Riverboat Discovery, Chena River, Fairbanks

On Friday, July 10th, Dick and I went up to Fairbanks (4 hours away) to pick up supplies ( they have Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and several other nationally known stores) and to take a ride on the Riverboat Discovery . The boat is a 156 foot paddle boat …the kind you would see going up & down the Mississippi River.

The Binkley family’s steam boating tradition goes back over 100 years and five generations to the Klondike Gold Rush. The Discovery III, the boat we were on, is the third steam boat they have had.

We had a few stops along the way……the first being a plane taking off from the river just next to the boat….no pictures…it was the opposite side of the boat…too many people to really gat a good pic!

Our next stop was at a champion sled dog kennel….this was the kennel that Susan Butcher ran. She was a four time winner of the 1,100 mile Iditarod Race from Anchorage to Nome. She and her husband David Monson owned Trail Breaker Kennel on the Chena River. Susan died of leukemia in 2006. Her husband and their two daughters have continued to operate the kennel and gave us a little show when we passed by…what a treat!

Our last stop was to an Athabascan Indian fish camp! These native Indians traditionally lived along ther major river ways of interior Alaska, an area that spans as far south as the Kenai Peninsula and as far north as the Brooks mountain range. They were a nomadic people and today many still live a subsistence life that includes summer fish camps. The camp is a little community where fishing with a fish wheel and the drying o the fish for future use was their primary job.

As a side note….I have come to realize how quickly I have become to not having crowds around! The two months that Dick and I have been in Tok we have gotten user to no traffic…no traffic lights…not having everything we need at the market….knowing where everything is from the Baptist Church that has closed, to the medical clinic to knowing what the hour mass is at the Catholic Church! Getting on the boat yesterday, along with five bus loads of cruise ship passengers I thought I was going to scream! I had heard people talk about “culture shock” when going back the the “lower 48”….now I know what they mean…..life in Alaska is tough…but simple!



Does anyone notice anything different about Dick???