A day of commercial tours in Fairbanks

All travel brochures seem to suggest that the Riverboat Discovery tour is the thing do in Fairbanks. In fact, their flier claims it is the best riverboat cruise in North America.  Cruise ships, Tour buses and RV Caravans all have them on their itinerary.  Norm and I will usually try to avoid anywhere crowds of tourists congregate, but we thought we would see what the hoopla’s all about, and this tour is rife with hoopla, in Norm and my opinion.

The Discovery Sternwheeler glides us down the Chena and 

The old-fashioned Riverboat traveled down the Chena River on a perfectly glorious day. Shortly after leaving the dock there was a bush plane that entertained us by flying overhead then landing and taking off in front of us (if you had the right seat, which Norm and I unfortunately did not).

With my zoom lens I could see the kennels of the late 4-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher.

A short time later we saw along the shore, the kennels of the late 4- time Iditarod Champion, Susan Butcher where they gave us a brief demo of the dogs going around a track. Very interesting, but again we were sitting on the wrong side of the boat. (Why didn’t I ask which side was better? ) Perhaps it was because the brochures stated we were to "visit the home and kennels" so I didn't imagine it would be from the boat, much a couple of hundred yards away).

Down river another woman came out of her house as we approached her land. She spoke to us via a microphone about something Norm and I can not remember.

An Athatbascan native describes as well as demonstrates how fish were filleted,cured and hung to dry. Certain parts were fed to their dogs.

As we were boating by, they let out this small herd of reindeer for us to see right on cue.  Since they do this twice a day, they have this tour well orchestrated.  

Toward the end of the cruise we approached a Native Chena Indian Village where a young native woman demonstrated how they used to prepare and cure their fish.  Getting off the boat, we broke up into assigned groups of 15-20 people, and went to different stations where they described life as a Native Athabascan 10,000 years ago, and how they have adapted to Western life.

I felt so sorry for this girl posing in this beautiful native coat made of fur. With temperatures in the high 70's, she was really sweltering in this beautifully crafted garment designed for sub-zero weather.

The workmanship on this coat was astounding!

One would have to appreciate how well orchestrated this tour operation was, obviously hiring many people who own the land along the river, each of them offering something of interest. Even though it was a little too “commercial” for us, how could you not enjoy it on such a perfect day?

Fish set out to cure. I was amazed there were no flies.

We got off the boat about lunch time, and needed to get something to eat before we headed to another recommended tour called Gold Dredge 8, another National Historical Site. This was not on my radar, but Dennis heard about it, so we decided to go.

Upclose look at a section of the 800 mile Alyeska Pipeline. These pipes are 48 inches in diameter running from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

The construction of the pipeline was quite the engineering marvel. As we drove we saw it go over water, on one side of the road and then the other for hundreds of miles. 

This talented fellow had a penchant for Johnny Cash songs, and definitely the deep voice for it.

After lunch we hurried to make the tour, starting with a ride on the replica of the narrow gauge Tanana Valley railroad that would take us to an old gold-mining operation. As we boarded this open air box car, there was an older man entertaining us with his banjo and song.  Following him was a younger man who was quite interesting. He explained the history of the Alaskan Pipeline, it history, and how important financially it has been for the state of Alaska.

Described as either a floating workhorse or a mechanical goldpan, Gold Dredge 8 extracted millions of ounces of gold from the frozen Alaskan ground.

When we arrived at our destination, we were all herded into an area that had seating next to to rows of water troughs that could handle several hundred people. Given a bag of dirt, we were shown how to pan for gold.

This miner panned my gold for me, probably thinking that is what I wanted. After he uncovered a few flecks, I had to sit and watch everyone doing there own.  He stole my fun!!

I sat on the end and for some reason (perhaps I looked helpless) a couple of the guides took my plate to show how it was done. In the process, they stole all my fun! In a matter of seconds, they uncovered a few gold bits in the bottom of my pan!  That was nice, but hey – I wanted to do it myself!  UGHHHHH!!!!  I then sat and watched as people swirled their pans, dipped them in water and swirled some more.  Between the two of us, we discovered $24.00 worth of gold.  I purchased a $29 locket that they put it in.

Norm got pretty good at panning.  If things get bad, Norm could fall back on this.

Little flecks of gold Norman panned. $24.00 worth!

Of course I had to purchase a locket to put it in! Hmmm..... I think they know what they are doing!  I figured it was a cute little souvenir to represent the gold rush era.

We roamed around the area looking at exhibits and gift shops, and Norm wandered off and struck up an interesting conversation with the guy who panned my gold, who was an actual miner.

 He told Norm how he owns two claims, and had managed to put two kids through school with the proceeds.

Without even working his claims, ( some other people are doing the actual work )this guy put his two kids through college.

After a while our train arrived and we were herded back on board to return to the parking lot. We headed back to the campground, and called it a day.

In a local Fairbanks parking lot we saw a few RV's that were in such disrepair we were shocked they are allowed on the roads! Roof half off, windshield so broken it was a miracle it stays in, other windows boarded up, etc.

 I heard the Alcan Highway is pretty rough on vehicles, but could the above motorhome actually have started out earlier this summer as this 2015 model?Nahhhh.....!