Going to the Dogs: Another Day in Alaska

Friday finds us waking to the early streaks of light in the northern sky at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks. Other guests with earlier schedules are stirring around while two large tour buses idle down in the parking lot. Another day is dawning for Alaska Tourism.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed a leisurely wake up and spent awhile at the park dog training area. Denali is the only national park that patrols in the winter with dogsleds and it has been doing so since it opened except for a hiatus during and shortly after WW 2 when more modern methods were briefly tried. The ranger explained that they went back to the dogs because the did not break down and they would start in extremely cold temperatures. The Denali Dogs were even drafted during WW2.

We enjoyed walking around visiting with the dogs, stopping at one of the pens to peak in at the new litter which are almost two weeks old. They are still spending their time curled up with mama.

The dogs all stayed quiet until the sled was brought out. Then they raised their voices as though calling, “Pick me, pick me!” These are animals who really love their work. After an interesting talk, five of the dogs gave us a taste of what they do be pulling the sled and ranger around a short track.

The park dogs are larger than those we see on the Iditarod because they have to deal with deeper snow on rescue missions.

We finished our tour of the facilities and headed back on a shuttle bus to the visitor’s center for lunch and the displays. We enjoyed seeing some of the works from the artists in residence. On Wednesday while out on the park road we had seen the artists cabin in the distance. One of the pieces was a large quilted picture that was really outstanding especially when we sat across the room and looked at it.

The movie was really beautiful with scenes from all four seasons in the park. The sound of the wind and nothing else as it opened to a blizzard scene made me even colder than I already was. So, knowing that today would put us on the river, Klep and I took a time out to go find some polar fleece before we met our tour group to leave Denali. Fortunately the end of the season is coming and we got our first bargain buy of the trip.

We welcomed the comfort of the Alaska Railway car as we loaded and left Denali. By this time of the trip, the group is meshing and friendships are forming. After the spectacular peaks of Denali were behind us, we had our obligatory college football conversation. We had dinner on the train, listened to our train guide’s banter, and traveled down in elevation to just over four hundred feet above sea level passing through gold mining territory and strip mining. Around eight, we pulled into the Fairbanks station and boarded our shuttle to the hotel where we were quickly in our room, finding our luggage had beat us there.

Today we have a full day including time on the river and gold mining. We will be richer by bedtime, if not in gold, in memories!