Fairbanks AK-Pipeline, Yukon Quest, Russian/US history

2019 September 9

by Greg & Lyn

There’s a lot of history in Alaska, besides all the gold rush stuff. There’s the new gold (oil and the pipeline), Russia and the modes of transportation (dog-sledding).

The pipeline is an engineering marvel. It turns out that one of the key aspects of building the pipeline was to ensure that the oil flowing through the pipe didn’t heat up the ground too much and melt the permanent-frost. We saw lots of examples of building that sank into the ground when the permafrost melted so it was a real concern. Much of the pipeline is above ground, some underground. But the decision was usually based on the state of permafrost.

Pigs are devices used to clean the pipe. The original pigs were metal and were designed to be used before the pipe was fully up to temperature. The newer ones are a type of very stiff plastic that scours the insides of the pipe to clean off the wax buildup.

We were camped at a place called Cleary Summit for the opening weekend of caribou season. Seems like every other vehicle going by was a truck with either antlers or hooves sticking out. Note that it was motorized season – all the trucks had 4 wheelers along. Much better than field dressing and hiking out of the woods with the caribou.

Another of the red berries. More bear food! Bears love them. More about that later.

During WWII, the US transported squadrons of planes across to Russia to help support the second front in the European theater. What’s less well known is that many, if not most of those planes were ferried to Russia via Alaska and flow by women pilots.

The 1967 flood that devastated much of Fairbanks. Note the high water mark above our heads.

The other major dog sled race in Alaska is the Yukon Quest. It’s a very different format than the Iditarod. We got to meet a junior musher and a couple of her dogs. She has competed in a couple of junior events already and is gearing up for the Willow 100 race this year.

We also spent some time talking with the mom of one of the Yukon Quest mushers. Interesting to get mom’s perspective on such a daunting challenge. We’ll be following and cheering for Deke in this years race!