We decided to visit the town site of Central on the Steese Highway. I stopped to pick some blueberries that were plump and begging to be picked! Little did we realize how long this day trip was going to be, with all the stopping I would be doing. Central is about 150 miles from our base in Fairbanks, with more than half on dirt roads. They were repairing the roads once we got on the gravel and dirt portions and used plenty of water to keep the dust down. But the mud level was high and it was slow going. I was glad we put off washing it until after our Prudhoe journey next week. When we left Fairbanks there was not a cloud in the sky. As we traveled north, the clouds started to build and we even had some spotty downpours on the return.
At Twelvemile Summit, we drove the short distance to the Pinnell Mountain Recreation Trail. The Circle-Fairbanks Historic Trail begins about .3 mile off the road and the parking lot was full of hunters. Alaska Fish and Game officers were highly visible in this area.
Alaska Fish and Game Officers stopped on the road and pointed out the Caribou on a distant ridge-line. We watched a ATV approach these and they ran down the other side. We expected the drivers to get in trouble but they were actually on an ATV trail.
We stopped at about 110 miles in at the Eagle Summit Wayside. Alaska Fish and Game officers were patrolling this area as well.
On our return from Central, we did not attempt to continue to Circle as we were both getting tired. We spotted the Fourtymile Herd of Caribou and they spotted us. They ran as we approached but we managed to get some photos of them passing by. I did not bring my telephoto lens so these were taken with my landscape lens, as we were pretty close to them. They kept coming up over the ridge-line just behind them.
There were dozens. No, many dozens, no, hundreds of Caribou running before us. We did not expect to see them in these numbers!
Cathy took this photo using my small camera with a wide-angle lens, out of the truck window. Not bad, but this is just a small portion of the herd.
We took a drive on Sunday morning out to the Large Animal Research Center of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. This facility houses about 50 musk oxen and 50 reindeer. I asked what they were researching and found out that they were studying the reproduction habits of these two species and any change that gradual warming has has on them. While I did not take any photos due to the triple fencing of the musk oxen (cables, hog wire and chain-link to keep the animals in, and roping to keep the humans out). Although I have no photos, we did manage to see two of the musk oxen square and head-but. The impact reverberated across the fields to us! We also witnessed them actually running, and boy are they fast!
We took a ride alongside the Chena river, trying to find the location of the native village the paddle wheeler we rode stops at, with no luck. We drove up every road that was not locked to no avail. We managed to find the historic pump house, which has been converted to a restaurant, and made reservations for this evening. These photos are of the Chena River looking upstream (homes on the right) and downstream. There were a bunch of flat-bottom jet powered salmon fishing boats returning from upstream at midday.
Travelling with the Schinglers 