Steve and Ellen's Adventures

Chapter 6 3 July 2015

Fairbanks, the northernmost city in Alaska. People are friendly and very helpful. Everyone is in a good mood because it’s light all the time. The sun comes up at 3 am and sets at 1:30 the next morning. Our friend Lucy was visiting one day and mentioned the city sponsored a midnight solstice sun run. She asked is I was interested and since I’ve done some walking last winter, I said “sure” figuring I could do 5K without too much problem and she said she wanted to walk, not run. So on the way to sign up, she mentions it was 10K or 6.2miles. Well I didn’t want to be a woozy and back out, so I get my number and T-shirt. Now Lucy is a dog musher and a younger lady in her 60’s so I knew this would be a challenge. This was also a costume run and I decided to wear a lobster on my shirt, nothing elaborate or splashy. Lucy made red claws for her hands and a cardboard cutout for the tail and colored it red. Before the race they had a judging contest on the costumes. I didn’t enter and Lucy didn’t win. Now this race starts at 10pm and you run/walk a route through the residential sections of town. There were nearly 3000 runners and we started near the back. I think it was 3 minutes before we even got to the start line. The streets were lined with residents giving out water, offering food, spraying everyone with sprinklers, kids using water guns and all cheering us on. We were motoring by a lot of people and must have passed 3 to 4 hundred. It was a good time for everyone and I did finish 7^th in my group of men over 70. We went home and celebrated with pie and ice cream.

The fires south of Fairbanks blew smoke into town so bad, visibility was probably less than ½ a mile. There weren’t many fires up by the Arctic Circle so we head north on 6/23. The road is better than 3 years ago but still not a race track. There’s some close smoke and one place fire on both sides of the road but we hurry through. They didn’t close the road or anything drastic like that. About 150 miles up the Dalton Highway, also known as Haul Road or Ice Truckers Road, someone has to use the bathroom. Well we’re hauling our bathroom with us, so no problem. I pull over at a wide spot, also used by another camper, and I go in first, saying “I’ll just be a second.” When I turn the door knob, it breaks the bolt retraction thingy. So the door is still latched. I’m twisting and turning with no results, when someone says “I’ve got to go pretty bad”. Now when they built the camper in 98, they installed the doorknob on the wrong side. The bolt heads were on the inside of the bathroom so there was no way to remove the knob. I got my screwdriver and pliers and proceeded to rip off the plate and remove the handle. Next I drilled out the bolts and the inside came out. The latch was still secure in the strike plate in the wall. Someone is squirming and suggesting I hurry up. She couldn’t use the bushes because there weren’t many and the other camper was still in the turnout. In all it took about ½ an hour before I got the latch out and the door opened. She sure was happy. Now we have a rather large peephole in the bathroom.

Got to the circle, did the picture thing and on up the road 60 miles to Coldfoot. Camped at a BLM campground 10 miles north for $4.00 a night and back to Coldfoot for dinner. Coldfoot has a population of 16 people. It has a gas station, lodging, post office, generating plant, and a restaurant. The food was a buffet for $28.00 each but was wonderful. Gourmet all the way. We sat out on the deck because it was cooler, it had reached 90 that day. Amazingly we had no bugs, but we did have gray jays land on the table wanting to steal food.

The next day we drove only the truck north another 100 miles, over the Brooks Range, Atigan Pass, and up to Gilbrath Lake. A nice trip, but not much for wildlife. Did get a couple new life birds, Hoary Redpoll and Long-tailed Jaeger.

The following day, we drove to Wiseman. Population 16, but the ranger thought is was now only 12. Apparently some family thought Wiseman was getting a little remote. It’s about the same as last time except the public phone now has a new location. It was removed from the tree and put in a little1x2 foot, 3 sided phone booth still attached to a tree and is now a nice princess phone. I’m sure you can only still call Coldfoot.

We returned to Fairbanks, the smoke has cleared up, rested, did laundry and ate out a lot. We then drove south 60 miles to Nenana, pop 400, for big doings on the 4^th. But that will have to wait for another time.

Cheers and enjoy the 4^th and fireworks. They wait until Christmas for fireworks here since the sun is still out till after midnight. Steve