Alaska Day 3 (or Yay! No Flying!)

Today was our first “real day” in Alaska.  For once, we weren’t flying anywhere, but we definitely were not resting up either.  We did start off kind of easy at least.  We had breakfast around 7am in the resort’s Edgewater Dining Hall, did a little bit of shopping, then went off on our first tour at 9:30am.

The first tour was actually a two-parter: we first went to see what is known as Gold Dredge 8, an old mining machine that was in use up until 1959.  I’ll let you guess what it dug up…  We started out, on this lovely rainy morning, joining our driver Wendy and 48 other people.  Wendy was probably around our age, but had been working seasonal jobs for many years.  She was what I would probably be if I had been dead set on making proper use of my degree, without making compromises (except she worked with people, not wildlife).  Considering she is currently living in a cabin with no running water for $500 a month, I feel like I made the right choice.  But I digress…

We were the youngest people on the bus by about 20 years, and I am guessing that this is going to be a common theme.  Wendy drove us to the Gold Dredge 8 facility, which started out by immediately taking us on an open-air train ride to the gold dredge.  It was covered at least, but our first host was a guy who played Johnny Horton and Johnny Cash songs on the guitar and looked like he came right out of “Deliverance”.  I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t a banjo…  Next up was a guy whose great passion in life was Alaskan mining history.  Less “Deliverance”, more eccentric professor.  But he certainly had enthusiasm for the topic and described the processes used by miners, while teenagers working their summer jobs actually demonstrated the various techniques he described.  Once we saw the basic techniques, we traveled around the bend and came upon a hulking metal monster, listing in a surprisingly small pond.  Gold Dredge 8 looked like someone picked up a warehouse, stuck a couple of arms in it, and then dropped it carelessly into a puddle.  We stopped, and listened to a former gold miner, Yukon, talk about how this giant contraption worked.  She then ratcheted it down to the basics and showed us (with the help of the aforementioned teenagers) how to pan for gold.

Gold Dredge 8

The train took us around the backside of Gold Dredge 8, where it stopped and we all disembarked to grab a bag (or poke) of gravel and dirt, sat around long troughs, and started panning. It was a pretty labor intensive process, especially for newbies, but Melissa and I managed to get a decent amount of gold between the two of us.  We weighed it out ($10 worth for me, $18 dollars worth for her) and decided to put the gold flakes in a pendant.  Afterwards, we walked around the dredge and other exhibits, then boarded the train to head back to the parking lot (waiting for us was Mr. Deliverance, now a fiddle in hand).  After we stepped off the train, we walked under the Alaskan Pipeline on our way back to the lot, and our guide (the “eccentric professor”) took a few moments to have us stand out in the rain and describe the pipeline processes.  Thankfully, we had umbrellas, but I can safely say that I was only mildly interested, and it sounded like he was getting funding from the pipeline company, considering the amount of spin he put on the topic.

Melissa panning for gold (see the yellow flakes at the top of the pan).

Pendant with gold flakes in it.

Our next stop was the “Riverboat Discovery” (actually Discovery III), which was a massive paddlewheeler located on the Chena River.  But before we boarded, they fed us.  Miner’s stew (yummy, but not veggie friendly), roasted vegetables, cranberry and walnut salad, with a German chocolate brownie for dessert.  With full bellies, we went on board the four-deck paddlewheeler, sat down, and proceeded to keep standing up every five seconds to take a look out the windows (thankfully Decks 1-3 were enclosed) at the sites that the guide pointed out.  Of particular note were Trailbreaker Kennels, former home of Susan Butcher, who won the Iditarod four times, and a replica of an Athabascan Indian village.  At Trailbreaker Kennels, we stayed on the boat and the staff demonstrated how they train the dogs, from puppies trying to climb over logs, to using an ATV with no engine to run the adults.

Discovery III

Bush pilot taking off from the Chena River

Trailbreaker Kennels, with sled dogs connected to an ATV.

Running the sled dogs.

At the Athabascan village, we watched a native guide show how to catch, fillet, and smoke salmon, then disembarked to follow other native guides (mostly teenagers again), who demonstrated how the Athabascans lived pre- and post-Western contact.  We saw various outfits, living quarters, and a small reindeer herd.  We also saw a taxidermied pair of moose bulls, who had been found dead in a river after their antlers had gotten locked together while they fought during rut.

Athabascan fish camp

Reindeer herd

Birch bark canoe and sinew snowshoes.

Athabascan maiden coat

Bull moose who died when their antlers became entangled during a fight.

On our way back, Melissa and I sat on the outside decks, as it had stopped raining and was warming up a bit.  We started on the right side of the boat, then wandered around to the left side.  After a moment of looking through her binoculars down the way we had just traveled, Melissa said, “Is that a bear?”.  Not another soul had seemed to notice it, but sure enough there appeared to be something big and brown in the water along the shoreline.  Unfortunately, all I managed to see was it’s backside, but after her initial shock, Melissa confirmed that she did indeed see the whole thing and that it had been a bear.  So, yay, we saw a grizzly, but can offer no proof.

Where the Chena River meets the Tanana River.

After that, it was back to the resort.  We decided to walk to a nearby restaurant, on the recommendation of our driver, Wendy.  Pike’s Landing had good food, but like most places, expensive.  Honestly, the only items that seem to be a steal around here are the draft beers.  We then went back to the room, where I managed to pass out after about 30 minutes, so I am writing this in the early morning hours on Friday, instead of Thursday night, as I usually would.  Not sure today is going to be any different, as we are heading to Denali and our tour for the day starts at 5pm  (9pm EST, for those noting our new sleep patterns).  But we’ll see what happens.