The Great, Big, Broad Land; Way Up Yonder

Excerpt from "The Spell Of The Yukon"

There's Gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
   It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
   So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great , big, broad land way up yonder,
   It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
   It's the stillness that fills me with peace.
                                  - Robert Service

Yes - we finally had a chance to look for Alaska Gold, and we agree, like with everything, it is the journey and not the outcome that we so loved so much. But first - an update in what we've been doing prior to our gold panning.

Anna Loved this 'Alaskan Iris'

On Saturday, we ended our time in Denali National Park and had a nice drive to Fairbanks where we opted to end the camping accomodations and stayed two nights with a very freindly & hospitable gentleman named John at the Ah, Rose Marie B&B. Besides serving up "the best breakfast in Fairbanks" John was a  fabulous host and pointed us in the right direction to see the many attractions (tourist & otherwise) in Fairbanks.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the University of Fairbanks' Museum of North where we learned about "all things Alaskan."  From there, we went to the University's Botanical Garden  for a liesurely stroll among all the flowers and vegetable gardens.  With so much sunlight, the gardens go quickly from seed to full bloom, with most plants being bigger than we would normally see in VT this time of year.

Earl singing some Johnny Cash on the gold train.

We spent Sunday morning doing the El Dorado Gold Mine Tour where we learned a lot about the gold mining history of  Alaska.  This tour included a very educational and entertaining train ride to the mines.  At the end of the train ride we got an eductaion (and entertainment) in panning for gold.   After the instruction (and entertainment), everyone was given a bag of "paydirt" and we headed to the water troughs where we got try our hands at panning.  It's not much different than what you see on TV or in the movies; basically adding watter to the pan, swirling it around to separate the gold and let it settle to the bottom, carefully dumping the water and some of the waste material, then repeating the process MANY more times until you're only left with the gold (if you're lucky!).


Getting ready for a panning lesson



If you are really lucky you find this - Are you drooling Carolyn?




Typical placer gold -about $50.00 worth

 Though not the luckiest in the crowd, we all did find some "placer gold" in our paydirt, but one person found a real "nugget" worth about $95.  The best we did was about $30 worth of placer gold out in Tim's bag. Colton got short-changed with only about $5 worth, Ethan got about $25 worth and Anna about $20.  Certainly not enough to retire on, but enough for the boys to get "gold fever" and want to try again on their own.  It's going to be hard explaning to them that they won't be getting concentrated paydirt when they go to the streams on their own.

The boys at the pipeline.

On the way back to Fairbanks from the mine we stopped at the Alaskan Pipeline to see for ourselves what it is that makes this State so prosperous.  It's quite an impressive sight, and hard to imagine that this pipe, flowing full of oil, can only supply about 10% of the oil our country uses.  Who knew that the pipeline was mostly above ground? The permafrost in the Alaskan soil makes underground piping much more expensive and difficult to construct and maintain.

Anna couldn't resist taking and posting this photo!

Our next stop was Fairbanks' Pioneer Park with it's Aviation Museum and historic 'stearn wheel' river boat.  The river boat was a great staitic display and had dioramas with description placards of many of the villages along area rivers.  It's amazing how many of the villages are still primarily surviving off a "subsistence existence," by hunting ,fishing , and harvesting berries for food and selling what little surplus they can to buy the few "luxury items" they have. 

At the Aviation Museum, the boys got a personal tour from a kind old gentleman named Carlos.  Carlos was on duty as museum volunteer and has a "hover-craft" that he built and is on display in the museum.  He took the boys all through the museum, letting them sit in the cock-pit of many of the aircraft and telling them all about the many aircraft on display, but with his strong Argentina accent - we only caught about half of what he was telling us. He treated the boys to helicopter toys which were a real hit. It was a real treat to get this personal guided tour which we all really enjoyed.



Ethan at the Ice Bar - is this a sign of things to come?



Breakdancing competition

After the Museum, we went to the Solstice Festival in down-town Fairbanks.  For all the things that the Kodiak Crabfest wasn't, the Solstice Festival was;  three stages with live music from noon until midnight, dozens of food vendors, dozens of Alaskan craft vendors, a few carnival games and many local businesses with information boothes (like the Homeshow), and even a break-dancing contest that went on for hours.  Probably the most impressive thing we saw was the Ft. Wainright Army Showband.  These guys (and gal) were a fabulous 'coverband' doing everything from old Rock & Roll, Country, Jazz and R&B music.

The boys in heaven at Eileson AFB

Monday, on our way out of Fairbanks we had a great stop at Eileson Airforce Base where we met up with Emily (Van Arman) Myers, a Norwich University graduate, who's parents (Deb and Jay) are active and loyal members of the University's Upper Valley Alumni Club which Tim is involved with.  Emily gave us a great tour of the base and her husband Maj. Ethan Myers gave Colton some pointers on what its like to be a pilot in the Air force. We were lucky enough to be on base when the F-15's were taking off and landing from exercises.

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From the airbase we headed on the next leg of our trip to the little town of Tok (rhymes with "smoke") where we stayed at the Log Cabin Wilderness Lodge.  Some interesting things about Tok-  It's a "hamlet" of about 1,500 people with an AVER AGE temperature in January is -20 degr. F.  Though it has a medical clinic, school, grocery store, post office and all of the other things you might find in any other small town in Alaska, it has NO local government, it's residents pay no local or State taxes of any kind, and there are no lawyers in the town. The only police services come from the State Troopers, the schools are funded by State petreoleum funds only (though they don't have some of the "extras" like art & music), and the fire deptartment is volunteer only.  Beyond that, folks fend for themselves and choose to "just get along." The saying goes, "Don't live in Tok if you can't take a joke."

The Log Cabin Wilderness Lodge  is really a misnomer- it should be classified as a "resort."  John and Jill are incredible hosts and provide a  "truly Alaskan experience" at the lodge.  Anyone wanting a true Alaskan experience should really stay at the lodge for at least 3 nights - check it out at http://www.logcabinwildernesslodge.com/.  The  lodge is "off the grid" but has reliable electricty from solar and back-up generators. We stayed in one of the two "modern" cabins with electricty,  full bath with hot & cold water running water,  bedroom, sitting room, loft and front porch.  There are 3 other "rustic" cabins that have no electricty or running water, but they do each have their own personal "outhouse."

John & Jill built the two modern cabins, along with their beautiful home, which serves as the main lodge.  On top of a fabulous breakfast and dinner during each of our days there, John & Jill (and their Anatolian Shepard, Denali "the tallest dog in Alaska") ensured there was plenty to do for the kids and adults.  It helped that Jill's sister Julie and her grand-daughter Juilette (10) were staying at the same time with us and everyone was up for an active few days.

We hadn't been at the lodge more than 15 minutes and both boys were pretty well soaked doing the across-the-creek "zip lines."   It wasn't enough to have this one great zip-line".  John gathered the kids up the next day and had them help him build an even longer one across the creek.  Needless to say, we had a LOT of wet clothes and shoes these few days.

Denali with his fresh squirrel

Probably the highlight of the boys stay here was the guided hike & squirrel hunt that John & Jill took us on our first evening there.  Denali likes to "eat" (just to chew on, really) red squirrels, so before our hike, John asked if we would mind if Denali came along on the hike and he got one for him.  Though killing of rodents for sport goes against the grain for us (NOT) , we we're good sports and said  "sure." The boys (and Denali) we're thrilled when the squirrel tumbled out of the tree.



After breakfast the next morning John & Jill led us on a 3 mile , 1,000 ft. elevation gain hike to the top of a nearby mountain ridge that overlooked the lodge and the Little Tok River.


Colton looking over the edge of the cliff - freaking out his mother



Ethan also freaking out his mother, standing way to close to the edge.



A birds eye view of the Lodge from the cliff hike



Flowers growing out of the rocks on the cliffs

 The next day was a "less active" day with Tim taking the three kids fishing for grayling and panning for gold down at the Little Tok River.  The fishing was by far more the more productive of the two activities, with the kids catching a half-a-dozen or so grayling, and no "Eurekas" being heard.

Ethan and Juliet panning on the Little Tok

Colton hoping for a arctic grayling

Despite the rain, after another fabulous dinner in the lodge, John had the kids compete in a firebuilding contest  that served as the campfire to cook s'mores.  After the s'mores the kids had the "ultimate watergun fight" using backpack firefighting bags John has on hand, since he's his own "first responder" for the fire department in that neck of the woods.

Water gun fight!

Colton having a ball

Our favorite Alaskan Dog - Denali - the tallest dog in Alaska!

Ethan before getting soaked.

Prior to the firebuilding contest, John had the kids help him gather some woood using his 6 -wheeled Ranger and the six passenger Kubota, letting each of the kids have a chance to drive.  Little did they know that this was their preparation for the next day's driving contest.  After setting up a course on his driveway, John let each ofs the kids pick the vehicle they wanted to drive, and had a scored driving test , with points deducted for eacrh cone hit, and points taken away for the FASTEST time.  After the second driver decided to be "painfully slow" so as to be sure to not be the fastest, the rules were modified for round two, deducting points for the fastest and slowest times.  This helped move things along!

After another restful night and fabulous breakfast the next morning, we headed out for the town of Seward to pick up Grandma and Grandpa DeAngelis off their cruise ship the following morning.  Making it into Seward in time for a little fishing, we hit the beach in Resurrection Bay where we were told the reds/sockeye were coming in. We found the spot and headed out with the masses to try our luck, which was zero. While we were packing up our tackle we heard a high pitched sound - then it got louder and became distinctly like a warning bell. We then heard something that sounded like someone talking on a mega phone - but we couldn't really make it out. Nobody seemed to pay it any attention, so we just kept packing up and went back to the van. In the parking lot people were on edge. It was a Tsunami warning. The problem was, no one knew if it was a test or the real thing. With an earthquake earlier that week on the Peninsula, we were happy to be heading towards high ground. We found out the next day it was a real warning, but was quickly aborted as the scientists realized a big wave was not going to come into Resurrection Bay.

King  Eider

the big Sea Lion

In the morning we hit the Seward Sea Life Center which was very cool. It is the only aquarium in Alaska and  we especially liked the huge Sea Lion, which weighed 1700 pounds. We finally know the differnece between a Sea Lion and Seal, seals being smaller, not able to sit up and not having the huge front flippers.


Our next stop was the cruise ship terminal where we picked up Mom and Dad DeAngelis. They had a nice cruise up the inside passage and will now stay in Homer for a week.
The week has been off to a nice start with the boys having sleepovers with Grandma and Grandpa and also doing a bit of fishing.

Colton and Grandma at Exit Glacier in Seward

Ethan and Grandpa having fun

NEWS FLASH!! The curse of the Kings for Tim is OVER!!! Yes - he caught 2 King Salmon this morning (finally). They were not as big as the boys, but at least he brought them in.  Ethan also brought in another one from the Homer Lagoon with Grandpa spotting as the schools swam by. It too was a little one, but should be tasty. We'll let you know as we're getting ready to put it on the soapstone now.

We're looking forward to a low key week with Grandma and grandpa, hoping to enjoy the beauty of Alaska that thrills us with wonder and it's stillness that fills us with peace.