Saturday, July 29

The weather was gray with low clouds when I woke up but I had a relatively short drive, Tok to Fairbanks is only 210 miles, so I took my time over breakfast hoping the sun might break through. The route was not designated as scenic but The Milepost guide indicated there were some good views near Tok which I will have to accept since I could not see them. The weather improved as I got closer to Fairbanks but the only feature of interest here was the Alaska Pipeline. There is a pipeline visitors turnout near Fairbanks where you can get close to it and see a few displays. As I left there and drove into Fairbanks the rain began to fall so I headed for my hotel.

The map and video of the drive is here.

Many of the rivers I crossed were all but dried up and, in this view of the Tanana River, you can see that the water level is low.

The Alaska Pipeline has its own suspension bridge across the Tanana river.
The pipeline is more complex than I imagined. I knew it zig-zagged along its route to allow for expansion but I did not know that the oil that passes through it is at 100 F. Special refrigerating insulators, using ammonia gas, are used to keep the supports cold so that the permafrost does not melt and undermine the structure.

Sunday, July 30

Fairbanks is the furthest my car has traveled from home, 3250 miles as the crow flies, but 4,820 miles according to the car. However,  there is surprisingly little that interested me here so this was mainly intended as a prep day for my remaining time in Alaska. Since I will be flying to Juneau in a couple of days I had to pull everything out of the car and re-arrange things for travel without a vehicle in unpredictable, but likely cool and wet, weather. I had looked for an interesting walk in town but was not wowed by any ideas I saw so I slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, did laundry, repacked, and some shopping before visiting the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska.

The research here investigates methods to sustainably raise and farm large Alaskan animals and reduce the price of their products. They focus on two species, musk oxen and reindeer. Musk ox hair produces the warmest, softest fiber for making things like scarves but, to do it sustainably, is currently very costly. There is a guided  walking tour of the facility and  this gave me an opportunity to see and learn about something a little different and take my walk.

The musk ox is used to temperatures as low as -40 F and today’s 75 F meant that only one moved from its shady location to get food.
The reindeer were a little more comfortable in the sun (eventually seven of them dropped by).