Fairbanks 1

Well last night was FREEZING !!!   When I eventually got up at about 8.30 am, the temp was still -2.7 deg C, and someone was saying it was in the mid 20's Farenheit !!!  But I suffered because I had run out of instant hand warmer pads for my feet, and used a re-usable one, but it runs out of heat after a couple of hours, so by about 1 a.m. I was suffering !!  So not tonight Josephine - I have just bought a stock of the disposable hand warmers to make sure I don't run out again !!  The car was covered in frost, and even the condensation inside the tent had frozen !!  And they are saying that after the clear sky today, we are in for more of the same tomorrow.  Whoop-de-do !!!  I will be putting on ALL my clothes tonight !!  In advance !!
Other than that, it ws a kind of quiet day around Fairbanks.


After I had thawed out in a hot shower, I decided to catch up with  few things that needed doing to the car.  Nothing major, but just little things that don't get done when you are on the road.  So it was after 11 am before I finished them, and as it was getting warmer and warmer with the clear sky, I made myself a sandwich before I headed into the Information Centre in town. 

My first reaction of Fairbanks - Not very big !!  And like Dampier or Port Hedland, all the shops are inside buildings and Malls - There are no shop windows on the street, in this case due to the cold and not the heat.  But it always catches me unawares when I first see them as it looks like there are no shops - Just concrete warehouses !

As I entered the Information Centre I found Lambert and Heinrich, the two German guys I had met last week in Skagway !  They have had a great week up here, and told me all the things that are available, and they are off to Denali by train tomorrow.  So I said I might see them down there, they took off, and then I went into the Centre.  Got various bits of information for tours, and then the girl told me that the shuttle buses (which you normally HAVE to catch - No private vehicles allowed in the park) would not start operating in Denali until the weekend, and until then it was permissable to drive your personal vehicle right into the park, right to the end.  This is just TOO good an opportunity to miss, and since it is only about 120 miles down to Denali, I am going to leave Fairbanks early tomorrow and get down there as quickly as I can, and get up to the end of the park, about 40 miles in.  I am not sure how manyof the campsites are open in the park yet, so I might have to stay at the one at the entrance, but that will be OK, and I can just drive in to the park to go for walks each day.  Then once the shuttle buses start operating at the weekend, I will come back up to Fairbanks to finish doing all I want to do here, plus the Dalton, and then go back down south.  The other reason I am sprinting to Denali is that with the fine weather at the moment, there is a good chance that Mt McKinley might be clear, which is very rare.  A bit like the time we were down in Tasmania with the Lotus boys, down south in Hobart, and the weather forecast for Cradle Mountain was clear, so 3 of us drove all the way up to Cradle Mountain and back to Hobart, but it was worth it just to see Crdle Mountain in all its glory. So fingers crossed !

After making that decision, I went over to any area in Fairbanks called Creamers Field.  http://fairbanks-alaska.com/creamers-dairy.htm    Originally a dairy, when it shut down in the late 1960's the fields around it were purchased by the state as an area for transitory migrating birds, as had always happened before.  Today it is a wonderful area for bird spotters, and the local forest is also tended to ensure that moose and other wildife return.  There are lots of beautiful walks around the area and through the forest.  So I went out there to get some excercise and see if there were any Canada Geese there (My sister gave me a copy of the book The Snow Geese by William Fiennes, just before I left on my trip, so I have been looking for them (and occasionally seen them) on my way north - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/mar/30/travel.travelbooks)  While there were mostly Sandhill Cranes there at the moment (the Geese come though in mid April), I went wandering round their trails for a couple of hours, and learned a lot.

• The wizened fir trees beside the road I have referred to in previous blogs are in fact Spruce trees, and there are black ones and white ones.  And they are wizened - sometimes 50 year old trees are only a couple of feet tall due to the harsh environment.  But they are alive.
• Like in Australia, Fire plays an important role in the ecostructure.  Moose like new growth, but if there is no fire to prompt new growth, the trees grow too tall and then the moose can't reach the new growth, so they move away. As it is close to town and they cannot risk fires, here they chop the trees mechnically to prompt new growth and encourage the moose to stay.
• I have mentioned previously the kind of swampy, wet growth beside the roads. What happens is the permafrost initially prevents the melt water from draining in to the soil, so it forms a kind of swamp, and this in itself creates the perfect environment for many animals and birds, as well as breaking down leaves and wood into nutrients.  Later in the summer, the water will eventually seep into the ground, providing the water which will freeze and act as a barrier to the water next year.
• "Boreal" means "of the north". (You may know that - I didn't !!).  So Aurora Borealis is Northern Lights, and the Boreal Forest is the Forest of the North. And across N Europe and Russia this forest covers 17% of the earth's surface. So it plays an important role !! 

So, it was a bit of a learning day for me !  Once again, like Whitehorse, I found that by the end of the day I was starting to enjoy Fairbanks. I find it very similar to the outback in Australia, very much the pioneering spirit, and everyone mucks in to get a job done in the often harsh environment. I look forward to coming back here and exploring it further next week after I have been to Denali.

Don't you just love the taxi's here ? !!

Need to go and start getting "dressed for bed" !!!  9.30 pm now, and broad daylight for another couple of hours yet !!

I am not sure if I will be ble to get wifi in Denali, so if I disappear for a couple of days, you know where I will be.  But if the weather stays like this, then it is going to start getting better ......a lot better !

A few pics of today here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/Fairbanks1?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPnpsXGov6_7QE#