Fairbanks to Chatanika and the end of the road...

Well, It's been a few days because, I've been deep in the interior of Alaska with no Internet access (and hardly any human contact)!

I left Fairbanks to drive north as far as I could go but, not before a black bear lumbered across the highway in front of me unfortunately, too fast for me to catch a picture of him.

Along the way I passed the Alaska Pipeline and a couple of moose (meese)? that tried running onto the highway but, when confronted with the fast moving traffic, decided otherwise.


I finally made it to the end of the paved roads north and since I had a rental car, this was as far as I was going. It's not advisable to drive on the dirt tracks for fear of snow in these mountain and no way to get help.

I was in the Chatanika valley and the home of, the F.E. Gold Camp. An old gold miners camp turned into an inn with a bar and restaurant recently taken over by a guy named Mike and his girlfriend Tammy along with their new puppy, a chocolate lab named Nugget.
They are trying to make a go of it way up here where there aren't many visitors in the winter months but, quite a few tourists that come through for the summer fishing. In the winter they get a few locals and hunters coming in for a beer or some of the best food this close to Fairbanks. Mike has hired a great chef by the name of Dennis who has come to help out along with his two children.

I walked into the place and there was no one there except the owners. They set me up in a room and then I spent the rest of the night in the bar talking and getting to know them. They turned out to be great people and we became good friends.

The food was out of this world and very gourmet!

The place consists of a main building where you have the original mess hall and kitchen downstairs with about 6 rooms for rent upstairs with a shared bathroom. Across from this is another building which was the bunk house for the miners and several other buildings all for different functions during the mining, most of which are no longer in use but, have possibilities of being re-used as cabins for guests someday.

We spent a lot of time together and I was accepted by them as a "non-tourist" since they, as most Alaskans, are sick of what they call "Princess" tourists in the summertime. I later learned that this referred to the Princess cruises which bring in boat loads of tourists to some of the towns which, is on the one hand a good thing for the economy but, a bad thing for the locals that appreciate their privacy.

As some of you know, my main objective for this trip to Alaska was to head as far north as possible to photograph the northern lights or as locals refer to them the Aurora. Well, each night we waited for the clouds to clear, with no success!

I was disappointed to find out that the Saturday night before I arrived had been a great display of the lights, that my new friends were able to enjoy from their wonderful spot away from any city light pollution. They all shared their stories of what they saw with me as I listened with jealous excitement.

I did my best to make my stay enjoyable despite my not seeing the lights and they did their best to make me happy knowing what I came there for.

So, they treated me to some special evenings like, cooking me up some freshly shot moose meat! What a treat!
And, brought in a friend of theirs from Fairbanks, Earl Hughes , a bluegrass musician who played guitar, fiddle and banjo. He gave us a little concert even though, there were only 4 of us there.
To my delight, he played a song named "The Northern Lights Waltz".

My new friendships made the trip all worth it and maybe even better than seeing the lights after all.

It was a sad goodbye but, they made me promise to come back so, I plan another visit this winter in hopes of seeing the Aurora which, I'm told is more likely in the colder and clearer winter months.

I left Chatanika for the long drive back to Anchorage to catch my flight home. It turned out to be the clearest and most beautiful day since I arrived, a possibly good night to see the northern lights but, I was going to miss them again.
I took advantage of the clear weather and drove back by Denali for one last view of Mt. McKinley and, what a view it was!

I also took this chance to stop by Stampede road where "Into The Wild" took place and Chris McCandless spent his last days alive.

Thank you for reading my blog and until the next trip...Goodbye!

Louie