Toasting on the Tundra

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop from you like the leaves in Autumn”

John Muir

 

So, I had this friend whom I’ve known for many, many years online.  He was just a young man when we first met online, a young teen, and was still just a young man when he died.  We met on a private message board.  It’s not like we were best friends or anything.  He was clever and witty and fun and sweet.  His name was Vivan Bhandarkar.  Still, when I found out about his death, I was very sad.  I was sad for his family.  I was sad for him.  I was sad that I had lost touch with him for a while and didn’t find out about his death until months afterwards.  But it did make me think of the good friends I have in my life right now.  And that, my friends, is a good thing.   A mutual friend of Viv’s and mine, Matt, made a batch of beer and named it after Viv.  He was kind enough to send me a bottle so that I may toast our friend in pure Alaskan style.  So, the day before Halloween, the day to remember the dead, we headed out.

We get so busy living our lives that sometimes we don’t make the time necessary to be involved in the lives of those who are close to us.  With this one small bottle of Bhandarkar IPA, my friends and I had a short time to just ourselves on top of an Alaskan mountain, sharing our energy and joy with the world and each other.  I am truly blessed to have these strong, beautiful women in my life to help me through life’s travails and to celebrate life’s joys with me.

It was a brisk, snowy morning, about 22F degrees when I left the cabin.  Snow clouds were on the horizon.

We had decided to drive up to Murphy Dome, the tallest “hill” around Fairbanks. 

You can see through the trees, the road I have to climb.  I was a bit concerned about going up the steep parts but this sweet little 4 Runner just plowed on up the hills like nobody’s business.

Photo by Susan.  We left Susan’s car at my house and Jan picked up Penelope on our way up.

The last part of the road up the mountain is not plowed.

I had collected the branches that had made Olivia’s “fort” in the woods this summer to burn in the bonfire.

Photo by Jan Denapoli.

Penelope brought wood also and a blow torch to start the fire with.  Lol nothing like having good friends that don’t believe in messing around!

Photo by Susan.  Penelope, Jan, Morgan, Me, Susan.

Photo by Susan Stevenson.  Matt’s Bhandarkar IPA.

Photo by Susan Stevenson.

“The Dome” faded in and out of the clouds as we stood and watch the magical clouds float over and around us.

“Murphy Dome Air Force Station was a Air Force Station began operations in 1951. It is located to the northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. During its heyday in the 1950s-1970s, the station had multiple radars and buildings. Today, only a single radar dome exists.

The site was built in 1951 and shared with the United States Army in order to supplement the Nike Missile system. At this point, it supported over 100 people. In 1975, the site was switched from military to civilian personnel. In 1984, the current radar was brought on line and the station was slimmed down in terms of personnel.

During the 1950s-70s, a ski slope also operated at the site. A rope tow was constructed to allow for servicemembers to go up and down the slope.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Dome_Air_Force_Station

Removing the wax seal.

Photo by Moe. Photo by Moe.

Dear, sweet, Jan.  My first best friend here.

We toasted Viv.  We toasted Matt.  We toasted each other.  We spent time just being Alaskan women together; alive and ecstatic with not only surviving hardships in our lives, but being victorious in grand style as we reveled in our friendships with each other.

Photo by Susan Stevenson.

Photo by Moe.

This is a sweet little meadow where I go in the fall to pick blueberries.  It is off to the side of the mountain top.

A clearing of the clouds in the distance.

The clouds came and the clouds floated away.  Sometimes t is comforting to be so enclosed in such a wide open wilderness.

Penelope

 

One bottle of beer does not go very far so we brought back up.

Just kidding, we actually did use cups.  Photo by Susan.

Finally, it was time to put out the fire and leave.  Back down the mountain, back to town, back to the daily trivia that is our lives.  Only in the back ground of my mind, I know that there are special moments to be shared with special friends in our future.  I am satisfied.

 

Since Susan’s car was at my house, she rode back down with me.  It was great to have my own personal photographer on the drive down.

Susan managed to catch Denali peeking out over the hills.

Hope you didn’t mind me waxing on so…

Manley Hot Springs

Manley Hot Springs, Elliot Highway,

October 2, 2010

My friend Lori and I decided we needed one last road trip before winter sets in.  I also wanted to try out my “new to me” Toyota 4 Runner.  It ended up getting 23 MPG for this trip which is the best I’ve gotten so far.  We went up near Manley Hot Springs to visit our friends Trapper, Sarah, and Ken and their babies.  You should be able to click on any of these pictures to see a bigger one.

Elliot HWY

Connects: Fox to Manley Hot Springs, AK
Route#: Alaska Route 2
Length: 151 miles
Road Surface: 50% Paved, 50% Gravel
Season: Open all year

The Elliott Highway leads northwest from Fox (11 miles north of Fairbanks) to Manley Hot Springs, a small settlement with a natural hot springs near the Tanana River. The Elliott Highway provides access to the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. The highway was named for Malcolm Elliott, president of the Alaska Road Commission from 1927 to 1932.

The first 73.1 miles of the Elliott Highway are paved to the Dalton Highway junction; the remaining 78.9 miles to Manley are mostly gravel, with a couple of sections of improved and/or chip-sealed road. From Fox to the Dalton Highway junction, the Elliott Highway is a series of long upgrades and downgrades, as the road winds through the White Mountains. From the Dalton Highway junction to Manley, the road is narrow and winding, following the ridges and hills and providing a “top of the world” view of hundreds of square miles in all directions.

Miles from Fox (F) shown.
F 0 FOX (pop. 385) at junction with Steese Highway. Fox General Store has 24-hour gas, diesel, groceries, pay phone. Also access to the Turtle Club restaurant, known for its prime rib.
F 1.3 El Dorado Gold Mine; gold panning and tours of commercial gold mine
F 5.5 Hilltop Truckstop: restaurant (famous for its homemade pies), groceries, 24-hour gas and diesel.
F 10.6 Access to Olnes Pond; fishing, informal camping.
F 49.5 Arctic Circle Trading Post; coffee, souvenirs.
F 73.1 Junction with the Dalton Highway.
F 152 MANLEY HOT SPRINGS (pop. 77); gas, food, bar, lodging and camping at historic Manley Roadhouse (1903). Hot springs are located in a private greenhouse; donations welcome.
Excerpts from The Milepost.

For you Ice Road Trucker fans, here is the weigh station that gives Hugh so many problems.

The Elliot Highway to the north, Steese Highway to the east.

We stopped at Hilltop Truckstop for some breakfast.

Carlile and Lyndon truck drivers visiting in the parking lot.

The truckers tables.

Lori

Big State Logistics truck filling up the big tanks while I fill up the little one.  Gas is $3.63.

Dalton Highway 46 miles, Manley 125 more miles.

There were lots of these.

And these.

And these.

Entering Livengood-Tolovana Mining District

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline shown here in one of the places it goes underground.

One of the pump stations that pumps the oil in the pipeline down to the ending terminal and port in Valdez.

The Wildwood General Store, closed for the winter.

95 miles north of Fairbanks.

Owned and operated by Mr & Mrs Carson. This old Trading Post is powered by a small generator. There are only a few light bulbs inside and two refrigerators for cold drinks. In a normal day the building uses about 6 gallons of fuel.

No trespassing, and he really means it!

Heeeheee “Private Target Range.  Hello Target.”

Old cabin on a bluff.  This is the only place viewable from the side road to Livengood.

A water truck filling up from the creek.

Here you go Pam!

Wonder where this little road goes.  We were already running late due to stopping so much to take pictures or I would have driven down there to see.

We started to run into a bit of snow on the road but it was only a little bit and not a problem.

Moose crossing the road.

Fire burned this area last year.

There was smoke coming out of the ground.  This is how a lot of our wild land fires start.  The fire gets into the root system of the trees or buries in the tundra to start up again the following year.

Ugh, flat o rama!

Changing the tire wouldn’t have been a problem, but apparently the 4 Runner has been hit in the rear before and so the hole in the bumper didn’t line up with the thing the rod needed to line up with to drop the spare.  I was also missing the handle part of the crank!  Luckily a good samaritan stopped and help and even had a crank handle that fit my rod.  Between the two of us and a lot of poking and prodding, we got it lowered.

I prefer a floor jack to the one that came with the 4 Runner so had one in the back.  But it wouldn’t work in this location and wouldn’t fit where I needed it to so ended up using the other one.

Trapper “It was only flat on one side.”

Spare tire on.  It’s a good thing to know.

We ran into fog and a bit of ice on the road due to the fog.

Ptarmagin Pass.

Hoar frost.

Minto Flats.

Hoar frost covering the trees of this mountain side.  It was beautiful.

Lori got cold.

This Mustang probably was going too fast and didn’t make the curve.  I don’t know if the person in it survived.  I don’t know how they could have.  The roof was squished pretty flat.

Finally we get there.  Lori brought little pumpkins for the babies.  It was so cute because they were looking at them like what the heck do we do with these.

Awww baby butts are just so cute.

I can’t tell Wyatt and Oak apart.

Lisa, such a pretty girl.

This baby was fast, climbed up on this chair lickity split.

Then he looked to see if anyone was going to do anything about it.  It was too funny.

They had fun playing on the slide.

While there Trapper showed me how to patch my tire and did it for me.  He aired it up too so we had a spare for the way back.  Thanks Trapper!

The last of the carrots.  They had to wait for the ground to thaw out again to pull them.  They had been frozen in.

Trapper’s mansion cabin.

Trapper, Sarah, Ken, Wyat, Oak, Lisa, protection force pups!

We left about 7:30 and had a beautiful sunset for the first part of our trip back to town.

Thanks for the visit guys.  I really enjoyed it.

They are out there.

They’re the things that you see
When you wake up and scream
The small things that follow you
Down the boreen
They live in the small ring of trees
On the hill
Up at the top of the field.

Fall

Lots of changes around here.  School starting, becoming a single parent, fall, winter preparation.  See how I just snuck that in there?  Stay tuned for lots of pictures.  Sorry, I’ve been too busy to keep up with them all so this one will be picture intensive.

Any of these pictures are clickable to see them better.

First day of 3rd grade.

First day of 7th grade.  So far he is doing great!

We’ve had some magnificent sunsets.  Luckily, they are not that unusual here.

I’ve been spending time with good friends.  I’m lucky to have so many.  Yep, living in Alaska makes me a lucky, lucky girl.

Even in the rain…

Hennad my hand.

Hennaed my hair.

Even though we are about a week past prime color, this is the view from the top of my driveway.

Belive it or not, this is an unsual scene around here.  We don’t have much pasture land or cattle.

We spent Sunday out at the kennel.  I haven’t gotten to see much of Jan this summer.  We had a great time.

One of my girl friend’s son stayed the weekend with us.  He is such a sweet, clever boy that we always enjoy having him.  We got to help with a bit of clean up Eric was doing, mostly that meant the kids got to throw sticks into the bon fire.  They of course loved doing that.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and enjoyed the rays of sun streaming through the

smoke of the bonfire.

Jared, our handler, and Jan.  I thought it was funny as they were standing there, one with a big stick and one with a little stick.

Eric took the kids down the trail on his 6 wheeler.  He was checking to see if we can fill in some of the swampy portion of the trail with the brush he was cleaning up so that we don’t have to wait until we get so much snow before being able to take the dogs out.

They had a great time.  Olivia told Eric he was “awesomeness”!

Speak softly and carry a big marshmallow stick.

Thought I’d take a picture of this road crossing sign on our way home for my lower 48 friends.

On the way to drop Chris off at home in North Pole, we saw the mountains were out.  You have to click on the picture to really see them better.  Mt. Deborah (12,339 ft.) to the west, Mt. Hayes (13,832 ft.) to the southwest and Mt. Hess (11,940 ft.) between the two former peaks. All are a part of the Alaska Range, along with Denali (Mt. McKinley) which spans southcentral Alaska in a sweeping 600-mile arc.  Keep in mind that Fairbanks is only at 432′ above sea level.

Driving back to our house from North Pole we saw the hot air balloon that is a regular in the air around here.

We drove until we were right under it, then parked alongside the road and waited for them to light it up.   Once we were on the road again, we got another treat.

Sorry this is so blurry but they were running and I was trying to get them before they jumped the fence of this yard and got into the trees.  They are fast.

The baby moose.

Sorry for the power line but this was taken by the side of the road and I didn’t want to get out of my car.  That’s Fairbanks under the mountains.  I love it when they are pink.

Welcome Back My Lovlies!

About 10 pm last night my friend Lori posted that there would be a good chance for the Auroras.

In 14 minutes, the Geomagnetic Activity level (Kp number) will be 5, at ‘STORM’ LEVEL!
In 29 minutes, the Geomagnetic Activity level (Kp number) will be 5.33, at ‘STORM’ LEVEL!
In 44 minutes, the Geomagnetic Activity level (Kp number) will be 4.33, Active, but below the ‘storm’ threshold.

I looked outside to see that it was still way to light to be able to see anything even if the sky had been on fire with them.  Plus, we had a full moon making the night sky just that much lighter when it finally did get dark.  So, the possibility of seeing the lights for the first time this year drifted from my mind as I scanned my Facebook page and other forums waiting to get sleepy.

Sunrise and sunset yesterday was:

Actual Time: 6:04 AM AKDT 9:41 PM AKDT
Civil Twilight: 5:03 AM AKDT 10:41 PM AKDT

What a wonderful surprise I got when about 2:30 this morning, I stepped out to the outhouse one last time before going to bed.  There was a huge green, wavy streak, lined with red even, going full across the sky.   I ran back inside and got my snuggly blanket from the couch, wrapped up in it as I quickly posted to Facebook to alert my late night Alaskan friends that the lights were out, then sat on my porch steps just watching in relief.   Yes, I say with relief.  Don’t ask me why that is what I felt.  It’s not like I thought that I would never see them again lol.  Perhaps it was just a reaffirmation that this truly is where I belong.  The Northern Lights are most definitely good for my soul.

Fairbanks

Feeling restless I went for a drive around town and took some pictures.

This is one of the ice bridges in town.  Once the river is frozen enough, this is a handy way to get from one side of town to the other without having to “go all the way around” to the bridge.   Normally someone either tries to cross to early or too late and falls in at least once a year.

The ice bridge at Pikes Landing.  You don’t have to be an Ice Road Trucker to drive on ice.

“Even with global warming and climate change, Alaska’s rivers still freeze hard and thick.  In some places, cars and trucks use the river as an extensive crossing, like a frozen bridge.  From November thru February temperatures in Fairbanks can regularly and easily range to -50F (degrees below zero) during the coldest days of winter.  As spring arrives in March and April there’s always some “genius” who gets their half sunken vehicle pictures in the local newspaper for crossing the river too late with the ice gets rotten and starts thawing.  It’s never good to be that person!  Drive safely and use good judgment.

The Iron Dog, snow machine race across Alaska.  You can click on the picture to make it big enough to read.

The Tanana Chief Riverboat.  I wanted to get a picture of the Discovery Riverboat as well as it is much bigger but they were closed for the night and the grounds are gated.

Random house boat I know nothing about.

Random lawn ornament.

Small grass landing strip.

Retired shark, or is that a whale?

A different type of retirement for this lucky plane.

Olivia on the slide.

She doesn’t like the tilt a whirl but Jordan talked her into going on it anyways.

“It’s ok Sissy.”

She would much rather play with the chickens and goats. 

And I was really upset to see the bane of REAL henna artists everywhere, BLACK HENNA, back at our fair!  Last year I wrote the vender manager about this.  I even later talked to her in person about this.  She assured me they were not allowing it again this year.  Yet here it is.  Looks like it is time for a letter to the editor.  This really pisses me off.

“Black henna” is not henna at all but a chemical that is illegal and can harm you!

Please read more here and find out what is being allowed in our nice little town!

Fairbanksians, you should be outraged!

Henna is NOT black. If someone offers you something called “Black Henna”, it is NOT henna. If someone has something that stains skin black, it is NOT henna. The black dye is probably para-phenylenediamine, also known as PPD, and that can hurt you.

PPD, or para-phenylenediamine is a snythetic coal tar dye, and causes severe reactions in some people. Want to see pictures of how miserable this is?
See: http://www.hennapage.com/henna/ppd/ppdburngallery.html

Sensitization to PPD is life-long and has ruined some people’s health. See: http://www.hennapage.com/henna/ppd/wilson.html

The International Chemical Safety Card for PPD gives a clear indication of how dangerous it can be and how utterly inappropriate it is for skin application.

If your “Black Henna” tattoo is starting to itch and blister GO TO A DOCTOR! NOW!
See: http://www.hennapage.com/henna/ppd/gotodoctor.html

How do you know if what you see is “PPD Black Henna”?
PPD paste is jet black.
Ask how long it takes to stain and how long it lasts. If the answers are “just an hour or two” and “a week or more”, it’s PPD.
Ask what colour it will give. If the answer is “pure black”, it’s PPD.
Ask to see an ingredients list. If the artist can’t supply one, or you don’t like what you see, walk away.

http://www.hennapage.com/henna/warnings.html

Here is the contact page for Tanana Valley State Fair, feel free to write your thoughts to them.

http://www.tananavalleyfair.org/contact/index.asp

This is what real henna is and looks like.  This is a two toned design I am currently wearing.  Henna has ONLY one color but can have different shades as shown above.

My Life as a Country Western Song.

So this could be a country western song. My husband was life flighted to Providence due to bleeding on the brain from a bike wreck.  Long story, don’t want to post about it here.  They didn’t give us much notice when they discharged him so I had to spend the money for a last-minute flight home. Luckily I had just gotten my unemployment check that day. Wait for it, it gets better. So, thinking of all the road rash he has and how much care he would need once home, I wanted to go do laundry before his flight came in so he would have all the fresh, clean bedding to lay on and I wouldn’t have to leave to go do it in the next few days. But, being in a full laundry mat, my loads of laundry were spread throughout. It came time to go pick him up at the airport and some laundry was still damp (at least the bedding was dry) so I told the kids it didn’t matter we would hang them up at home. So we threw the laundry in the baskets as quick as we could and loaded them into the car. Since we had all the bedding, I didn’t notice that the load was short, one load of jeans. To say I was a bit distracted is an understatment. I went back the next day after noticing I didn’t have them, and looked. I talked to the girl there and she showed me what they had in lost in found. But they were gone. Two weeks before school starts.

This is the one and only thing I do not like about living in a dry cabin.  I hate laundry mats.  I hate going to them and I hate using them.  And now I feel really stupid for losing the one load of laundry that is hardest and most expensive to replace.  Why couldn’t it have been a load of towels!

I’m such a whiner.

I’ve had 84 comments on my posts so far.  That’s pretty good huh?  Except when I see that I’ve had 91 spams posted for comments.  So, more spam bots are commenting on these things than real people?  Guess I better put up something more interesting huh?  What do you want to see/read about?  I have tons of old trip reports I can move over here.  Hmmm, let’s see.  I think I’ll work on Yukon Quest, Adventures in Handling next.

Beet Harvest

I originally posted this on my old blog.  It’s obviously from 2003.  This is how I made the money to get to Alaska.  I had driven for beet harvest once before and my family had driven for Langen Bros. for many, many years.  So, thought I would transport this post over to my new blog.  I lost a few of my pictures but these should give you a general idea.

Beet Harvest, 2003, Kennedy, Minnesota

Total Frenzy!

Beet harvest in this area is VERY big business.  The roads are full of beet trucks 24 hours a day, beets are spilled out at railroad crossings and any bumps in the road, and most local folk try to stay off the roads unless necessary for the 2-3 weeks of beet harvest.

There are a total of 5 plants in this valley.  They turn the beets into sugar, like sugar cane.  Each plant has several piler sites.  Between the 5 plants, when they move sugar beets in the Red River Valley, they move more of a single product in the shortest amount of time of any product in the world.

9,573,000 TONS of beets, 5 plants, 34 piler sites.  Quite the operation!Beets must be harvested within a certain temperature range.  If it gets too hot we do not pile them as they would spoil, if it gets too cold, frost gets in the beets and you have to shut down.  This is the only time you get a day (or half a shift) off during beet harvest.  Once the beets are in the pile, they are allowed to freeze.  Then there is a fleet of semis that haul them into the processing plants all winter long.

This is my 10 speed tri-axle with an L10 Cummins engine.  You put the third axle down when you are on the road with a load to help stabilize it.  You put it up while being loaded in the field.  Loaded, this truck was averaging 65,000 lbs.

Drive up on the piler and the piler operator raises that back metal flap thing.  Then you watch the directional lights controlled by the guy up in the tower and raise your load until the guy signals you to stop, raise, stop until you have dumped your load.  Beets are carried on a conveyor belt to the top of the pile.  Then you pull up and around, back up underneath the boom and it gives you back the dirt that was in your load.  This you take back to the field and dump it there.  The piler piles the beets into a beet mountain, seen in the background.  The whole piler raises and moves forwards as more beets are piled up.  There were 3 pilers at this site with 2 sides to each.  Sometimes you could get in and out in 5 minutes (if you are good) and sometimes it would take hours as the lines would get long.  Normally this happens when a piler breaks down and is a good time to have your lunch or clean your windows.

A new lifter operator loaded one of our semis too heavy on one side causing this truck to tip over when the box was raised.  Everyone was alright though the trailer was totaled and the truck twisted a bit.

Inside of my truck.
It’s very nice.

The white sheets clipped to my dashboard are my weight tickets.  You weight in and it is recorded on a bar coded card that you hand them.  Then you weigh out after being emptied.  Each load you get a ticket and this is how they tell who brought in what.

My PTO and Tri-Axle controls to lift the box and lower and raise the tri axle, business band radio.

More waiting in line.

Might as well get out and visit when the lines are long or the piler is broken down.

Langen Brother’s trucks.

In between shift changes the drivers service and fuel the trucks.  This includes checking the oil, refueling, and washing the windshield and any other glass that needs it.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are eaten in the cab while waiting to get up on the piler.  Sometimes the piler is running very smoothly and you don’t have the opportunity to stop and eat.

Watching the sunrise while waiting in line.

Back in the field to do it all over again. Waiting at the end of the row for the harvester and truck to get up and turn around at which point I will fall in behind them.  When the truck is full the harvester driver will pause the flow of beets while I drive up and take his place.

Harvester, loading a truck.

Happy trails to you.

4th of July and Mile 101 Fun

As some of you know, I get to work at Mile 101 Checkpoint for the Yukon Quest (Toughest Race on Earth).  This is our 1000  mile sled dog race.  Here is the post I made about it this year. Our crew got along so well that we decided to get together back at Mile 101 for a 4th of July outing as well as to get some work done that is much easier to do in the summer instead of the winter.

I rode up with Jan and Eric.  Jan’s truck and 4 wheeler and Eric’s 6 wheeler.

This is the main/cook shack.  There are other cabins used by the mushers for sleeping and one communications cabin.

One of the lower sleeping cabins.  I really like this shot.

We worked to increase the dog yard.  Then had a bit of a snack.

Peter brought some lox that he had made.  I’d never had it before but tried it.  It was pretty good.  The texture would tend to keep me from really enjoying it.  It’s not slimy but is very smooth.  It had a very good flavor though.

From Wikipedia:

Lox is salmon fillet that has been cured. In its most popular form, it is thinly sliced—less than 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in thickness—and, typically, served on a bagel, often with cream cheese and capers. Noted for its importance in Ashkenazic Jewish cuisine, the food and its name were introduced to the United States through Eastern European Jewish immigrants.[1][2] The term lox derives from Lachs in German and לאַקס (laks) in Yiddish,[3] meaning “salmon”. It is a cognate of Icelandic and Swedish lax, Danish and Norwegian laks, and Old English læx.

Sometimes called regular or belly lox, lox is traditionally made by brining in a solution of water or oil, salt, sugars and spices (the brine). Although the term lox is sometimes applied to smoked salmon, they are different products.[1][2]

Katrin, also from Germany enjoying the lox on bread with cream cheese.

Sterling, one of our communications guys and Peter, our checkpoint manager burying conduit for electrical line so we only have to have one generator running.  We used so much fuel on the generators last year.  So now the cook shack and the comm shack are connected!

Kevin and Sterling, the Communication Team.

Eric did the cooking.  Dinner was fried halibut and ling cod, grilled corn on the cob and bannock.

Jan wields a mean broom!

We also did a lot of cleaning up while there.  We cleaned when we left after the Quest of course but someone had been using the place sometime in the interim.  Plus, it’s not like it is tight, dirt and dust blow in and gets tracked in.

Mike and Precious (and she really was too.)

Eric took us on a ride to see the actual Yukon Quest “trail”.  We really couldn’t tell there was a trail here so good thing Eric knows where it is since he puts it in every year for this leg.

Eric drove his 6 wheeler, Jan rode behind him.  Katrin and I rode in the back sitting on coolers.  Peter and his son Lucas drove the 4 wheeler behind us.

Yes, we went through that.  Katrin and I deemed this “extreme 4 wheeling”.

Peter and Lucas.

We went up this creek for over a mile.  There was nowhere to get off the river.

Then we went on the road up to the Eagle Summit pullout.  While that was easier, it was also cold.

From the road looking down in the valley.  The checkpoint is to the right several miles.  The trail goes in front of this old lodge and continues on up over Eagle Summit, one of the most challenging parts of the Yukon Quest Trail.

The trail goes up and over that saddle.  You really can’t tell from this picture, how steep it is.

Lots of beautiful wildflowers.

11:45 Pm.

From Wikipedia:

Eagle Summit is a 3,652 feet (1,113 m)-tall gap through the White Mountains of central Alaska.[1] Its high-latitude location means that it is one of a handful of places on Earth where the sun can be seen at midnight by an observer standing south of the Arctic Circle and north of the Antarctic Circle.[2] The gap was named after the nearby Eagle River by prospectors from nearby Circle, Alaska.[1]

Eagle Summit is the site of a convergence zone between the Yukon Flats to the north and the low ground of the Tanana Valley to the south. Any differential in the weather within the two valleys causes high winds and precipitation when there is moisture in the atmosphere.[3] In 1916, Hudson Stuck, who was one of the first people to climb Mount McKinley’s South Peak, wrote, “The Eagle Summit is one of the most difficult summits in Alaska. The wind blows so fiercely that sometimes for days together its passage is almost impossible. … The snow smothers up everything on the lee side of the hill, and the end of every storm presents a new surface and an altered route. … there is no easier pass and no way around.”[4]

It was for this latter reason that engineers chose Eagle Summit as the route to build the Steese Highway, which connects Fairbanks, Alaska to the Yukon River at Circle. In 1927, just 11 years after Stuck became one of the first Americans to navigate Eagle Summit on dog sled, the highway was completed and road travel over the summit became possible. Today, Eagle Summit still is the highest point on the highway and tourism guides recommend its scenic views.[5]

The trail of the annual Yukon Quest 1,000-mile sled dog race also passes over Eagle Summit.[6] The area’s high winds, drifting snow, and steep terrain make it the most difficult section of trail in the race, and some competitors have called it the most difficult section of trail in any sled dog race in the world.[7] In 2006, a fierce storm atop Eagle Summit caused whiteout conditions that forced seven mushers and dog teams to be evacuated via helicopter from the mountain. Partially because of the storm, only 11 mushers finished the race — the fewest in Yukon Quest history.[8]

Keep in mind, Fairbanks is only at 436 feet above sea level.

After our adventures, we came back to camp to have smores.

I took this standing right by the fire.  It was a nice night.

The following day, Eric climbed up to fix the roof that had been leaking around the stove-pipe.

Lucan and I went down to the creek for some gold panning.

We got a lot done.  Good work, good friends, good conversations.  It was a fun long weekend.