8. SEARCHING FOR ALASKA

JUNE 29- Moms 78th birthday today.

The tour mom and I went on was the HISTORIC GOLD PANNING TOUR.  We were driven(by a craazy woman!! every time she would point something out, the van would head that direction.we made an S down the road.  my mom pull out some ginger, so she wouldn't  get sick) out quite aways to a cabin in the woods that was a museum for the goldrush of "59(from mich).had come up to the area for gold.  The owner of the tour-Nick-had been collecting the stuff for years.  the museum was very interesting.  He then got behind the wheel(woo!-relief) and took us out even further.  on the way we saw a few kits(baby foxes)2 red and one black.  the black one is center toward the back.  Nick said the mama was there but we couldn't see her.  The 2 red ones were playing and the black one was watching from a distance. 
     We also saw 2 sand hill cranes.

We stopped at a river and the salmon were starting to run. Above in a tree top was this eagle watching the salmon.

When nick and his wife needed to "talk"  they would go to this spot and sit on a large rock overlooking the little valley. 

we continued on our way out to a river where Nick and his helper-William showed us how and where to dig  and how to sieve it and then wash the "dirt" or black sand in the bottom of the pans. there was nothing artifical about it.  in fact Nick when they needed extra money this is what he would do-come out and pan for some gold.

We all tried our hand at it, but in the end Nick did it for us.  we were all quite tenitive and afraid of washing our gold away.  of course he had been doing this for years and years.  we all came away with $40-60 worth!

nick was pretty amazing-he could even "hear" the gold in the bottom of everyones pan.  no mystic or anything, gold sounds different than the black sand in the bottom of the pan.

It was sooo fun! i never thought it would be so much fun.  It was kinda addicting, and we wanted to keep doing it, so i can understand the gold fever of the gold rushes.

mom and her gold

boy i looked tired!  close to the end of the tripthere is Nick!! what a character!

ON THE WAY BACK we stopped at the tundra-it was amazing!!  We were ablle to walk out on the tundra because it was public lands.  it was like walking on a Giant Sponge.  we had a young man with us and he was jumping on it like it was a trampoline.  they showed us the 5 different berries they pick and freeze or make jams, jellies or sauces for the winter-blueberry was the big one and bear berry. there was also a miniture venus fly trap.

Isn't it cool??!!

The permafrost is just 2-3 ft. down and they dig a cellar down into the permafrost for their freezer.  many alaskans still live "off the grid".  so to preserve the fruits and veggies, they put in their "freezer".

the tundra itself is mossy and they use it for insulation in their walls or for chinking between the logs in a log home.  The miners and natives used it for insulation to keep warm in the winter.  there was also this cottony wool  and they used this as insulation in their coats.  you could live off the tundra and hunt and fish,  and the natives did and do,  and so do Alaskans. 

I could have spent all day out on the tundra, it was just facinating(ohh! another adjective!)

WED. 30TH  we begin our trek south to Anchorage, by coach to Talkeetna, where we did some shopping and had lunch, the train to anchorage and then fly to seattle.this was a cute little town.

We did see Mt. McKinnley one more time, from the air plane aboe the cloudsThen we flew over a glacier-isn't this amazing!!  I could not even get the whoe shot in my camera at 20,000+ft.!

BYE ALASKA  }~;