Well I am a little hung over. Tylenol and water, then back to bed for another hour. I get out of bed around 10am, and go get a mocha, yes they have an espresso machine in this wanna be resort. My objective for the day is to relax and tour the compound. As I am enjoying my coffee a bus of Japanese roll in. This resort seems to be a large tourist attraction for Japan. I guess a little investigation work needs to happen.
I wander around and I see a bunch of half formed inventions. One of them is the same thing I saw in China. It is a hot water heater that sits on the roof of a house or building. The water heats up by recirculation through pipes and eventually getting real hot. This is branded as the “Chena Hot Water” tank but it has a ton of Chinese writing on it. I think that they are the same as what I saw in Chine, just rebranded as Chena. Then I see a pump that pumps water from the creek into a tank that is used for what looks like their gardens. I decide I need a tour, but first I want to relax in the hot springs.
I grab my cargo shorts and flip flops and head over. They give you towels and I head on it. Only adults are allowed in the hot spring s pool, and kids are allowed in the hot tubs and cool pool. The water is hot and does not have that much of a smell. I have been next to hot springs that smell like sulfur, but this one does not. Europeans really do wear speedos, especially the old ones. One end of the pool is too hot. I last about 20 minutes in the heat and feel real relaxed.
I find a tour of the compound and it starts in a couple hours. I do some picture uploading and wait for the tour to start. My companion and I, and four other people are on the tour. The tour guide is not very friendly and it is a quiet five minute walk to a building that starts the tour. She does not say anything. We enter a building and we see the three generators. The tour guide reads the signs on the walls of the building, nobody asks questions. Five minutes later we leave. Off to the green houses.
The green houses are very interesting; all of the vegetables that they serve on site are grown in their green houses, all year long. Even during the cold winter. The temperature difference last year was over 80 degrees. The green houses’ are warmed by the sun light and they pipe the hot spring water through the floor to keep the building warm year round. Everything is grown hydroponically and looks really good.
That is the end of the tour, what a letdown. Such a cool place and a boring tour guide. I find a DVD of the place and I ask someone to put it on the community center TV. The DVD is incredible, not the quality but the information and descriptions on how things work. The owner Bernie is a real inventor guy and he is trying to make the resort completely off the grid, electrically and most of the food. He even wants to produce enough power to produced hydrogen and power all of the vehicles.
The rest of the day is spent walking the grounds, and grabbing a bite to eat. It sounds boring, but the purpose is to relax, not to explore.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
Alaska 2009 - Day 6
Wow the Artic Circle is cold. Who would have thought? That was probably the coldest night I have ever had camping. I was bundled in my bag, long sleeve shirt, pants and wool socks on, with only my mouth showing. But hey I just spent a night in the Artic Circle. Kick Ass! I was woken up by a truck rolling in to empty the camp garbage can. Someone entered the campground late last night, which makes two campers in the whole campground. Still spooky, but now that there is more sunlight the eeriness has worn off.
I spend a little time organizing my crap in LC and then we head north up the road. The road is crazy. Up and down the mountains. The road goes straight up and down the other side of these hills. It is like driving a roller coaster. The road, when paved is not that smooth, and there are plenty of wheel bending potholes. The truckers are not as common this morning, so driving is easier from that aspect. We see a bunch of hunters scoping out the valleys. The only wild life that we see is a porcupine, a quail and a couple of bunnies. I think everything else is dead and in some dudes freezer.
Coldfoot is our destination for breakfast, and we will make a determination on continuing up to Prudhoe Bay or head back into Fairbanks. I was not sure what to expect from Coldfoot, being so remote. When we found it, the parking lot was a mud mess. The building was not exciting; it had a porch and a couple of rooms for eating. One of the areas was marked “Truckers Only”. It was empty at first and it quickly filled up. We had the Coldfoot buffet, which was actually not that bad. I had some meat and eggs casserole, some bacon, a sausage, some eggs, rye toast, hash browns, cottage cheese and sliced fruit. Looking at that list, it sounds like I ate a ton, I actually did not. I more or less sampled most of the items that looked appealing to me. They cooked pancakes and French toast if you asked them. Not a bad spread. I would recommend that anyone coming through should stop here for food.
We are both very tired, but willing to drive north as long as the road is in good condition. We know that LC can make it up there no matter what, but sometimes the risk outweighs the reward. I do not want to hurt her. There is a pass that we would have to go over, called Atigun Pass and the Milepost says that it is treacherous. We start talking to some hunters and they are about useless. I talk with the waitress and she is really nice but does not know what the road conditions are. She knows that it snowed up on the pass and people were having trouble getting over the pass yesterday. A man tells us that motorcycles cannot make it, but he does not know much more than that. I finally hit the jackpot and start talking with a guy that works for the D.O.T. He says that we could make it over the pass from the looks of LC, but it would be slow and we might get stuck. I tell him about the shocks and he then says that he would not recommend that we go north. The road would beat us up and without a good suspension he thinks we might have trouble.
The decision is made for us. We came too late in the year. We did not bring chains for the pass. But hey 259 miles north of Fairbanks is a respectable northern destination. We both probably had about 6 cups of coffee trying to make that decision. We learn about a Visitor center in Coldfoot so we gas up and head over there. On our way I make a note of the exact spot where I went furthest north. Someday I will be back and my goal will be to go further. I am not that bummed, in fact I am excited that I was able to make it this far.
The Visitor center is really nice. It looks like a lodge and is fairly new. It has all sorts of cool displays about the boreal forest that surrounds us. We read up on how the permafrost affects the trees size, and the landscape around us. We then talk to the rangers about where we should spend the next couple of days. We know that we do not want to spend our time in Fairbanks. They recommend Manley or Chena hot springs. Chena has a better resort so we decide that is where we will spend the next two days.
The drive back down the Dalton is uneventful. It is rough, and there is no wildlife at all. The pipeline is cool, the mountains are awesome, and we are quiet because we are exhausted. In the city of Fox, my companion buys a six pack and we make the 60 mile drive out to Chena hot springs resort. The resort is not exactly what we expected, but we get a room with twin beds. The last cheap room, boy are we lucky, the other rooms are $500 a night. We spread our crap out in the room and go outside to a bench to have a beer. Pretty soon we are surrounded by people talking to us about Alaska. Some guy tells me about the virtues of absinthe and how clear headed he is when he drinks is. He actually tells me this twice. It is pretty cool meeting people.
I meet a couple named Mike and Molly. They are flying out tomorrow and need to drink all of their beer, so we decide to help them. They both grew up in Tennessee and moved to Jackson Hole Wyoming last year. They work at banks and earn enough to take trips to places in the U.S. After we finish their beers, we head to the restaurant so that we can have dinner. Hey there is a bar in the restaurant so we belly up with our new found friends. On tap is 6 flavors or Alaskan: Oatmeal Stout, Pale, IPA, White, Amber, and some other type that I forget. I have the amber, and so does Molly. My companion and Mike have a scotch. I forget all about eating, my main concern is beer and interesting conversation.
As I am talking to Mike and Molly, there is a window that is behind them. All of a sudden a huge moose goes walking by the window. It startles me, and everyone sees it, so they look out and exclaim how weird that is. The bartender Shawn, says that happens several times a day. Several beers turn into many beers for me. I stick with beer only, but the rest hit the Tequila and pretty soon we are having drunk conversations. We bid them farewell and best wishes. I am too buzzed to write my blog, so I am writing it the next day. This place has internet so I will upload later. I cannot wait to try out the relaxing hot springs.
I spend a little time organizing my crap in LC and then we head north up the road. The road is crazy. Up and down the mountains. The road goes straight up and down the other side of these hills. It is like driving a roller coaster. The road, when paved is not that smooth, and there are plenty of wheel bending potholes. The truckers are not as common this morning, so driving is easier from that aspect. We see a bunch of hunters scoping out the valleys. The only wild life that we see is a porcupine, a quail and a couple of bunnies. I think everything else is dead and in some dudes freezer.
Coldfoot is our destination for breakfast, and we will make a determination on continuing up to Prudhoe Bay or head back into Fairbanks. I was not sure what to expect from Coldfoot, being so remote. When we found it, the parking lot was a mud mess. The building was not exciting; it had a porch and a couple of rooms for eating. One of the areas was marked “Truckers Only”. It was empty at first and it quickly filled up. We had the Coldfoot buffet, which was actually not that bad. I had some meat and eggs casserole, some bacon, a sausage, some eggs, rye toast, hash browns, cottage cheese and sliced fruit. Looking at that list, it sounds like I ate a ton, I actually did not. I more or less sampled most of the items that looked appealing to me. They cooked pancakes and French toast if you asked them. Not a bad spread. I would recommend that anyone coming through should stop here for food.
We are both very tired, but willing to drive north as long as the road is in good condition. We know that LC can make it up there no matter what, but sometimes the risk outweighs the reward. I do not want to hurt her. There is a pass that we would have to go over, called Atigun Pass and the Milepost says that it is treacherous. We start talking to some hunters and they are about useless. I talk with the waitress and she is really nice but does not know what the road conditions are. She knows that it snowed up on the pass and people were having trouble getting over the pass yesterday. A man tells us that motorcycles cannot make it, but he does not know much more than that. I finally hit the jackpot and start talking with a guy that works for the D.O.T. He says that we could make it over the pass from the looks of LC, but it would be slow and we might get stuck. I tell him about the shocks and he then says that he would not recommend that we go north. The road would beat us up and without a good suspension he thinks we might have trouble.
The decision is made for us. We came too late in the year. We did not bring chains for the pass. But hey 259 miles north of Fairbanks is a respectable northern destination. We both probably had about 6 cups of coffee trying to make that decision. We learn about a Visitor center in Coldfoot so we gas up and head over there. On our way I make a note of the exact spot where I went furthest north. Someday I will be back and my goal will be to go further. I am not that bummed, in fact I am excited that I was able to make it this far.
The Visitor center is really nice. It looks like a lodge and is fairly new. It has all sorts of cool displays about the boreal forest that surrounds us. We read up on how the permafrost affects the trees size, and the landscape around us. We then talk to the rangers about where we should spend the next couple of days. We know that we do not want to spend our time in Fairbanks. They recommend Manley or Chena hot springs. Chena has a better resort so we decide that is where we will spend the next two days.
The drive back down the Dalton is uneventful. It is rough, and there is no wildlife at all. The pipeline is cool, the mountains are awesome, and we are quiet because we are exhausted. In the city of Fox, my companion buys a six pack and we make the 60 mile drive out to Chena hot springs resort. The resort is not exactly what we expected, but we get a room with twin beds. The last cheap room, boy are we lucky, the other rooms are $500 a night. We spread our crap out in the room and go outside to a bench to have a beer. Pretty soon we are surrounded by people talking to us about Alaska. Some guy tells me about the virtues of absinthe and how clear headed he is when he drinks is. He actually tells me this twice. It is pretty cool meeting people.
I meet a couple named Mike and Molly. They are flying out tomorrow and need to drink all of their beer, so we decide to help them. They both grew up in Tennessee and moved to Jackson Hole Wyoming last year. They work at banks and earn enough to take trips to places in the U.S. After we finish their beers, we head to the restaurant so that we can have dinner. Hey there is a bar in the restaurant so we belly up with our new found friends. On tap is 6 flavors or Alaskan: Oatmeal Stout, Pale, IPA, White, Amber, and some other type that I forget. I have the amber, and so does Molly. My companion and Mike have a scotch. I forget all about eating, my main concern is beer and interesting conversation.
As I am talking to Mike and Molly, there is a window that is behind them. All of a sudden a huge moose goes walking by the window. It startles me, and everyone sees it, so they look out and exclaim how weird that is. The bartender Shawn, says that happens several times a day. Several beers turn into many beers for me. I stick with beer only, but the rest hit the Tequila and pretty soon we are having drunk conversations. We bid them farewell and best wishes. I am too buzzed to write my blog, so I am writing it the next day. This place has internet so I will upload later. I cannot wait to try out the relaxing hot springs.
Alaska 2009 - Day 5
New pictures have been uploaded to here.
I awoke to a pounding on my window. I have to be honest, it scared me. But, it was just my companion waking me up. He was awake because the neighbors woke him up. Plus it was real cold. Heck I was cold. We broke camp quickly and headed out. We wanted to get coffee on the road, so we headed to Beaver Creek, a little spooky lodge\motel. The gas was expensive and so was the coffee, oh well I am on vacation.
We asked for a pen because ours had run out of ink and we needed to update our log. The lady said that she could not give us one and she did not have any to sell. I think that she must have been American because she was not as nice as Canadians have been so far. We used the pen and returned it to her pen hoard collection.
On the road again, Delta Junction is the destination. We hit the city of Tok and decide that we need to supplement our coffee with a little food. Fast Eddy’s is the place. Nifty name and actually a pretty neat place. I have the Alaskan Benedict, I was expecting hollandaise, and got country gravy. It had the ham, but was on a biscuit. Isn’t that just biscuits and gravy? I also ordered a side of reindeer sausage, to try the local cuisine. The sausage was good, but the benedict was boring. My companion had a reindeer omelet. It was also boring. We notice that we have cell coverage so we call home to let people know that we are alive and that LC is doing great. Actually I think that she loves it up here. She looks great with bugs and dirt all over her, like a real safari vehicle.
Delta Junction became a gas stop and trinket shopping. We decided that we can make Fairbanks but we are curious about getting new shocks for LC. We stop at two places in town, there is actually only one place that is still functional, and they cannot get us in today. I call several places in Fairbanks and they cannot fit me in until next week. I guess LC keeps her current shocks. Off to Fairbanks.
As we come into the suburbs of Fairbanks I make the call to take a ferry home. I call and reserve the last spot on a ferry from Haines. It is expensive, but it is something I want to do. Oh well I guess I am on vacation. I did splurge and get a cabin on the boat, my wife actually suggested that I get one. A few minutes after the call we hit the North Pole, the city not the actual pole. There is a big Santa, and some crap shops that we bypass. Now I can say that I have been to the North Pole. But it is not something that I should be proud of.
When we hit Fairbanks we are a little disappointed. It is kind of a hole. We quickly make the decision to head up to the Dalton and make it to the Artic Circle to camp, for the night. Getting to the Dalton is a little confusing but we meander through Fox and Livengood, and finally hit the Dalton. Immediately it is apparent that this drive is going to be rough. It has recently rained up here and the road is muddy. We have been lucky and not seen any rain so far. Besides being muddy the truckers really haul butt down this road. To be safe we pull to the side every time that the truckers pass us. But even this is questionable because the shoulder is really soft and easy to slide down an embankment. LC is tough but it would not be fun to get her out of that mess. The speed limit is 50 mph and I find it hard to drive over 40. The road beats the crap out of us and then we hit a pavement part, and then back to dirt again. I am white knuckling the whole drive.
It is slow going but we make it to the Yukon Junction. The bridge over the Yukon is really cool, and the small town is a double wide and a garage for truckers. This town is a First Nation town, and it is really interesting. The people here are rugged; I meet a man with a bandoleer of bullets and a pistol on his hip. He looks the part of a gold panning expert. There is a woman selling furs, she looks like a trapper. We get gas and some coffee and swallow several bugs as we stand in 2 inches of mud. The bugs are bad here. It must be because we are so close to the mighty Yukon River. I have seen the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Columbia, but this is something special. This huge river is surrounded by big mountains; it is really impressive that a river of this size is in between these mountains.
On the way out we see several other trucks pass us and they all have dead Elk or Moose. There are so many that it kind of makes us sick. I am not against hunting, but this seems like a slaughter. Again, the road is rough and then paved for a little bit but with tons of frost heaves. After awhile we reach the Artic Circle. The three of us (me, my companion and LC) get our picture taken by the sign. Camp is around the corner.
We get to the campground and there is nobody here. Really there is nobody. The campground is not even finished being built, and we have the place to ourselves. It is kind of spooky. We light a fire and eat some food. I then start the file transfers to the portable hard drive. Then bam, it gets really cold. My companion retires to his tent. Right now I am sitting next to the fire by myself and I am freezing. I am thinking of bed, because it will be warmer. I am looking for the Aurora Borealis but it is not here. I guess I should warm myself by the fire and hit the sack. I am thinking that the town of Coldfoot is as far as we will go, but we will figure that out in the morning.
I awoke to a pounding on my window. I have to be honest, it scared me. But, it was just my companion waking me up. He was awake because the neighbors woke him up. Plus it was real cold. Heck I was cold. We broke camp quickly and headed out. We wanted to get coffee on the road, so we headed to Beaver Creek, a little spooky lodge\motel. The gas was expensive and so was the coffee, oh well I am on vacation.
We asked for a pen because ours had run out of ink and we needed to update our log. The lady said that she could not give us one and she did not have any to sell. I think that she must have been American because she was not as nice as Canadians have been so far. We used the pen and returned it to her pen hoard collection.
On the road again, Delta Junction is the destination. We hit the city of Tok and decide that we need to supplement our coffee with a little food. Fast Eddy’s is the place. Nifty name and actually a pretty neat place. I have the Alaskan Benedict, I was expecting hollandaise, and got country gravy. It had the ham, but was on a biscuit. Isn’t that just biscuits and gravy? I also ordered a side of reindeer sausage, to try the local cuisine. The sausage was good, but the benedict was boring. My companion had a reindeer omelet. It was also boring. We notice that we have cell coverage so we call home to let people know that we are alive and that LC is doing great. Actually I think that she loves it up here. She looks great with bugs and dirt all over her, like a real safari vehicle.
Delta Junction became a gas stop and trinket shopping. We decided that we can make Fairbanks but we are curious about getting new shocks for LC. We stop at two places in town, there is actually only one place that is still functional, and they cannot get us in today. I call several places in Fairbanks and they cannot fit me in until next week. I guess LC keeps her current shocks. Off to Fairbanks.
As we come into the suburbs of Fairbanks I make the call to take a ferry home. I call and reserve the last spot on a ferry from Haines. It is expensive, but it is something I want to do. Oh well I guess I am on vacation. I did splurge and get a cabin on the boat, my wife actually suggested that I get one. A few minutes after the call we hit the North Pole, the city not the actual pole. There is a big Santa, and some crap shops that we bypass. Now I can say that I have been to the North Pole. But it is not something that I should be proud of.
When we hit Fairbanks we are a little disappointed. It is kind of a hole. We quickly make the decision to head up to the Dalton and make it to the Artic Circle to camp, for the night. Getting to the Dalton is a little confusing but we meander through Fox and Livengood, and finally hit the Dalton. Immediately it is apparent that this drive is going to be rough. It has recently rained up here and the road is muddy. We have been lucky and not seen any rain so far. Besides being muddy the truckers really haul butt down this road. To be safe we pull to the side every time that the truckers pass us. But even this is questionable because the shoulder is really soft and easy to slide down an embankment. LC is tough but it would not be fun to get her out of that mess. The speed limit is 50 mph and I find it hard to drive over 40. The road beats the crap out of us and then we hit a pavement part, and then back to dirt again. I am white knuckling the whole drive.
It is slow going but we make it to the Yukon Junction. The bridge over the Yukon is really cool, and the small town is a double wide and a garage for truckers. This town is a First Nation town, and it is really interesting. The people here are rugged; I meet a man with a bandoleer of bullets and a pistol on his hip. He looks the part of a gold panning expert. There is a woman selling furs, she looks like a trapper. We get gas and some coffee and swallow several bugs as we stand in 2 inches of mud. The bugs are bad here. It must be because we are so close to the mighty Yukon River. I have seen the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Columbia, but this is something special. This huge river is surrounded by big mountains; it is really impressive that a river of this size is in between these mountains.
On the way out we see several other trucks pass us and they all have dead Elk or Moose. There are so many that it kind of makes us sick. I am not against hunting, but this seems like a slaughter. Again, the road is rough and then paved for a little bit but with tons of frost heaves. After awhile we reach the Artic Circle. The three of us (me, my companion and LC) get our picture taken by the sign. Camp is around the corner.
We get to the campground and there is nobody here. Really there is nobody. The campground is not even finished being built, and we have the place to ourselves. It is kind of spooky. We light a fire and eat some food. I then start the file transfers to the portable hard drive. Then bam, it gets really cold. My companion retires to his tent. Right now I am sitting next to the fire by myself and I am freezing. I am thinking of bed, because it will be warmer. I am looking for the Aurora Borealis but it is not here. I guess I should warm myself by the fire and hit the sack. I am thinking that the town of Coldfoot is as far as we will go, but we will figure that out in the morning.
Alaska 2009 - Day 4
We both knew that Day 4 was going to have to be a day of hard driving. We have spent too much time finding the things that we did not pack, and fixing the problems along the way. I figure that we have lost about a day’s worth of traveling just dinking around. I awoke a little cold, must be because of the wind coming off of the lake directly at us. I spent a little time marveling at how beautiful our site was, and then I began breaking down camp. This awoke my companion and we both hustled to get moving, we needed a hard day’s drive to catch up. No hot coffee, just day old warm coffee from the thermos.
As we head down the highway we are moving away from the Rockies and heading more west than north. Signs say watch for buffalo on the road. Yes, real wild buffalo that roam the area. I have seen buffalo before in Yellowstone and on a ranch in North Dakota, but never a free roaming buffalo. So I was not expecting to see anything, I thought that they were almost extinct. Around a corner we see a funny looking rock, turns out it was a big bull buffalo, we cannot stop because of the cars behind us. We are both a little disappointed that we could not stop and watch him. We motor on, and as we come over a hill, there sits a whole heard of buffalo. In the road, and on both sides of the road. There are young ones and then there are the huge ones. I get some pictures, but they are from the car. I am too scared to get out because they are so close. We spend some time watching them and head on our way. It is not too far down the road that we see two that are dead. It looks like somebody has hit them. Man that must have messed up their vehicle.
We begin a decent down out of the Rockies and we see a bunch of clouds in the valleys. Pretty soon we are in the clouds and we cannot see anything. The windshield is wet with bugs from yesterday and the moisture from the clouds. We drop our speed to about 25mph for about 30 minutes because we really cannot see anything. This happens off and on for awhile, and is a little frustrating. We are in a beautiful area and we cannot enjoy it.
Running low on fuel we stop at a gas station that has the old school gas pumps. Not the real old school ones, but the kind where you watch the numbers go by on a wheel. They gas is the most expensive that I have seen. We have been paying about $1.089 per liter, and this gas is $1.499 per liter. We do not have much of a choice and we fill up. The attendant says that they have coffee and they will fill up my thermos. We fill up the Stanley thermos and I buy a couple of overpriced memories. Now for more driving.
We cross into the Yukon Territory at around 10:30am, take some pictures and head to Watson Lake. They have this cool place called the Signpost Forest. The forest started back during the creation of the Alaskan Highway when soldiers started adding signs with mileage to their hometown on the post that showed distances to local towns. This morphed into people bringing signs from their town and posting them on the trees surrounding. Now the area has posts(not trees) where people from all over the world bring their hometown signs to put up. It is really amazing how many there are. The closest that I find to home is Everett and Mont Lake Terrace.
Now on to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. We drive and drive some more. We stop in Teslin for gas, barely making it, and wondering if the guy really did fill our tank because we should be getting about 50 more miles out of LC. Oh well, more gas and a quick tour of a museum of stuffed wildlife. The coolest thing there was a picture of two Moose skeletons with their horns locked. The skeletons were in great shape, and the picture was in black and white. It looked old. The Moose had died because their horns were stuck together. Then we looked down and there were the horns, still locked and attached to the skulls. Pretty wild.
We arrive in Whitehorse and fuel up. No more pushing the size of our gas tank. We hit the Visitor center, and find out that there are two places with wifi. We choose the coffee shop. We luck out and after five minutes we have a table with power. All of our electronics come out and we charge them. I spend some time posting the last two days writings and begin the frustrating upload of pictures. It seems that Skydrive (MSFT online storage) does not work in Canada. I get some weird error and then it kicks me out of the upload. I fiddle with it and I lose my patience. I go over to google and use their online photo share, like I did for my trip to China. I do not like to use the competitor’s product, but I am stuck. While uploading I instant message my wife at work. For some reason our phones do not work here. People are talking on phones, even the same phone that I have, but mine does not work, no signal. IM will have to do. I tell her that I am fine and more importantly, LC is doing great.
I spent entirely too much time on the wifi, drinking coffee and having a Panini. We must now bust butt and get more miles. We need to hit 600 miles so that we can be in Fairbanks tomorrow. Leaving Whitehorse, the roads immediately get worse. They are bumpier and pitch LC from side to side. I want to get new stiffer shocks. Maybe if I have time I can get them in Fairbanks. The drive is pretty flat and there is not much to see. It looks like the drive to Mt. Rainier, but just a lot longer. The trees and other flora look the same. We find the campsite, it is around 10:00pm, but it is still light out. It is also really cold, so we decide to push on. The next camping place is 80 miles ahead, which will bring our total miles today to 682, not bad with a 75 minute stop for internet access.
Remembering the words of the Whitehorse gas attendant; yes they all want to pump my gas, either I am a celebrity or this is Oregon, whatever it is, it is stupid. Back to the attendant, in response to my inquiry as to how long it is to Fairbanks, he told me to grab a couple of beers, find a couple of whores, watch for porcupines on the road, they come out at night, and I will be there in no time. The beer and whore comment made me think the guy was pulling my leg about a porcupine popping my tire. Guess what, the porcupines are huge up here. We see one on the road and it is about the size of two five gallon buckets. Heck yeah they will blow your tires. I guess we should have grabbed some beers and whores because I would now be in Fairbanks. Instead, I am in a campground that is nothing special (as far as I can see in the dark) writing about my days adventures. Man this is a great trip. Alaska tomorrow, and then Fairbanks and prep for the Dalton.
As we head down the highway we are moving away from the Rockies and heading more west than north. Signs say watch for buffalo on the road. Yes, real wild buffalo that roam the area. I have seen buffalo before in Yellowstone and on a ranch in North Dakota, but never a free roaming buffalo. So I was not expecting to see anything, I thought that they were almost extinct. Around a corner we see a funny looking rock, turns out it was a big bull buffalo, we cannot stop because of the cars behind us. We are both a little disappointed that we could not stop and watch him. We motor on, and as we come over a hill, there sits a whole heard of buffalo. In the road, and on both sides of the road. There are young ones and then there are the huge ones. I get some pictures, but they are from the car. I am too scared to get out because they are so close. We spend some time watching them and head on our way. It is not too far down the road that we see two that are dead. It looks like somebody has hit them. Man that must have messed up their vehicle.
We begin a decent down out of the Rockies and we see a bunch of clouds in the valleys. Pretty soon we are in the clouds and we cannot see anything. The windshield is wet with bugs from yesterday and the moisture from the clouds. We drop our speed to about 25mph for about 30 minutes because we really cannot see anything. This happens off and on for awhile, and is a little frustrating. We are in a beautiful area and we cannot enjoy it.
Running low on fuel we stop at a gas station that has the old school gas pumps. Not the real old school ones, but the kind where you watch the numbers go by on a wheel. They gas is the most expensive that I have seen. We have been paying about $1.089 per liter, and this gas is $1.499 per liter. We do not have much of a choice and we fill up. The attendant says that they have coffee and they will fill up my thermos. We fill up the Stanley thermos and I buy a couple of overpriced memories. Now for more driving.
We cross into the Yukon Territory at around 10:30am, take some pictures and head to Watson Lake. They have this cool place called the Signpost Forest. The forest started back during the creation of the Alaskan Highway when soldiers started adding signs with mileage to their hometown on the post that showed distances to local towns. This morphed into people bringing signs from their town and posting them on the trees surrounding. Now the area has posts(not trees) where people from all over the world bring their hometown signs to put up. It is really amazing how many there are. The closest that I find to home is Everett and Mont Lake Terrace.
Now on to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. We drive and drive some more. We stop in Teslin for gas, barely making it, and wondering if the guy really did fill our tank because we should be getting about 50 more miles out of LC. Oh well, more gas and a quick tour of a museum of stuffed wildlife. The coolest thing there was a picture of two Moose skeletons with their horns locked. The skeletons were in great shape, and the picture was in black and white. It looked old. The Moose had died because their horns were stuck together. Then we looked down and there were the horns, still locked and attached to the skulls. Pretty wild.
We arrive in Whitehorse and fuel up. No more pushing the size of our gas tank. We hit the Visitor center, and find out that there are two places with wifi. We choose the coffee shop. We luck out and after five minutes we have a table with power. All of our electronics come out and we charge them. I spend some time posting the last two days writings and begin the frustrating upload of pictures. It seems that Skydrive (MSFT online storage) does not work in Canada. I get some weird error and then it kicks me out of the upload. I fiddle with it and I lose my patience. I go over to google and use their online photo share, like I did for my trip to China. I do not like to use the competitor’s product, but I am stuck. While uploading I instant message my wife at work. For some reason our phones do not work here. People are talking on phones, even the same phone that I have, but mine does not work, no signal. IM will have to do. I tell her that I am fine and more importantly, LC is doing great.
I spent entirely too much time on the wifi, drinking coffee and having a Panini. We must now bust butt and get more miles. We need to hit 600 miles so that we can be in Fairbanks tomorrow. Leaving Whitehorse, the roads immediately get worse. They are bumpier and pitch LC from side to side. I want to get new stiffer shocks. Maybe if I have time I can get them in Fairbanks. The drive is pretty flat and there is not much to see. It looks like the drive to Mt. Rainier, but just a lot longer. The trees and other flora look the same. We find the campsite, it is around 10:00pm, but it is still light out. It is also really cold, so we decide to push on. The next camping place is 80 miles ahead, which will bring our total miles today to 682, not bad with a 75 minute stop for internet access.
Remembering the words of the Whitehorse gas attendant; yes they all want to pump my gas, either I am a celebrity or this is Oregon, whatever it is, it is stupid. Back to the attendant, in response to my inquiry as to how long it is to Fairbanks, he told me to grab a couple of beers, find a couple of whores, watch for porcupines on the road, they come out at night, and I will be there in no time. The beer and whore comment made me think the guy was pulling my leg about a porcupine popping my tire. Guess what, the porcupines are huge up here. We see one on the road and it is about the size of two five gallon buckets. Heck yeah they will blow your tires. I guess we should have grabbed some beers and whores because I would now be in Fairbanks. Instead, I am in a campground that is nothing special (as far as I can see in the dark) writing about my days adventures. Man this is a great trip. Alaska tomorrow, and then Fairbanks and prep for the Dalton.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Alaska 2009 - Day 3
Day 3
Okay so I have to say this: “The Canadian Rockies are spectacular” But, More on that later.
We woke up, and felt pretty good that we were not in someone’s back yard. We were a little unsure about where exactly we were staying. I turns out that the campground that we were looking for was just down the road from where we stayed. But of course we did not figure that out until we were on our way out.
Our first objective was to get gas and then find the visitors center to figure out where we can get the blinkers fixed. We were both a little unsure about how accurate the gas gauge is, and we rolled into Dawson’s Creek below the empty line, 256 miles on the trip odometer. Dawson’s creek looks like a northern town, everybody drives dirty trucks. And when I say everybody drives a truck I mean it, they all do. As we drive around town we stumble upon the Mile 0 marker. This is the start of the Alaskan Canadian Highway. Pictures taken, we move on. The visitor’s center has two museums, but we just need to find an auto repair shop so no time to learn… bummer. The lady helping us was super nice, and I purchased a couple of trinkets as souvenirs. She sent us to the Toyota dealer.
With highlighted map in hand, we make our way through town to the Toyota dealer. They explain that they are too busy to take us this morning, but they can get us in later in the day. We give out sob story about how we want to be moving on. Then the nice lady begins to start calling around town. The calls go like this “Hey Derek, I have some guys that are having trouble with their electric system on their 1982 Toyota, can you fit them in for me?”, “No, okay thanks. See you soon.”, next call; “Hello, Marvin?”, yes it is Linda, I have some guys in here with electrical problems and they need to get them fixed as soon as possible, can you fit them in this morning for me?”, Yes alright I will send them on over. Oh hey can you tell Steve that we had a nice time on Saturday?”, “Thanks, bye hon.” Seriously every Canadian we have met so far has been super nice.
Marvin’s Muffler (he does other work) shop is found. It was not too hard. Everyone is standing around talking cars and smoking. My kind of place. Marvin comes out and greets us with a hand shake. He has us pull in and Steve begins working on LC. He lets us poke around and soon enough we are all chatting about politics, how Americans take all of their energy (oil, gas, wind energy) and how Canadians are too lazy to protest. Their words not mine. The discussion moves to weather, with a wind chill it gets to 50 degrees below and snow drifts as high as a one story house. Anyways for the next two hours we chat. They ask us to break with them as they smoke, we talk more and finally the problem is found. A wire was pinched when the front bumper was put on. The wire had been rubbing and it finally wore though enough to short the fuses out. LC fixed and my pockets $60 lighter (I think a really good deal), we head on down the road. It is now 11:30am and we really need to make up some time.
It is 283 miles to Fort Nelson, so we need to stop for gas along the way. We lay out the plan and drive. It is definitely colder, the trees are smaller, and there is a bunch of Aspen, and Spruce trees that line the road. The road is rough and windy, bot over all good. 230 miles down the road we begin looking for the gas station, it is not there. We keep driving and it is not there. We look at our maps and there is nothing until Fort Nelson. Whoops how did we miss the gas? We missed it. I guess we will need to cut the tie down that holds the gas cans to the roof rack. (Yeah we put the strap on wrong and the only way to get it off will be to cut it off.) Lets push it and see what happens… 256 goes by… we see signs of life. 260 comes and we see more life and finally 268 we hit a Fort Nelson gas station. What the heck. With a little deduction we later determine that the speedometer is off and we are actually traveling farther then the trip odometer is saying.
Fort Nelson is interesting; it is a giant strip mall like town. Everything is on the main drag and is a part of a strip mall. Apparently it did not even have electricity, Fresh Water and phone until the late 1950’s. It became a village in 1971 and a city in 1987. All because of a large gas find. Of note, I used to be the original Mile 0 during the construction of the highway.
Just out of Fort Nelson, we see a lot of logging trucks. I am driving, when all of a sudden a rock flies off of a logging truck. This was no small rock; it was a little bigger around than a quarter. I know because I thought it was going to hit me. It smashed the center of the window, but up high, right behind the rear view mirror. It hit so hard that glass flew into us. I cussed, and the said “my wife is going to kill me”. Wow the smash is big. I always knew that I was going to have to get another windshield, but not so soon. Oh well.
As we keep on driving the roads worsen, but the scenery gets better. Much of the road is dirt or freshly laid dirt and oil. I am not sure what it is called [edit: it is called chip seal], but it is not good until lots of people have driven it. Then suddenly our first Caribou sighting. I get some pictures. Then the Rockies emerge, holy cow they are he and they are just rock. No trees just rock. And did I say huge. They are amazing, you see them and you feel insignificant. You can see the strata, you know that these Mountains are old, and have been pushed up for millions of years… you can just see it. It is so evident. Bam, then two more Caribou, and then a herd of Stone Mountain goats, special to this part of the country. Animals are cool to see, but they are nothing in comparison to the Rockies. The mountains look like huge pyramids. You just feel small.
We finally make it to our destination, Muncho Lake. Yes I said Muncho, with an ‘n’, not Mucho or Macho. I am not sure where the name came from, but our campsite is right on the lake. We have a fire, transfer files around and then bed. Right now I am sitting in my sleeping bag looking out the back window at the lake (10 feet away) with an almost full moon, shinning over the mountains on a calm lake. The fire has died down. This is incredible. My dreams cannot top this. G-night.
Okay so I have to say this: “The Canadian Rockies are spectacular” But, More on that later.
We woke up, and felt pretty good that we were not in someone’s back yard. We were a little unsure about where exactly we were staying. I turns out that the campground that we were looking for was just down the road from where we stayed. But of course we did not figure that out until we were on our way out.
Our first objective was to get gas and then find the visitors center to figure out where we can get the blinkers fixed. We were both a little unsure about how accurate the gas gauge is, and we rolled into Dawson’s Creek below the empty line, 256 miles on the trip odometer. Dawson’s creek looks like a northern town, everybody drives dirty trucks. And when I say everybody drives a truck I mean it, they all do. As we drive around town we stumble upon the Mile 0 marker. This is the start of the Alaskan Canadian Highway. Pictures taken, we move on. The visitor’s center has two museums, but we just need to find an auto repair shop so no time to learn… bummer. The lady helping us was super nice, and I purchased a couple of trinkets as souvenirs. She sent us to the Toyota dealer.
With highlighted map in hand, we make our way through town to the Toyota dealer. They explain that they are too busy to take us this morning, but they can get us in later in the day. We give out sob story about how we want to be moving on. Then the nice lady begins to start calling around town. The calls go like this “Hey Derek, I have some guys that are having trouble with their electric system on their 1982 Toyota, can you fit them in for me?”, “No, okay thanks. See you soon.”, next call; “Hello, Marvin?”, yes it is Linda, I have some guys in here with electrical problems and they need to get them fixed as soon as possible, can you fit them in this morning for me?”, Yes alright I will send them on over. Oh hey can you tell Steve that we had a nice time on Saturday?”, “Thanks, bye hon.” Seriously every Canadian we have met so far has been super nice.
Marvin’s Muffler (he does other work) shop is found. It was not too hard. Everyone is standing around talking cars and smoking. My kind of place. Marvin comes out and greets us with a hand shake. He has us pull in and Steve begins working on LC. He lets us poke around and soon enough we are all chatting about politics, how Americans take all of their energy (oil, gas, wind energy) and how Canadians are too lazy to protest. Their words not mine. The discussion moves to weather, with a wind chill it gets to 50 degrees below and snow drifts as high as a one story house. Anyways for the next two hours we chat. They ask us to break with them as they smoke, we talk more and finally the problem is found. A wire was pinched when the front bumper was put on. The wire had been rubbing and it finally wore though enough to short the fuses out. LC fixed and my pockets $60 lighter (I think a really good deal), we head on down the road. It is now 11:30am and we really need to make up some time.
It is 283 miles to Fort Nelson, so we need to stop for gas along the way. We lay out the plan and drive. It is definitely colder, the trees are smaller, and there is a bunch of Aspen, and Spruce trees that line the road. The road is rough and windy, bot over all good. 230 miles down the road we begin looking for the gas station, it is not there. We keep driving and it is not there. We look at our maps and there is nothing until Fort Nelson. Whoops how did we miss the gas? We missed it. I guess we will need to cut the tie down that holds the gas cans to the roof rack. (Yeah we put the strap on wrong and the only way to get it off will be to cut it off.) Lets push it and see what happens… 256 goes by… we see signs of life. 260 comes and we see more life and finally 268 we hit a Fort Nelson gas station. What the heck. With a little deduction we later determine that the speedometer is off and we are actually traveling farther then the trip odometer is saying.
Fort Nelson is interesting; it is a giant strip mall like town. Everything is on the main drag and is a part of a strip mall. Apparently it did not even have electricity, Fresh Water and phone until the late 1950’s. It became a village in 1971 and a city in 1987. All because of a large gas find. Of note, I used to be the original Mile 0 during the construction of the highway.
Just out of Fort Nelson, we see a lot of logging trucks. I am driving, when all of a sudden a rock flies off of a logging truck. This was no small rock; it was a little bigger around than a quarter. I know because I thought it was going to hit me. It smashed the center of the window, but up high, right behind the rear view mirror. It hit so hard that glass flew into us. I cussed, and the said “my wife is going to kill me”. Wow the smash is big. I always knew that I was going to have to get another windshield, but not so soon. Oh well.
As we keep on driving the roads worsen, but the scenery gets better. Much of the road is dirt or freshly laid dirt and oil. I am not sure what it is called [edit: it is called chip seal], but it is not good until lots of people have driven it. Then suddenly our first Caribou sighting. I get some pictures. Then the Rockies emerge, holy cow they are he and they are just rock. No trees just rock. And did I say huge. They are amazing, you see them and you feel insignificant. You can see the strata, you know that these Mountains are old, and have been pushed up for millions of years… you can just see it. It is so evident. Bam, then two more Caribou, and then a herd of Stone Mountain goats, special to this part of the country. Animals are cool to see, but they are nothing in comparison to the Rockies. The mountains look like huge pyramids. You just feel small.
We finally make it to our destination, Muncho Lake. Yes I said Muncho, with an ‘n’, not Mucho or Macho. I am not sure where the name came from, but our campsite is right on the lake. We have a fire, transfer files around and then bed. Right now I am sitting in my sleeping bag looking out the back window at the lake (10 feet away) with an almost full moon, shinning over the mountains on a calm lake. The fire has died down. This is incredible. My dreams cannot top this. G-night.
Alaska 2009 - Day 2
Alaska 2009
Day 2 – 2009-08-30
My sleeping arrangements are great, I have a twin mattress in the back of LC, my -15 degrees sleeping bag, a micro-fleece liner and a blanket. Plush huh? I went to bed with just the blanket, thinking that would be enough. It was for what I think was a couple of hours. I then grabbed the liner, and slept a little longer. A couple more hours pass and I am breaking out my sleeping bag. Ahh.. much better.
I woke up at my normal time of 5:59am, one minute before the proverbial alarm clock that never seems to wake me up because I am awake before it goes off. It is light out and I start the coffee. I love making coffee when camping. The percolator is relaxing to watch. My companion was cold, but not enough to keep him complaining for very long. I guess the tent must have been cold. The campground is nice and after the cups and thermos are filled, we are off.
Our morning destination is the Williams Lake visitor center. The Milepost says that it is a cool building. Guess what? It is. We arrive 15 minutes early, and they let us in anyway. Canadians are very nice and welcoming. We grab a couple of nice lounge chairs and plug in our electronics. I transfer Day 1’s video to the portable hard drive, access the internet and update my facebook. I send the mail to my family and friends with my blog address and my picture store. We have a toasted bagel, buy the touristy stuff. I then chat with the staff for awhile. Apparently to the west is being evacuated because of a very large fire, but it will not impact us going north. So we are good. What a cool place.
On the road again we read that Prince George is our next stop and it is the 4th largest city in BC. We want a quick release for the video camera to allow us to remove the camcorder and adventure outside of LC quickly. We then drive around (literally) Prince George for the next 2.5 hours. Apparently Canadians do not know it but Future Shop has gone out of business, because they have one still up and running. They do not have what we want, but the store reminds me of the good times I used to have in Future shop in Bellevue. We finally find what we want in London Drugs. The lady helping us is really cool and goes way out of her way to help us. I told you Canadians are really nice. We stop at the PG boy [picture to come] on our way out of town, yeah touristy but what the heck.
By now our dawdling has eaten up most of our day. We need to make a run for Dawson’s Creek. All that driving in town without the blinkers is nerve racking. We make a pit stop for food and head north. As we head out we start noticing the dead lodge pole pines. We have both heard of the spruce/ lodge pole pine beetle problem, and I have even seen some of the damage in Washington. The farther north we go the worse it gets. 8 out of 10 trees are dead. Yes standing dead, black and contrasted against the younger live trees. Something needs to be done about this. It is shocking about how much it has impacted these forests. I recommend looking this up and getting informed. I have no idea what to do about it… actually I have an idea, lets bioengineer a bug that only feeds on the beetle, is sterile and only lives for 3 months. Then let’s air drop these bioengineered bugs all over these forests. Okay that is extreme and maybe we should just let nature do what it will. Or maybe we have messed with the environment so much that it is unrecoverable. I just wish I knew more. I guess I will look it up when I get internet back.
We buckle down and drive. We have a goal and it looks like our destination is about 50 miles south of Dawson’s creek. Close enough and tomorrow we can get an auto shop to look at the blinkers. As we near our destination, there are several homes and lots of signs on the road to watch for Moose. I stare ahead and I see something, it darts across the road and almost looks like it jumped across the road. What the heck? As we pass by it is a guy on a dirt bike. Yes, he jumped almost the whole highway. I now know what they do for fun up here.
The GPS is set and as we get closer we do not see our campground, no signs or anything. The milepost says we are here, but there is no provincial campground. We drive 5 more miles and nothing. We turn around and look for it. Nothing, it does not exist. Now we have a problem. We will not make it to Dawson’s Creek without breaking into the spare gas, and we have no place to camp, and it is almost dark out. We find a secret dirt road…. Shhh, there are houses. We get closer to the river and find an abandoned fire pit. This looks good enough. We setup camp, quietly. Then proceed to copy Day 2’s video to the portable hard drive. Now to watch that dude jump the highway… he is there, just too blurry to see. Oh well bed time after a beer. One beer and I am beat and off to bed. Wait I need to type of the days journal. I will upload when I get internet. I am done after this period.
Day 2 – 2009-08-30
My sleeping arrangements are great, I have a twin mattress in the back of LC, my -15 degrees sleeping bag, a micro-fleece liner and a blanket. Plush huh? I went to bed with just the blanket, thinking that would be enough. It was for what I think was a couple of hours. I then grabbed the liner, and slept a little longer. A couple more hours pass and I am breaking out my sleeping bag. Ahh.. much better.
I woke up at my normal time of 5:59am, one minute before the proverbial alarm clock that never seems to wake me up because I am awake before it goes off. It is light out and I start the coffee. I love making coffee when camping. The percolator is relaxing to watch. My companion was cold, but not enough to keep him complaining for very long. I guess the tent must have been cold. The campground is nice and after the cups and thermos are filled, we are off.
Our morning destination is the Williams Lake visitor center. The Milepost says that it is a cool building. Guess what? It is. We arrive 15 minutes early, and they let us in anyway. Canadians are very nice and welcoming. We grab a couple of nice lounge chairs and plug in our electronics. I transfer Day 1’s video to the portable hard drive, access the internet and update my facebook. I send the mail to my family and friends with my blog address and my picture store. We have a toasted bagel, buy the touristy stuff. I then chat with the staff for awhile. Apparently to the west is being evacuated because of a very large fire, but it will not impact us going north. So we are good. What a cool place.
On the road again we read that Prince George is our next stop and it is the 4th largest city in BC. We want a quick release for the video camera to allow us to remove the camcorder and adventure outside of LC quickly. We then drive around (literally) Prince George for the next 2.5 hours. Apparently Canadians do not know it but Future Shop has gone out of business, because they have one still up and running. They do not have what we want, but the store reminds me of the good times I used to have in Future shop in Bellevue. We finally find what we want in London Drugs. The lady helping us is really cool and goes way out of her way to help us. I told you Canadians are really nice. We stop at the PG boy [picture to come] on our way out of town, yeah touristy but what the heck.
By now our dawdling has eaten up most of our day. We need to make a run for Dawson’s Creek. All that driving in town without the blinkers is nerve racking. We make a pit stop for food and head north. As we head out we start noticing the dead lodge pole pines. We have both heard of the spruce/ lodge pole pine beetle problem, and I have even seen some of the damage in Washington. The farther north we go the worse it gets. 8 out of 10 trees are dead. Yes standing dead, black and contrasted against the younger live trees. Something needs to be done about this. It is shocking about how much it has impacted these forests. I recommend looking this up and getting informed. I have no idea what to do about it… actually I have an idea, lets bioengineer a bug that only feeds on the beetle, is sterile and only lives for 3 months. Then let’s air drop these bioengineered bugs all over these forests. Okay that is extreme and maybe we should just let nature do what it will. Or maybe we have messed with the environment so much that it is unrecoverable. I just wish I knew more. I guess I will look it up when I get internet back.
We buckle down and drive. We have a goal and it looks like our destination is about 50 miles south of Dawson’s creek. Close enough and tomorrow we can get an auto shop to look at the blinkers. As we near our destination, there are several homes and lots of signs on the road to watch for Moose. I stare ahead and I see something, it darts across the road and almost looks like it jumped across the road. What the heck? As we pass by it is a guy on a dirt bike. Yes, he jumped almost the whole highway. I now know what they do for fun up here.
The GPS is set and as we get closer we do not see our campground, no signs or anything. The milepost says we are here, but there is no provincial campground. We drive 5 more miles and nothing. We turn around and look for it. Nothing, it does not exist. Now we have a problem. We will not make it to Dawson’s Creek without breaking into the spare gas, and we have no place to camp, and it is almost dark out. We find a secret dirt road…. Shhh, there are houses. We get closer to the river and find an abandoned fire pit. This looks good enough. We setup camp, quietly. Then proceed to copy Day 2’s video to the portable hard drive. Now to watch that dude jump the highway… he is there, just too blurry to see. Oh well bed time after a beer. One beer and I am beat and off to bed. Wait I need to type of the days journal. I will upload when I get internet. I am done after this period.
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