08/14 – 08/21/19 Our little Caravan made our way up to Fairbanks where we spent the night at Pioneer Park. We enjoyed exploring many of the historical buildings and museums and of course the proverbial gift shops. In the morning we said a heartfelt goodbye to Jim, Jackie and Bob who continued heading south through Canada back to the lower 48 while we spent the next week with our friends the Bouldings. We met up with Charlie, Robin, and Tory Boulding in Fairbanks after not seeing them since they had sailed in and visited us while we were Caretaking GSJ Island in the USVI. We had first met them in 2009 on the Island of Barbuda and again when we sailed together from St. Marten to the BVI in Nov of 2010. (Click on Highlighted Script for previous blog entries and Information) We told them that we would one day visit them in AK and we were determined to keep that promise. On Friday morning, we drove 4.5 hours from Fairbanks to Manley Hot Springs ahead of Charlie, Robin, and Tory while they finished up with Appointments. We met them at a small cabin they keep in Manley before loading up a couple of daypacks and the dog and headed down to the slough to help load up their boat with numerous groceries, supplies and a large Satellite Dish for one of their neighbors. The 5 of us, Sierra and their house dog Nook, boarded their river boat for the 20 mile trip to their homestead on the Tanana River. With Charlie at the helm, dodging sandbars, and floating debris, we relaxed as he navigated us up the rising Tanana River while the Robin and Tory pointed out places of interest and regaled us with stories of life along the river. After dropping off the Satellite Dish we made our way to their little slice of Paradise in the heart of the Alaska Interior. We tied off the boat to a tree next to their fishwheel and helped offload the supplies. They settled us into their one room guest cabin and proceeded to show us around their property consisting of around 35 acres, 2 Cabins, Shop, Smokehouse, Garden & Cache. Sierra was in dog heaven. She feasted on a number of pieces of dried fish that had been buried by one of their 6 sled dogs around the property and would curl up for a nap in the straw just like they did. The homestead is completely off the grid, true AK wilderness living. Their water is caught in rain barrels and is carried into the house for washing and cooking. Light is provided via windows and propane lights. They have a generator to charge the house batteries and a small solar panel that keeps their house batteries topped off. They do have some electric lights that are used when the generator is running. There is no phone but they do have the ability via Hughes Net to access the Internet so they can keep in touch with the outside world and their friends and family. There is no indoor plumbing but an outhouse is provided for comfort. They told us the small window in the front door was installed after a couple of close encounters with bears on their front porch. Their main cabin consists of a living space, a sleeping loft, a back bedroom, and a kitchen complete with an old fashioned but wonderfully functional wood burning oven, propane stovetop and another central wood burning stove for heat. Their refrigerator is a cold hole into the permafrost under the kitchen floor. Their garden provides them fresh vegetables and they hunt and fish for their meat. Part of their summer is spent at their Fish Camp where they catch the King Salmon that is a staple of their diet. We spent the next few days taking excursions on the Tanana and Kantishna Rivers, we fished for Northern Pike, picnicked, scouted for Moose, as hunting season is near, and visited some historical sites including part of the original Iditerod trail used to transport diphtheria serum from Seward to Nome AK. We stopped at the Tolovana Roadhouse that is now used for Sled Dog Excursions in the winter. We were also a witness to history in the making when we traveled up river and watched as the Kantishna river beginning to cut a new channel through a narrow bank that separated a mile long loop in the river. The Bouldings had been watching this spot during floods for the last 30 years knowing that it would happen one day. We helped where we could with summer chores, splitting kindling, harvesting the garden, helping with meal prep and clean up, and a bit of maintenance around their place. We picked green beans, summer and winter squash, carrots, kale, & a lot of peas. Robin canned 16 quarts while we were there. The rising river made it imperative to get as much as we could harvested. Robin fed us like kings and queens, baking bread and Apple Cake in her oven and an amazingly wonderful and huge King salmon filet for dinner. We also had a marvelous Moose stew and Bear and Cranberry sandwiches for lunch. Her Cranberry-banana jam is delicious! We spent our evenings together reminiscing and sharing stories of sled dog rearing and racing, sailing, & travels, past and present, as well as unpacking the large box of homeschooling books for Tory. As the river continued to rise the flooding around the cabins got deeper and eventually was above the level of our rubber boots, graciously provided to us by our hosts. We had to resort to using the canoe to travel between the cabins. I don’t know of too many people who would choose this lifestyle and Robin told us there are not too many people they would even consider inviting out to the homestead, especially during flood season. After the river had crested and started to recede, we decided we had better start our journey home to Colorado or risk being tempted to look for a place to build our own cabin in the AK wilderness. Charlie, Robin and Tory reluctantly carried Mike, Sierra and I back to Manley where we had parked the RV. We were sad to leave them but extremely honored and delighted to be their guests and felt so privileged to be allowed to experience and participate in this grand adventure for this brief but joyful reunion. We hope they will come visit us someday in Pagosa Springs or perhaps we can meet up again during our mutual travels. To our dear friends the Bouldings, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will miss you! Fair Winds & stay warm till we meet again.
Living the Dream 