Nearing the last of Fairbanks

This is really a pretty town and fairly easy to get around in. But for the winters which I am sure would take some major adjustments for this desert rat, I could live here. With a solid vehicle with snow tires I could probably even get around most of the time. In the summer it is really lovely with the flowers and is mostly pretty clean and people are mostly friendly too.There are trains--I hear them night and day--the long days of summer are very inviting and inspiring.

I spent more time at the library today and then took a final drive up into the hills to the north east to the area of an old mining camp called Fox. My only real disappointment with the scenery is that the trees are so thick and even on a ridge top there is no view.I am reminded of Kentucky and North Carolina in that regard. You saw the mountains around the Prince William Sound on which Anchorage sits and Wasilla is just above but here it is a valley and the hills just roll away gradually higher and higher. Not looming and impressive.

So tomorrow I will fly back south and the final days will zip by. I need to pack and ship a couple of boxes by Saturday and maybe I can visit the Wasilla library and see if they have any mushing stuff that Fairbanks lacks. Other than that, not much left to be done. I am a bit tired; it has been hectic and busy but I feel I  have made progress, less perhaps than I had hoped or wished but a good start.

Once I get home I will focus on fund raising efforts, taking stock of where I am and what else is needed and then lay out the next stage or two of the program. Of course other things will intervene such as stories to be written and sewing, my exercise classes, and the various normal chores. I'll be a few days getting back into that, I am sure. But I will. And life will go on with its normal joys and sorrows and frustrations and all the rest! But I did it; I set a goal that seemed very pie in the sky and I believed and made it happen!! I am proud of that. And here are a few of the displays from the museum I visited yesterday.

A Rainy Day

I woke up to a drizzle today and it rained fitfully much of the day. Finally now at 4:00 clouds are breaking up and the sun is out. Not a good day to go exploring on roads that might not be good when wet. I found a laundromat and did up the dirty clothes from the week up here and then went up to the Museum of the North on the University of Alaska campus. It's one of the few I've visited here that has an admission fee but it is pretty impressive so I guess worth the cost. Even have to pay to park. I do recognize though that it costs plenty to operate and maintain such a facility.

They have a vast, varied and voluminous display of Alaska by region--flora and fauna, native peoples, artifacts and art and history. I took a lot of pictures which they allow. A few I got reflections off glass over displays but most of them were fairly good at first review.

I was especially taken by the basketry, beadwork and varied garments of the different native people.  I guess during the winter, if they were lucky enough to stock up on and cache food for the winter, they had time to do detailed and exquisite work. I was also impressed at similarities in some of the motifs although I do know basic geometrics are used by many in varied and diverse places. And the weavings of some, mostly the Tlingit people I believe, were beautiful too. I'm not sure at once how to incorporate such designs into any of my art and craft projects but I am sure something will occur to me  in time.

I spent close to three hours in the various galleries and displays and my legs got tired before I really saw it all thoroughly. Very impressive and well worth a look IMHO. I did see subtle connections that link the Navajo and Apache people to their distant Athabascan kin. That even extended to a sample Native house at the Pioneer Park that bears a strong resemblance to a traditional hogan with a faceted circular structure and a doorway faced east.

Apparently the Eskimo were the first to use sled dogs--again I recall from anthropology classes reading about eastern and plains tribes in the old US region who used dogs to pull drag-able pole travois to haul their goods. I suspect the women were the ones to tame and train the dogs because otherwise they would have been the beasts of burden. That might be worth mentioning in my book about the lady mushers. They may be carrying on a very old tradition. Yes, men used the sleds to hunt and haul in meat, but I'd lay a bet the women used them when it came time to move camp.

Otherwise there was not much on mushing but a lot on many facets of Alaska and life up here to include the gold rush and building of the railroad, main highway and later the pipeline. There was also a bit about the internment of Japanese and  Aleut people from out on the Aleutian chain and especially on Unalaska where a writer friend of mine lives now. That was kind of a downer and I went on by after a short time; not anything we as Americans can be proud of but in wartime many bad things are and will continue to be done. I'm not sure how to fix that.

I may get the photos unloaded later; there were a lot of them! So one more full day. I'm still trying to track down the museum with the mushers' exhibit. So far no luck. So what I end up doing will depend on the weather. Then turn the car in midday on Thursday and wait for my later afternoon flight  back to Anchorage, get another car and return to Wasilla for the final weekend.

The end approaches and I will be glad to be home among familiar things, pet my puppies and try to sort out all the amazing impressions and experiences I have enjoyed.  But as I keep saying, a part of me is already drawn to a return; there is so much more to see and do and of course more dogs, the actual races and many mushers I have not yet met. Must go to Denali for real and maybe even a little farther north though I am not sure I want to go all the way to the Arctic Circle! But never say never. Also down to the Kenai and perhaps even the far southeast area... I am a little sorry I did not get started on all this this much sooner. Were I twenty years younger... well shoot. But I have been here and I shall, like McArthur, return!!

And below you have the Native house I mentioned, the Antler Arch near the Golden Heart Plaza and First Family stature and the Yukon Quest Headquarters Building. The race starts on even years on the frozen Chena River just behind me where I shot the picture of that traditional sod roofed log cabin.The locals pronounce that with a long e, like Cheena btw.

Lower Key Day

My research today was more the book kind, I paid a visit to the Fairbanks Public Library and went through several shelves of books in the "SLED DOG" category. The bad news may be there are an awful lot of them, good, bad and indifferent if not downright ugly! The good news is there does not seem to be anything even close to what I plan to do. I skimmed many, read blurbs and noted who was involved and then made an extensive list to try to get thru inter-library loan and buy a few and start to compile a bibliography. I haven't done serious semi-scholarly writing in a while but I think I still recall how.

I finally located where the museum I wanted to see used to be but they are closed and moving. Not sure where the new site is but may be able to find it and whether or not they are open again. That was frustrating!! I went back to Pioneer Park and rode the little train around the park; seniors only have to pay a buck! I also went thru an art exhibit I had not looked at the first day and chatted with the volunteer who is also a quilter and told me where the fabric and quilt shops were in town.  did locate one and got two fat quarters with northern lights design in colors that will compliment my planned Alaska Musher quiltlet. And a pattern for Mary Sghield's summer parka. Then I came back to the hostel and have loafed in the grassy quiet back yard since about 3:30. I needed a kind of down day to pull myself together, get some notes down and just veg a little. It has been very hectic. Not sure what the schedule will be for the two last days but I think I have about run out of people to see and even close places to go but I will find something to do for sure.

Here are a few pix of Fairbanks flowers and the hostel outside for today. Happy and smooth trails!

Dogs and Celtic Knots again...

This afternoon I made it out to Skunk's Place, Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore's kennel. Skunk was her first sled dog and the name commemorates him, Aliy is just as real, sweet and funny as I had expected, totally warm and genuine and her smile could light up a room. She is one of those rare women who are beautiful for the light that shines out from inside them. She loves her dogs and loves everything she is doing and it shows. Her husband is a great guy too and they make a real and powerful team. I even met her parents who are great folks about my age. They now winter in Florida but summer in Alaska and help support the SP Kennel efforts in many ways and their "grand dogs."

Aliy and Allen do not farm dogs out in the summer as they say the dogs can pick up bad habits and get confused by different handlers and different ways of running them even with hand picked people so they stay home. They get to vacation in the summer because they do not do well in heat and just take loose walks and such, no pulling. Then in September the actual training cycle will start again.

They breed most of their own dogs and have a plan on that but occasionally go outside and pay a stud fee to get a specific bloodline or trait strengthened and prevent too much line breeding. Just one litter this year, four boys and one girl about four weeks old. You will never guess what the little girl's name is!! Would you believe Ginger?? I got a photo of Aliy holding her. I have to tell my Ginger that she may have a namesake running in the big ones in a couple of years. So see what I mean by Celtic knots? What were the odds of this happening? Sled dogs get all sorts of names from mythology to sports and TV figures, goofy ones like the puppies Mary Shields is fostering and so on. But Ginger--you could have knocked me down with a feather!!

I was part of a small tour group, several of which Aliy knew or knew of and even one of her old high school buddies from down in the lower 48 but I got a little one on one time with both her and Allen and the parents and got hugged twice and a picture together. All in all I was a kid meeting my rock star or sports hero and even got a pic with little Quito, Aliy's great little lead dog; I think she will be retired soon but she has been awesome. Everyone was enthused about the book plan and that was very validating to me, also. So without a doubt this was the highlight of my trip but it has all been great and there are a few days to go yet. There is no doubt I have to come back and that is a good goal to march toward, the next checkpoint so to speak. This race of mine is far from over but I'm off to a great start!!

A week from tonight I will be getting to the Anchorage airport about now to turn in my last rental car and wait for my late night flight back to the desert. It is still my beloved home but Alaska has definitely taken a foothold in my heart, especially the wonderful dogs.

Another Good Day in Alaska

We are having fantastic weather which is really making my trip a pleasure. And it looks like it will hold into next week! Whee. I stayed busy today and got some good contacts and info. I started of by visiting the Fairbanks Visitor Information Center which is also a very nice museum. I complimented them in their guest book for fine dioramas on Alaskan life, especially the historical and Native peoples parts. And they  had a special art display--my favorite was an absolutely awesome quilt of mountains and a stream done by a lady from Colorado. OMG, that was just gorgeous. Probably cost $10,000 but I would love to take it home! Definitely recommend this center to any of my readers who are ever here! The Pioneer Park (yesterday) is fun  too but more of a playground and midway than anything else. I continue to be wowed by all the flowers. I guess it makes up for the long dark and cold to have these through the summer.I think many dry them like Mary Shields; she makes lovely wreaths and displays.

On my way over there I noticed the Yukon Quest headquarters and that was my next stop. The Yukon Quest is the "other" thousand mile race and many of the mushers agree it is tougher than the Iditarod. It is newer and kind of the red headed step kid as far as public awareness and interest goes which is too bad. It is run in February--darker and colder --and goes from Fairbanks to White Horse, Yukon Territory in Canada. It starts in the former on even years and the latter on odd years. I don't know if the mushers and dogs have to have passports or not! It also crosses four mountain ranges at higher elevations and has fewer checkpoints. So it is a real bearcat! I got a video about it and chatted with the lady in the gift shop--they seem to be lower key in all aspects-- but she said there was volunteer info on the web site so you can bet I will be checking it out.Many of my lady mushers have run both and Aliy won it in 2000, I believe. I'll have to check that. Her husband has won several times including this year.

Then last night I found the website of another of the younger women who gives Fairbanks as her home base.I  left her a message thru Facebook and this morning she phoned me!  I was invited out to her kennel which she runs with her male partner who does not race, I don't think but supports her efforts wholeheartedly. A marine biologist by trade and education, she works that in the summer but was home for the weekend. We had a lovely chat and I told her about my project--she was quite enthused--and I met her dogs or some of them. Like with Martin Buser a good part of their kennel is off doing tourist stuff with some handlers to help earn their keep. but I met some retired and 'pet' dogs including one young female who was accidentally bred and will be whelping a single pup any day now. Ultra sound confirmed that; she is just a long yearling and really too young to have a litter so they are watching her closely. A singleton pup may be large and hard for the birthing,.

The gal's name is Paige Drobny and I suspect she will be getting better time in the future and making a name for herself. She loves animals and we enjoyed a chat about dogs and horses and such. Yes, I did take pictures along the way today. Still have to download them so I may not get them added to this post but I'll try.

I am asking most of the people not why the dogs run but why they run. Although they word it differently and the story does vary some there are common themes.P

aige and Cody got together and each had an adopted rescued Husky. They came to Fairbanks to do grad school and decided to get a few more to do some winter camping and then Paige thought it would be  neat to run a race, just one mind you! So she did the Yukon 300--part of the same route as the big one and run almost together. When she came to the end she wanted to go on with those running the full 1K. It seems that once the bug bites you there is really no stopping, .Even with the horrid conditions of the 2014 Iditarod (Yukon Quiest had better snow) most are already signed up for the 2015 race. So call it an addiction, a compulsion or at least a passion; it takes over your life. And it's the dogs... Most are in it for/with the dogs.

An interesting note, many of the people raising sled dogs are frankly not going 100% "Husky" at all and you can see it in the dogs. Paige admits hers are "mutts" and she has gotten dogs from several of the old trad kennels to build her pack. She said that before she died, the late and great Susan Butcher was even adding some Blue Heeler blood into her bunch and sprint racers who run the very short and fast ones are experimenting with everything from greyhounds to German Shorthair pointers!. Dog sledding ain't what it used to be or as the Marines say, it wasn't like this in the Old Corps!

The photos are First Family statue of a couple and heir child and two dogs--mama and baby are in back-- I should go back and  get all sides-- and then Paige and one of her dogs and last the quilt I mentioned. It has a zillion strips to get the effects.

First Full Day in Fairbanks

I called Mary Shields while I was eating breakfast and she could get me into a tour today so I decided to strike while the proverbial iron was hot. I already knew the way for the most part but asked directions again. Turned out I had passed her sign and gone too far up the last road yesterday but today I found it easily.

  

Mary herself is precious, a kind of hippie grandmother, but this little lady has done some fantastic things. Back in 1973 she decided it would be fun to run the brand new Iditarod mostly because it was a chance to cover a whole lot of new territory with her sled and dogs! At the start in Anchorage some spectator shouted to her to turn around now and stop. She got her dander up and thought no darn way! So she ran the whole thing, finished in the middle of the pack just ahead of her frenemy, Lolly Medley, (the two were the first women to attempt and complete the race)  Mary then turned around and mushed back over half way home until the thawing Yukon stopped her and she had to be flown the rest of the way. She has also done the Yukon Quest and a special international trek across the Bering Straits to kind of commemorate the migration of the early people from Asia to the western hemisphere.

She came out from Wisconsin to work for the Campfire Girls in the summer in the early sixties before she finished college. She decided she wanted to build a cabin and live in the woods but ended up rehabbing and old existing cabin and staying there for a while about half way down the train track to the Denali Park but then ended up in the Fairbanks area.She now has a gorgeous log cabin that is more of a neat house but made of huge birch logs a foot or so in diameter. It also has a sod roof and wild berries growing on it! I took one shot  outside but felt it would be too intrusive to take pix inside. She also has a beautiful flower garden with some veggies mixed in that is her pride and joy. I am just blown away by the flowers up here. They are astounding—everywhere you go.

She still keeps four dogs and may try for a litter in the spring with one female and keep a pup or two since one of the four is getting old and she has lost three the last two years, She still takes them out camping in the winter and drives them several times a week in the winter as well. She has a heavy old style sled she uses most, notas racing sled. She is also boarding three pups, litter mates, for a friend and they are terrors but adorable.

She has twenty acres up in the hills above town, about eight miles out by my rough figures, but most of it is in woods. It is peaceful and serene. There are neighbors but not  just wall to wall. I’m not sure I could do the winters—she says there is about four hours of sun in the midwinter time. That would bother me more than the cold, I think in truth.

But she is an amazing lady and full of incredible stories, very warm and caring and a confirmed ecologist or preservationist. I’m not sure what her major was in college but likely something related to that as it began to become popular when she and I were at that age—we are a bit over a year apart. Now she is not anti-racing per se but does feel too many resources are spent on it and it is far too commercial and such. In a way I have to  agree even if it has totally captured my fancy for a time now.

We discussed time. She took twenty eight days to go the route in 1974. She attributes most of the speed now to the breeding programs with more speed and less lugging tractor power in the dogs and some of the technology applied. That makes sense to me.

Then when I got back to the hostel, I checked email and had a confirmation from Aliy Zirkle’s Skunks Place Kennel which I will visit Sunday. It has been mid 70s today and a bit breezy—fantastic weather. I’ll plug in a few photos here and call it a day!

 The back yard at the hostel--very peaceful and pretty!  Then me with Mary's working sled in front of the tent she uses for winter camping with a little stove inside. Finally Mary and one of the other ladies on the tour with Frosty on the doghouse and the three pups on the ground. Got my doggie fix again! Some kid named the pups, all males, Roly. Poly and Oley! We  agreed they sound to similar and may be hard for the pups to learn to respond to. BTW Mary is wearing a summer parka the Native women make. They use pretty cottons like the Apache and other SW Indians like and bright ricrac. I am going to try to get a pattern.

Travel is taxing

The day began very early and was full of potential little glitches but in each case the saints or angels who help travelers were right there for me. It is kind of amazing. really. I drove my rental down to turn in and had understood they were open 24/7 but not true. I managed with a phone call and then called a cab to go the couple of miles to where the bus stopped.That was fine and I got safely to Anchorage but sorting out the city busses was a bit more complex. I finally got the right one and the only had a $20 and they do not do change. The driver pitied me and gave me a free ride worth $2. I told him I would pay it forward. See what I mean??

I sailed through security and then had quite a time to wait before boarding.The plane was actually a big prop plane, not a jet! Two rows on either side of the aisle. I was sitting with a German couple and their son. He seemed to speak English ok and read it but she  not so much. I got a good look at Denali/McKinley but was on the wrong side of the plane to take any photos. That is one impressive mountain. It had clouds about half way up but this massive white bulk rose up from them like a ragged edged cloud itself. That was really awesome, in the turest sense of the word! Makes the biggest Colorado 14K peaks look like hills.  No, I do not want to climb it or even go out there really but I did want to see it.Now I have.

Landed in Fairbanks in just over an hour--faster and easier than driving up the Alaska 1 although that might have been fun. I was supposed  to get a little economy car but they had none so I am driving a Dopdge minivan for the same price.I expect it may use more gas but I do not cringe from the big pickups and SUVs anyway!

I found my lodging--very utilitarian but will do for the cost--$210 for a week when a lot of places are that for a day. Then I drove around. There was a musher's museum shown on the map but it really does not exist--if it ever did but a guy walking a dog there gave me  a couple of leads that were helpful. I have  general directions to Mary Shield's  place which I followed enough to know where to go when I set a time to meet with her. Then I went to the fair, which is still ongoing through the weekend. I located the Iditarod booth and actually met Joanne Potts, the volunteer coordinator I hoped to see the end of next week in Wasilla and the third of the young female mushers who was with Lisbet Norris, not the Red Lantern winner who is from Canada but another young woman from Norway, or at least with Norwegian ties. So that was quite serendipity too. I will call Joanne after I get home probably since she will not be back at ITC Hqs as quickly as Donna Olson had said.

By then I was tired and came back to the hostel, picking up a few microwave dishes etc. at Safeway so as not to eat fast food out all the time. Healthier as well as cheaper. Sharing the room with one young woman of Oriental ancestry but she has studied in England and other places and quite cosmopolitan.Also met a young man from Australia who's thumbing, bumming and sometimes getting tickets to travel all around the north and will be going on to Canada tomorrow. So in a way it is interesting to stay a place like this and meet some young people from many places having their own adventures.

I'll add a couple of photos from yesterday. Did not take any to speak of today except a pretty sunrise as I was waiting for the taxi about 6:00 am.  Shots are a locomotive at the Transp museum, me on the Redington dog cart and the older puppies down at Buser's Happy Trails Kennel. The mama dog, Suzette, has nine and wants to wean them soon!