It’s around -20°F outside today so I decided to stay in. Lately, that has been our overnight low. Now it’s become our daytime high. Brrrr. But the time at the computer today helped get some things done.
Let’s backtrack a bit to August when Jackie was here. One of the trips we took was on the paddle wheel boat. It’s a two hour cruise down and back up the river. First you see a bunch of fancy houses alongside the river, then there was a float plane that landed right next to the boat and later took off for us. Then we stopped at Susan Butchers ranch, where her husband gave us a demonstration of how strong the sled dogs were by hooking them up to a 4-wheeler weighing around 600 lbs and having them run a circuit. They were traveling around 20 MPH pulling that weight, without a problem. A little further down the river and a plane with huge tires for landing on soft ground took off & landed on a sand bar. After we turned around and started heading back up the river the boat stopped at a Athabaskan native village reproduction typical of the way river villages were built at the turn of the 20th century. We disembarked and went to demonstrations of native sewing, boat building, lodge construction, dog training, etc. scattered around the grounds. After all that we re-boarded the boat and opposite from where the boat was moored, there was a fish filleting demonstration by an native women before we left. Interesting because of her skill at slicing and dicing that fish to get it ready for the drying racks in under a minute.
The paddle wheel
The Chena River right there at the docks before we left on the cruise...
The crowd waits to board...
Off we go, standing at the bow.
Sister boat. We have now turned around and are heading downstream.
Just cruisin'
A float plane takes off for us.
Then lands. All the while chattering to us via a radio link and amplifier system.
And then another take off.
One of the nice homes along the river.
This is where the boat turns around and heads back upstream.
But first, a tundra plane takes off from a sand bar nearby.
Then it lands and bounces all over for a while.
Then we head back up river and stop, then disembark at the village.
We sit while the native girls explain what furs are used for what garment.
Here's a bark house. This style was only used in the summer villages.
Typical hand made boat of the area.
There was a herd of caribou at the site, this guy was relaxing.
Another example of building styles. Caribou skin tepee.
They had a small garden with giant vegetables.
Trading post.
A typical food cache with some furs hanging from it.
One of the native girls giving us a talk about the fur preparation.
Then we head back to Fairbanks.
The paddle whirling away.
After we get back home.
Now, I know this isn’t a very good picture of Jackie, but on that whole paddle wheel trip, there was so much to see and do that I just did not get around to taking any pictures of her. This is the only one I got.