abg shanks: land of the midnight sun--fairbanks 29 july

leaving denali we headed north towards fairbanks.

denali lodge

fireweed--blooms from the bottom up and when the top blooms, winter is just 6 weeks away--look how close they are to winter!

fairbanks is a pretty neat town of ~35,000, at 440ft above sea level, roughly 420 miles south of the arctic ocean and 200 miles south of the arctic circle. fairbanks in nestled in black and white spruce trees, with poplar, white birch and cottonwoods. the average hours of daylight during the summer is about 18 and in the winter is only about 3. temps in the summer average from the 50s-70s with highs getting into the 80s and 90s occasionally. their annual precipitation is only 11". the BIG thing is the winter temps. during those 21+ hours of darkness, temps can get down to -40 and -50 and you find electrical plugs in many parking lots of the university, stores and shops.

we acted a bit like tourists in fairbanks, visiting the museum of the north at uaf (university of alaska at fairbanks)—which was a very complete and informative museum of alaska and it’s early history—of the early peoples, land, animals, gold rush, park development, and westernization. very worthwhile in our opinion.

museum of the north in fairbanks

a couch of antlers

one afternoon, we went to visit a friend of a friend's reindeer ranch. what fun to learn about reindeer--an animal closely related to the caribou, up close and personal with jane and doug. thanks guys for the lovely visit.


at the raindeer ranch

jane, the owner of the raindeer ranch--look at her beautiful garden

the next day we went on a very personal tour (there were only 9 of us) of mary shields home and dog kennels. mary is the 1^st woman to have completed the 1,049-mile iditarod sled dog race in 1974. she did not win, but she was the 1^st woman who crossed the finish line, ever. what an amazing woman. she hails from wisconson but has called alaska home for over 40 years. if you ever make it to fairbanks, go visit mary. she is humble, friendly and is a very knowledgeable and inspiring woman.

ladybug poppies in mary's garden

no moose allowed in this garden!

one of mary shields' sled dogs--her name is frosty

buddy with too sweet, one of mary's dogs

gravy or too sweet?

mary and her sled and tent

maybe sometime?

mary's beautiful garden

the log cabin she and her husband built

look out ahead...

another afternoon, we took the riverboat discovery tour, a fun riverboat ride on the chena river visiting an athabascan village and susan butcher’s kennels, another dog musher and the 4-time winner of the iditarod sled dog race who died of leukemia in 2006, all the while learning about the importance of river boats in this area and the area in general. fyi, the 1^st woman to ever win the iditarod was libby riddles in march 1985.