Date: 26 June 2001 (Tuesday)

Start:

End: River’s Edge RV Park, Fairbanks AK (0 miles)

The temperature was 50f with haze and smoke when we got up. It had rained lightly during the early morning. Late in the afternoon it reached 72f under partly cloudy skies and the wind changed to take the smoke away, making it a nice afternoon.

We loafed during the morning except for a long hike to the Fred Meyer store (a Wal-Mart sort of store) for needed items.

Then we took the shuttle from the RV park to the Riverboat Discovery attraction. They run two "paddlewheel steamboats" on the Chena and Tanana rivers.

Actually, the large boat (Discovery III) is dual diesel powered to two hydraulic drive units that turn hydraulic motors that drive the paddles through chains. Further, it has two bow thrusters and a single stern thruster. It can carry 900 passengers. It’s not a simple machine. We rode this one.

The other (Discovery II) was pulled out of retirement to serve the need for more capacity. It’s much smaller, single diesel, direct drive to chain drive, capacity 400.

We got underway from the pier on the Chena and turned downstream. The thrusters made short work of turning around. We were given an exhibition of short-field takeoffs and landings. The flier was using a 1950 Super Cub with tundra tires. He got it off the ground after only a 200 foot roll.

We watched interesting homes, some very nice, some not so nice, glide by. Then we approached the home of Susan Butcher, an Iditarod dog team driver (won it four times) and owner. She talked (over the ship’s PA system via radio microphone) about her dogs and how she selects those who will be leaders in the future. She’s very interesting.

A little farther along, a bunch of reindeer (domesticated caribou) came out of the woods into a patch where we could view them. The announcer said we’d see them again, later.

The Chena merged into the Tanana, a river of another color. The Chena is clear, slow running, fed by springs and local runoff. The Tanana runs fast and is made up of glacier melt including the silt the glacier generated as it rubbed its way down the mountain. The silt in the Tanana as it passes by a specific point near here has been analyzed. If it could be stopped, or filtered out, you could take out 100,000 tons of solid matter every day (assuming the runoff that normally happens on a day with 80f temperatures). The silt is far too fine to be removed. Eighty percent of it reaches the Bering Sea by flowing down the Yukon, helping to create a large delta area similar to that of the Mississippi.

Today the Tanana was running at seven knots. We cruised down it to a recreation of an Athabascan fish camp – a place where the indians would harvest salmon in season, taking as many as they needed for the winter. Most of the fish would be salted and dried, some smoked, to preserve it for the coming winter. A salmon was prepared for drying as we watched.

Then we turned around and headed back. En route, we stopped at the Chena Indian Village; most of the passengers left the ship for this stop. This place is hosted by the Athabascans as an introduction to their culture and way of life. Presentations were given on the old ways of the clan, the way they have adapted to the new ways of life while retaining what they can of their culture, the way they train and use dogs, and a demonstration of how native dress was made including the intricate beading. Some of the parkas are absolutely beautiful. Each piece of the parka (wristlets, hood, body) requires a different animal fur - each fur is best at one thing.

We re-embarked and headed up the Tanana, then turned into the Chena. The remainder of the trip was fairly slow and quiet. Then nearly 900 passengers left the ship and herded themselves into 23 tour buses to get back to where they came from. Our bus was missing, but it came a long soon.

We returned to the campground, watched the news, made and ate dinner, and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Officially, we lost two minutes of daylight today, leaving us with only 21 hours and 46 minutes of it. We couldn’t really see the effects of that much daylight due to the rain last night. Maybe we will notice it tonight, but it will have to be noticed in passing – we’re not staying up for it.