Alaska 2019-13

After spotting this lake a couple of days earlier, we returned to explore with our inflatable kayak.  Jason and I rowed out through the many icebergs into the main body of the lake, heading for the source of the ice.  We quickly learned that the real Valdez glacier was much larger and to the left of what we thought was the glacier.  This is Jason as we head out into the lake.  The main body of the glacier is left, around the point directly ahead.

Jason picked up a chuck of floating ice from the many that were around us.

Here is one of the many icebergs that we would explore.

This is the Valdez Glacier.  The striations are caused by several merging glaciers upstream. White is ice, and the darker striations are caused by side glaciers that pick up rocks and debris on the way down the valley before merging with the main iceflow.

Here you can see a iceberg that is topped with rocks and debris.  Initially, it appears to be an island or land, but once you get near it you realize it is floating.

We skimmed by this ‘berg on our way to the river flowing into the lake from a much smaller icefield.

We got out of the kayak and took a stroll on the riverbed testing the icy cold water.

Back in the kayak, Jason at the helm, he steered us directly into the mouth of the rapidly flowing river for an exciting, but short ride.

Jason, now in charge takes us to the three icebergs ahead.

As we approached, I took control of the actual steering and we decided to get very close to this blue one.  It was crystal clear, you could see many rocks and pebbles embedded deep inside along with many air pockets.

Jason had to touch the blue ice.  You can see one of the many embedded rocks to Jason’s right.

Next, we approached some of the larger, taller icebergs and saw some unique formations such as this “V” shaped piece.  It could be unstable so we steered a little away from it.

We got into some loose ice and Jason was about done.  He is telling me he wanted to go ‘that away’, not the way I was going.  It may have been a little scary being surrounded by ice. The surface ice was also below the waterline and we were gliding and bumping over the pieces a little before we found a narrow passageway out.

Leaving Valdez, we took the Richardson Highway through Glenallen and decided to take a drive on the Denali Highway from Paxton.  About twenty miles in, when the pavement ended we arrived at Tangle Lakes.  Jason and I took a short walk on the tundra, which was very, very soft.  We sank at least six inches down on every step.  Kinda like ultra shag of the 70s.

We were approaching the fires that were burning near the Fairbanks area and the sky continued to darken with the smoke.

We stopped to let Jason see the Alaska Pipeline up close. Here he is standing on one of the very long “slider” foundations.  At these points the pipeline is free floating on top of the slider (not attached) to allow for extreme movement in the event of an earthquake. They have never had damage due to earth movement.

The actual pipeline is about 48 inches in diameter, constructed of half inch steel, surrounded by heavy insulation, then these galvanized covers are added to hold everything in place.  Here Jason is leaning on one of the joiners.

The tubes that hold the pipeline up are filled with a gas that, when heated, rises into the aluminum cooling fins shown here. The fins allow the gas to cool and it then returns down below grade level to begin its cycle again.  This keeps the heat caused by the oil from affecting the permafrost below.  The pipes are running at about 25% of capacity due to current demand, or about 500K barrels per day.

In addition to the very long sliding foundations, the pipeline weaves to allow it to elongate if necessary during serious earth movement.  The more we follow this line, as we did from Valdez to the North Slope, the more we become amazed by the engineering.

We passed through Delta Junction about dinner time and had dinner at the Buffalo Center Drive-In, which is the place to go for a great hamburger (or buffalo bison burger). Delta Junction is the official end of the Alaska Highway.  We continued north, into the smokey sunset, camping for the night at Birch Lake.  Jason befriended a very large mosquito before leaving Delta Junction.  Most of his smaller friends we riding on our windshield.