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Final report from Alaska: Train rides, paddling and sled dogs – adirondackexplorer.org
Sep
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Through its news reporting and analysis, the nonprofit Adirondack Explorer furthers the wise stewardship, public enjoyment for all, community vitality, and lasting protection of the Adirondack park.
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Support our journalism
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Adirondack Almanack
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Still on download from Alaska as we saw so much and I have only related a thumpnail sketch of what we saw. The last few days were filled with lots of great things: bus rides, train rides, a paddle boat trip on the Chena and Tanana rivers, a visit to sled dog kennels and a Native Alaskan village tour by paddle boat on the Chena river.
The train ride in an open covered coach on the Alaska Railroad for four hours (119 miles) passed through through the tundra forest and wetlands. We passed through a forest fire that burned last year for a couple miles. Along the way we saw a couple moose feeding in the bog lakes, an osprey nest right beside the train tracks on a pole and tundra swans in a small lake couldn’t see if they had young but they probably did. There was beaver activity in several of the water bodies along the railway. The scenery along the way was snow covered mountains along the first part of the trip as we traveled a long way right beside the river before entering the boreal bog forest. We got a nice meal on the train before getting to Fairbanks.
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From the lodge there we traveled to meet a small train which took us to a gold dredge operation which was right beside the oil pipeline that took oil to a port where the water stayed open all year. We got to pan for gold which was neat and even found some in our pans after washing away the other stuff. Erin and I pooled our findings, which totaled $39—not enough to get home on. We put that in a necklace pin. We bought a couple of T-shirts and few other gold-related items.
We bused over to a paddle boat dock where we then traveled up the Chane River passing many beautiful homes and the dog kennel where Susan Butcher, four-time winner of the Iditarod dog sled race, raised her dogs. Her lead dog was Granite for all four races and a children’s book was written about this dog and the races. I bought that for the Old Forge Library—a neat book.
The day before we had stopped at the sled dog kennel which the park operates. They use these dogs to patrol Denali Park in the winter. They put on a demonstration, hooking up the dogs and doing a short run around a track for visitors. Then they had a puppy run of the younger dogs back to the kennel.
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Further along the paddle boat ride, we stopped at the Native Alaskan village where there was a fishing weir used to catch salmon running up the river. A young lady was processing these fish for the drying racks and smoke house. She said she had been filleting salmon since she was 10 years old. They had pens full of reindeer caribou which they used for food and working. Showed us their housing and their use of furs and other natural things they used to survive the harsh winters.
Using the Merlin bird app on my phone and my grandson Nathan’s phone, we heard and located many birds while on the trip. The most unusual was while at sea I was watching for seabirds, and I did see an albatross skimming over the waves one morning but while watching that I heard a smaller bird chirping not far away on the ship. We were out of sight of land and there sitting on a ladder on the back of the ship was a white-winged crossbill male, singing away. I didn’t give me time for a photo before it flew out over the ocean.
Back to the Adirondacks: the Loon Census is 8-9 .m. on Saturday July 18, and the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation will be banding in this area this week so you may be seeing bright lights on some of the local lakes during the nighttime, but that’s another story. See ya.
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Gary lives at Eight Acre Wood in Inlet, where he was the forest ranger for 35 years, working in the Moose River Wild Forest Recreation Area and West Canada Lakes Wilderness Area. Now retired, Gary works… More by Gary Lee
1 Comment
Are those wolf and arctic fox furs???
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Through its news reporting and analysis, the nonprofit Adirondack Explorer furthers the wise stewardship, public enjoyment for all, community vitality, and lasting protection of the Adirondack Park.
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