Collecting our Things in Alaska

Big news!! dave has accepted a job in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) working as a wildland firefighter for Seney National Wildlife Refuge (US Fish and Wildlife Service) . We had hoped to continue our travels but the lack of funding caused us to reconsider. We had been looking for jobs in the UP but nothing looked promising until after we had already put feelers out back in Alaska. Just when it seemed a sure thing that we would be returning to the Last Frontier, a job opened at the refuge both of us had dreamed of working at. So we’re moving to the UP. But first we had to collect our things from our storage unit in Fairbanks. We had left enough stuff in our 10X10 unit to furnish a small cabin when we got done with our travels. Turns out we left more than we thought. When we opened the unit for the first time since July 2006, we were overwhelmed with how much stuff there really was.

Storage Unit in July 2006

We weren’t sure when we would get back to Alaska after this trip so we decided to do it properly and see as many folks as we could. We started by flying to Anchorage and stayed a couple nights with our friends Mary and Shane. (You may remember them from the Anchorage blog post in August 2006. Mary and I worked together in Coldfoot at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center.) They had been living in Anchorage for a couple of years and were about to move back to Fairbanks shortly after we saw them. We had a wonderful visit with them and in the process realized how home sick we were for Alaska.

From Anchorage we took the train, something we have always wanted to do, from Anchorage to Denali National Park. As you can imagine there weren’t many folks traveling in Alaska in late February so we pretty much had the train to ourselves.

The Gang at the Train Station (Maddie is Sprout’s seven pound best friend. She remembered us and seemed a little bummed Sprout wasn’t there to play with her.)

The Train

jody on Train

dave Eating Lunch on the Train (It was expensive but we figured this may be the only time we ever do it.)

While on the train we crossed both the Alaska and the Talkeetna Mountain Ranges. We saw a bunch of moose and some classic Alaska winter mountain scenes along the way.

Alaska Range

Scenery

We made a couple of interesting stops along the way. First we picked up a grandfather, father, daughter and their dog in the small town of Talkeetna. They were going to their cabin for the weekend. They had a sled and some gear and were dressed to walk the mile or so to reach their place. Their cabin is only accessible by foot but the train gets them a lot closer to it then if they were to walk from Talkeetna. It was kind of neat dropping them off on the side of the tracks and as we pulled away watching them start the hike to the cabin which you could just barely see through the trees. The conductor said they would get picked up the next day on the train’s way south.

We also made a couple of postal deliveries. There are a few folks who live pretty far off the beaten track but the train goes near their cabins. When the railroad was sold to the current company there was a clause attached that said they had to maintain the postal deliveries to these folks since it is one of only a few ways they can get supplies. (I guess they could also have them air dropped in but the expense would be extremely high.) So about three times we stopped at a small box next to the tracks and the conductor dropped a box out the side door and slid it off the tracks. It was a little tough for him to actually get the delivery into the mailbox because the snow was so deep. He said the folks usually hear the train whistle and are probably on their way down to pick up the delivery so it wasn’t such a big deal that it was left laying in the open.

Rural Mailbox

We knew we were getting close to our stop (our friends Bob and Cyn’s place - dave and Bob worked together at Alaska Fire Service) when we saw the huge cutbank next to Carlos Creek in the distance. Bob and Cyn’s cabin is in between the cutbank and the creek. We traveled about 10 or 15 miles further north, just inside the Denali National Park boundary, before the train let us off. Now the park is pretty much shut down in the winter along with most of the surrounding “village” but Bob and Cyn said they would pick us up at the train stop. The conductor thought we were crazy getting out there and made sure our ride was there before they left us standing in knee deep snow. We had a great visit with them catching up, eating and of course, drinking some beers.

Carlos Creek Cutbank from the Train

We spent the night with Bob and Cyn and in the morning after a great home cooked breakfast we jumped in Cyn’s car, which she so graciously let us borrow, and drove to Fairbanks (about 3 hours or so).

The most important item we had to do during our ten day stay in Fairbanks was to rendezvous with the moving company so they could pack our storage unit onto a moving van. Before we met up with them, we sorted through the unit and dug out our ice skates, cross country skis and other miscellaneous winter gear so we could properly enjoy our time in Fairbanks. We took advantage of the nice, sunny weather and played a bunch of hockey and skied a fair number of the groomed trails.

jody Skiing

dave Playing Hockey

We stayed with dave’s pervious supervisor and his wife, Dave and Randy. It sure beat staying in Cyn’s car and couch surfing as we originally thought we would do. Ironically we don’t have any photos of Dave and Randy but we do have a couple of their horses. We had a nice time visiting with them, catching up on the latest events at Alaska Fire Service and hearing about their new place in Idaho.

dave with Lenny and Cozmo

Lenny Close Up and Personal

The Festival of Native Arts happened to be taking place during our visit. Neither of us had been to the event before so we stopped in for one of the evening performances. Native dance groups from all over the state come to Fairbanks to show off their skills in this annual, free public event.

Anatuvuk Pass Dancers (Anatuvuk Pass is a small village in the Brooks Range.)

Alaska Native Heritage Dancers (The Native Heritage Center is in Anchorage and displays artifacts from various villages throughout the state. They have a dance group consisting of mostly high school students from different villages. They do public performances at the center most nights during the summer. If you are planning a trip to Alaska this is a must see.)

Minto Dancers (Minto is one of the few small villages in the state on the road system.)

The Ice Carving Festival was also taking place. This two week long event features folks from all over the world carving both single and multi block sculptures. Unfortunately we were not going to be around at the end of the festival when all the sculptures would be completed. But we were able to see folks working on the multi block sculptures. The children’s area is completed first and usually has a variety of ice slides, ice mazes and other hands on activities. Next to it is the single block ice sculptures. Both these and the multi block sculptures are judged and prizes are awarded. Farthest from the entrance are the multi block ice sculptures. Since the single block entries are judged first, many of those artists team up to work on a multi block sculpture. In past years we have seem some unbelievable sculptures well over head high and some so delicate it was a wonder they could remain standing.

jody in Ice Basket (Who says the children’s area is just for kids?!)

dave in Ice Kayak

One of the Single Block Ice Sculptures

Ice Bocks Waiting to be Used (The harvest the ice from a lake nearby.)

Moving Ice Blocks into Place for Multi Block Competition

They also have a pee wee hockey rink for local kids. It was too funny watching their little legs skate around.

A trip to Fairbanks wouldn’t have been complete without meeting up with the Friday Night Drinking Club. When we first arrived in Alaska in 2002 the biologist at Kanuti Refuge, Lisa, took dave and us under her wing. She invited us to join her Friday Night Drinking Club which consisted mostly of folks she went to graduate school with in Fairbanks. The tradition stuck with us and there were very few Fridays that didn’t see us hanging out at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Pub drinking cheap beer (which everyone made fun of us for) and eating pizza. We remained loyal to that tradition on this trip. Bob and Cyn even made the trip up to dance and drink the night away with us.

During this trip Lisa and her hubbie, Dan, were nice enough to host a potluck so we could see the folks outside the pub. I didn’t get the camera out till a bunch of folks had already left but I was able to catch some of them.

Some of the Friday Night Drinking Club at Lisa and Dan’s

Our last hurrah in Fairbanks was to drive out to Chena Hot Springs and take a nice long soak in their pools. This has been one of our favorite things to do in Alaska, especially during the winter months when there is still snow on the ground. We normally only soak for an hour or so till we shrivel into prunes. But this time we stayed in for hours and took in not only the hot water but a beautiful sunny day.

Chena Hot Springs Rock Lake

The next day we headed back to the airport to start the next chapter of our lives. dave starts his new job in mid March so we have very little time to pack and get our heads around the idea that the UP will be our new home!!

Of course we had to celebrate at the airport during the delirious 14 hour trip back!!

dave Celebrating (Is there any other way to travel??)