Goat Lake Hydroelectric Project...et al

We did, indeed, arise early on our day off to go see water being turned into electricity. Even though the water must fall about 2000 ft before slamming into a bucket wheel, no water is harmed in the making of electricity. The electricity is very clean and green, but looks just like electricity generated by burning coal. Except you can't see it in those wires it flows through. We also did not see the water in the pipe, but we believe it is in there. I think the whole thing is like a religion. You just have to believe.
It all seems very amateurish. There are parts and procedures that they just cobbled together and it works. The generator we saw is one of three hydros in operation here. They also have diesel back-ups. The water is siphoned out of the lake, but there is a pump if the siphon is ever broken. The pump is electric so the electricity to operate it would have to come from one of the other three sources if the siphon were broken. I never thought about a generating plant needing outside electricity. It's weird. We did not get to walk across the pipe to the other side of the river because it was raining so the pipe was slippery. There are handrails, but they wouldn't stop you from falling into the river if you slipped. We can come back on a sunny day to do that. Roger, Janie, Peggie, Don and I went. Karin had to work. Our guide was Stan Selmer who is the boss of AP&T and descended from a goldrush family. In Skagway, that is equivalent to a Mayflower family in Boston.
We also learned that the canyon is littered with artifacts from the gold rush, things people abandoned, a telegragh line, sections of road, and other stuff, but it is illegal to disturb any of it because it is all in the national park.
The Thomas brothers, Don and Bill, are now known far and wide, though we rarely appear together. The office staff at AP&T, Stan, everyone at the bakery, everyone at the RV park, the staff at the visitor center at Carcross, Ron and his mom at the general store, the people we both work with, and people on our tours know us singly or together by name. That is kind of fun.
Back to electricity, sort of. I had lunch yesterday with an engineer who owned the company that made all the solar panels for NASA during the unmanned phase of the moon missions. I learned that the sunlight in space is so different that a panel in space won't work on earth, and vice versa. Also, that solar power is very good for unmanned, long-term missions where a little power is needed for a long time, but not good for manned missions where a lot of power is needed for a short time. This guy had been head-hunted by Werner Von Braun, himself, and they became good friends. It was neat to talk with someone who was in on the ground floor of the space program.
Wednesday, which is July 1st, they expect to have the railroad repaired, almost a month earlier than projected. Hopefully, we will be able to arrange a ride soon. And by arrange, I mean go for free. It helps to know people.
But not in every case. The power plant is about a quarter mile past U.S. customs, but still miles inside Alaska. On our way back, Stan informed the agent where we had been. So what does he ask? "Are you bringing anything back into the country?" Hellooo, we haven't been out of the country. And besides that, you bureaucrat, you see every one of us on a regular basis because of our jobs. If not for a few others who work there, I'd swear that you have to remove your personality in order to fit into the uniform. Really, would national security be endangered if you just waved and said, "Have a nice day!"