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> Exploring Fairbanks, Sightseeing in Fairbanks
Tom_Crumrine
post Jun 13 2005, 08:30 PM
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13 June 2005

Things in Fairbanks this weekend have been great. I have gotten to see lots of local things, gold mines, caribou and musk ox, and the lovely mosquito. I admire the mosquitoes for their persistence and their love of the swampy areas here.

I couldn’t post pictures the other day so I wanted to share this one of the plane I came in on. Nothing special but I like the picture—makes it seem like I’m really going somewhere remote.

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When I arrived I went for a little walk near the hotel. It was burning hot but I walked into this giant bird migration field and looked at it from the shade. Something about the barn and the big green field made me think of home.

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On Sunday my computer wasn’t working but my camera was so I decided to try to go for a hike. I looked on the map I had purchased and noticed that there are “white mountains” in Alaska. I guess going to a place called the white mountains is like going to McDonald’s when you are in a strange place. I knew they wouldn’t be the same as the white mountains in New Hampshire but I liked the name.

On the way up I was flying along the bumpy Elliottt highway at possibly unsafe speeds and noticed a pipeline out of the corner of my eye. I had to check this out.

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There was a little area for tourists to learn about the pipeline. I was amazed to find that the oil in the pipeline actually starts out really hot 150 F or so and only cools to about 100 by the time it gets to Valdeez. It makes sense but I hadn’t thought of that before.

On further up the road I passed a sign saying next gas—118 miles. I was confident in my rental Kia Spectra, but all the same it made me make sure I had enough gas. As it turned out I only had to go a few more miles until the trailhead of the little hike I had found. I walked in the misty rain for about an hour and a half and then headed back. The bugs were bad only when I stopped and let them feast on me. I tried to take a picture of five on my hand at once but couldn’t get the focus right. It is hard to try to remain calm when you have bugs swarming all about. At least there aren’t ticks.

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The other thing I did yesterday was to go see some of the areas mentioned in the book Into the Wild. They read this in our 10th grade English classes so I wanted to try to get some pictures for them to use next year. It was the short black spruce trees that really made the thought of staying for a long time in these woods seem like not such a good idea. They are short and scraggly and when viewed a hundred at a time just effuse distress. I love what I’ve seen of Alaska thus far but I don’t know how much fun I would have camping this time of year.

Hope all is well wherever you are.

PS—Yesterday I forgot to thank a really important person—Gary (he’s mowing my lawn while I’m away).
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