Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

The wildflowers are starting to bloom all over the state. Along the Richardson Highway, we have sweet pea and lupine growing. I saw goldenrod sprouting on Fort Wainwright yesterday. In my yard, I’ve got high-bush cranberries blooming, as well as one lone salmonberry. I don’t know where that came from, as it’s all by itself - unless I can thank the many birds who visited my yards this spring.

This past week was rather dismal. With overcast skies and morning temps in the low 40s, I felt like we were back in April. I also worried about our new lawn, as there was no germination whatsoever by day 8. However, my wildlflower garden in the rear of the yard had been showing tiny sprigs of green for several days, so that gave me a ray of hope for the rest of the yard.

Yesterday, we were back to sunshine and warm temps (70s), and by yesterday evening, I saw tiny green shoots in parts of the yard! Yes! This morning, there were even more. With 24 hours of daylight, and 21+ hours of sunshine, things grow very quickly here. I’ve often said you can see things grow before your very eyes. It would be a good time to try out some time lapse photography - if I had the equipment to do so.

Here are some photos I took around the outside of our house:

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On Sunday, Lisa and I took another scenic drive. This time our travels took us up the Steese Hwy to Davidson Ditch, and then into the White Mountain Rec Area and Ophir Campground. The drive was spectacular as always, despite partly cloudy skies. In fact, the overcast skies made the colors pop even more vividly. There is so much green now, and we love it!

In the higher elevations along U.S. Creek Road, an abundance of alpine flowers bloomed and waved in the breeze. We saw mountain avens, alp lilies, alpine azalea, and an amazing variety of moss and lichen.  There are several places to stop for scenic views, and one in particular overlooks layers and layers of rolling hills that go off into the distance for as far as the eye can see.

The only blight on the landscape are the large pockets of dead spruce and birch, a result of the 2004 Boundary Fire. The 2004 Alaska fire season was the worst on record in terms of area burned by wildfires. The Boundary Fire destroyed more than 6,600,000 acres, and consisted of approximately 700 different fires.  It was a terrible summer that year.

We had Bella with us, and stopped to let her stretch her legs, while taking in the scenery around us. It was windy, and we were both glad we had jackets with us. We decided to drive to Ophir Campground in Nome Valley, a 12 mile drive after Creek Road meets up with Nome Creek Road. The put-in for floating Beaver Creek National Wild River is also at the end of this road. There are 19 campsites nestled in tall white spruce trees on the bank of the creek. Nearby is the 3-mile loop trail to Table Top Mountain, with awesome views of the higher peaks in the White Mountains. Camping fees are $6 per night per site on a first-come basis.

Steese Hwy and White Mountains National Rec Area:

After leaving the White Mountain Rec Area, we headed back to Fairbanks - keeping our eyes open for wildlife and other scenic photo ops. When we got to the Upper Chatanika State Recreation Site (mile 39 on the Steese), we did a loop through the campground, and also drove out on the gravel bar where boats can be launched for an all-day float on the Chantanika River.

There was a family camping on the gravel bar - a nice little set up with camper, campfire, and a tiny little *dust mop* of a dog, who stood guard yapping at us when we got too close. This campground has 25 campsites, four picnic sites, drinking water and latrines. Another family was camped right on the river with their travel trailer, within sight of the Steese Hwy. It doesn’t get any better than this, does it?

A little further down the highway, I caught a very quick glance of a gorgeous stream (or pond?) surrounded by leafy birch and cottonwood trees. The reflection of the rich green of the leaves in the still water was stunning. While I was admiring the colors and landscape, Lisa caught sight of a moose grazing in the water in the distance. That warranted a U-turn! Unfortunately, by the time we got back there, the moose was making her way into the trees. Lisa thought maybe she saw a calf, but even with my zoom lens I didn’t see anything but the cow.

Our next stop - and the one we anticipated the most (as our stomachs were growling loudly) - was Chatanika Lodge. You may recall reading about Chatanika Lodge in March in years past, as this is where the Chatanika Days outhouse races are held each winter.

Chatanika used to be the center of one of the richest placer gold districts in Alaska. There is still considerable gold mining activity in the area. Tailings from dredges in streams show past mining. The town was built in 1925 to support dredging operations by Fairbanks Exploration Co. which took at least $70 million out of the area.

I wish I would have taken my camera into the lodge, as there were many old artifacts hanging on the walls and on display throughout. Next time I will. I did find a photo, taken by Henk Binnendijk, of the inside of Chatanika Lodge. You can view that photo HERE.  The inside of the lodge looks much different when there aren’t hundreds of folks crammed into it. The only times I’ve been inside is while attending the outhouse races, so I was never able to appreciate the Alaskan decor.  If your travels take you past Chatanika Lodge, stop in and have a burger. Our lunch was delicious.

Across the road from the lodge, is an old derelict gold dredge. Gold Dredge #3 belongs to the F.E. Company. The F.E. Company was the local subsidiary of the U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Company (USSR&M). They ran some of the massive gold dredges in the Interior many years ago. Gold dredges in the Fairbanks Mining District traveled ancient stream beds, thawing the ground ahead of it and scooping up the gravel. The gravel was scooped up in buckets, carried up the ladder, and deposited at the top of the dredge for sorting. The gold was trapped on the riffles of the gold tables.

While not used any longer, this dredge remains a typical example of the machines that mechanized Alaskan placer mining, providing more than a third of the production for the state. There are several other gold dredges in the Fairbanks area, one being Gold Dredge #8 - which is open for tours (although according to the website it will be closed for the 2009 season).

After lunch, we walked up to the dredge. I’ve walked up to the dredge once before in the non-winter months, but it was so long ago, I had forgotten the views across the huge tailing piles.  These piles of waste rock go on for as far as the eye can see. It’s really not the nicest addition to the landscape, sad to say. On the other hand, I was surprised to see birch trees have taken root and are actually growing out of the big piles of rocks. I wonder how long it will be before the flora and fauna will take over these piles and cover them with vegetation?  A decade? Hundreds of years?

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Steve set up a pretty impressive watering system for our new lawn. He bought the most inexpensive hoses and sprinkler heads that WalMart had, and then picked up some splitters in order to use one spigot to run 6 different hoses. These splitter have individual on/off valves on them, so we can regulate which ones are running and keep the water pressure up sufficiently. His system also keeps us from traipsing across the new lawn to move sprinklers from one location to another.  Since we will have to keep the lawn watered adequately all summer - and will need to go through the same ritual next spring to kick start new growth, the hoses and sprinkler heads will get regular use. He’s got the same setup for the front yard. I’ll post photos of the yard when the grass gets taller.

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The RV is being de-winterized and should be ready for pickup by Thursday. We don’t need it until July, but we have some work to do inside. The vinyl floor cracked badly this winter and needs to be replaced. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Alaska winters, and we’re actually surprised it didn’t happen before now. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars to the RV place for a new floor (and running the risk of it happening again this winter), we’ve decided we’re going to pull out the ripped floor and put down individual peel and stick tiles ourselves. This way, if we have breakage over the winter, we can easily replace them.

I have one more photo to share before ending this entry. I took Sedona to Creamers Field and we walked a short distance on the Boreal Forest Trail. Unfortunately, we didn’t go all the way because I was being attacked by the mosquitoes and had neglected to put on bug dope. The wetlands are quickly drying up - leaving behind mucky, stinky mud. The mosquitoes are in their glory.  Despite the biting pests, it was quite peaceful under the canopy of leaves, alone with my pup.

Until next time…