Meet INGRID

Yes Boys, She is taken. The 1984 Sierra GMC joined the clan approximately 1 week ago. She weighs 3/4 of a ton and holds a speculated 54 gallons of gas ($4.80/gallon)!! In her previous lifetime, she worked with the best of 'em in the mines, so don't cross her unless you are looking for trouble! Her engine is quite powerful, but noisy. She has a chronic cough, but nothing that robitussin can't fix.

Ingrid is aging well - the rust stains blend in with her dark brown pigmented skin, and she only has about 5 wires hanging down on the inside dashboard. The windshield is still intact, with multiple cracks - probably from gold chunks hitting her. The other day, the glove compartment randomly dislodged and fell to the ground on the passengers side, but who needs one of those anyway?!

So please give a shout out to INGRID GMC, the shockless, beastly woman from Counsil!

Below is Ingrid's hometown of Consil, AK - 76 miles northeast of Nome along the Niukluk River where many Nomeites have summer homes.
Counsil was built back in the late 1800s when gold was discovered near Ophir Creek. Now, it's merely a recreational area and fishing camp in the summer months. It's connected to Nome by a winding gravel road called the Nome-Counsil Road. Some people are able to cross the river in their trucks, but rumor has it, the water will reach window level. Since we were borrowing the Ford Expedition, we played it safe and parked along the bank!

"Rusting Legacy" THE NORTH STAR LINE (The Counsil City and Solomon RIver Railroad)
"These locomotives and flat cars are remnants of the unsuccessful attempt to build a railroad to gold mines near Counsil City. The locomotives began service on the elevated railways of New York City, then became the work horses of the Counsil City and Solomon River Railroad (CC & SRR). The Great Storm of 1913 destroyed the Solomon RIver Railroad Bridge, stranding them there." Hmm....pretty rusty...you'd probably need a couple tons of WD40 to get this moving again!
This is a random roadhouse in the middle of nowhere on the way back from Counsil. It's the last checkpoint along the iditarod before you reach Nome. When we went inside, there was an eskimo woman with her 3 children holding down the fort. The walls and ceiling were covered with dollar bills with names written on each one with permanent marker - isn't that a felony?
A view of the scenery along the Nome Counsil Road - this picture doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful!


Last weekend, we also went to Pilgrim Hot Springs. This was the view of the Kiguaik Mountains behind us on our walk. The clouds covered the tops of the mountains which were still covered with a light dusting of snow.

I believe I'm in this picture(above) walking along the road back from the springs. Look for a little dot in the distance that resembles a human being!

This was one of the sources of the Pilgrim Hot Springs. It's about 13 miles northeast of Salmon lake and is approximately 190 degrees Fahrenheit (90 C) It smelled like rotten eggs from the sulfur in the water and the mosquitos were relentless! I was swatting at my head for a good 15 minutes until we were far enough away from the water. I'm sure I looked like I was having some kind of convulsion!


During the gold rush, this was a resort and later a Catholic mission. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the days of gold mining on the Seward Peninsula about 1900, the property was known as Kruszgamepa Hot Springs. It was a recreation center for miners attracted by its spa baths, saloon, dance hall and roadhouse. The roadhouse and saloon burned in 1908. The property was given to Father Bellarmine Lafortune, who turned the ranch into a mission and orphanage in 1917-18 during the flu outbreak.


I've never sat on a tractor before, so I took it upon myself to hop up and take a non candid shot! The guy in overalls didn't stop me. I am tractor woman, hear me roar!! :)

Four of us (Joni, me, Phil, and Dan) set out last weekend to find the only waterfall in Nome, Dorothy Falls, named for a girlfriend of the miner who discovered the waterfall. We hiked and hiked for 3 1/2 hours, through trees, up and down rocks, through the water....but to no avail!!! This is the view at the top- I was about to pass out from lack of food, so here I am, relaxing with the cold breeze blowing around me!

Dan, who has lived in Nome intermittently for the past 20-30 year, knows the area pretty well and was carrying a gun in his backpack in case we encountered any unwanted visitors - which we did!! On the other side of the stream, there was a brown bear staring at us!


This was the falcon that wanted to attack us on our decent back to the car. We were near his nest, so he was literally swooping down at us every 30 seconds!

The entire weekend was packed with exciting adventures!!
Hopefully I'll have more to write about later! :)