Monday, June 28, 1999

Today seemed a bit cooler, was cloudier and more windy than it's been.  The storm last evening left the weather slightly different to start with today.  Beth returned to the world of work.  Ted and Rus had a project to work on and headed out for supplies.  Stacey slept in and I just chilled.  The fellas brought home a 12 foot ladder to replace the track lighting so we tried to stay out of the way while they worked.  Ted had borrowed a bike for Stacey while they were out so Stacey and Jane went exploring.  The bike trails around the city are very nice and we could jump right on at the bottom of the hill here.  It was pretty cool and windy and Stacey is not used to hills.  We took one of the two way radios with us so she had great fun practicing her "C-B" talk.

Ted and Beth have quite a collection of many things.  I have just been fascinated with Ted's wood working skills.  Rus has snapped a few of his many works of art.  You have to pay attention to catch some of them - they are tucked in on shelves and cabinets.

 

Animals and antlers from the wild abound as well.  This Dall Sheep is beautiful.  The same room sports a beautiful mountain goat and a couple of sets of mountain goat ram horns.  Each ring in the horn signifies a year of it's life. The fur on each is creamy white.  There are a huge set of Moose Antlers in the family room downstairs.  I just about can't imagine how an animal could haul them around on their head!

After the fellas finished up their job we ate lunch and then headed out to return the ladder and drive out of town.  We went out past the pipeline to the trail head of the White Mountain trail.  By early afternoon the skies had cleared and it was beautiful.  There is always a wonderful breeze.  We stepped out of the car and were just overcome by the feeling of freshness!  Made one want to burst out with the theme song of The Sound of Music!!!  We donned our parkas to cut the wind a little.  It was a beautiful hike out.  We didn't actually hike very high or it didn't feel like it.  The hills were rolling. The vegetation was all pretty low and needs to be wind resistant.  I was just fascinated by the blooming things we'd find along the trail... most in miniature.   We went through areas where you felt like you were walking on six inches of sponge.  It was sphagnum moss.  All kinds and colors of lichens live on the rock etc.  Some was totally black and Ted says is very slippery when wet.  There were all shades of while and yellow and then just a variety. The picture above is of miniature dogwood.  Some of the plants just grow right in the cracks of the rock.  You wonder how they survive. 

 

 What a perfect hike!!  Rus took a panoramic shot.  What amazes me most is that you see so little sign of man.  There just aren't roads up here. One main road heads north and south.  There aren't a lot of major communities and the population is so small that the cost of roads is prohibitive.  You see the pipeline as it cuts it's way across and that's just about it.   In the lower 48 states where there are views like this you'd have thousands of people lined up!!  The bulk of the tourists don't come as far as Fairbanks and when they do they aren't here for long.   The tour bus turns back and off they go again.

We got home just a bit after Beth did.  Our plan for tonight was to eat dinner at a stop out of town that serves all you can eat Alaskan Snow Crab..... Rus and Ted worked pretty well at it.  The three gals just got the regular buffet.   It was pretty late when we got back .... but daylight of course.  We started in on a new puzzle "project" but didn't work very long.  We watched the day's video and called it a night.  I actually checked at midnight and saw the sun reflecting off things on the horizon.  I never have checked to see what time the sun comes up.  We are sleeping on the other side of the house so we don't catch it in the morning first thing.