Sunday 8/19
By our new standards we got to bed early last night (before midnight). As the nights lengthen, we find our sleeping patterns changing.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning. To celebrate I work on the blog, and Nancy does laundry. While she’s at the laundry she meets Tom from Orange County. Tom is a retired, forty-or-early-fifties-something, upscale vagabond, traveling alone on his huge BMW motorcycle. Like us, he’s been on the road for a couple of months. Interestingly, he has just returned from driving the Dalton Highway, which runs between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. That’s the next venue on our plan-less plan, so we’re interested to learn about it. Tom’s view: The first 300 miles are worth the drive, the final 200 miles are not. The road is decent. Some great scenery. No animals (although when you’re on a motorcycle you’re deeply focused on the road and may not see all the fauna). We file this information and return to our busy schedule.
This afternoon we launch Das Bot in the Chena River. Since there’s a very gentle slope down to the river, and the RV is close at hand, this is the easiest launch we’ve ever experienced.
First we motor out of town to the confluence of the Chena and Tanana (named after the former Los Angeles of Anaheim star pitcher, Frank Tanana?) Rivers. The Tanana is one of the many “braided” rivers we’ve seen on the trip. These rivers typically flow through super-wide, flat valleys and comprise many threads or braids. These braids change frequently as the river rises and falls so often there’s no clear “main” channel. The Chena is a clear river, the Tanana is muddy, so where they meet we can clearly see the mingling of the waters. There is a huge volume of water in the Tanana and a healthy current. With its many braids, the water is mostly very shallow, but because it’s so soupy, it’s impossible to discern the deeper channels. We travel a couple of miles downstream and when we turn around, we get briefly stuck on a sand bar. When freed, Das Bot is chugging mightily, but we are making very little progress against the current. It’s interesting to hear the throbbing outboard, to have a churning wake behind you, yet essentially to be treading water.
Finally back on the Chena, we head upstream toward downtown Fairbanks. Along the way we see some salmon fishing machines and a couple of sheds where people are drying fish. We see a lot of American Wigeons and a few other ducks. We do battle with a couple of large paddleboats crammed with bus tourists. Even though we know these big boats have relatively little draft, we’re surprised that they can navigate these shallow rivers. There are several pleasant riverside restaurants where people are enjoying Sunday brunch watching the river flow by.
As we near city center there is more and more development along the river, mostly attractive residential. With a population of about 30,000 we’re thinking EVERYBODY lives on the river. Also, the farther upstream we travel, the more kayaks we see. Scores of folks are out on the river on this gorgeous day—pretty nice way to spend your Sunday afternoon.
Having reached downtown, we turn off the outboard and drift leisurely back to the RV Park. As Das Bot turns lazily in the current with the warm sun shining, we agree that Fairbanks is our favorite city on the trip so far.
We rent a couple of movies at Blockbuster (one of the “benies” of urban life) and go to bed very late after a long and delightful day.
