Fairbanks for the Solstice, musk ox, pipeline

Fairbanks celebrates the solstice

We don't usually set too many goals for our destinations when we're traveling, unless we have a reservation or appointment. We did set one for Fairbanks, though. We wanted to be here for the summer solstice, just to observe the longest day of the year at the farthest northern point on our route. Besides, if we didn't set a goal to be in Alaska at some point, we might have spent the whole summer in Canada, as there were lots of things to see and do there, too.

We made our goal, arriving in Fairbanks on June 18th. We booked ourselves into Riverview RV Park, in North Pole, Alaska, about 10 miles SW from downtown Fairbanks. It's a nice park, right on the Chena River, just across the river from where a pair of bald eagles appear to be nesting. We spent the first 2 days in a concentrated effort to get the remaining Taylor Highway dust out of our home. That meant vacuuming the ceilings, walls, floors, miniblinds, and furniture. We also replenished our groceries and looked around town a bit. We went to the post office and picked up our mail, which we hadn't seen since Rochester in mid-May. There was quite a pile, and it took a couple hours to handle the bills, checks, and read the magazines.

Skateboard jumping in the streets

Fairbanks had a celebration planned for the Summer Solstice on Sunday. They shut off about a 10 block area downtown for a variety of activities, open from 12:00 noon until the midnight sun at 12:00 misnight. The older young people set up a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, 2 games going at a time and lots of practice space. The food vendors offered a wide variety, from barbeque to Thai to brats to burgers to elephant ears. We decided to have Latino, which was rice and vegetables, grilled pork or ribs, and red beans with bacon. We wandered the craft booths, saw some beautiful things, but held onto our money. And we watched the kids having fun on the climbing wall, the air houses, and the skateboard area. 3 stages offered rock music, dance recitals, and a swing band that sounded pretty good. It was fun!

Full grown musk ox

On Monday we decided to go the the Large Animal Research Center of the University of Alaska. This scientific mission studies the lifestyles, biology and physiology of musk ox and caribou. We took the tour of the facility, had an excellent presentation and learned a lot about these magnificent animals.

Musk ox are a prehistoric species. They were hunted to extinction in Alaska during the gold rush, as the demand for fresh meat spiked as people arrived from their long sea voyages to search for gold. A small herd of about 40 animals was shipped to Alaska from Greenland to reintroduce the species in the 1930s, and the herd is maintaining itself today. But because they are all descendants of such a small gene pool, they have no strength of genetic diversity, and couold easily succumb to disease. They weight 400-500 pounds, live for 10-20 years, live in harems, and produce some of the lightest and warmest wool in the world. Consuelo wanted to buy a few skeins, until she found out that they were $70/skein.

Caribou daddy

Caribou are far more plentiful in Alaska and elsewhere. Whereas musk ox defend themselves by circling and using their horns, caribou run away when endangered. Their longer legs and energy efficient ankles give them the ability to run a long ways, and because the hair in their fur is hollow, they can easily swim away from some predators. In addition, the newborn calves can run with the herd as soon as they are about 1 hour old. The young calves we saw in the pens were about 2 weeks old, running around the pen, chomping on grass, and bothering their moms for a little milk.

Caribou mom & kid

After visiting the musk ox, we shopped in the gift shop, and I had an extended conversation about with our tour guide about what the content of their research was. They have 2 active grants, one to research the physiology of their digestive systems, since they are able to survive on some of the worst forage in the world. They are looking to see if that capability might be transplanted to domesticated animals. The other study was examining the domestication characteristics of these animals to see if they might serve as a future source of meat and wool.

Alaska Pipeline

After leaving the Center, we traveled up highway 2 a few miles to visit the display about the Alaska Pipeline. This 800 mile conduit was an engineering achievement when it was completed in 1977. Since then, it has delivered 20% of the crude consumed by the US. The builders had to overcome numerous technical and environmental obstacles when building the line. The 4' diameter pipe is half above ground and half under ground. Radiators are installed on the mounting structures so that heat from the relatively warm crude oil doe not melt the permafrost below. The pipeline crosses over rivers and under roadways. There are a dozen pumpstations along the way to keep the crude moving. And high tech gadgets called "pigs" are inserted into the stream flow to clean the interior of the line and to measure the health of the pipeline using ultrasound detectors. Hundreds of crossovers were built to allow animal traffic to cross the line throughout its length. I was impressed, Consuelo less so. She just expects us engineers to create such miracles, I guess.

Pipeline "pig"

In order to be completely tired out before we got home, we stopped at Sam's club and picked up some of the few bulk items that we can fit into motorhome, like sausage, chicken, 5 bean salad, etc. We then went home and collapsed. There's still lots more to see in Fairbanks, and we'll get back to it soon.