DENALI the TALL ONE

We are at the entrance of the 6 million acres of wilderness preserve formally known as McKinley national park. Denali is home to many birds and mammals, including a healthy population of grizzlies and 18 wolf packs. We went to a ranger lead talk about wolves and although it was well presented by a young black girl from Alabama on he first stint as a park volunteer we did not hear much that was new to us. Many US organizations are in love with TLAs [ three letter acronyms ] and she was no exception as she introduced us to the BMW danger and what to do. Bears play dead if they make contact, Moose run away and with wolves try and convince them you are the pack alpha.

We hope to see as much wildlife as possible, herds of caribou roam the park, dall sheep are often seen on mountainsides, moose feed on the aquatic plants of the small lakes and swamps and wolves
have been seen on the road between the entrance and our campsite.





We had to book our site last year as there is only one drive in RV park inside Denali and competition for the 53 available is fierce. I was made very happy when the young lady behind the campground checkin desk recognized my accent, saying I sounded like that other famous imposing, muscular yet light-footed, debonair, 6’2” Scotsman, Sean Connery. (Carol's comment.....He's never gonna get over this, I haven't told him yet that he is going to have to live up to the image, that should deflate his ego. What she said was, "Are you Scottish ?" I asked her how she knew a scottish accent and she said "Sean Connery" )

We dragged ourselves out in the rain today to go to a sled dog demo at the Parks kennel. It was very similar yet eerily different to the other musher’s kennel we had visited. The dogs were all gentle,
bred in the kennels, housed in boxes and chained to posts. We actually got to see the dogs being harnessed to a sled and set off round a short course pulling the musher on a sled with wheels.
I suppose the differences related to these being load pulling dogs rather than pure speed merchants and pure bred Alaskan huskies. BROADBAND NEEDED

SLED DOG DEMO



SLED DOG PUPPIES




MUSHROOMS NOT MUSHERS
The rain did relent long enough for us to get out for a longish trolley push with Charro

round some of the tracks through the taiga forest at the entrance to the park. We were surprised by the variety of plants carpeting the floor and a profusion of different types of mushrooms.

We drive in to Denali to the Taklanika camp site on Friday morning and the weather forecast is finally improving after days of low cloud and cold driving rain. After this our next stop is Wasilla, home of the largest Walmart in Alaska which sells more duct tape than any other store in the world!

Non Organic Hydroponics at Chena?

While we were at Chena Hot Springs we toured their hydroponic gardens and listened to one of the gardeners expound at length on their organic purity.











However when you look at the bags of plant food you do wonder.

CHEM-GRO ?

ICE MUSEUM and ANDERSON BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL

CAROL’S BIT.

One of the places to see at Chena hot springs was the ice museum. This used to be the ice hotel, the local fire brigade came around and insisted that because it was called a hotel, it had to have a fire certificate ( a fire in ice ??) anyway something went wrong with the power supply and the hotel melted.
Now it is a display of ice sculptures. The team that do the ice sculptures are husband and wife and were married at the ice alter, inside the building. They are both champions in ice sculpture competitions.

As we enter the building, we are closed into a small area with the outer doors closed behind us to prevent the temperature dropping too much. There are anoraks to put on, and as the temperature inside is 20 degrees below, it seems like a good idea.
We are then all herded through the next set of doors quickly and told “ you can’t leave for 30mins, everyone must leave together to stop the ice from melting.
The first area is the work area,
which has a lot of Dremel equipment and an iron. The iron is to smooth the ice to finish off the piece. There are some very large blocks of ice stored here to work from for the season. This was taken from the local lake in winter.





The sculptures are lit by halogen bulbs because there is no heat from them, unfortunately because of the ice the colour seems to have disappeared in the photographs. There are a few seats available that are covered in moose hide, and the cold definitely cannot get through. The bar is functional and the guide poured drinks into glasses made from ice. Apart from a castle with steps to the top, two fighting knights,


















a chess set,
an igloo, and a functioning alter, at which several couples have been married.












There are hotel rooms at the end complete with ice beds and polar bear headboards.
People can book to stay here for approx. $600 a night. Only one couple have so far managed to stay all night.

Half an hour is long enough, although I didn’t really notice the cold that much until I got out into the sun, and realised that my nose and fingers were dead.










Blue grass festival at Anderson

This is a small town outside of Fairbanks with about 600 residents, there were more people than that visiting the festival. There was a mix of blue grass, country, rock, gospel, hillbilly, and Celtic. One singer in particular, Ginger Boatwright
could really sing anything and had the sort of powerful voice that I like, so I bought two of her CD’s.
Unfortunately rain came in, and turned the field into Glastonbury. A dedicated few stayed in the beer tent and danced around. We pulled the RV up behind the stage and listened in comfort from there.

It was interesting to watch some of the dancing, real old bluegrass. One girl in particular was good and I managed to get a small clip of her. BROADBAND NEEDED !

Even John could get the hang of this.
JOHN'S BIT No he couldn't I would look like a drunken one legged hippo on ice.

PRETTIEST CAMP SITE YET

After visiting Chena Hot Springs we decided not to stay there another night but looked for a quiet camp site on the road through Chena Recreation Area. We liked 48 mile pond where we got some good moose shots but then found the prettiest camp site we have stayed at so far.
We had no hookups, noise or neighbours we did have beaver, birdlife and perfect peace.




Oy yes, it is called Red Squirrel.


We were puzzled by all the signs saying no shooting, hunting or discharge of firearms until we saw this sign and realised it was typical of most others we had seen. I had thought they were just weathered.












Finally we saw this at another camp site.
If you look carefully [ click on the picture to enlarge it if required ] you can see that the metal bars on the front of the Pace Arrow are not a roof rack but an effort to hold the front end together. The corners of the screen have cracked right through and it is all coming apart.

Living off the grid at Chena.

SORRY ABOUT THE DISORGANISED LOOK OF THE BLOG TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES DUE TO TOO MANY OTHER USERS ON OUR WIFI LINK HAVE PREVENTED ME UPLOADING ALL THE PICS.

NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.


As I mentioned in the last post, Chena Hot Springs is "Off the Grid". A key to their survival in terms of energy economics is their geothermal power station.

Because they produce more electricity from their two, soon to be three, geothermal turbines than they can use onsite they will be opening the first commercial hydrogen production facility in Alaska.

Not that this little fellow needs electricity to keep warm. He or she was chattering angrily at us while we walked around the geothermal tap.



This is just a well drilled down to some 20 million year old water. They are returning the water to the source when it comes out of the generating plant. The hot springs water from the pool however just runs away as it has done for the last 100 years.








Also rather than ship in salad stuff they will heat and light the greenhouses to grow lettuce and tomatoes, hydroponically, all year round.














It is said that Bernie Karl never throws anything away.
The pump that is used to move water around the hot springs will not need to be thrown away for 100s of years. Based on an idea from an Englishman called John Whitehurst which was developed by a frenchman, Joseph Montgolfier in to a working model. Called a Ram Pump it is very simple has only two moving parts and provided the RAM is kept working, it will be unaffected by changes in temperature especially low temperatures which might cause a conventional system to 'freeze up' unless some form of heat is provided.
If he has the Made in England version from GREEN & CARTER Vulcan Works Ashbrittle it is guaranteed forever. Most of their RAMs, installed prior to 1800, are still working as well as the day they were installed, and they still maintain a stock of all parts on the shelf. Makes me proud to be British.






But not all of Bernie’s ideas have been so successful. He opened a six-room Aurora Ice Hotel opened in December 2005. Before spring was over, it was melting, along with his $20,000 investment. He somehow miscalculated the effect of 24-hour summer sun and 90-degree heat on the structure. The pic shows the custom made cooling system which runs off the geothermal tap.


"I had a frozen asset. It's now a liquid asset," said Bernie. He rebuilt it, this time with thicker insulation and here are Carol’s pics. of the interior.

MUSEUM OF THE NORTH and CHENA HOT SPRINGS

It was a dark and stormy day when we visited the Museum of the North at the University of Fairbanks. As you can see the building is pretty striking but so were the contents.








We both liked the giant outhouse
made entirely of recycled materials.














On a more serious note the museum gave a good view of Alaska through the ages mammoths, mastodons and lions.


The lion was particularly impressive, in his day he was a big boy ,standing 6 foot plus at the shoulder.

Many of the bones and fossils on display were found by the miners as they thawed out the ground using giant steam boilers and hydraulic jets. One great example is blue babe, a mummified steppe bison buried then frozen after being killed and partly eaten

The coming of the white man to Alaska was documented from the early Russians to the last great gold rush. The stories of gold mining were made more real today when we toured the private geothermal unit at Chena with the owner of a gold mining operation.
Gold mining can still be a mom and pop operation with mom driving the bulldozer and pop running the seperator.

.

Output from the different areas and types of mining operations were on display with something like 50 oz of pure gold on show behind a pane of glass. Once again I wonder why nobody is trying to nick it!

On our way up to Chena we saw several moose,
all seemed quite nonchalant about having their picture taken.
The area is a state recreation park and big no shooting signs were in evidence so I guess the moose feel safe. Alaska breeds pretty literate moose you know!

We also stopped to admire this field of fireweed covering a temporary clearing in the forest. The clearing being the result of a very hot forest fire that hat burned through this area a few years ago.
The fireweed seed lies dormant for many years until the forest burns and triggers their germination, hence their name fireweed or perhaps it is the colour.

We made it up to the resort of Chena Hot Springs and took their geothermal tour. The resort is built around 4 fissures in the earth which release water a t a steady 170 Fahrenheit. Originally they were at the bottom of a cold water creek so the hot water was quickly cooled by mixing with much colder creek. The prospectors who discovered it soon found streams of people coming to cavort in the waters.
We were no different and had a swim as well.





The land was homesteaded and turned into a resort, but for the last 50 years nobody had been able to make any money here, in fact the resort was loosing $800,000 a year when it was repossessed by the bank. The current owner bought it and turned to the hot spring as an energy source. The first effort of piping the water through the cabins offices rooms and greenhouses saved about a third of a million dollars but it his current efforts that interest me and many others in a world where energy costs are going up. When he bought the place they generated their own electricity using oil at a cost of 47cents a KwHr. At todays oil price it would be 80 cents a KwHr. Their geothermal plant produces at 7 cents a KwHr and this will drop to 1 cent when the plant capital cost is paid off next year. The clever thing is their ability to use low grade geothermal energy to turn a turbine. Most other geothermal plants use water above 212 Fahrenheit and allow this to flash to steam and drive a turbine. Chena uses an intermediate step, heating a form of ammonia which boils at a much lower temp. and using that to drive a turbine. They then recycle the water down the borehole to be heated up again.

The next bit is for Little John of LADMAS fame. They also use this boiling ammonia in a unique 3 stage refrigeration plant to cool a giant hanger housing an Ice Hotel with bar and chandeliers.

Eskimo Olympics Day 2

Carol’s bit


Went back to the Eskimo Olympics . It was the finals of the ear pulling contest.
Bit sadistic this, akin to bull fighting but the contestants are trying to separate their own ears from their heads. The contestants were in agony, walking around with bleeding ears and ice packs.


Anyway ,on a more normal note, there were a couple of extra craft stalls from yesterday. The stallholders seem to turn up if they feel like it, Indian time this is called, mebe I will mebe I won’t.
There was a nice little gadget that would do well on sale in English garden centres
. It’s a wooden tool made for berry picking. Saves a lot of thorn damage and is quicker than the conventional method, although at $70 a time I’ll stick to gloves.






The fashion show
was interesting, I preferred the Native American regalia, especially the dancing bells dress.





The carvings are interesting, and one of the craftsman explained what they used different parts of the animal for .He was demonstrating a drum made from walrus skin, and saying that the physiology of a walrus and a seal was the same as a human, with the internal organs in the same place. Bit like di-secting the mother – in –law I guess.


I have a problem with this half tradition and half modern to suit arrangement. Tonight is a seal skinning contest. It doesn’t seem to be necessary to hunt for food and clothes these days, as the Eskimo’s seem to eat the same junk as we do if they feel like it ,and wear store bought clothes, I’m all for keeping traditions ,language, and religions alive but I’d feel happier if the unnecessary butchering of animals was avoided.

JOHN'S BIT

i LOVED THIS DRESS. What made it special for me is that the wearer is studying Aeronautical engineering.






















If you look closely at the back you can see the symbol for Beech aircraft, apparently a favourite marque fo her.




















I was wandering around the stalls and this piece caught my eye. I thing it just proves that I have expensive tastes as it was priced at $3200





It is Walrus ivory and is covered by a blanket ban on importing ivory to the UK. Although we could take it to Canada.

GOLDEN DAYS AND THE ESKIMO OLYMPICS [ BEAUTIFUL BABY SHOW?]

The town of Fairbanks holds a golden days celebration every year and this year was a bit special as it was 49 years ago that Alaska became the 49th state. The first
thing we saw was the car show with the classic American hotrod the Chevy 2 door pillarless from about 1957. There was no placard giving info, unlike the next exhibit so we are not sure about the precise details.

This one shows how hard Alaskans are on their machinery.




















I managed to avoid getting jailed for not having a Golden Days pin on my shirt.They drive this around the streets of Fairbanks arresting people who have to pay a "fine" or "appeal" to get out of jail. You can pay to get an arrest warrent for a friend!
















We dropped into the dance tent next to be greeted with a bunch of local “ladies” and some reluctant gents giving their all in a spirited recreation of a turn of the century bar scene.
This was great fun to watch and they finished up with a Can Can.






We visited the Eskimo and Alaskan Indian Olympics next day. The games are tests of pain, endurance and agility which have been handed down for centuries in Arctic villages. Some, like seal skinning and fish cutting contests, require practical skills for which competitors must have a good grasp of their native past. Others, like the ear pull, are as harsh as the Arctic environment that spawned them, demanding such high tolerance of pain they were once banned by missionaries because of their potential for crippling and maiming. But the games now include a beautiful baby contest or as we were to see, it was more about beautiful baby clothes.
There was a practical side to this display that I hope local anthropologists were taking note of. Grandmothers and great grandmothers were spending hours recreating in miniature the clothes that would have been everyday wear during the arctic winter. The result was a magnificent display of beautiful furs lovingly crafted and worn by 2 year olds. Sometimes the parent would be wearing a full size version of the child’s furs.
Carol was muttering about the wholesale slaughter of muskrat, weasel, otter, beaver, seal and anything else furry that preceded the sewing of these baby clothes.

Carol on the Musk Ox centre

Carol’s bit

Went off to visit a Musk oxen “reserve” today. It is situated in the grounds linked to the university. All seemed quite pleasant, and the guide seemed to be knowledgeable.
The words experimental and research came into the conversation, which set the alarm bells ringing. These mild natured animals are prehistoric, and are very gentle and curios. If anyone saw “ Stargate the movie I think this is what the animals in the film must have been based on.
They have an unusual way of storing food and coverting to glucose, and have 4 stomachs. It would seem that this is the basis of the research, which takes the form of some poor biologist rummaging through scat to find clues as to how this process works, and how we can utilise it for human benefit.
This didn’t seem quite complete, so I asked our host to define research and if vivi – section was practised at the facility. His response was “ we don’t experiment on dead animals “ after pointing out that, that was an autopsy and that vivi-section is experimenting on live animals. He then admitted that a drain was inserted into the animals on a regular basis through a hole in their stomach wall ( made by the laboratory) and enzymes and other digestive matter extracted with a spoon.

So what with the so called animal rescue and now this wonderful hell hole, I am not impressed with the way animals are treated over here. I don’t say the English are much better when it comes to experiments, but they don’t cover it up with the excuse of a tourist attraction and have the front to charge for it.

BIG HAIRY GOATS

Musk oxen had been killed off within Alaska by the late 1800's. A defence strategy which involved standing still and facing your enemies although effective against wolves and bears failed completely against hunters bullets.
In the 1930's an expedition to Eastern Greenland captured 34 young animals and the current population comes from this small gene pool.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks studies a group of these along with reindeer and caribou colonies. We took the tour and were impressed with the knowledgeable guide until we asked him about what sort of experiments were carried out on the musk ox. He was very open about one experiment involving cutting into the side of the musk ox and it’s stomach. This fistula was then maintained for some time to allow access to the rumen which is of scientific interest. He claimed not to have heard of the word vivisection.

The musk ox were remarkably tame and he was hand feeding the cows through the fence. He explained that they were not related to oxen but are closer to goats. He also explained that although they are quite aggressive with each other it is mostly just a trial of strength to establish the pecking order and that they do not use the points of their horns except when attacked. Then they can see off grizzlies with a single swipe. However he also said that he has had dazed musk ox wandering around the place after a good collision as they are each doing 20 to 30 mph when they hit!

Pioneer Park and a days flying on my birthday close to the Arctic Circle.

Pioneer Park

We visited a large old time park in Fairbanks filled with old log cabins
. These cabins have been moved to the park when they were replaced with a newer building. many were over 100 years old. Nowadays they are still in use, some as shops some as information centres. The large sternwheeler
in the centre is gently decaying but is being used as a home for a giant diorama showing life on the local rivers around a 100 years ago.








61 Years old and still playing with toy airplanes

We arrived in Fairbanks Alaska last week and as usual I was hoping to fly with the local club. The welcome from the Midnight Sun RC Club was just outstanding. I was even given Marty, the presidents, personal key to the flying field gate and invited to fly any time it suited me. The club has about 30 members and operates a flying field for wheeled and float-equipped model aircraft. At about 120 miles from the Arctic Circle flying is mostly a summer activity but they do have a January 1 Fun Fly using a local Truck Centre with a serious heating system and large car park.

After a shorts and Tshirt day yesterday it was back to jeans and a fleece for today but we went flying anyway.
I was flying my OMP YAK but blew my only OS no 8 plug on start up. [ Note to self Repeat 100 times “ I must not plug the glow into 12 volts.” ]. With the field including large stretches of water
I was hoping to try a water tail touch
but the plug culled from my OS 15 was past it’s best buy date and I was not getting clean transitions from low throttle so chickened out.
Carol got some good pics though.















CHARRO'S BIT

The fat one is getting lots of exercise pushing my trolley around these days. I have put on a little weight after the boss lady has fished out some real food and cooked it for me. The warm fish tastes great and I eat it like a proper dog, 30 seconds and it is gone. My legs are a little better and I am getting out of my trolley and walking a bit. She who must be a obeyed makes me get back in though.


Had a bath a few days ago and all the local chicks are making comments about my beautiful fluffy champagne coat. I am one 'hot' dog.