Not wanting to get too far behind I am writing a second time today, then will be on schedule.  

Finally feeling human this morning after a good night’s sleep.  Up and at ’em at 6:45 for a quick breakfast and onto the tour bus that took us to the sternwheeler boat trip down the Chena River.  This was a three hour excursion that turned out to be much more interesting and enjoyable than I had expected.  I am so used to California Hollywood tourist nonsense that to get on a “tour” thing and have it actually be historical in nature was a pleasant surprise.  

The weather is lousy but pretty normal for Alaska – intermittent drizzling rain, about 55-60 degrees.  Since this is our winter weather at home it’s more or less “whatever” for us.  The sternwheeler had inside seating so we were comfortable.  Everyone on the boat are locals, and it is a fourth generation family endeavor.  The children in the family start to learn to “read the river” at age 5.  Everything about the boat itself is historical, as it started out as did so much of what is around these parts – as a way to serve the gold rushers back in the day.  The common thread among everything we’ve seen thus far is “the gold miner’s didn’t get rich, but the people who mined the miners got rich.”  

We were entertained by young Indians (yes, they refer to themselves as Indians here) who, off for the summer from their studies in universities, educated us about how to clean and preserve salmon, what fish camp is like for them growing up, how they could not tell you what certain foods like beaver taste like because they are delicacies and are reserved for the elders – perhaps they will know when they are forty.  They modeled clothing for us and showed us pelts of every furry creature imaginable, and explained which were used for what purpose, e.g. wolverine is used close to the face as it is waterproof and prevents frostbite.  

We witnessed a dog sled camp where we learned that the puppies are handled by humans almost immediately from birth and are cuddled frequently as pups to become bonded by humans.  They are trained in small areas with log maze like barriers where they learn to go around or are helped over by humans before they learn to hop over themselves, thus learning that the humans are there to help them and vice versa.  One young gal who will be in the Iditarod this year explained that unless it’s really really really cold she will sleep with the dogs on the trail. (Sounds good to me!  Yummy warm!) When the puppies were put away the adult dogs began to go nuts, knowing the routine – it was their time to shine.  They are harnessed to the sled and can hardly stand to wait for the mushing to begin – barking and yelping and jumping – I am reminded of my dogs who go a little bananas when the walk leash jingles at the door.  Finally it was time to go and they took off like a shot, we were able from the boat to see them take a long circle around a lake in the background – so fast!  There will be an opportunity later on our journey to take a dog sled ride.  I was planning on passing that by but now I’m having second thoughts. It looks like a real thrill. 

These dogs are the pride of David Monson, who was married to Susan Butcher, the first woman to win the Iditarod.  Susan died too young of cancer, but not before claiming her place as a champion many times over.  Her lead dog, Granite, lived for seventeen years and was the runt of one of her litters.  She saw greatness in him and indeed, he won a boatload (sledload?) of races.  

This was only a small part of the endless stream of interesting cultural and historical information we were showered with during the 3 hours.  It ended with a family style meal of miner’s stew and biscuits.  Of course, there is the obligatory gift shop ordeal and hawking but Al and I just kind of tooled around, looked at some stuff and then went outside.  That was the only part that was Disneyland, but it is understandable – this is how these people made it possible to keep their families in Alaska.  Ya gotta give them credit.

Onward!  To the El Dorado Gold Mine.  More history, more education, gold panning (much more fun and profitable than in California).  Al and I scored about $45 worth of flakes.  We could have had them made into a little pendant but I’m thinking I can do that when I get home with a few dollars worth of supplies from Michael’s.   That place was much more Disneyland than the sternwheeler experience in terms of “here’s what you can buy with your gold flakes…” but nevertheless learning the process of sluicing from taking the stuff out of the mountain to panning it was pretty darned fascinating.  I came away thinking that my method of making money back home is a much easier way to make $45.  

On the way home our bus driver, a sharp and talkative young man, stopped at the Alaska Pipeline and gave us a 15 minute power facts presentation.  The statistics are amazing: how big, how quickly it was built, how quickly it could be deconstructed, the construction materials, how the pipes themselves sit on teflon runners where they sit on the supports, which allows them to move back and forth in earthquakes – essentially a moving snake of a pipeline.  Very cool.  

Now we pack up for our journey by train through Denali National Park, home of Mt. McKinley.  It is quite unlikely we will see the mountain, rain is forecast for just about every day we will be in Alaska.  It’s unfortunate, we were hoping that summer might afford us a little bit of sunshine, but it is not to be.  We are still hoping for a change of heart from the weather gods, but we know that the wolves and moose and whales and eagles will not care about the rain, so neither will we.