Pam's Trip to Alaska - September 2002
Our daughter Danielle's Cabin (& Outhouse) just outside of Fairbanks
It's great little place, no running water, wood heat and an outhouse with a Styrofoam seat :-)
Not at all unusual for the area.
Labor Day Weekend Canoe trip - on the South Fork of the 40 Mile River
We put in just outside of Tok, AK and took out not too far from Chicken, AK.
Julie, Dave, Andy, Jeff and Ellie
Three canoes, 6 people and 4 dogs and lots of gear. Mancha (with the life preserver on) is Ellie's dog. Mancha was the only dog who hated water and didn't see fit to jump out of a canoe at some point during the trip. The life preserver has a grip handle on it so if she had fallen out by accident they'd have something to grab her by before she went under. Andy was my canoeing partner and Mancha was my tent partner:-)
It alternated sunshine and rain on and off the first day. Temp's in the low 60's during the day and in the 40's at night, but comfortable. We spent most of the day taking off and putting on layers of clothes and raingear.
The guys hung up the tarps since it was still drizzling when we stopped for the night, but naturally it quit raining right after we got our tents up.
Andy & Jeff had been Dall Sheep hunting the week before, so we had sheep-on-a-stick for dinner. It was really tender and tasty!
The current on the river, because it was high water, was about 5-6 miles an hour. We had to hunt for fish, finally figured out they were under the foam in the eddy's along the rock walls of high cliffs. We all caught some grayling the second day and had about a dozen for dinner that night. They were really tasty.
Andy and Pam Dave & Julie & Dogs
Spectacular Scenery!
We never saw another soul on the river the whole trip. A fire had gone thru the area about 3 years before and we did see a number of abandoned gold miner & trappers cabins along the way. This one had been restored by the Forest Service last summer and had an interesting history. Built in very early 1900's.
Jeff scoping things out This pretty lichen was about a foot deep, very hard to walk in
We did some climbing..........nice of them to keep waiting for Me too!
It was just those darn rubber boots that slowed me down.......Riiiiggghht lol
Just after this "refreshment" break, we saw a couple caribou down the shoreline, the guys all had permits and were ready to get theirs.
Andy had the first shot by stalking one down the shore line (with his bow), but missed. Dave shot one from the opposite shore, just down river. Jeff shot one also from across the river, but it fell off the 10 foot bank it was standing on into the water and started floating downstream, so he and Ellie had to run back to their canoe and paddle like crazy to go lasso it and bring it back into shore. Andy got another shot with his bow and it ran into the water and swam across (the river was about 80 yards wide) and fell right at the river's edge as it was getting out of the water.
3 for 3 in less than half an hour!
Ok, so Andy insisted I get my picture taken with his caribou too
Great job of boning the meat out
It took them all about 3 hours to cut up the meat and load it into the canoes, adding about another 80 lbs of weight to each one.
Jeff 's Bou
His dog Millie wasn't too sure about all this
As we got going again, we literally saw 100's of caribou (if the guys had only known what was coming, they'd certainly have waited) and some huge Bulls with beautiful racks. We heard later that it was the first time in 30 years that the herd had passed through this area of the River.
They were all over.... in small groups like this on the shores and up on the ridges of the cliffs, lines of 30 and 40 at a time would pass silently by. It was a really an eerie and awesome sight!
Up on top of this ridge there are about 60 caribou
An Exciting End to our canoe trip.....
Ellie & Jeff unloaded everything from their canoe and ran the BIG rapids. I couldn't talk Andy into it, and Dave & Julie didn't even consider it, we roped our canoes thru, which itself was not an easy task. From the picture, the huge rocks on the side we were on aren't visible, but it was a challenge even to rope them thru.
Note the Caribou rack on the front of the boat :-) Just after the next picture, the front of the canoe did take a bit of a dive and took on some water, but they made it thru. These rapids are MUCH worse than they look from the one dimensional photos.
It was a great adventure, very exciting as well as peaceful and beautiful. And I appreciated the "gang" taking me along!
I spent the next week meeting Ellie's friends and co-workers, driving around the Fairbanks area, relaxing in the Chena Hot Springs, taking a gold mine tour, and enjoying my time at the cabin..... and generally sponging off the daughter :-) I didn't chop any firewood though!
A Couple more sites to visit:
