When You Get to a Bend in the River, Stop

The river would be the Deschutes and the bend would be Bend, OR.

Tons of breweries, restaurants, outdoorsy denizens, restored artsy/fartsy downtown, wealthy retirees from southern CA/Seattle/Portland and a whole lot of folks doing the minimum wage work for the tourists...oh yeh, and lots of tourists. Traffic in this town of 80,000 was horrendous and don't get me started on the parking.

Bend was also extremely warm with daytime highs over 100 which necessitated our need for a legit RV park with full hook ups for AC. We heard the Crown Villa RV Park being recommended as the best park in Bend and it was OK...I need to preface that brief review by saying we're not fans of most RV parks and this one was no exception. But man, that AC felt good when trying to get some sleep at night. Besides we didn't spend much time around the park as we were out and about in Bend doing things so it worked well for us.

Stayed 2 nites and hit the town which was a lot of fun with fine dining and a sampling of the many breweries scattered around the area. Our favorite was the Deschutes Brewery boasting a decent restaurant with comfortable ambience, very nice repaste.

On our last nite there we spent a couple of hours at the Bend Brewfest held in the shadow of the Deschutes Brewery alongside the river at the Les Schwab Ampitheater...for those not familiar, Les Schwab is a chain of tire stores in the NW and apparently ole Lester is doing just fine.

The brewfest went great with 137 breweries represented, most of which were smaller start ups trying to get their businesses going. We sampled some great beers, listened to the music and mostly people watched - one of our most fav-o-rite things to do. The crowd was friendly, laid back and all happy to be enjoying a summer evening drinking beer and relaxing next to the beautiful river. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and glad we went. I guess they have lots of these during the summer but I must say it was well attended (long lines to get in when we left around 9 PM) and very well done...a good deal for sure.

We found Bend to be a wonderful place that has been seriously discovered by outsiders. In talking with locals they certainly lament the passing of the good old days and are trying to adjust to the influx of wealthy newcomers to town...in a word, hipsters. I can understand, there's not a whole lot of diversity in Bend these days. But for the casual visitor spending a few days it's a lot of fun - not sure I could live there though. Although having breathtakingly beautiful mountains with hiking/biking/skiing mere minutes away and the rapids and waterfalls of the Deschutes River running thru town with kayaking/floating/fishing is appealing.

Here's the weird thing, in going back thru my photo files I have none, zip, nada from Bend...interesting, guess we were too busy doing things to take any photos.

So in order to add some photos for this post let's move on to our next stop at Crater Lake, OR.

We heard the campsites at Crater Lake NP fill up fast so we made reservations at the Mazama Campground for Sunday and Monday nites. We left Bend on Saturday so that left us open for that nite to find a nice spot. About 5 miles from Crater Lake is a drop dead gorgeous spot called Diamond Lake and we checked into the campground there around noon. Debbie suggested we rent a boat for the day so we did, great call cruise director! We putzed around the perimeter of the lake and had a lot of laughs on a bright sunny afternoon under the watchful gaze of active volcano Mt. Thielsen.

Here's Debbie under the crown of magnificent Mt. Thielsen...

El Capitano at the helm....

Next morning I biked the lake trail which goes around Diamond Lake, packed up and headed into Crater Lake NP and set up in the Mazama Campground at the south end of the park, nice camp with sites affording much privacy and quiet, more our speed.

Crater Lake was formed about 7700 years ago after the mountain/volcano Mt. Mazama had her final send off with one enormous eruption. The eruption was so massive it emptied the magma chamber below her core and the resulting caldera collapsed due to its weight and no support beneath. Perhaps the most studied and least understood volcano in the world her caldera collapsed in a matter of a few days, maybe a month at the most. Lava poured down the hillsides at over 200 miles per hour, every living thing within it's path was vaporized in minutes and ash from the blast has been recently discovered in ice cores from Greenland. 50 cubic MILES of material was ejected from her innards. They reckon it took about 400 years for the resulting cavity to fill with water although recent studies seem to suggest that during that 400 year span a long term drought had affected the region so some estimates say it might have taken 2000 years to fill.

The lake gets all it's water from annual precipitation that falls within the lake - no outside water from creeks, rivers, etc flows into the lake - this also makes it one of the purest/clearest bodies of waters in the world. Crater Lake receives on average 50 feet of snow each year which supplies most of the input to the water balance equation. The output is mostly evaporation from the lake surface - 26 sq miles - and some leakage due to cracks/fissures in the caldera but it is 80% from evaporation. Get this, the water surface level on average over the past 100 years has never changed more/less than 3-4 feet on a yearly basis. It is also the deepest lake in the US with it's deepest point at 1,943 feet.
And the color, my god, the color...the most striking blue you could imagine making it the most beautiful body of water I have ever seen. Honestly, I can't think of any nicer water body.


Did a sunrise walk up to Garfield Peak...great views of the lake.

Took an evening stroll down along Annie Creek...on those hillsides you're looking at 8000 years of erosion.

And on out to the Pinnacles...the hoo doos that you see are ancient vent tubes or fumaroles from prior eruptions. During an eruption gasses eminate thru these vents and chemically change the composition of the soil making them harder to erode than the surrounding material. Thus, the old vent tubes remain intact as pinnacles/hoo dos while everything else around it erodes away.

Remember back in Olympic NP I did a post on mythology vs science...well, here's another example for you to digest from Crater Lake.

The Legend of the Creation of Crater Lake:
The Chief of the Below World fell in love with Loha, the daughter of another Chief. He invited her to live with him in his home under his volcano (Mt. Mazama) and promised her eternal life free of sickness, sorrow and death. She thought about it and decided that spending eternity inside the bottom of a volcano with this a-hole wasn't such a good deal. No thanks Chief, I'll take my chances with someone else. His response to her spurn was to stand on top of the mountain threatening her people with a "Curse of Fire" at which time the mountains shook (pre eruption seismic activity), red hot rocks hurtled down (lava flow) and burning ashes fell like rain (airborn pumice at 2000 degrees F). Two brave medicine men from her tribe jumped into the fiery cauldron and upon seeing this act of bravery from his perch atop nearby Mt. Shasta (one hundred miles to the south), the Chief of the Above World caused the caldera to collapse to snuff out the Chief of the Below World. And to further keep the little shit from tossing anymore fiery rocks in the future, the Above World Chief caused many years of rain and snow to submerge his collapsed home/mountain under 2000 feet of water. There...that ought to fix the little bastard. Then years of peace filled the land and all was well in the kingdom.

Once again it seems Native Americans had it right. Although their explanation is couched in terms of spirits and legends, it is essentially an accurate description of what modern geologic study has determined. And as their legend has been passed down thru many generations and archaelogical evidence has confirmed their existence here at the time of the eruption, their ancestors were most certainly eye witnesses to this extraordinary event...pretty cool I say.

Now here's the interesting part - this legend was told to a couple of geologists back in the 1930's by local Native Americans. They conducted field studies and found that this legend of eruption, collapse of the caldera and eventual lake filling had a strong basis in scientific fact...it was also critized and deemed unlikely by the general scientific community at the time. After many years of research and scientific thought it is today the established and accepted theory on how Crater Lake was formed. I really love this shit, hope you do too.

One final thought...so, dear readers...what sayeth ye - science or mythology? I'm still in deep thought over this one, but let me tell you - it is one damned interesting question to ponder. Your comments and feelings about this would be most appreciated, I need some guidance here.

Live update - this just happened as I was writing this. An old guy was pulling out of his campsite in a HUGE Class A RV and I hear the painful crunch of tree branches and metal twisting. He must not have heard it becase he kept moving forward and the horrifying noise lasted for a good 30 seconds. I gave it a quick look and he managed to pull the entire back section of his motorhome off, you could see inside the bedroom - they had orangish colored (peach??) pillows. Holy crap, I feel so bad for this man but what can you do? Ah, the RV lifestyle, ain't it great? He'll get it figured out and with a lot of cash be back on the road in no time, whoo boy.
Some hours later it appeared that he had the necessary temporary repairs about him (duct tape and bailing wire) and rolled on down the road...McGyver lives on!! Whatever gets you down the road I say and but for the grace of God go we...how Irish am I?

Sorry, no pics guys - I didn't have the heart to pull out the camera, given the circumstances.

Nothing more interesting to report now loyal followers...stay tuned as we are now back home in the Golden State and southbound and down. On to Mt. Shasta and then Lassen Volcanic National Park - we're following the Volcano Trail...report to follow asap.

Slow Crawl Towards Home

You guys remember the Paul Simon lyric...'the nearer your destination, the more you're slip slidin' away'?
Well, he brings up a valid point.

We are now in central Oregon and I believe I could stretch this trip into another few months of travel and sightseeing but the closer we get to home the more anxious we are to get there. Not sure if this makes any sense to you kind followers but we have been on the road for a LONG time and we miss our loved ones.

Paul's slip slidin' part of the song relates to our desire to keep this great trip going but there is always the nearer your destination part that really tugs at the heart. You guys will never know the enormous help from many folks out there (loyal followers indeed) that have supported us and we will never be able to thank you enough - you know who you are...THANKS!
But none the less, the nearer the destination the more anxious we become.

You may say, hey Howard it's not the destination but the journey...and I would highly subscribe to that observation my friend. Our trip since May 1st has been remarkable - many times Debbie would ask "so where we off to today?" and my answer would be "where are we right now?". I always thought it to be very rude to answer a question with a question but so be it.
But as I sit here today and reflect upon it, not knowing where you are nor where you're going is quite liberating.

We are not planning to rush right home as there are a few things we want to see along the way but suffice it to say we're thinking another two weeks or so and our destination, home, will be nearer.
We left Oroville, WA on the Canadian border Sunday 8/14 and boogeyed our way on down to the Grand Coulee Dam. Waltzed thru the very well done visitor center and marvelled at the foresight our earlier generations had in making the Colombia River Basin the productive and economic region it is today.


The US gov't paid Woody Guthrie $266 to write a song within 30 days about the Grand Coulee Dam project...he wrote 26.
Roll on you mighty Colombia, roll on!

We posted up Monday 8/15 at the most peaceful Nottingham US Forest Service campground at the foot of Mt. Hood just a hundred clicks or so east of Portland. We spent a magnificent day alongside our campsite dipping our toes into the East Fork of the Hood River, soaking up the rays and happy to be together in such a beautiful spot.

So nice we decided to sit tight/loose for another day. I went biking down from the timberline on Mount Hood and mangaed to bite off more than I could chew. I mean these trails followed the ski runs and were mega steep, strewn with boulders, tree roots and downed trees...not my scene at all kind followers. Actually I have only myself to blame for the predicament I found myself in ...apparently I missed a very important directional sign along the way...crap, felt like I was on the trail for at least 2 hours when I prearranged to have Debbie meet me in one hour at the Summit Chevron in muy sympatico Government Camp, OR. Well shit, I missed Govie Camp by a good four miles! All right boy, get truckin' uphill on that yonder highway. I'll end the suspense for you...got to Chevron Summit at the planned and appointed time. How this happened I'll never know.


So earler as I'm up at the Ski Lodge inquiring about biking opportunites on the mountain, here's what I hear. Well sir, we have chair lifts operating but they are mostly for skiers and boarders, not bikers. Get right the hell out of Oregon, you guys are still boarding/skiing in the middle of August? Yes sir that's affirmative, only pace in the US of God Blessed A where you can ski/board in mid August.


I'm there, glacier skiing in August tomorrow morning...done and settled.
The skiing was, well, it was skiing in August and I'll leave it at that. The novelty of skiing on a glacier on August 17th wore off after my first 3 runs as I'm not much into slushing thru wet, heavy and sticky snow - I'm just not in shape to be moving lots of this heavy stuff around for more than about 90 minutes or so. It was quite fun while it lasted but became a bit of a chore rather than a delight after about an hour.

This is the only spot in the lower 48 states where you can ski year round so it is a popular spot for ski racers to practice off season. Most of the racers here are middle to lower echelon guys on a limited budget as the top racers who are well funded by the US Ski Team head to the Andes in South America where it is wintertime right now.

Got to talking to an up and coming racer on the lift who just finished his bachelors degree at Dartmouth - it took him 6 years because he had winter quarters off to ski. His Mom is Estonian, Dad is American so he holds dual US and Estonian citizenship and is trying to make the Estonian team for the 2018 Winter Olympics. He said his chances in making the US team are nil but he has a good shot with the Estonian team because he has trained with them and likes his chances. As he said, and it is so true, you get a spot on ANY Olympic qualifying team and all it takes is one spectacular run and you've got gold. Like I've always said, 90% of success in your life comes from simply showing up and taking a shot. Best of luck - believe his first name was Scott - and take a good shot at it my man.

OK, so then old tired ass legs hobbled back to the RV and we headed off on a 2 hour drive to really cool Sisters, OR to check out the town and explore the nearby 3 Sisters glaciers/volcanoes. Got a nice site at the City owned campground right in town and with my recently earned senior citizen status got the senior rate for $10 per nite...god, am I ever feeling like an old coot. Next thing you know I'll be hitting up the 4 PM senior dinner specials at Denny's with all the other old farts...just shoot me right now. I told Debbie if I get to that point, take me to the top of Sable Pass in Denali, lovingly place a bullet in my forehead and then kick my carcass over the slope down into the specially protected area and let the grizzlies finish me off.

Spent last evening sitting at an excellent viewing spot for the Sisters and made it an early night.

Here's Debbie hanging with her Sisters from another Mother.


Talk about a deer in the headlights...check out those eyes. Taken at twilight on top of McKenzie Pass, OR - almost ran the poor gal over, it was very close.


Off yesterday Thursday 8/18 to Bend, OR for a few days of restaurants, breweries and general merriment. We'll be attending the annual Bend Brewfest which is, from what we hear, a really big deal. I'm skeptical because I've seen the events listing for summertime Bend and it seems they have some sort of "annual" beer festival every weekend - sort of like Carlsbad, CA has an "annual" triathalon/bike race/10K run/marathon every weekend. I will of course lend a discerning eye to this whole affair just for you loyal followers...full report to follow.

On to Crater Lake NP this coming Sunday/Monday.

Later good folks, thanks for checking in and take care.

Adieu Alaska, Hello Yukon

Did you know that Yukon is a native Athabascan word that means "Land of the Crappiest Roads on Planet Earth"? Well now you do, hey you learn something new every day here on the North to Alaska blog pages don't you?
Geezus, I mean these guys aren't even trying. At least in AK you suffer thru the construction work areas but hell, they're at least out there doing something.

Apart from the crappy roads the Yukon is one spectacular place with very friendly people and a destination I would highly recommend visiting - just get a rental car or maybe a hoverboard, then relax and let the rest fall into place.

One of the things we wanted to do during our AK planning was to cross the Top of the World Highway from Chicken, AK to Dawason City, YT. The views were described as the most beautiful anywhere in the world...you know, one of those g'damn bucket list things some people covet. Well, this day was POURING down rain and we were driving thru multiple rainclouds, so no views. The only view I had was in my rear view mirror watching the Fit slinging side to side on snot slick, muddy and uphill 9% grades. We were crabbing up these hills with 1000' plus dropoffs on either side with no guardrails...what's the old maxim, turn in the direction of the slide? Whoo boy, what a freaking ride!

I shoulda taken a picture...the LD and Fit were totally blanketed, I mean EVERY square inch, with brown mud. I had gravel stuck in the rocker panels below the doors of the Fit...serious business I tell you. I will have to pop the rockers off when we get home to clean it properly.

OK, so Dawson City - beautifully preserved and rehabbed buildings from back in the gold stampede days but honestly they kind of blow it with jamming the touristy stuff in your face. Now I am totally for the local economy doing well off of the tourists but I have my limits. And we have been seeing this same theme carried on throughout our visit to Alaskan/Yukon cities - enough of the gold stampeders, we get it. I earnestly pray that this theme will continue to help the local economy but it just doesn't seem to be that sustainable to me, hopefully I'm wrong.



Situated alongside the mighty Yukon River we needed to cross a ferry to get to town, pretty cool and one raging river.
We went into town, poked around, got the vibe - then we left.


Ferry crossing the Yukon at Dawson City.

On down the road to Carmacks, YT where we checked into a legit RV park with full hook ups (FHU) and I washed the mud off the LD and Fit...there was NO way we were going down the road any further looking like shit. In fact, it's kind of a mark of respect up here in the Yukon to have a dirty ass car/RV - everyone would ask, 'you guys just getting here? Cause your rig looks way too clean'. Yeh, we just got here Yukon guy...leave me the hell alone but thanks for noticing just the same.

Our next stop was a blast from the past, Timber Point on Teslin Lake with the Clark family. They are located along the only 200 hundred mile section of the Alaska Highway that you must travel going north and south between Alaska and the south. Strange that they were not around but the park was open, we put our $20 in the slot and spent a lovely day on the beach, fishing and bagging some rays on a sunny day.
Pulled out first thing Sunday Aug 7th and headed to Liard Hot Springs.

Now we're heading south and getting into the Canadian Rockies and the wildlife sightings were spectacular...check these out. Probably the best of the trip so far.

Brown bears, they're juveniles so they have black fur but notice the brown noses. Their coats will lighten and go brown as they age.

Moose, spied this guy on the trail to the Liard hot springs.


As we were soaking in the hot springs got to talking with a regular visitor and he mentioned that the pools on the downstream end are about 100 degrees F and the upstream end are around 130 degrees. He further said, if you can make it all the way thru the upper pool the custom is to grab a rock from the cliffside and place it on the stack poolside. We watched as two older women did this and I saw the twinkle of challenge in Debbie's eyes - I'm doing it she says.

Here's a shot of her in the hot, hot water after placing her challenge rock...good thing her child bearing years are over with...man that water up there was extremely hot.

And, who woulda thunk it, buffalo! No kidding, here they are right next to us.


Finally, mountain sheep...these guys are called Stone sheep and are a subset of the Dall Sheep found in AK and the Bighorn sheep found in CA. They like to graze near the roadside where they eat the salt leftover from the winter roadway deicing operations...I found this quite interesting.

We found a very nice spot at Muncho Lake Provincial Park in the Strawberry Flat campground right on the lake where we swam, sunbathed and fished for two days.

We also had another equipment failure on the trip...Debbie's phone went south. It started with her on/off switch not functioning correctly so as we were driving down the road she tried to fix it. I'm driving so I'm sort of watching this repair operation peripherally and I notice her jamming a toothpick into the edges around the switch...oh no, this isn't going to end well. She was ready for a new phone anyway so just as well. Only problem is Verizon does not exist in Canada so she will be wire-less for another week or so until we get back to the US/Verizonlandia.
After a long couple of driving days thru Dawson Creek - Milepost '0' on the Alaska Highway - and Prince George, BC we stopped in Valmount, BC nestled at the foot of Mt. Robson the tallest mountain in  the BC Rockies. Driving down the highway I see a sign advertising a Golf Course and RV Park which got my attention. Pulled in, set up in a nice quiet and secluded spot and hit the first tee. Debbie drove the cart, I hacked it up and we had ourselves a fun time on a beautiful day.


Mile zero on the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC.
Not a lot to report other than we are now in Oroville, WA about 2 miles south of the border crossing at Osoyoos. Our plan was to spend a couple of days in BC's Okanagan Valley for some wine tasting but after arriving there the place was packed with summer vacationers and just didn't seem like a nice place to relax and enjoy ourselves so we hightailed it to the border. It was a beautiful drive thru the valley however and would be a great place to visit but not on an August weekend.

We're planning to take a couple of weeks in eastern OR/northern CA and then head home. Thanks for tuning in folks, more later from Bend, OR.
Take care.

We Ain't Leavin' Alaska Until We See.....

Hello fine folks, I'm still in blog catch up mode. I wrote this post a few days ago and have been waiting for available/decent wi-fi service to post with pictures. Enjoy....


As we were planing our trip about a year ago, we said to ourselves that no matter what we see, we ain't leavin' till we see the northern lights perform a dance for us...and just for us. As I have found out, this is a tall order to fill in the first couple of days in August as the northern lights don't really start sparking up until mid Octoberish. We were thinking maybe we need to extend the trip by a couple of more months..what sayeth ye dear readers, can you put up with another two months of this verbose dribble?

No need to worry, as we found ourseleves at about a mile high and in the shadow of dominating Mt. Fairplay at 5800 feet or so - I'm thinking, if we're gonna see the lights, a higher altitude above the low laying clouds might just work. My supposition was further confirmed by Debbie's investigation of the UofA Fairbanks website on northern lights viewing forecast - yes, they most definitely have this and it's cool as hell - google it. They rated tonight and tomorrow night a 5 on a 1 - 10 scale of viewing opportunites. Not bad I thought.

They base their forecast on many things but the key item seems to be sunspot/solar flare activity on El Sol. These sunspots generate  powerful solar winds that carry an enormous number of energized particles across the Milky Way. These particles from the solar winds are attracted to and accumulate at the Earth's polar regions due to the magnetic forces found there and give us the aurora's. When these negatively charged particles hit the positive magnetic forces at the Poles huge amounts of energy are released in the form of light ranging from pale green to red based on energy level and altitude. The lowest, and I mean the lowest elevation of the bottom of an aurora is 60 miles above Earth. These would be the greenish hued lights, the red hues are probably 150 miles or so above Earth...so if you see some red you are truly looking inside of the heavens.

The second ingredient to the forecast model is a dark and cloud free night sky. Here's the big downer for hopes of an early August viewing..it doesn't get dark here in August. But, the main thing is the sunspot activity and the forecast showed a strong indicator here for the next two nights. I'm ready, let's haul burro to a higher elevation to weed out the low clouds and take our chances...and so we did.

Posted up near Mt Fairplay, AK

Round about midnight I say to Debbie -  we haven't seen a star since we got to Alaska (the night sky stays too bright) and I suddenly spotted one....and there's another...Debbie spies another, cool - first stars we've seen in 2 months. It also seemed darker tonight than all previous nights here in AK, maybe this high altitude is helping? Dunno, it was weird. As we were focused on the night sky we see a hint of a light green flash in the northerly skies just to our right. Hmmm...it can't possibly be, can it...this early...no, we were just seeing things right? You know, since we wanted this so badly we thought our minds were talking us into seeing something that wasn't there.

At that precise moment the entire sky exploded with green and magenta light and stayed on fire for the next two hours!

Now the following still picture is the best I have and it does a disgrace to this majestic display but I attach for your consideration and general enjoyment anyway. In the picture you will see a blob of green light but when I took this photo the entire sky in my camera view window was filled with bright green. There is definitely a correct way to photograph these auroras and I ain't got it. Artificial light settings and shutter speed are key and I just don't have the right set up and skill to make it happen, sorry guys - but the photo ain't half bad. The best way to record these lights is a high quality video to see the mind boggling changes to shape, color, intensity and pure majesty these things put out...oh my God. The absolute best way to see them is to stand under them and be spellbound.
And to be captivated by this concerto of light at the start of my 60th year was a great gift that I didn't even have to unwrap or send any thank you notes for. A perfect night at the top of the world as Tom Petty chorused - "...and I...ain't....comin'.....down..." - just for us.


You need to click on this, sorry.

But Mr. Petty what goes up must come down so we left Mt. Fairplay noonish the next day as we needed a serious sleep in from our 3 AM viewing and dancing. We headed into the small mining camp turned tourist trap of Chicken, AK and got some food and cold drinks at the small cafe there. Permanent residents here number 5 during the winter and 8 during the summers. Got it's name because the miners wanted to call it Ptarmigan (pronounced tar - ma - gan with a hard g), which is a prolific bird up here that looks like a chicken and is as dumb as one too - but the poor old coots couldn't spell Ptarmigan so they named the place Chicken.


The bad part of all of this is that Chicken lies about 30 miles from the Canadian border which marks the end of our stay here in AK. We are really sad to be leaving because we have enjoyed ourselves immensely in this place. We have also learned and grown so much in these past couple of months and leaving is going to be hard to do.
But, for all the beauty and majesty we've seen it still doesn't come close to the beautiful and majestic family and friends we have and have missed. It will be great to get home and see everyone we've missed these past couple of months.
So, what to do on our last full day in AK? Let's go gold panning, see if we can find some nuggets to help underwrite the cost of this adventure. I am now convinced that the key to successful prospecting is to know what you're looking for.

Check out Klondike Kate staking out her mining claim on Jack Wade Creek, AK.


We've never been panning, always thought it was kind of hokey looking, but let me tell you we had grand time. Sun was hot, water felt refreshing, had a nice picnic lunch and a few beers and there's always that hope of a big nugget ending up in your pan. We borrowed pans from the camphost Bill here at the Walker Creek BLM campground where we stayed for 2 nites, he gave me a quick tutorial and off we went. We came back with what we thought were gold flakes but a panning expert camped next to us says nope, you got feldspar there. Feldspar? Does that sell at the same price as gold? Ah, no greenhorn, time for you to leave AK. Agreed.
Tomorrow August 5th we're physically off for the 3 hour drive over the Top of the World Highway (supposedly one of the gnarliest roads in the world) to Dawson City, Yukon but our hearts will stay here in AK...one helluva place.

Fairbanks and Fit to Be Tied

Sorry for the long lapse here, we've been doing fun things in remote areas so cell activity wasn't happening and we were keeping busy. I wrote this post well over a week ago. We are now in Dawson Creek, BC and should be back in the US this Sunday/Monday.

Well we made it to Fairbanks on Saturday July 30th which marks the terminus of our northward trek. From here onward we will be making our way south and east back home. Haven't yet mapped out the precise return route but we will be following a different course than the trip up here. Thinking of a more central Yukon/BC path and enter the US somewhere in eastern WA/ID and then down eastern OR thru the Bend, OR and Crater Lake area and then haul ass back down central CA (maybe Highway 395 thru Lassen/Tahoe/Eastern Sierra's?) to home. As details come together I will expeditiously update all of you, more later as they say.
So Fairbanks....meh.
We got to town and drove around to check out some in town RV parks and were not that impressed. Additionally, we had been listening to the weather reports on the radio and flash flood warnings were posted until Monday for the Chena River which flows thru the town center. And since the river corridor is the most scenic place in town, where do you suppose they sited ALL of the RV parks here? You got it, right by the rapidly rising river. We looked at one campsite and the pad level was just about even with the river water surface - maybe a foot or two of freeboard. Park operator said nothing to us about flood potential so we just moved on. Hope those guys stay high and dry. By the way, the flooding Chena River just about wiped out Fairbanks in 1967.
We hit the Freddies, gassed up and ventured about 70 miles north and east of Fairbanks to the popular Chena Hot Springs Resort, you know, to get a bit further up the Chena River drainage basin where the flooding potential may be lower.
Checked out the resort, it looked fine so we went in search of a boondock spot. Found a nice quiet, paved turnout about a mile away from the resort, unhooked the Fit and drove up for a nice long soak in the hot springs. Absolutely magnificent. The sun came out while we were in the pool and the hot water did it's magic.

Feeling all fresh and renewed we went back to camp and spent more indoor time to stay dry as the rain started up again.
On Sunday we left Chena Hot Springs and went into Fairbanks and checked out the fine Museum of the North on the Univ of AK campus. The campus is beautiful however, I kept imagining how it would look and feel come January. At the museum we watched a very well made movie on the northern lights - informative with eye catching videos and photos of the aurora. According to the movie I'm thinking our chances of seeing the northern lights this early in the season are slim to none. Apparently a dark sky is necessary to see these and it never gets dark enough in the summer for this to happen, makes sense to me. Yet one more good reason for a return visit here in the winter.
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This museum stuff had us a bit thirsty and peckish so we went in search of the Silver Gulch Brewery in nearby Fox, AK. Very good beer and tasty food within a well appointed restaurant which was packed to the rafters on a Sunday night.
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On the way back to town we got a close up look at the Trans Alaskan Oil Pipeline and walked around a bit to check it out.
If you're filling up your gas tank today consider this: the pipeline cost $7B to build in the 1970's and the construction debt was most likely serviced within 15 seconds. They have pushed so much crude oil thru this line since then it's hard to imagine it not being a great deal. Also, one of our Nation's largest petroleum reserves is located alongside the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay so it serves as a key national security asset as well.
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One of the greatest engineering and construction achievements of it's time, it gave birth to many of the advanced cold weather engineering standards in use today. Advances in structural engineering/analysis, soils engineering/foundation support in permafrost, environmental mitigation techniques, corrosion control and a host of other problems were solved and are now in widespread use today in both temperate and cold weather regions.
I spent about an hour or so poking around (you can walk right up to it and touch it), looking at the pipe joint welds, the flexible connections and the above ground radiators used to accelerate the heat transfer from the hot oil (100 degrees F) in the pipeline to the pipe supports to keep the permafrost from melting and causing a foundation problem for the pipeline. Certainly a very worthwhile stop and I enjoyed myself immensely.

We have an appointment at 9:15 AM Monday to have the Fit serviced at the Honda dealership in Fairbanks. So as we were driving thru town Sunday night after Silver Gulch and the pipeline, we saw the dealership and decided to boondock in their parking lot and do the service deal the next day.
I really hate dealing with dealership service operations - I have a bad feeling about this but mechanics are few and far between up here so I'll drop it off and see how it goes. I'll give them a day and if all is not well we'll take off and have it looked at by my mechanic when we get home. Fortunately it's nothing very serious and the car runs fine, just a bit of a nuisance to get it out of park. We can live with that for another month if we have to.

By the way, this Honda dealer is one of only two in the entire State of AK and I made my service appointment 10 days ago, the soonest time available - nice business model 'eh?
We're now (Monday Aug 1) posted up at the Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. This is a surprising little gem in the City center that was built as an Exposition in 1967 to celebrate the centennial of the US purchasing AK from Russia for $7M or about 2 cents per acre. It has beautifully maintained log cabins, churches, native art exhibits and mining equipment from back in the day.
We should have been on our way today but things with the Honda service went about as well as we expected. Dropped the car off Monday at 9 AM, got a call at 5 PM that all is fixed and ready for pick up. Show up, plunk down $225, drive the car a half a block and problem returns. To make a long saga short I finally got to the Service Manager Frank and he assures me everything will be corrected first thing tomorrow. Hearing his plan I am somewhat convinced that he can make this happen, we'll see. However it goes we are out of Fairbanks by high noon tomorrow.
At 8 AM Tuesday we schlepp on over to the Kendall Honda dealership and I share good mornings with the asst service manager Dean. So Dean, how we lookin'? Well the tech just got here and you're his second job this morning. Cool, I'll check back with you later. Now we have the LD parked about 100 yards from his desk and in a location giving us a perfect view of their back lot. As soon as I get back to the RV I see them drop my car off in the back lot and there it sat for 3 hours - I tell you, I'm a repair shops worst nightmare!
So I wander back over and say, Dean whassup? He's starting on it right now, OK great. Head back to LD and sure enough the Fit is now in the shop and as it turns out into the most expert hands of William (didn't catch his last name).
Dean calls me about 30 minutes later and said come on over William wants to ask you some questions. No problem, go in and talk to the mechanic William and he asks if I have a schematic from the shop that installed our aftermarket tow wiring harness. He further said that whoever did this work did a very clean install and it looked very good. He asked who installed this and I just gave him a big smile - he inquired, you did this? Very nice work Mr. Arnold - I said yeh me and my son Charlie wired her up during half time of a football game a couple of beers in. Then I said we couldn't have done that great of a job because it's not working worth a shit right now and he howled.
He then says I suspect the problem to be a short somewhere in the tow wiring harness which is an aftermarket item and something we are not allowed to touch. I saw his point, the repair shop could be on the hook for damaging someone's aftermarket expensive audio or alarm system so they just don't do it. I told him no big deal with me, the thing cost all of $75 and is easily replaced, but all the same I understood his position.
OK then William just go ahead and wrap it up and I'll live with it til we get back to SD. I could see the acrid taste of defeat on his face...he says, you know Mr. Arnold, I have NEVER been able to not fix a car problem and I'm bummed that this is my first.
So I head back to Dean and explain what's happening, thank him and then went to the Service Manager Frank, thanked him and told him how happy I was that William and Dean went the extra mile for me. Let's be honest, these guys know they'll never see me again let alone have me as a future customer...very professional outfit I thought.
So I'm waiting for the car and Dean comes out and says I've got good news for you, William fixed it and I'll let him explain when he gets back in from test driving it. William returns and hands me a component from the tow wiring harness and says I need to shitcan this thing cause it's shorting everything out. He explained everything and I told him I had suspected the harness all along but wasn't sure. So he says, yeh your wife was telling me you're an engineer so now I get how you understood everything I was talking about.
Hang on, you talked to my wife? Now Debbie has been completely out of this mess and no one at the dealership has seen or spoken to her. He says yeh I cruised over to your motorhome to tell you the good news but you weren't there so I talked with your wife. You knew we were in the motorhome back there? Yes Mr. Arnold, EVERYBODY in the shop knew you and your motorhome were back there. Sorry, was I that obvious?  Like I said, I'm a repair shops worst nightmare.
So good deal, the Fit is fixed but now I have a non operational tow wiring system - not good because the brake lights and turn signals on the Fit will not work while being towed due to the offending component that I had to trash. Off to find a replacement component. Very difficult, after going to two RV places finally ended up buying 3 pieces that I fashioned into a proper replacement.
With a little wire stripping, soldering and cussing got it all MacGyver'd in and it is working great...yes!! God do I hate electrical projects.
Like I said earlier, Fairbanks...meh.
We hit the road out of Fairbanks about 2 PM and ended up at the top of the world on the Taylor Highway later that evening around 8 PM. Boondocked at a nice roadside turnout on the eve of my 60th birthday.

OK, I can't wait to get this out... while boondocking Tuesday night Aug 2nd at the top of the world (Mt. Fairplay) just about smack dab between Tok and Chicken, AK, we were feted with a northern lights display that lasted for 2 hours. I need a couple of days to absorb this experience before I can begin to relate it to all of you. But, by God, right at the strike of midnight on my 60th birthday, a green/purple vertical streak of light started to our right and constantly changed form and intensity as it danced it's way across the heavens 180 degrees to our left...and this show of light energy continued until 2 AM. I'm at a loss for words right now. If you have a minute hit your Pandora key, listen to Tom Petty's "I've Got a Room at the Top of the World Tonight" and you'll get an inkling of how we felt. And yes, we listened to that excellent song as the skies went a dancin' for us. Absolute heaven on earth.
Peace out kind followers, more detail/pics on the aurora borealis in the next post, I promise!