July 3, 2009

July 3, 2009

We are still in Fairbanks, AK. Today we went to the east side of town, first passing a section of the Alaska Oil Pipeline that runs near town. The pipeline is 4-foot in diameter and runs 800 miles bringing oil from Prudhoe Bay on the north slope down to Valdez in the south. Built in the 70’s, the design was unique because the metal supports incorporate cooling coils to prevent the hot crude from melting and collapsing the “permafrost” soil supporting it. On the drive to Alaska we heard all about permafrost and the difficulty maintaining a road over it. With the short summer season up here, the subsoil never has a chance to thaw, hence it is PERMAnently FROSTy. If you are not careful, the permafrost soil melts and subsides causing pipelines to sag and buckle, and roads to warp.

Just down the road we visit the Eldorado Gold mine. The tour starts with us boarding a small train that slowly takes us past recreations of different types of gold mining operations. A few hundred yards down, we disembark and watch a modern gold sluice in operation. Afterwards we are each given a small sack of dirt that we can practice gold panning. Both Aimee and I find a dozen pieces of gold. We are rich!! Well not quite, it is not even enough gold to pay for the tour. Overall the tour is very hokey but the staff does a great job to make it all fun. And hey this is probably going to be the only way I will ever find gold by panning.