Bettles: Day 1 (09-03-2023)

 

We are up at 7:15. Breakfast is served 8:00 to 9:30.  Our National Parks Collector Wilderness Tour leaves at 9:00am. Weather permitting.  Yesterday the tour didn't leave until 11:30. It is overcast this morning.  Yesterday the pilot (Stuart?) said he will let us know the schedule at breakfast.  We have our day packs and gear ready and get to breakfast at 8:00.  The breakfast menu is 2 eggs any style, choice of meat (bacon, sausage, reindeer sausage), hash browns and choice of toast or pancake.

Weather is not conducive to flying.  The dining room is crowded this morning.  A plane headed for Wiseman, a town about 50 miles northeast of Bettles, landed here to wait for the Wiseman weather to clear.  The passengers are joining us for breakfast.  Pilot Stuart tells us leave time of 9:00am is a no go for our park tour.  He will get back to us at 11:00 with an update.  Five disappointed guests head back to Aurora Lodge.

We didn't sleep much last night due to aurora viewing.  We nap until time to move to the lounge for a tour update.   Stuart comes with disappointing news.  Weather is still not good for flying.  He will check with us again at 2:00.  There is a chance for a short flight into Gates of the Arctic then if the weather cooperates.  

We learn Braden is upset.  He slept through the wake up for the aurora last night.  He is really irritated that no one, especially Jason, woke him up.  Now he believes the tour won't happen and he will have taken an expensive trip to Bettles for nothing. I feel his pain.

Noon is lunch time.  We head over to the Lodge and hang out until lunch is served.  We met an interesting character (never get his name) in Bettles for work.  He is here to install wiring and conduit; I think for equipment associated with the airport.  Once the job is done the FAA comes to inspect it.  He tells us he has been here for a week or so but hasn't been able to work.  All the correct supplies he needs for the job didn't make it to Bettles.  He checks delivery status each day and apparently gets told it will be on the next plane.  Next plane comes and no supplies.  He doesn't seem too bothered about it.  Bettles isn't overflowing with things to do but he seems to get by talking with the guests, watching Netflex movies and taking walks.  He goes on vacation in a week or so and it appears he is hoping the supplies don't show up until after he leaves for vacation. Lunch menu is chicken salad sandwiches and French fries.  BB doesn't eat mayo and gets a PBJ instead.  

BB with PBJ.

We spend some time after lunch in Bettles Lodge to take advantage of the internet.  Then back to Aurora Lodge with hope of hearing good news from Jason.  It is a false hope.  No flying for us today.  Braden, Pamela and Allen leave tomorrow morning, so they have no chance for a tour.  BB and I have a chance tomorrow.  Although now our chance for a tour is dependent on two things, weather and seat availability.  The guests that arrive today have priority on tomorrow's tour.  BB and I can only go if there are two seats available.

Pamela goes to her room to nap.  I mention Scrabble.  BB, Braden, Allen and I settle down in the lounge for a game. It's a good game.  We use all the tiles from the bag but three of us have some tiles left on our racks.  The game passes the time and I believe we all had fun.  Braden wins with Allen coming in a close second.

Braden, Allen, BB, Sal

Time for some fresh air.  BB and I walk on the road towards the lake.  We look for blueberries and find them.  They grow low to the ground and the leaves are starting to turn red.  Fall has arrived in Bettles.

Still not quite dinner time.  We head for Bettles Lodge.  Our gang is there.  We get drinks from the bar and socialize.

Bettles Lodge Lounge.

I like the artwork over the bar.

The ice in my drink looks like eyeballs!

Dinner is salmon, rice and mixed veggies with tropical fruit cobbler for dessert.  We stay awhile after dinner to take advantage of the internet.  When we go back to Aurora Lodge we put on a documentary showing how musher Sven Haltmann trained for his first Iditarod in 2008.  Eric tells us that Sven has helped train dogs and employees at the Bettles kennel. The documentary is almost over when our gang comes in. Scrabble and some other games are mentioned.  We settle on Movie Mania.  It is like Trivial Pursuit except all the questions pertain to movies.  We play in teams; Pamela and Allen are a team, BB and I are a team, and Braden plays solo.  Again, the game helps pass the time, however, movie knowledge doesn't seem to be a strong point for any of us.

Bedtime.  We decide to be at breakfast by 8:00 tomorrow in the slim chance we can get on the tour.

Sal

Bettles: Get To Bettles (09-02-2023

We are up early and ready for an adventure!  By 6:40am we are enjoying the Lodge's breakfast buffet. By 7:35am we are on the way to Wright Air Service.

At Wright Air we join the line to check-in.  When our turn comes our luggage gets weighed and WE get weighed!  Our luggage limit is 40 pounds.  People don't seem to have a limit. No one that I'm aware of got told they couldn't fly because they weigh too much.  I think total weight of the passengers plus luggage is taken into consideration when loading cargo.  These planes carry supplies to villages and the bush (i.e. not on the road or ferry system) and I believe cargo is added as the weight of passengers and luggage allows.  Also, passengers may be assigned seats according to their weight in order to balance the plane.  Anyway, BB and I successfully check in.

Wright Air Services

We have a little over an hour before our plane is scheduled to depart.  It is overcast and rainy. We hope the flight isn't cancelled.  

Wright Air Service is a busy place.  A variety of people for what appear to be a variety of reasons hope to fly today.   We find seats near a group of hunters.  They are going on a 13-day hunting trip.  It is obvious they are very excited.  They will be dropped off somewhere in the wilderness, then float down a river until they reach their pickup spot.  Seems like they plan to hunt anything that moves. I hear them mention hunting moose, caribou and wolves.  Somehow in our conversation cranberries come up.  Turns out the leader of the group is a big cranberry farmer in Wisconsin.  (The website is Rooted in Red). We learn that more cranberries are grown in Wisconsin than in Maine.  (What?).  And they are a better-quality berry than the ones grown in Maine.  The man (Rocky Biegel?) tells us about festivals and special events the cranberry farm sponsors.  It sounds like fun.  I see a trip to Wisconsin to visit cousins and cranberry farms in my future.

The hunters.  The Cranberry Farmer is second from the right.

Eric Fox, Bettles Lodge proprietor, told us that three other Lodge guests, Allen, Pamela and Braden, will be on the plane with us.  BB and I envision a family, a mom and dad with a teenage son.  We see others that look like tourists, but not a group that looks like parents with a child or teenager. 

We also see people that appear to have come to Fairbanks for supplies.  They are bringing boxes of paper products, food supplies, etc. in as cargo.

Our flight is on time.   Our plane is a Cessna Caravan. Seats can be removed if needed to allow more cargo space.  There are 7 passengers on this flight plus the pilot.

Our Cessna Caravan.

An in-flight selfie.

We are in the clouds for the majority of our flight.  Looking out the windows is like looking at a white board.  Our Dad was a pilot.  He flew single engine planes recreationally.  We grew up going to airshows, hanging with Dad at the airport on a Saturday and watching him study for his instrument rating.  I know enough about planes and flying to not panic.  HOWEVER, knowing there are mountains in the area and not being able to see them has me a little unsettled.  Also, it is interesting to see the pilot take out his snack and eat it and then later stretch back with his hands behind his head. Just not what I expect to see.

It is an uneventful 90-minute flight to Bettles.  Eric greets us and loads us and luggage into a van and drives us the short distance (tenth of a mile?) to Aurora Lodge.  He gives us our room assignments and tells us where the bathrooms are located.  We are to take our luggage to our room, use the bathroom if necessary and meet back in the lounge for orientation.

Historic Bettles Lodge

Aurora Lodge

Eric explains the meal schedule, points out games, puzzles and movies available for our use and goes over some safety precautions.  Watch out for bears and other wildlife.  Don't walk on the runway.  Tell someone where you are going.

Back in the van we go for the tour of the town of Bettles.  We don't get far because it's almost lunch time.  We are in the van the short distance to the historic Bettles Lodge.  The kitchen and dining room are located in this building, along with a small bar, lounge area and gift shop.  The second floor is additional lodging.  This building has internet. Lunch is chili and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Lunch over, back in the van we go for our tour of Bettles. Bettles is 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the Koyukuk River.  Old Bettles, which is no more, is located about 5 miles west of new Bettles.  The original village of Bettles was founded in1898 during the Alaskan Gold Rush. It was named after Gordon C. Bettles, who established a trading post there. An airstrip was built 5 miles east near Evansville, a native village, during World War II.   The village of Bettles moved to its current location to be near the airstrip.  Population in 2023 is 21.

The historic Bettles Lodge and Aurora Lodge are on the airport's edge.  The National Park (NP) has two visitor centers here, one older, smaller one and a newer bigger one built to replace the smaller one.  Both have been closed for several years.  At one point Bettles had enough children to support a school.  The school building is closed and overgrown.  Bettles has a weather station.  Eric pointed out several buildings that he uses as employee housing, storage or workshops.  Many buildings are obviously abandoned.

The New NP Visitor Center - Closed.  It is across the street from Aurora Lodge.

The Old NP Visitor Center - Closed

The Weather Station

The School - Closed

The tour ends about 2 miles from town by a lake where float planes land and take off.

After the van ride we go for a walk.   Our first stop is at the Koyukuk River.  Water level is high.

The new gang at Bettles Lodge, L to R, Sal, Pamela, Allen and Braden.  BB and I were wrong about these three being a family.  They chuckled when we told them this. Braden is a solo travel.  Pamela and Allen are a couple from Anchorage.  

L to R:   BB, Sal, Braden, Pamela.

After the walk we have an hour to relax before heading to the Lodge for dinner. The menu tonight is pulled pork barbeque over cheesy polenta and green beans.  

The dining room.

After dinner we return to Aurora Lodge.  On the way we stop by the boot shed to see if we want to use Lodge boots instead of out boots tomorrow on the NP tour.  We don't want to get ours dirty!

Wet boots are hung outside to dry.

More choices inside.

The sky is pretty tonight.

Looking at the airport from in front of Bettles Lodge.

We watch a movie on Gates of the Arctic NP.  The movie has beautiful scenes of the Park. It also includes information on the nomadic life of the natives that lived in the area.  It is interesting and sad to hear how changing from a nomadic to sedentary lifestyle impacted them.  How the native people used stone people  to drive the caribou herds also fascinates me.

One Lodge employee's (Jason's) job is to stay up until 2:00am and check the sky every 10 minutes for the aurora borealis.  He will wake us up if the aurora shows up tonight.  He recommends we set up a schedule to check the sky between 2:00 and 4:00.  We do.  Braden takes 2:00 to 2:45. BB and I take 2:45 to 3:15.  He asks the type of phones/cameras we have, recommends settings and ways to make the pictures more interesting and reminds us to charge our phones.

We go to our room and have the lights out by 10:30.

Wake up to noise in the hall and knocks on doors. It's 11:30. We haven't been asleep long.   The aurora is out!  We put clothes on over our PJs, grab our phones and head outside.  We are outside over an hour watching it.  Jason moves between us, giving advice on looking at the aurora (DON'T look at the full moon!), helping with camera settings and using the tripods and giving recommendations of photo composition.

Aurora and Big Dipper!

Jason suggested having trees or buildings in the photo.  Pamela shared this one with me.

We are back in bed by 1:00.  I go out at 3:00 to check.  The show is over,  Sky is overcast.

Sal

Bettles: Get To Fairbanks (09-01-2023)

We leave early this morning for Fairbanks, our first leg of the journey to Bettles.  Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley National Parks are the reasons for this trip.  Once we visit these two National Parks (NP) we will have visited all eight NPs located in Alaska.

Both of these NPs are vast and remote.  They are truly wilderness areas as they have no services of any kind; no roads, buildings, trails or campgrounds. You get to these NPs by plane, boat or foot.  Visitor centers are located in the villages of Bettles and Kotzebue.

BB and I decided early on that we were not interested in a weeklong camping trip in a remote wilderness area.  Our alternative to being dropped off by a bush plane in the NPs with camping gear and supplies is a tour offered by Bettles Lodge.  

Check-in for our flight to Bettles from Fairbanks is 7:45am tomorrow with scheduled departure at 9:15am.  We are out the door early, 6:30am, as we have things to do along the way. 

We talk whether to have our big meal for the day as dinner in Fairbanks or lunch in Healy.  We decide lunch will be at 49th State Brewery in Healy. The sky is overcast with intermittent rain showers.  The drive to Healy is uneventful.  We hope to see wildlife, but don't.  Views of the mountains come and go as the clouds shift.  Just before reaching Denali NP we drive by the entrance to Jeff King's Husky Homestead and wave hello.  (We have visited Husky Homestead twice; see the post Review of Past Week 08-31-2022).

We break from tradition at 49th State.  BB and I eat fairly often at 49th State in Anchorage.  Our go to meals are Caesar Salad with salmon for BB and halibut fish and chips for me.  Today we are wild and craze and order cheeseburgers! 

Cheeseburgers!

The green bus is the replica used in the movie 'Into the Wild.'  The movie is from the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, which tells the story of Chris McCandless.

Just some pretty flowers.

Nenana is our next stop.  We have stopped there before to purchase Ice Classic Tickets.  We hope to do two things in Nenana today; see the Golden Spike and dance in the dance circle.

We are Anchorage Museum Members. One of the exhibits this summer is All Aboard: The Alaska Railroad Centennial.  We visited the exhibit and learned that Alaska Railroad has been operational since 1923.  The tracks, Seward to Fairbanks, were completed in Nenana when President Warren Harding drove in the Golden Spike.  We wanted to see the memorial that commemorates this.

An article in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner reported a dance circle in Nenana. Nenana resident Kat Reeves painted a blue circle and the words Dance Here on the sidewalk at the corner of A and 1st Streets by Coghills's Store.  She hopes people walking down the sidewalk will stop and dance when they came to the circle.  BB and I are prepared and want to dance!

We think to stop first at the Nenana's Visitor Center to ask directions to the Dance Circle and inquire about the Golden Spike Memorial.  It is closed.  We drive down the street toward the Historic Nenana Train Depot, checking the sidewalk for a blue dance circle.  Don't see it.  We park at the Depot.  The Golden Spike Memorial is right there!  We check out the Memorial and then go inside the Depot, which is a combination museum and gift shop.  The person working inside is helpful and willing to answer questions.  He knows railroad history.  He does not know about the dance circle. He adds that he has been asked about it several times.  He advises us to inquire at the AK Rustic Store.  We use the restrooms and do a quick tour of the museum and shop. When BB shows interest in a print of the Depot, he gives us postcards of the print for free. We tell him if we find the dance circle we will come back to tell him where it is.

This plaque commemorates President Harding's visit and driving in the Golden Spike.

This plaque commemorates the 75th anniversary.

The print BB liked.

We leave the Depot for the AK Rustic Store, which is just across the street.  The woman working there is friendly and doesn't mind our questions.  We ask her about the dance circle.  Yes!  She knows where it is, just up the block on the corner by the grocery store.  And she is friends with the woman who created it.  We don't immediately head off to dance, because, well, this is a clothing store and some people love to shop!  We do see things we like; however we make it out of the store without buying anything.

We find the dance circle and do a little dance.  A man walking to his car from the store walks by us.  I hear him chuckle as he goes by.

On our way back to the car we tell the woman at the AK Rustic shop that we did our dance.  She tells us that she called her friend and told her that we had come to Nenana to dance in the circle.  We also stop at the Depot and tell the man where the dance circle is.

Nenana is about 55 miles and an hour from Fairbanks.  We are at our hotel, Pikes Waterfront Lodge, by 3:15pm.  Our room isn't ready.  We head to the airport to locate Wright Air Service.  We find it and learn that it is about an 8 minute drive from the hotel.  We go in to learn where we can park the car for several days, where to bring our luggage and what time we should show up.  

When we were in Fairbanks for the WEIO games we learned that many artists and vendors had booths at Pioneer Park.  It isn't very far from the airport so we decide to go and look at the vendors.  There are some shops open at the Park, however, we don't see the arts and crafts vendors that we thought we would.  We wander around a while but don't stay very long.  We do see lots of pretty flowers.

Time to go back to our hotel, Pikes Waterfront Lodge.  We stayed here in March when Jack and Ann came to visit.  There was snow on the ground then.  Today is it cloudy and rainy.  We had a big lunch.  We are happy having ice cream and Nabs crackers for dinner.  We brought the Nabs with us.  Ice cream is a dollar a scoop in the hotel lobby!  We each get two; BB gets espresso and huckleberry and I get espresso and rocky road.

We wander around the hotel grounds before going to bed.  It is so different than last time we were here.  In March we walked on the frozen river to watch the Northern Lights.

A rainbow in the sky over the friendliest hotel.

Today was a fun day.  Tomorrow is a big adventure!  I hope we can sleep tonight.

Sal