Old Chatanika Gold Dredge

One of the “Bonus” sights on this trip was a visit to the Old Chatanika Gold Dredge that was just a mile down the road from where we were staying at the Gold Camp.

We were told it was a great place to wander and stretch our legs, and see a piece of Alaska Gold Rush history.

How do you get there? “Well, drive a mile down the road and look for the Chatanika Lodge and restaurant..you can’t miss it” we were told…."Look for the totem pole!"

And then, ooh and ahh over all the flowers that are in big bloom! It’s been fun to see the varieties of “cool weather” flowers that seem to thrive in this climate! The colors are so rich and bright….inspiring all kinds of quilt possibilities in my head…

Oranges and yellows and purples and blues, with a liberal sprinking of white and red and pink. I love seeing the planters full of gorgeous blooms, and the planters themselves, old cast offs from the earlier gold rush days!

We walked parked here and walked across the street, following a rocky path to where the gold dredge stood, silent and foreboding. The Chatanika gold dredge is a historic relic of gold dredge #3 owned and operated by the F.E. Company between 1928 and 1958. The dredge is located at about 27.5 metres (90 ft) along the Steese Highway east of Fairbanks in a 60 acres (24 ha) pond it dug itself, directly across the road from the Chatanika Lodge.

The first thing we noticed along the rocky path were the remains of land stripping left after all production stopped.

Evening was falling, and light was fading…this was about 8:30pm on Tuesday. You first see the pond, and then the dredge itself becomes visible. The most eerie thing was how quiet it was out there. I can imagine the racket this thing made when it was in production,

Of course, graffiti “artists” had done their work, but this monstrosity was just amazing in its size and silence! Who were the men who came here to work to support their families? Where did they come from? What was life like here in 1924 for them? I can’t imagine!

I liked the reflection of the sky and the trees in the dredge-made pond….

And as the shadows fell, the silhouette behind us sat still and silent, just a cast off remnant of an earlier era on the Alaskan landscape. If only this relic could talk!

Back at our little room at the Gold Camp Hotel….I laid out my hexagon bottom section, to see how much had been accomplished over long flights, lay-overs, and many hours of driving through wilderness…

Maybe some day someone will wonder about the story that this quilt could tell about all the places it has been and seen as well!

Evening Edition! Free Kindle Book!

This is for the long flight home tomorrow!

We are done with our two fun days of workshops, and tomorrow after breakfast we will be leaving Delta Junction, AK and starting our long trek back to Anchorage. We are planning on it taking 8 to 9 hours with all the stopping and scenery looking…putting us in Anchorage in time for a nice leisurely dinner!

The rental car needs to be turned back in around 10pm…our red-eye flight leaves Anchorage at 12:30am. We get back to North Carolina after 6pm at night on Monday! Blehhhhhhh!!

So..I just was doing a bit of browsing for something to keep me occupied on the flights, and I found THIS one!

A Knight in Central Park by Theresa Ragan is free today from the Amazon Kindle store, and has received an average user rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars based on 24 customer reviews.

Product Description

The year is 1499. As Alexandra Dunn’s farmhouse is set ablaze, her grandfather places precious stones in her palm, telling her she has until the next full moon to return with a hero...a brave, chivalrous knight to help save her family. Familiar objects become a blur as she is swallowed in darkness. Suddenly Alexandra is standing in the middle of Central Park, but she has no time to ponder on the wondrous powers of the stones or the amazing sights before her...she must find a hero before all is lost.

Joe McFarland would be the first to admit that he’s far from hero material…definitely not the man she’s looking for. A firm believer of quietude and non-violence, he avoids conflict at all costs. At thirty-four, he is one of the younger Professors at NYU where he lectures and teaches History: The High Middle Ages. Joe’s main goal in life is to gain membership into the Medieval Academy, a highly distinguished group of archaeologists and historians. He believes membership will bring him respect and recognition…but what he really wants is to be reunited with his father; a man who has spent his entire life searching for the Black Knight, the last of the medieval knights.

Joe’s organized, well-structured life begins to unravel the moment he meets Alexandra Dunn. He figures she majored in medieval history before going off the deep end…until days later when he is miraculously transported through time, to 1499 England. Dressed in Dockers and a button down shirt, Joe thought he was ready for anything...anything but this! An armored man with a very authentic looking broadsword is about to strike him down. With only nail clippers and a Bic to defend himself, Joe has no time to think about such an implausible phenomenon as traveling through time…not if he wants to live to see another day.

After the Diana Gabaldon “Outlander Series”, I kind of got hooked on some of the time travel genre, but it’s gotta be a GOOD ONE…..I’ll be willing to give this one a try! I’m still waiting for the next Outlander release to come around some time next year I think…..but we will try this one!

As always, check the price before clicking as prices can change without notice.

Enjoy!

From Seward to Fairbanks!

We left Nikki’s on Tuesday morning before breakfast. There was a flurry of activity at her house. She works as a rural mail carrier --- and was heading out early herself. That was fine with us-- We wanted to drive the 35 miles south to Seward for a look-see and breakfast!

Breakfast has to be my favorite meal to eat out! I think I could eat breakfast ANY time of the day….and finding little mom & pop places that are not chain stores, just local hang-outs are great!

Reindeer sausage or caribou patty, anyone? No? Come on, you only live once!

A small promise of blue sky buoyed our spirits! This was the day we were planning our Long Driving Day #1 ---making our way from Seward after breakfast, up through the Denali National Park on our way to Fairbanks! We had hopes of seeing Mt McKinley….and were hoping that bit of blue sky would just open up to reveal what we wanted to see!

Instead, it rained the whole way, and the clouds sat right on top of the mountains at the snow line. BUMMER!! But it was STILL lovely. We stopped to take pictures and stretch our legs…

I was amazed at the number of cross country bicyclists there were….and a lot of them women, riding solo! Bikes with 50 lbs of gear --- out in the middle of nowhere, rain, cold, wind…((and yes, some of these people in shorts, I am such a wimp!))

It was a beautiful drive and it took us all the way til dinner time to make it to Faribanks.

And then the adventure REALLY began! (((Yes, this is the Alaska traveling uniform…jeans, tennies, interchangeable shirt, and denim over-shirt, and sometimes the alternate blue hoodie!))

We got into fairbanks thinking it would be fairly easy to find a hotel --- NOT!!

Every place we tried was sold out! NO ROOMS AVAILABLE! We had no clue that the fair was going on this week…but one of the ladies at a B&B suggested we try the visitor’s center, and we did….and they pointed us toward a Gold Camp “Hotel” about 30 miles out of town that still had 2 rooms available. We were up for an adventure, and I was really excited to have this opportunity--I mean, the inside of one Day’s Inn looks like the inside of any OTHER Days Inn, And THIS was different!

Brochure on my lap on the way up to the Chatanika Gold Camp! ((At this point we had driven close to 500 miles that day, and I was just ready for a BED!))

We drove and we drove and we drove…about 30 miles North East of Fairbanks, and it seemed impossible that anything was out there, but there it was! And the history of this place is fascinating!

SOMEONE has taken really good care at planting the flowers…look at that gorgeous color! They were using all kinds of gold digging equipement as planters, and it was fun to walk around and see what was put to good use!

We drove up the road, under the gate, and followed it around to where the hotel signs pointed..not sure what we would find!

The brochure didn’t lie! LOL!!! See that first window above the hotel sign? That was our room! There were 10 rooms on the top floor, and a couple of cabins on the property to rent also.

The restaurant is on the ground floor, along with lots of mining memorabilia. The staff was welcoming, and we settled in for dessert! ((We’d grabbed pizza in Fairbanks before driving up…we were too starving to wait by this point!)) Strawberry Rhubarb pie ala mode for me, and a chocolate sundae for DH and we were ready to settle in for the evening.

Gorgeous flowers amid the remnants of old mining equipment….

This is the upstairs! All the comforts of home --- including 2 treadle machines, two old over stuffed antique chairs, a microwave and a coffee pot! LOL!!

Even an old ironing board set up in case you needed to iron out your wrinklies-- See the light from that window? This is after 9pm!

I neglected to take a picture of our room…we were just too tired. But it was comfy, just a queen bed, an antique dresser. Curtains at the window like this one ---we had to hang towels over the curtain rod to make the room dark enough to sleep ;c)

As it was “Back in the day” the bathrooms were shared…and directly across the hall from us! So, I was grateful to have packed ear plugs to keep the sound of sleepy guests and midnight trips to the bathroom at bay.

In the morning, I found out how REALLY rustic it was…I went to take a shower, and there was NO HOT WATER!! Serious. I tried the knob both ways, and it just got colder. Pass on the shower, get one at our next destination, Delta Junction!

This place was so rustic that there is no one at the desk in the morning. You just leave your key in the door lock, and out you go in the morning ---

In the morning before heading back to Fairbanks for breakfast, we stopped to take a peek at the old one room school house. At one time Chatanika was bigger than Fairbanks, there were thousands of people that populated the area during the gold rush. It’s just a ghost of what it once was.

Well rested, but un-showered!! I love the path less traveled ---and I’m GLAD that Fairbanks was out of hotel rooms, or we never would have explored out this way!

Hiking in Moose Pass!

It stays light in Alaska quite late into the night! Not quite 24/7 anymore, but at 10pm at night it was still very light out! We pushed dinner a way back, to make good use of the daylight, and Nikki and her boys took us on a hike outside of Moose Pass.

The rain had stopped, it was cool, but we felt comfy in sweatshirts, jeans and running shoes.

The scenery was spectacular, and Nikki kept saying “I wish it was a better day for this, you can’t see through the clouds” or “We should have taken this OTHER trail, it’s much more scenic” and I was so blown away by what was in front of us I didn’t care!

This was the Alaska I wanted to see. The get off the highway, get away from civilization, blaze a trail kind of Alaska adventure.

I mentioned earlier about the color of the water….it’s a milky silver, due to the glacial silt. The water is almost the same color as the clouds! I’d love to see it on a sunny day, but we haven’t had any luck with the weather so far.

The wild flowers are EVERYWHERE! This is fireweed, and it grows plentiful and beautiful!

We were watching a float plane taxi and take off on top of the lake, and I had to take a picture of these lovely flowers….I just love the color!

This pretty purple flower is Monk’s Hood, and we were told that although it is pretty, it is extremely poisonous…good for pictures, not for picking!

Watermelon berries ARE edible! They don’t taste like watermelon, but they do hold a lot of water, so look for these if you are a survivalist ;c)

I’m trying to remember the exact ages of Nikki’s boys, but my closest guess is 9 & 11! And just as boys do, they took off way ahead of us, while us old folks lagged behind!

The trails were steep and muddy….we had to choose our footing carefully, and I still ended up sliding into a mud puddle. So much for clean running shoes! But I guess if you don’t get dirty, you aren’t really living it, right?

This sign cracked me up:

Glad to know that we wouldn’t be stepping into traps on our way up the trail! How far would YOU consider a "fair distance"?? I want them as far away from me as possible!

Boys will be boys and mud puddles still hold lots of interest for curious young minds!

Up and up and up we hiked! The trails were pretty steep in parts, but the pay off was worth it!

OH isn’t THIS attractive? hip bag under the hoodie, and hoodie pocket full of bags…we were looking for berries! We didn’t find any, the bushes were already picked over, but I’m still glad we went!

Back down to the bottom of the trail, this was the view of the lake!

And yes, we crossed the bridge! We had to to get to the trail head and back…and if there is a trail head across the bridge, and it is the only way to get TO the trail head, I guess the signs aren’t working…lol! I RAN across the bridge, I didn’t want to risk trains coming…but here is DH taking his own sweet time…

SPEECHLESS!!

We stopped here below the fish hatchery to see if we could see salmon in the water. And we did! We also watched these guys in the little inflatable boat fishing…..it was SO scenic and SO isolated out there!

After our hiking adventure, we all bundled off back to Nikki’s and she cooked us a terrific dinner of halibut that she had caught herself. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Alaska, Day 1!

We arrived in Alaska Sunday night around 11:30pm local time….which to our tired body clocks was 3:30am Monday morning! Luckily the hotel we were staying at had a 24/7 shuttle service, and didn’t even bat an eye at our 2 big duffels full of quilts, one small suitcase full of books, my suitcase, my laptop bag, and DH’s suitcase, and HIS laptop bag.

Tired doesn’t BEGIN to describe how we felt. It’s just not easy to get to Anchorage from Greensboro NC! Continental airlines took us from Greensboro to HOUSTON to Seattle to Anchorage. But we caught all connections, and had a fun time.

So what did we do in Anchorage? WE SLEPT! And we didn’t sleep too late, there were things to attend to! First off ---BREAKFAST. We were starving. And we had to pick up a rental car…so that came first.

Get the car, find the food! So far, so good!

If you ever make it to Anchorage, GO HERE! It was fabulous! Eggs, bacon, and sourdough pancakes gave us the energy to start the morning! And I was wondering just WHAT else they put in DH’s french toast because he said “Do you want to hit some quilt shops?!?”

I quickly said yes, and put a message out to facebook for recommendations on where to go. He cracked up over the fact that within 8 minutes, there were something like 30 responses..LOL! He just does NOT understand quilters!

We picked two shops…((I’m not pushing this gift horse farther than he is willing to go!)) and started off here:

I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but they had some really neat batiks with Alaskan motifs on it….and they found their way into my suitcase! I’m not sure what I’ll do with them yet, but I can’t come here and NOT get something commemorative! I also found some fun black on white prints for my “collection” ---

There was another shop we hit…oh, I’m drawing a blank! It was inside a shopping mall and was the local bernina dealership. Some fun fabrics were found there also…they had SCRAP BAGS! Why did I need scrap bags when I had so much at home? Well, I didn’t have THESE scrap bags. Easy answer, right?

From here we headed south toward Seward and Moose Pass! DH’s cousin NIkki and her family have been residents outside of Moose Pass for a long time, and we hadn’t seen them in over 25 years!

Along the way….we stopped at every turn out and scenic viewing place that we could find. The weather has not been very cooperative, but you know what? Even rainy raw weather presents such a beauty to the nature here, that I don’t mind!

We stopped here along the road at a view point….DH saw some “Other guys” with binoculars looking up the mountain side, and he wanted to see what that was all about so he got out his binoculars and we spotted goats wandering way up the side of this mountain! Further down the road, we did see a mama moose and her baby calf grazing in a marshy area, but we were driving too fast and there was no where to pull over and get pictures….

And the scenery continued!

This is the view from the car window on the way to Moose Pass!

I loved this sign! And we didn’t see any moose here, but it was a good place to stop for a break! We watched some float planes take off and land on the water..that was fun! And being the adventurous sort that I am, I had to give THIS a try:

I was wondering if it was Donner or Blitzen that I had on my bun, but it was VERY good! LOL!

I asked why the water is a funny milky silver color…and was told that it is from the glacier run off. It makes the reflections of the mountains in the water look so neat, because the water is opaque!

We wound our way back to where the turn off for NIkki & Curtis’s house is --- we had to wait until Nikki was off work to pop in on them, and the reunion was sweet! I can’t believe the view from their house! Can you imagine waking up to this out of your front door every morning?

This is the view from the side of the house across the front yard! GORGEOUS!!

And if that isn’t enough for you, this is the view of the FRONT of the house looking at the BACK YARD! WOW!!!

We really enjoyed our visit with Dave’s cousin and her family. Next post I’ll include more pictures of the hike we took--- where I’m staying now in Delta Junction doesn’t have the fastest internet and I don’t want to overload this post picture wise!

We are loving our Alaskan Adventure!