Day 12: Fairbanks to Nenana

July 23, 2015

I left Seven Gables Inn at 9 AM, after another freshly made hot breakfast buffet in the dining room. I pedaled west on Geist road 1 mile to the George Parks highway. The remainder of the tour will mostly be on the Parks highway.

The first 5 miles of the Parks highway was uphill with a parallel bike path. The bike path ends at the Ester turnoff. A temporary sign at the turnoff caught my attention.

At the Ester turnoff 5 miles west of Fairbanks.

After the Ester turnoff is a 900 foot climb. The terrain is hilly all day. But the road has a wide paved shoulder. Long uphills have a climbing lane but the climbing lane doesn't take away the shoulder like it did on the Richardson highway.

Hilltop view of the distant Tanana river.

I had many hilltop views, but no views of big snowy mountains. Just smaller forested mountains.

Another hilltop view. Boreal forest doesn't obstruct the view very much.

Today I have the rare treat of stopping at a restaurant for lunch. Most days have no services. Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn is mostly a bar, but they made me a frozen pizza. They make a ton of money selling bumper stickers such as "I Love Skinny Dick's". Simple-minded sexual innuendo must seem clever to 21 year olds.

Rare lunch stop at Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn. Sexual innuendo run amok.

Skinny Dick's was the only bar I saw in Alaska that has money on the ceiling. That's common in Nevada but not many other places. The tradition started with miners putting money on the ceiling when flush with cash, to use later when short of cash.

The inside of Skinny Dick's made me think I was in Nevada for a minute.

After lunch is a shadeless 500 foot climb. It was the only time on the tour that I got drenched in sweat.

Another hilltop view. No views of giant mountains today despite the clear weather.

Because it was so warm and hilly I ran out of water 10 miles before Nenana. And then my rear tire started thumping. I stopped and found the nail of a "chair foot" fully embedded in the tire. The patch job was quick and easy, and I only got a few mosquito bites in the process.

Crossing the Nenana river to the village of Nenana.

I finally rolled into Nenana at 5:05 PM. It's a small and impoverished town. My first stop was in the grocery store to get something big to drink. I found my lodging place, called the number on the sign, and waited 20 minutes for the proprietor to show up. He showed me to my $95 room. It has a detached private bath down the hall. Pretty nice except the room has no fan and my room has south and west facing walls. The room was hot until 11 PM when the sun finally went down and I could open the window. Even then it didn't cool quickly without a fan.

View of Nenana's port from the highway bridge. Railroad bridge in the distance.

It was too warm to sit in my room so I walked around town quite a bit. Small town, population 378 and shrinking.

I had dinner at the brewery/restaurant 2 blocks away. I'm getting tired of halibut fish and chips.

The railroad museum has 4 rental rooms on the top floor. They look like they would be much warmer than my room.

The old railway station is now a museum. The upstairs section is rental rooms.

Nenana is where president Harding drove the golden spike in 1923 to complete the Alaska railroad from Seward to Fairbanks.

Nenana is largely a native Athabascan town, headquarters for the Nenana band. The river port is the main industry in town. From here, cargo can be transferred from trains/trucks to boats/barges and shipped down the Nenana and Tanana rivers to the Yukon river. Most river communities are inaccessible by road and depend on the river to get freight that is too big or dangerous to transport by bush plane.

The Episcopal church was built in 1905 and is one of the oldest structures in town. The town boomed starting in 1915 when construction of the Alaska Railroad began.

St. Mark's Mission Episcopal church in Nenana.

Nowadays the sleepy town of Nenana is best known for the Nenana Ice Classic. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

Residents of Nenana sponsor the Nenana Ice Classic, a nature-based lottery. Entrants buy a ticket and pick a date in April or May and a time, to the closest minute, when they think the winter ice on the Tanana River will break up. This lottery began in 1917 among a group of surveyors working for the Alaska Railroad. They formed a betting pool as they waited for the river to open and boats to arrive with needed supplies.The competition is run as follows: a large striped tripod is placed on the frozen Tanana River and connected to a clock. The winner is whoever comes closest to guessing the precise time when the ice beneath weakens to the point that the tripod moves and stops the clock. Interest in the pool has increased and attracts bettors statewide. This lottery has paid out nearly $10 million in prize money, with the winning pool in recent years being near $300,000.

The black and white striped buoy is used for the annual Nenana Ice Classic.

The railroad bridge was completed in 1923. At the time it was the longest truss bridge in the U.S. A ferry took cars and trucks across the river until the highway bridge was completed in 1968.

Nenana does not look prosperous. It has 2 bars, 2 restaurants, and a small grocery store. Several other businesses are boarded up. Few highway travelers detour off the highway into Nenana. The Alaska Railroad has a waterfront spur for freight but passenger trains don't stop there.

In the evening I went across the street to the bar to get a couple beers. A few minutes later a very confident woman rolled in on a wheelchair, along with an entourage on foot. It was obvious, but I asked if she's one of the hand cycle racers. She said yes and explained that 10 hand cyclists are doing a stage race from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Later I learned that she's a Paralympic gold medalist. And I believe she's the only woman doing the race. Tomorrow's stage starts at 9 AM, so I will get a chance to see all the racers and their machines.

Today had a high of 78F. Warmest day of the tour. It definitely feels like summer now. The cold and perpetually cloudy weather is now a distant memory. It was the 2nd day of the tour to have no rain.

Distance: 53.7 mi. (86 km)
Climbing: 3112 ft. (943 m)
Average Speed: 9.0 mph (14.4 km/h)

Today's ride: 54 miles (87 km)
Total: 550 miles (885 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0