Fairbanks

Fairbanks is the largest city in the Alaskan Interior and marked the most northerly point of our Alaskan journey: 119 miles/192 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. Fairbanks probably has the best network of bike paths Lisa or I have ever seen in a large city, one can ride all over the metropolitan area on excellent paved strips that are almost always completely separated from the road. We took advantage of them whilst in town for a few days and did most of our exploring on bikes, the first evening in town riding to southern Fairbanks to sample the wares of Black Spruce Brewing Company. We also peddled downtown one afternoon to check out central Fairbanks and the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.

The River’s Edge RV Park and Campground was a picturesque spot to shack up for a few days on the edge of the Chena River, lots of boats cruising by in the almost 24 hours of daylight. Fun to be able to observe the beavers building dams across from where we were camped, they can make so much noise with those tails! River’s Edge’s location near the Fairbanks airport also allowed us to watch some of the jets from nearby Eielson Air Force Base landing on the commercial runways. Awesome to see a couple of F-35 Lightning II jets coming in to land while we were sitting on the river bank one afternoon.

I can see why Alaskans say they’re always exhausted by the time September rolls around each year: with the amount of daylight up by the Arctic Circle during summer we definitely found it tricky to convince our bodies to go to bed each night, especially when the skies were clear and the sun was out. The photos below of everyone sitting on the edge of the Chena River in front of our campsite were taken at around 9PM, it was broad daylight outside! When we were visiting, the sun was setting at around 12:30AM and rising at 3:20AM. But even when the sun was officially below the horizon it was still quite bright outside. Quite literally the land of the midnight sun.

One of our reasons for hitting Fairbanks was to visit a friend of mine with whom I worked in San Francisco (and who also helped us plan our route through Alaska). Wyatt was born and raised in Fairbanks and after exploring the world outside the Alaskan Interior – with a lengthy stint in San Francisco working in finance – he returned to Fairbanks to raise some youngens and work at his family’s commercial real estate business. Wyatt’s dad Tim has a passion for antique cars and operates the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in northern Fairbanks. We would not usually drag the kids to a car museum (to be honest I don’t think Lisa would even typically sign up for it), but Wyatt said it was a must do so we took his word for it. It was absolutely incredible. The museum is filled with more than 70 pre-World War II American made vehicles, all of them exceptionally well presented in showroom quality. I’m talking cars that can win best in class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (one of them did actually win a best in class there a few years back). And unlike most auto museums, which present cars as showpieces only, all but three of the 70+ rigs are fully operational and regularly driven. It was a fascinating journey through almost 100 years of American automobile history, really a must do if you ever find yourself in Fairbanks. I think my favorites were the Fordson snow vehicle – which is powered by a couple of very dangerous-looking corkscrew propulsion cylinders – and the 1913 Argo – one of the earliest examples of a fully electric car. Lilia was a big fan of the classic Al Capone gangster vehicles of the 1930s and was also enamored with the lifelike wax mannequins dressed in period garb next to a lot of the vehicles. The mannequins were so lifelike that Lisa accidentally apologized to one for walking too close!

Wyatt and his little man Parker took us on a super fun tour of the river systems around Fairbanks in the family jet boat. The Tanana and Chena Rivers both flow around the city, the Chena a spring-fed clearwater river that originates north of Fairbanks and flows straight through central Fairbanks. Given all the glacial flows that dominate the large rivers of the Alaskan Interior, conventional propellor-driven boats can’t operate in water that is full of debris and often riddled with sandbars and gravel only a few inches below the surface. Mud boats and jet-driven rigs are the favored methods to traverse waterways in the Alaskan Interior, the KingFisher jet boat Wyatt took us out on was specifically designed for the area. It was an awesome little piece of machinery, able to turn on a dime and shoot through the shallow slot creeks branching off the main rivers, the kids had an absolute ball as we raced through the narrows dodging debris and skimming sandbars. It felt like we were sliding through the sharp turns of the slot creeks. The MotoJet boats that were pulling out of the river when we arrived at the boat ramp (first two photos in the gallery below) were also very cool to see: built for two and controlled by a joystick rather than a steering wheel and throttle, they looked like little go karts for the water and were at ease jumping clear out of the water over logs and beaver dams. Probably about as much fun as one can have on the water!

On our way up the Chena through central Fairbanks Wyatt docked the boat on the bank and we crawled through the foliage for a short walk through an industrial area to HooDoo Brewing Company. Quite possibly the best way I’ve ever accessed a brewery: via jet boat. The beers were excellent, as was the cheesesteak food truck they had onsite, and the outdoor beer garden area was very well done. We finished the evening with a cruise through downtown – where we’d ridden our bikes earlier in the day – and turned around next to Eielson Air Force Base. Much to my kids’ delight, Max, Lilia and Parker took turns driving the boat back downriver at top speed in the picturesque evening sunshine. What a way to see Fairbanks!

We can’t thank the Cerny family enough for their hospitality whilst in town, it’s always great to see new places from a locals’ standpoint, especially when they’re as generous with their time as Wyatt and his wife Lauren. Thanks guys, we hope we can repay the favor sometime!