“Happy 4th of July"

We got up bright and early from our night at the Dredge 7 Inn. A dredge is a piece of equipment that sits on water and processes sand and rock for gold. The historic dredges were very large – they almost looked like hotels with large mechanical appendages on both the front and rear.  Today there is a range of personal crafts, large and small, still looking for gold in Alaska – Nome is no different.

Our lodging for this adventure is Dredge 7 Inn - Nome, Alaska

An historic dredge located on the Teller Highway, Alaska

Modern personal dredge near the Teller Highway, Alaska.

 We bid farewell to our host at the inn, she was planting artificial flowers in front of the inn on account of finally giving up on the weather. She said she had a garage full of flowers but did not think they would survive in the temperatures this year. Michael Googled espresso on GMaps to find that the closest latte was Anchorage (not true), so we opted to head out and track down coffee the old fashion way. We found Bering Tea and Coffee and settled in with a couple of lattes that weren’t half bad. While enjoy our morning coffee we chatted up with a couple of seasonal gold miners from Minnesota.

Artificial flowers are the only option for color this summer - due to the cold. The inside of the garage is sure colorful though!

Reed, his brother, and his dad Jesse have been gold panning in Nome for the past few weeks. He said they are doing fair, but it is tough dirty work and he has had his fill. He had dreamed about giving it a shot, and although glad he did, he is crossing off gold mining on his list. “You have to be built a certain way” he said, and “I’m not built that way.” He talked about how wonderful it was to come back to civilization (he was referring to Nome) and missed his children. He has been living in a plywood shanty on the beaches of Nome. He was struggling with separating the black sand from the gold, but took comfort in the fact the old timers were having the same problems. We chatted about the nice things in life like pizza and coffee and 4^th of July parades.

Reed enjoys quiet time with his latte... welcome back to civilization!

Michael and I moved on to watch the 4^th of July parade on Front Street. Everyone was so excited. I have not seen people so genuinely excited about anything in a long time. Everyone was smiling and greeting us with “Happy 4^th of July,” kids were screaming and dancing and dressed in costumes, and all ages kept looking down the street for the start of the parade. We had a great time watching a small town parade with no frills - fire trucks and cop cars, walkers, horses, miscellaneous animals, bikes. About the only thing missing from the parade were the gnarly guys on Harleys… ohhh wait for it… they were here, except on 4-wheelers.  The Mormon missionaries were even on 4-wheelers.

Mormans on Wheels?

My other chopper is a 4-wheeler...

Nomites enjoy the parade.

Parade participants

The Gnomes of Nome...

Once the parade ended we headed out of town on the first of 3 roads to explore this weekend, the Teller Highway (officially called the Bob Blodgett highway). The dirt road stretches about 75 miles north to the Inupiat village of Teller. We had been warned the road was in rough condition, and there were no services at the end including gas. We packed a lunch and the camera and headed north.

The Teller Highway stretches north into vast wilderness.

Road marker for a fishing camp.

 The scenery was spectacular and wildlife plentiful. Aside from Musk Ox, we saw grizzly bears (too far to photograph well with my crappy camera), moose (too skittish to stay put for long), and a large Eagle’s nest that was occupied. All the wildlife had something in common… it was the largest we have ever seen in Alaska. In the case of the eagle, we were sure that if the bird flew off with a dog it could handle a German Shepard instead of just a terrier!

The road was not too bad (either that or we have developed a tough scale), although in one section the washboard ruts were so bad the airbag light went on, and we lost electricity to the speedometer and RPM gauge completely. I fretted, because the last time that happened to me the alternator went out shortly thereafter. We checked the mileage: we could still turn around and head back. Michael smacked the dash and everything came back on. He declared it a problem with the dash, not the alternator so we kept heading north. We saw few people – maybe 6 the whole ride up (half were fishing or gold panning, the other half we passed driving the other direction). The land was made up of gentle rolling hills, barren landscapes, and lots of water. It reminded me of a desert (minus the water part), where the colors are subtle and the vastness is great.

Abandoned reindeer herding corral.

 Once in Teller, we rolled through the small community of about 270 to get a sense of the town. The beach was filled with drying fish racks, most loaded with fresh salmon. Boats were parked, nets were drying. No adults were present. We saw a couple of children walking in the streets. One particular boy was walking in a way that attracted my attention. He had that gait about him; head held down, shoulders slumped, walking with no purpose as if he was beaten down. When we passed he looked up and we saw his black eye. It reminded me of the challenges a lot of villages face in Alaska. It reminded me that sometimes Alaska is not just gorgeous scenery – she has significant problems. We wanted to be respectful of the community and minimize our presence – we headed out quickly.

Teller from a distance. It sits on a spit.

Small catch

Salmon drying

Teller streets, Alaska

Teller home

Teller business

About 20 miles outside of Teller the jeep got a flat.

A flat in nowhere...

Michael said he heard the “Psst Psst Pssssst” but told himself it was nothing. In addition, the road surface had just changed from gravel to wet clay. Surely, he said in his mind, that was the reason why the steering felt wishy washy. Then I commented “It seems like the jeep is squirrelly, what’s going on”? Too many things to ignore, Michael pulled over and checked the tires. Confirmed – we have a flat. Michael made quick work of changing out the tire and we were back on the road. The rental contract clearly states we are responsible for all flats. We were now operating with no safety net and we have 2 more roads to travel before the weekend is up. In addition, we are pretty sure the tire went flat because all the tires are suffering from dry rot. We wondered all the way back what our options were.

Where the hell is Teller, Alaska?

Teller Highway as it relates to Nome, Alaska.

We rolled into town and stopped at the pizza place for dinner. We figured we would deal with the tire in the morning; it was after all “Happy 4^th of July.”

Typical Nome attire.