Manley Hot Springs: Memorial Day 2010

We went to Manley Hot Springs, about 150 miles due west of Fairbanks for a wonderful long weekend, marred only by a lot of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires active during May.

Manley is noted for its rustic hotsprings, located in an old greenhouse.  Of the 4 pools three were so hot that we could not get in and the 4th was only sit-able becuase two hoses were running with cool water.  We shared the pool with this friendly group of 3 from 1 family...and the man went to West Philly High School years ago!!!!   

      During the day we took a very bumby ride to Tofte which is an abandoned gold mining town.  Nothing is left, but it occupies a place on the map as big as Manley.  False advertising.  On the way we saw hundred of swallowtailed butterflies making butterfly "ball" in the road.  David also came upon this lovely abandoned truck.

We camped right next to a slough of the Tanana River and since we had new fishing gear we decided to fish.  Since David kept snagging the line, he wanted to find a new place very shortly after we started so we began to reel in.  At that point a large pike threw himself onto my little tiny hook right at the foot of the boat ramp and committed "suicide by fishing".  He flipped onto the boat ramp and slipped between two of the concrete slabs that made up the ramp.  Well, I tried to scoop him out and David tried to grab him, but he flipped into another depression and got stuck.  It was like the Keystone cops met Captain Ahab, but finally we grabbed the poor fellow.  Beginners luck was with us because we were able to slip the stringer in his mouth and keep him.  Little did we know how viscious they really are. We found out later about their large teeth and propensity to bite!  But we fillet him and had a really good dinner. 

And we even met a resident who had hunted for bear and was willing to trade the salmon we had brought for dinner for some fresh bear meat.  And this man knew someone who lived down the street from David's sister in Oregon.  What a wacky world.

The Natives are allowed to use fish wheels which scoop up the fish and deposit them in baskets.  They manuever them out into the river and leave them there.

Manley airstrip was the staging area for the firefighters in the area and on the morning that we were to leave we went to the Manley Roadhouse for breakfast and to hear the news about the fires. The waitress told us that the road out had been closed in the morning and asked if we really needed to get back to Fairbanks on Monday.  Typical of us, David immediately said "yes" and I, of course, said "No".  We all had a chuckle.  But, the road was open when we wanted to leave, so off we went, with fires on both sides of the road.     The fires were so close that when David open the door to take the photos we could quite clearly feel the heat!

But now there has been much rain in June so the fires have died down.

Tom Maslany's Visit in March

Our friend Tom came to visit and we ahd a chance to show him "our Alaska."  That is...no wild animals, no Northern Lights, no snow and relatively warm weather!!

We went all the way to the Arctic  Circle (which David casually told us was about 3 hours away).  5 hours later we arrived, having seen no animals and very little snow covered 'wonderland" type scenery.  However, we did realize that we very likely would run out of gas before we got home.

Before we left I realized that we didn't seem to have enough coffee for our morning cup.  When Tom said that was not a problem because we could simply stop at a convenience store on the way the disconnect between here and there really came home to me.  Between our house and the Arctic Circle is a lot of trees and one road!!

A local non-tourist site is the Permafrost tunnel which is exactly what it sounds like...a tunnel through the permafrost that requires a geologist guide.  David was kind enough to arrange a tour for a group of us which was a highlight of the trip.  Not only did we see ice lenses and other ice formations that were thousands of years old, but many old bones and even some thousand year old sedge.  What a great tour!

     

The Native Arts Festival took place while Tom was here so he got a great look at all of the village dancers which is always a big highlight of the winter.  

Another highlight was the local ice park which attracts hundreds of international carvers. 

    

Then it was on to the Iditerod for both the ceremonial start in Anchorage and the restart in Willow.

Here I am with Newton Marshall.  Same photo of me and the Jamacian musher as last year!

    

A quick trip to the Chena Hot Springs and to the Curling Club to and Tom was on his way back home.

Camping in February

On February 26 David and I were going to go tent camping. but we were lucky enough to be invited to share the hospitality of  a friend, Randall Miller, who has a series of cabins near us.  We drove about a mile or so and then turned off Chena Hot Springs Road and then drove for about 6.5 miles and then hiked for another few miles to a wonderful hexangonal cabin that he built many years ago.  Then several other building were added to the complex.  Randall and his friend built them all themselves!

Randall stayed through lunch and dinner and then David, Fred and I had a lovely evening and Sunday and then hiked out.  What a great weekend!

 Ellen and Randall.

 Frosty David.  It was very cold that weekend!    Notice the neat cupala where there is a little seat with a quilt for cozy afternoon reading.

        Trudging home.

In and Around Fairbanks

Well, Philadelphia is known as the mural city.  But Fairbanks has its art too.  We have many, many ice sculptures dotting the town, not to mention our world class ice park which attracts sculptures from all over the world.

The ice is delivered in huge blocks to various businesses, etc. who then pay a carver who starts in January.  The sculptures last until the end of April.  Last year the University, which has several sculptures of its mascot, Nanook (polar bear) around the campus, then took the melting sculptures and put them all in one place and it was fun to watch them shrink!

       Our census advertisement!

 This is supposed to be Al Gore.

 This is one of my favorites outside a local sports store called Prospectors.

 Outside the local Wendy's.  Go figure

        This one was an utter mystery to both us!  

 Nanook

  Ad for the local wood stove shop.

 Outside David's office.  Every year Design Alaska sponsors the holiday concert and makes an ornament and ice sculpture representing an instrument.  This year was a flute.  Each builing at UAF gets to design their own ice sculpture.  This is outside the Biology and Wildlife building.   This is outside of my building and, I think it is supposed to be Rocky and Bullwinkle.

  Outside of the International Arctic Research center.

 This is in a rotary in North Pole.