July 3, 2015, Friday, Gold Dredge 8, Circle, Alaska & Lance Mackey Iditarod Kennel
We rolled to Gold Dredge 8 in the Fox River outside of Fairbanks. The history of this Gold Dredge is amazing and I won’t bore you with all the details but it is said to have made 170 million dollars in gold in 1926 in the old day prices! Just think if it was nowadays!
Each Gold Dredge is numbered in Alaska and this dredge was built on the east coast and railroaded to San Francisco where it was put together and then taken apart and shipped to Valdez and then railroaded from there to Fairbanks. Wow…all that in the 1920’s.
We hit the road and topped off fuel and ice and headed to finish out the day on a road trip to Circle, Alaska up the Steese Highway. 75-miles into the Steese Highway we found some great swim spots for Deizel and once he was worn out he konked out in his kingdom that used to be our backseat.
The road scenery in Alaska is beyond amazing! We cannot describe the immense beauty as we knocked off miles heading north towards the Arctic Circle and the tundra!
Prior to the trip I removed the backseat and LJ bent some diamond plate aluminum utilizing the stock seat boltholes and mounted the newly fabricated Dog Deck. We covered it with black marine carpet and Deizel’s dog kingdom was discovered.
It wasn’t long until we saw activity from firefighting personnel in the area. Smoke was clearly present and the sounds of helicopters whirled above every so often. We found a huge grass field behind an old roadhouse that the firefighters had converted into tent city. They had a mess tent, shower facility, support staff running around and we checked it all out.
During the month of June 2015, Alaska had 693 forest fires covering 3 million acres in forest. WOW!
At times the smoke was fairly thick and we cruised right through it and then over the next ridge it was clear as you could see for what seemed to be a couple hundred miles.
We continued on and found a roadhouse just outside Circle, Alaska that served up incredible cheeseburgers and ice cold Alaskan Summer beer. Yes, the Alaskan Summer ale beer is my new favorite.
Served in an old-style log cabin, yup, like all the rest, this log cabin roadhouse had the walls and roof filled with stapled dollar bills. A rainy day fund you could say. Odd characters of every sort are sometimes in these “community centers” so to speak, but everyone we meet has a story about where they came from and how they ended up staying in Alaska.
The Alaskan roadhouses provide food, beverage, showers, small store, sometimes rooms or at least a bed in the bunkhouse and they are almost always managed by a grumpy ass guy from Cleveland, Ohio who came here to visit and never went back to Ohio.
The weather was beautiful as we cruised the Steese Highway exploring side roads, cabins, lakes and the forests. Deizel swam, ran and hunted all day long at each stop! By 7:00 pm he was worn out!
When we left out of the Fox River and Gold Dredge 8 earlier this morning we saw a red and white sign advertising the famed Iditarod Champion, Lance Mackey Kennels. And since the sun never sets and ShirlGirl loves those sled dogs she called up the telephone number she found on the Lance Mackey website and someone actually answer.
It was Lance Mackey HIMSELF!
He invited us to come out to the house and he’d show us around his kennels! ShirlGirl was thrilled beyond belief and she couldn’t WAIT to see the dogs and kennel.
100 sled dogs in one place at one kennel and the story told by the Iditarod Champion himself, Lance Mackey was pretty special. Dogs barking and wanting attention were EVERYWHERE! ShirlGirl was in heaven! Poor Deizel couldn’t get out of the car because he’s not so friendly to other dogs! Hahaha Deizel you scrooge!
Xplore The Wild 