep and be raring to go tomorrow. I think we are going to take a couple of walks, but we will be sure and put repellent on first.

7/8/96
We were probably sleeping by 11:00 last night and woke up at 8:30 this AM. Wow, what a wonderful nights sleep. Perhaps being away from the campground did let me sleep better. Nothing seems to wake me in during the night there but perhaps I don't sleep as well as I thought.
We had breakfast in our room about 9:00 this morning and went out for a walk about 10:15. We started on the trail we went on last night, but the beginners loop was just a bit short so we found another trail and went up the mountain a bit. Over all we probably walked about 2 or 3 miles but some of it was up hill and some down so our legs got a bit more exercise. I could feel it in my calf's this afternoon, but a trip to the hot tub took care of that. We started to drive back to the General Store but I noticed that the "Check Engine Light" stayed on so we came back. I called a Dodge dealer in Fairbanks and was told that it was probably nothing serious and I could not get an appointment until the 17th, but they would try and fit me in if I came in early in the AM. I explained to them that early tomorrow was not realistic but I could have it there on Wednesday morning. She said any morning would be OK, just early.
After that we went to the restaurant for lunch. We split a salad and each had a piece of pie, G's was with ice cream. We came back to the room , rested for a while then went to the spa's. I sat in the hot tub and G read. I even tried the 105^o water. I could tolerate it for a while but not very long. After a while we came back for our afternoon siesta and dinner about 8:00.

7/9/96
We got an early start (for us) and had breakfast and were on the road by 11:00. We stopped by the Fairbanks Visitors Center and checked on some motels. About the best we could find was $105. an night at a Super Eight. There might have been some cheaper but when we asked the lady at the center she said be sure and check the room first. We decided to go with a chain. After we checked in we headed out for our River Boat cruise down the Chena and Tanana Rivers. On the way we stopped by Chena River State Park and Petra was there so we got a look at her cabin. It will be OK when they finish it but it is still lacking the plumbing and window coverings.
We were on the Discovery III, which they say is the only active paddle wheeler in Alaska. It has been in the same family for three generations. Our first stop was to watch a bush pilot take off. He used about 200 feet of runway and was airborne. Really quite a feat. Our next stop was with Susan Butcher (three time Iditarod winner) for a short talk on mushing. It was fascinating listening to her talk about how much the dogs ate, how they trained and how much they like to run. I took some pictures but later found out that the film had jammed at the very beginning of the roll and none of the shots were any good. It was very disappointing because I had the one of G at midnight and quite a few of Moose. Oh well. We went on down the river and where the Chena joins the Tanana is very unique. The Chena has relatively clear water but the Tanana has a lot of glacial silt in it which makes it cloudy. Where the rivers come together you can see where each comes from. The Tanana is the largest tributary of the Yukon River and has a current of about 12 MPH. It really moves. When we were ready to turn around the Captain put the nose of the ship in calm water and let the current turn it. It was an interesting experience. The fastest the ship will go is about 15 mph, so against the current of 12 mph we were only making about three MPH.
We slowed down to watch a reenactment of how Salmon were caught, cleaned and smoked by the Athabaskin Natives. From the time she put it on the table until it was ready for the smokehouse it took her maybe 30 seconds. We also had a demonstration of Mushing. Wow, do those dogs want to run. When they were in harness all they wanted to do was pull. It was interesting to listen to the musher explain about each dog and why they were in their position, how they were trained, fed, bedded and everything else.
After the boat trip we went back to out Motel and then to dinner. We decided on the Pump House. It was actually an old pump house where water was pumped from the Chena River into an adjacent creek to be used in sluce boxes for gold. The dinner was delicious. After dinner we wandered through Fred Myer's and Safeway and then it was back to the motel because we were getting up early in the AM.

7/10/96
We were up before the wake up call came. While I got ready G went next door to Denny's and ordered breakfast and I joined her a short time later. Then it was back to the hotel, and pack up for G's trip back. She wanted to get there early enough to see if she could upgrade to First Class. That is an option that Reno Air has. For $50. you can upgrade if there is space available. There was and G did. I went back to the hotel and waited for G to call and then went by the main office, to check on some forms that Dave wanted me to check on and then came back to the campground. I guess they were pretty busy on Monday and Tuesday it rained hard all day so the sites had not been cleaned. I spent most of the afternoon doing that.
I called G that evening to make sure that she made it home OK. She said the flight was great and First Class option was worth it. I wonder how she felt seeing stars again.

7/12/96
Nothing exciting happened yesterday. About 10:30 Jeff and I went Salmon fishing in the Salcha but didn't catch anything. I made a couple minor repairs on the Volleyball net, raked the horseshoe pits and that was about it. We started filling up early, which is typical for a Friday. I made some Moose stew and there was some extra so I sent it down to Dovina's. After I did my rounds I went to the lecture on Fish and Game Management here in Alaska. It was very interesting. From this mans point of view it seems as the Federal Gov't is trying to take over all the Fish and Game Management here and do away with the state office. According to him, that would be a tragedy because while the state is motivated by management the Fed is motivated by politics. They issue permits that are in direct conflict with the state and result in very poor management practices. The man who spoke said that he was told by an administration spokesperson that their aim is to turn all fish and game management over to Native Americans, whether they have any experience or not. Some of the examples he gave, if true, are shocking to say the least. Dave and I went to the Snow Shoe for a couple beers and then it was back to the rack for a good nights sleep.

7/13/96
The place had a few more people in it last night when I got back. I made a quick trip through, stopped and talked with Norm and Tim for a while.
When I was making my morning rounds I was told of a noisy party last night. I didn't hear anything when I went through. A lady asked me where the phone was and she tried to call a friend to pick her up. I guess she got pretty drunk last night and now wanted to go home. She didn't know what day it was or if it was morning or evening. She couldn't reach any friends and I started to take her but by the time we got to the Lodge she said she would go back and the people she was camping with would take her home. I took her back and surprise it was the people I had a complaint about earlier. I asked if they were leaving today, they said they were, I told them I thought that was a good idea and left it at that. A short time later I saw them pull out.
The DOT put their pig in last night and I hope the rain didn't cause the fire to die down to much. They said it will be ready at about 2:00 this afternoon and I am invited. They always invite the host and Ranger. I just got back from the DOT Picnic. Wow, was it ever good. We had the pig cooked in the ground and BBQ pig, about four different kinds of salad, Chili beans, French cut beans, and more desserts than I could possibly sample, but I did my best. I am so full right now that I feel that I could go a week without eating.
7/14/96
Just a boring Sunday. Because of the weather there were not to many people here. It started to drizzle in the morning, then let up. By the afternoon it was cloudy but no more rain.

7/15/96
Well, today is my last day.

Next Page 5 - And on to Denali Previous Page3.5