Alaskan Vaca 2022 - Day 3, Part II, Gold Dredge 8 Tour

Off we head North (and a bit East) on Hwy 2 just past the town of Goldstream to a little place called Gold Dredge 8.  

The tour starts, quite literally, right beneath TAPS, the Tran Alaskan Pipeline System.  The info given about the pipeline is quite amazing to me as I've been very interested in this for probably the last 15 years or so.  We were sitting on that back bench that is currently unoccupied.  One of the older ladies in front of us, you can see her jeans and light colored shirt just beyond the pole, got to arguing and it caused me a fit of laughter where I had to get up and leave the area.  They were arguing over a friggin' window and it's covering!  SOOOOOOO funny as they were SOOOOOO disrespectful to each other!  It was truly a sign of vaca-lag where you're obviously tired of your mates and you can no longer speak with soft words!  I'm giggling as I type this! 

Caleb brushing across it trying to create some kinetic energy of some type...  or just jacking around.

I always assume that a sign has NEVER been created without being preceded by an incident.  LOL   Would love to hear about the incident for this signage.

Pretty cool shot as you can see the right-of-way that goes up and over the mountain in the upper right quadrant.  There is supposedly a road that can be driven from end to end along the pipeline and a helicopter (or two, I don't remember) flies the whole length of the thing twice daily for security purposes.

This tool travels thru the pipeline for cleaning and maintenence purposes.  The pipeline is surveyed several times per day, mostly by air. Foot and road patrols also take place to check for problems such as leaks or pipe settling or shifting. The pipeline can be surveyed in as little as twenty one days, but most surveys take longer to ensure thoroughness.^[157] These external inspections are only part of standard maintenance, however. The majority of pipeline maintenance is done by pipeline pigs—mechanical devices sent through the pipeline to perform a variety of functions.^[158]

The most common pig is the scraper pig,^[159] which removes wax that precipitates out of the oil and collects on the walls of the pipeline. The colder the oil, the more wax buildup. This buildup can cause a variety of problems, so regular "piggings" are needed to keep the pipe clear.^[160] A second type of pig travels through the pipe and looks for corrosion. Corrosion-detecting pigs use either magnetic or ultrasonic sensors. Magnetic sensors detect corrosion by analyzing variations in the magnetic field of the pipeline's metal. Ultrasonic testing pigs detect corrosion by examining vibrations in the walls of the pipeline. Other types of pigs look for irregularities in the shape of the pipeline, such as if it is bending or buckling.^[161] "Smart" pigs, which contain a variety of sensors, can perform multiple tasks.^[162] Typically, these pigs are inserted at Prudhoe Bay and travel the length of the pipeline. In July 2009, a pig launcher was installed at Pump Station 8, near the midpoint of the pipeline.^[162]

A third type of common maintenance is the installation and replacement of sacrificial anodes along the subterranean portions of pipeline. These anodes reduce the corrosion caused by electrochemical action that affect these interred sections of pipeline. Excavation and replacement of the anodes is required as they corrode.

The baffle type things atop the posts attached to the footings collect sunlight and are used as "ground chillers" that help the pipeline footage to not heave when the ground is frozen and shifting.

We finally loaded on the train after also learning that Thursdays are generally travel days for the folks on the big tour buses.  Our group had zero buses as we were all independent travelers on this day!  Have any of you heard of a fella named Earl Hughes?  Probably not for most of you, but I would guarantee that the same "most of you" have actually heard Earl Hughes.  He's played one instrument or another with popular peeps that you would know.  Up here, he's known as the Alaskan Ambassador to Country Music.  His music was playing in the gift shop earlier this morning and I was surprised to learn that he was along on our tour (I suspect every tour as part of his job...).  His dad played for old-timers like Hank Snow and a few others that he named.  Made me wish that my father-in-law was with us to have a conversation with this fellow as he himself had some good stories of exactly those old-timers passing thru Des Moines.

The dude in the blue shirt over by the old equipment is the son of the older dude narrating our tour. He demonstrates how to run the old equipment and what it does.  Pretty cool to see that earlier American ingenuity at work.

This is the actual dredge tool and quite frankly, I was fascinated by it!!

When you're on the tour, they teach you how to pan for gold and when the tour is nearly over, you get to practice what you've recently learned unless you fell asleep like Rob did!

This was both fun and frustrating!  It also taught me that if I had moved out West to pan for gold, I would have died quickly died from poverty as my skills sucked!  Ironically, Rob the sleepy, was the first one done.

Into the gift shop we went with our new found riches and we got Caleb a bracelet with our plunder.  We walked around a while admiring all of the old equipment that was left from generations gone by.  You'll see plenty of those in the coming pics!

Finally, the boys decided to head outside since we couldn't find Mama Chaos.   We wanted to see if she went out there to observe the dredge from this angle and it turns out that not only had she gone out to observe it, she went up into it and walked around!  What the heck????  I didn't know that this was even an option and so, up I went!  The boys followed.  The boys? meh...  The next group of pics are from inside the dredge.

Watch'er step!!!  These bad boys were steep and as I had quickly ascertained, a good way to die!

 The train whistle blew while we were in the rig, meaning that it's time for everyone to get back to the train.  We did just that exact thing as I am a HUGE rule follower.  We did grab some free cookies and coffee on the way tho...

We boarded our train and found that Earl was finishing up some question/answer thing.  Dang!!!  If I had known he was doing that, I would have spent far less time in the tourist trap gift shop and would have been out there talking to him!  

As he was finishing up, he walked the short length of the train (remember, no tour buses) and was thanking all of the peeps.  I was furthest from him since I had loaded first followed by Rob, Caleb and then Mama.  He thanked Les and the boys and then gave me some sort of brief salute, nod and a power sign all while saying something that I couldn't quite decipher.  Rob saw it and looked perplexed, asking, "What was that?".

I have no idea if it's true or not, but I've read over the years that old musicians could spot other musicians by their behaviors.  Is that what it was?  I have no idea.  I suspect it was probably my initial reaction to him when he was first introduced as I may have been the only one on the train to recognize his name.  

We left there debating on whether or not to go to the town of North Pole.  Technically, we debated it on the way up to Gold dredge 8 and now we briefly discussed it again before unanimously vetoing it.

We returned to our AirBn'b to start packing as we leave tomorrow, do laundry and play some card games.  By card games, I mean only one, Blitz (or 31 by some peeps).

Everyone is in bed except me.  I'm finishing laundry at 1:10 am and it's still light outside as the other sleep...  I need to do that too but the light plays havoc with my noggin.

Alaskan Vaca 2022 - Day 3, Part I, Boat Tour on the Chena River

July 14th - today we are scheduled to go on a river cruise down the Chena river and later have a bit of a train ride at a place outside of Fairbanks where there's an old Gold Dredge 8 gold mining operation. Sounds good to me!

I got up around 6:30 to pretty myself up and have a cup of coffee while I await the others to get to the same point as myself.

We needed to be to the boat joint by 8:15, or so the email said.  Truth be told, we could have arrived at 8:40 and would have been perfectly fine but the terrorists who own the place want EVERY.  SINGLE. PERSON. to spend as much as possible in their overpriced gift shop.  We did spend a lot of time in there as that was about the only thing to do!  Rob spotted a dude in an Iowa Hawkeye's coat but we didn't get to talk to him as we were never closer than about 6 people away.  Oh well...

Waiting to board the boat with the gift shop behind us.  I like how this picture gets a bit less blurry as your eyes move from left to right. lol

So they finally open the gates and we made our way onboard the vessel known as The Discovery III of Alaska.  We made our way to the third floor of a four level ship on the port side.  I had forgotten my fleece pullover at the house and it was 52 degrees with a slight breeze.  Had it not been so sunny and lovely out that morning, I probably would have bought a new sweatshirt at the store but I decided against it since I needed to be punished for my dalliance of the morning.  Glad I did!  The weather that day could not have been any more perfect!

We were on the Chena River from up by the Fairbanks Airport on Discovery Dr. down to the confluence of the The Chena and Tenana Rivers.  

Let's look at some pics and I'll pick up the story when it becomes relevant again. 
 

Some of the properties along the river were just beautiful!

So this was interesting...  before we got very far at all, the boat stops and they explain a little bit of life in and around Fairbanks.  They talked about how many pilots there are per capita in Alaska and how the small crafts are used as way of life.  Turns out the dude demonstrating the water take off today was our pilot Sam from the Arctic Circle tour on the previous day.

While these planes look ordinary "Buddy Holly's", they are not!  They are made of aluminum piping and canvas.  They need to be super light to take off in the short distances shown here and that's how some crazy ******** figured out how to do it!

I take pictures like this as it is fascinating to me as to how many square miles of Alaska are untouched!  I really wanted to move there but I think we should probably go back during the throes of winter to make the final decision...

These were cool too!  Plane docks instead of boat docks.

Caleb and I were out exploring our vessel when we saw this.  Dude was making his escape from the boat!  We didn't understand it at this point but I assumed that he figured into the story at a later point.

This is Trail Breaker Kennels.  This is currently owned by David Monson who was married to Susan Butcher, the famous lady from Cambridge Massachusetts.  Some of her stories with her lead dog, Granite, are legendary and you should seek them out to truly learn why dogs are better than cats... as if it weren't obvious.

Squint hard and you can see across the water that there are dogs pulling an ATV (that has no engine in it but still has the braking mechanisms) on the path around the pond.  The dogs in the foreground are all looking in that direction as they're disappointed that they were not selected for the run.

Here we are at the confluence of rivers.  The water do not mix well.

 

This, if I recall correctly is a Salmon trap.  The thing spins and is slanted one way to dump the trapped fish into a holding area.  This is the start of the little village that we visited but I'll be dipped if I can find it again on the fancy google maps...

We're docked and getting off of the boat at this point.

Reindeer.

This young lady gave us a tutorial on the stuff around us and acted as I would have when there was a spider on one one of the items she was teaching us about!  That is to say, freak out.

Another presentation if you can spot a lady up in the door of the raised cabin.  An interesting thing happened on the walk to this demonstration.  There was a dude with a Cyclones coat on.  As a family, we were talking about it when I noticed a lady walking parallel to us who had had a Hawkeyes visor on.  I pointed to her and said to the boys, "See, the rivalry lives everywhere!".  The lady smiled and asked if we were from Iowa.  "Yes, Pleasant Hill.".  She responded that she was from Reasnor, Iowa which is not very far East of us.  The dude in the Cyclone gear caught on to the conversation was from between Ames and Newton.  AND, another person who over heard the conversation walking near us was from the greater Des Moines area too!!!  Crazy! 

I took a picture of this as they grow local plants on tops of cabins as roofing as it rarely needs to be replaced.

Our ride.

The smoke house where they were smoking...  "things".  I didn't document what they were.

A bald eagle who came out to entertain us.

Once we got back on the boat, they started serving up these crackers with canned salmon and cream cheese on them.  It was FANTASTIC!!!  They also had free coffee and donuts earlier in the day.  By our final count, Caleb had two coffees, 5 donuts, and 21 salmon crackers!  He was trying to get back some of our ticket price...  or something.

  Me and the critters!  I believe Caleb has a mouthful of cracker and salmon dip!

That's the Pump House restaurant that will figure into the story a bit later.

And last, I only show this picture as the lighter colored stuff that you can see thru the breaks of wood on the dock are sections of the pipeline that they repurposed and can be inflated with air to raise the dock or deflated to submerse it.

After this, everyone but Caleb is a bit hungry so we hit up the Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. where Rob and I ordered some wood fired pizza's along with some coffee's and some yogurty/fruity nasty looking thing that mama chaos ordered.  I will admit, it looked nasty but tasted pretty good!

That's it for this section of today.  I'll try to be quicker with part two of today's adventures....

Beautiful Steve!!

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