The Meandering Melanders

In this update we will cover our visit to Fairbanks and move on to our entrance into Denali National Park. We spent a total of 2 weeks in Fairbanks and really enjoyed this medium sized city full of very nice people.

We took a river boat tour on the Tanana River on the Discovery. The tour started in the traditional buy your ticket and all the tourist stuff you can afford type of place. There was this tribute to Susan Butcher, a three or so time winner of the Iditerod dog sled race which covers some thousand miles.

The boat.

A bush pilot landing strip.

flyover by a pontoon plane.

Some people park their cars on their property, others (in Alaska)….

A fish wheel. Can only be used by Native Alaskans (indigenous people).

Susan Butcher’s home and kennels.

On the way!!

These dogs are fast but not overly large as one would expect. The big ones are used for hauling freight, for the most part,

The harness setup.

A reindeer. These were imported from Finland to provide a meat source for the Natives.

A bush pilot landing on a sandbar. Note the large (and very soft) tires.

A salmon smoking setup used by Natives and people in the bush.

Handmade Native attire.

This is Cripple Creek and is also known as The Billion Dollar Creek. Over a billion dollars (current prices) of gold was taken out of this mile-and-a-half or so long creek.

We will finish Fairbanks in the next update.