The Donjek River Bridge, Canada

Nov16

Some memories are dictated much by the weather. Storms, wind, rain, and very often, sun. Sometimes the sun falls just right, and the breeze is peaceful, and you’re in a good place. It might so happen that it’s 40 below, but some things can’t be helped.

This is my single favorite photo of Jack. It is November 2006. His face is a little stiff from the cold but the afternoon setting sun shows how much he enjoys this crazy job of taking big things to faraway places.

In this case he gets to bring bridge beams to the Donjek River in Yukon Territory, Canada.

The old bridge is behind Jack.

Jack actually helped haul the bridge beams in the summer and is now (November 2006) back in the winter to pick them up again and bring them down to the crane on the ice.

There are two cranes used to pick up the bridge beam. The yellow piece that is at the right in the photo above is hanging from the other crane which is behind the person taking the photo (Jack).

The trucks are awaiting another bridge beam to load.

This is the dolly used to haul the bridge beams.

Jack is wearing a face mask, but no gloves! No figure.

The arrow is pointing to the bridge beams already placed where they will forever stay.

Below is a Google Earth image of the Donjek River. You can see the new bridge and the old road leading up to the river but the old bridge has been dismantled and removed.

Have a great day!

Ah, Memories of Autumns Past

Nov16

We’re already missing summer around here.

But at least we have our memories. Such as from a few years ago on a sensationally sunny day in early September when Jack and I took a 4-wheeler ride in the mountains around Chena Hot Springs. That year there were striking fall colors and luckily I captured a few images to warm my heart on cold winter days. Hope you are all keeping warm.

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Jack’s driving the motor home this time…

Oct5

This year Jack took me and the motor home out for a quick weekend hunt. (It was really camping, not hunting, although Jack would have taken a shot if he came across one in an accessible area.) We really wish we had been able to get out a little more over the summer!

There is always next year…

Jack, taking a look

Sport, taking a look

A Western Star truck driving the Dalton Highway with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background. Jack knew who the driver was, of course.

Jack’s wife, Judy (me), and our dog Sport.

Any idea what these are?

Jack on a pipeline access road.

Finally the sun starts to come out!

And we get to see the pipeline in the evening sun.

The beautiful Dalton Highway road sign at 1 mile.

Jack taking a look at the big trucks, but he’s driving a motor home this time…

Here are a few more photos if you are interested.

Have a wonderful autumn everyone!

Yearling Moose

Jun6

Sorry for not posting for such a long time! I often ask Jack to take more photos on the road but he’s too busy trucking! So you’re stuck with a few photos of this lovely young moose chomping on willows.

She was really feasting up a storm on Chena Hot Springs Road yesterday.

She’s stripping the leaves off the willow branches.

And doing a thorough job of it!

I bet you didn’t know Moose could open their mouths that wide! (Just kidding, that’s just her lip I think, but it looks funny.)

Here she is being alert. She is actually quite small for a moose that is without a mother. I’m sure she’s a yearling and probably only about 4 1/2 feet at the shoulder (wild guess!). (Calling her a “she” is also a guess.)

Have a nice day everyone!

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Valdez Avalanche Photos

Jan25

A major avalanche happened very recently along the Richardson Highway, about 20 or so miles from Valdez. Below are photos Jack was able to acquire from a friend – taken by Alyeska (and we hope no copyright has been violated by posting them here).

You can see here where the snow has covered the highway and the river that runs alongside it:

Here is the same thing but farther away.

And the rest are from another angle, showing the pooling of river water that is covering a long stretch of the highway.

So needless to say the Richardson Highway is closed and people who live in Valdez can only get out of the town by water or air. Jack says the snow will be removed by loaders but that sure seems like a dangerous job…!

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Atigun Pass, after an avalanche

Dec25

Merry Christmas everyone!

The below two videos show Jack driving over Atigun Pass through an area of road the state has cleared a tunnel through after an avalanche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MYzo645ffY

(You might have to click on the 2nd video if it doesn’t come up like the first one.)

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Of Squirrels & Moose Antlers

Sep2

We’ve never heard of this before but there’s a squirrel around here who likes to scrape the tines off of moose antlers!

Several times over the summer we heard a mysterious scraping sound coming from the area where Jack’s moose antlers are stored in the woods. We knew the resident squirrel was up to something and sure enough, when we inspected the antlers a few days ago, the tips were scraped off the tines! Jack says he thinks it’s the squirrel sharpening his teeth and you can actually find a couple of references to this on the internet. (Here is a link to a video of a squirrel sharpening its teeth on some other kind of antlers, in some other part of the country. Our squirrel looks much different, smaller and more orange-red. It could be that the squirrel is getting some kind of nutrient from them too and in the video it almost looks like the squirrel is eating the bits of antler.)

Jack hopes to get a chance to replace the antlers this hunting season!

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2004, the worst smokey year in Fairbanks history!

Jul11

2004 was the worst summer for smoke in Fairbanks EVER, at least as far as we’re concerned!

The smoke hung around for over 3 weeks. It was rough. Here are before and after photos from that summer:

I shouldn’t have been out taking photos in this stuff! This is the Chena River and the 2 buildings are the Key Bank building and the Springhill Suites Hotel.

Here is another one showing Springhill Suites, which was at the time very new.

Luckily, the past few days have been pretty clear and now we’ve had a downpour or two, so things are looking up for those of us who want the fires to go away!

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Save

Smoke & Heat in Fairbanks, Alaska

Jul4

It’s been an interesting summer so far in interior Alaska. First we had snow and low temperatures until mid-May, and then we had about 3 weeks of 80 and 90 degree weather. When you live somewhere that is cold and dry for 8 or 9 months of the year any heat you can get is like charging some inner battery. So let’s just say we have adequately charged our batteries…life was great…until the smoke rolled in! Right now we have well over a hundred fires burning throughout Alaska, some small and some large, some being fought near towns and some being left alone to burn.

The University of Alaska has a sensational website showing where fires are burning in Alaska. Here is a screen shot from it taken July 1st. The website, UAFSMOKE: Wildfire Smoke Prediction for Alaska, is in it’s experimental phase but when finished should be able to tell us when smoke is going to reach a given area around Fairbanks. This is when Jack and I shut all our windows and turn on the air filters, so we’d love to know ahead of time. (Sometimes though, like the other day, its 80 degrees out and our house is baking with us trapped inside.)

One of the fires that is plaguing us is Skinny’s Road fire, the yellow dot that is close to the upper right of the word Alaska on the map. It’s about 20 miles away from us and on the other side of the Parks Highway. But any of the ones in that general area could be causing the our smoke problems right now. The crazy thing is, you can go to bed with a heavy smokey haze outside and wake up to a bright clear day because wind patterns are changing so much. So Jack and I are constantly sniffing the air to decide when to close or open the windows.

The smoke affects certain people more than others and Jack is not greatly affected. He even went out and chainsawed some logs last weekend with the mosquitoes and haze surrounding him. A day off is a day off and you have to get something done. But I have to stay inside because I feel a heaviness in my chest when the smoke gets bad, and if I breathe it in too long my sinuses and allergies act up too. People with asthma and respiratory problems like COPD are in big trouble if they don’t get into a safer environment. Just about everyone gets a headache if out in it for too long.

All in all, here at our house Jack and I have had only about 48 hours of dense dangerous smoke, so we are beyond thankful for that, considering how many are burning around us as you can see from the map. Below is a photo from June 21st, 2010, late in the evening under the midnight sun during Solstice, looking southward down from a turnout on the Parks Highway onto the Tanana Valley where a fire smolders (on the left in the photo) and sends its wispy smoke westward (to the right). Click it for a larger image.

Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July!

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Clean up time in Fairbanks

May29

Snow was falling only 3 weeks ago and now we’re getting 70 and 80 degrees every day! What a crazy spring we’ve had.

The snow is finally gone and what now occurs in Fairbanks, Alaska (as well as in many other northern areas I assume) is that the veil of white puffy stuff is lifted to show gobs and gobs of TRASH!

Yes, trash everywhere. Wet cardboard boxes, broken pieces of Styrofoam, and all forms of plastic like cups, bags, kitchen utensils, food containers of all sizes. You name it, it’s out there. Beer bottles and to-go cups. It’s really sick. But it’s also entertaining. So a few years ago I decided to document this amazing array of trash on a website called www.trashoffairbanks.com. Take a look if you are interested! Here’s a sampling: