Fire Fighting, Alaska Style

We barely got the door open on the trailer at Harding Lake State Recreation Area when we realized we were clearly in the approach pattern  for some relatively large aircraft. Finding the right position for pictures took a bit but we finally found 3 aircraft operating 10 minute turns.

Alberta's three CL-215T aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turboprops operated all afternoon

approaching Harding Lake,

scooping up over 11,000 pounds of water,

and hauling it off to drop on the Stuart Creek fire.

In the evening, the wind shifted and CL-215 aircraft powered by R2800 radial engines started departing right over the campsite. Round engines - the sound of music!

As I write this post our hearts go out to family and friends of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona on Sunday.

Richardson Highway

We drove north on the Richardson Highway yesterday. This is one of the oldest highways in the state. The monument is recognition of Brigadier General Wilds Preston Richardson who is recognized as Alaska's pioneer road builder.

The road, like all Alaskan roads, is under constant maintenance. This eleven miles of new asphalt was greeted joyously - other sections south of it were deserving of similar treatment.

We decided the flagmen and follow car was a "keep them employed" project. The follow car brought zero vehicles southbound and started northbound with just us after a chat with the flagman. I didn't see anything that suggested traffic couldn't run safely both directions without help.

Somebody had a bad day, leaving an over-length bridge girder in the ditch as we approached Paxton. It's going to take some full-sized equipment to get it righted and back on the wheels without damaging the beam.

Because of the age of the trail and then the road, there are a couple very old roadhouses. The Black Rapids roadhouse was built in 1902 and the original is now slowly being restored while operations continue in a newer building up the hill.

The pipeline essentially parallels the highway much of the way from Glennallen to Delta Junction.

Sometimes it is buried, but other times it creates an interesting zig-zag line across the landscape.

In Delta Junction, the quilt shop is located just south of the Visitor Center so getting to the official end of the Alaska Highway took an extra stop. It's only taken us 43 days to get here from Dawson Creek, but we eventually found the other end of the highway.

We found this pipeline size comparison interesting. The top 3" pipe is the size the US Army installed along the Canol road during WWII. The 8 inch pipe was run by the US Army from Haines to Fairbanks in 1955 for fuels and used for less than 20 years. The 48 inch pipe runs 769 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and has operated since 1977.

Home for the night was the Harding Lake State Recreation Area about 45 miles southeast of Fairbanks where we could see the smoke rising from the Stuart Creek fire about 25 miles north of us.

Slow Days

It’s been a couple of slow days. On Saturday we returned the grandson to his parents and took advantage of their washer and dryer before waving good-bye. The only Saturday picture we have is of the south end of a momma moose headed north. The calf was too quick to pose.

We did have a wonderful time at dinner Saturday evening with a number of friends from our Indonesia days - some that we haven’t seen for twenty three years, but we picked up right where we left off. Great time, but the camera got left in the truck.

After a quiet overnight at the Wasilla Walmart, we headed east on the Glenn, working our way towards Delta Junction and Fairbanks. We fueled at the Hub of Alaska (some businesses sure have egotistical names) where each line was at least three deep waiting for their chance at the pump.  There’s road construction at Glennallen that wasn’t there last month.

Home for the night was boondocking near the Gulkana Bridge at Mile 122.5 of the Richardson Highway. Nice view of one of the Wangell Mountains, but we’re not sure which one. The river starts from glaciers less than 100 miles upstream but that didn’t stop one family from swimming!

Turk wants to know where we’re going next. The simple answer is north.

Posted via Verizon 3G while parked in front of a quilt shop in Delta Junction, AK.