Driving

I had good weekend with some short visits with friends. Just spent one evening in San Francisco with Meredith and Ardian. After spending way too much time trying to find a place to park we mostly hung out at their place and went out for dinner. The next morning I headed down to L.A. to visit with Cody and Jennifer. After visiting for a while and eating some awesome pumpkin soup Jennifer made, they had to split for a concert. I went nearby and walked around, went to some bookshops and ate at a ramen restaurant. Since I've never been to L.A. before the next day Cody took me for a driving tour around neighboring Hollywood, Burbank, Studio City, Beverly Hills, etc. Later that evening we all went to see No Country for Old Men.

Monday morning I headed out and drove East starting to make my way back across the country. My favorite thing I saw today was either the truck on the interstate engulfed in flames or the car in front of me that drove off the on-ramp and down the hill. Also I paid less that $3 for a gallon of gas for the fist time in 3 months. It was only 1/10th of a cent less than three dollars though.

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day volunteering. An easy day. I cleaned the house and went to the Southern Operations Center for the potluck Thanksgiving lunch. I'm off to San Francisco and Los Angeles this weekend to visit with friends before heading back.

Weekend

A couple of the volunteers and I took a day trip to Crater Lake last weekend. Here are a few pictures.













































































Someday I may make a proper panorama of it.








We also went to a cookout at the home of one of the permanent employees, no pictures though. Salmon dip, elk steaks, deer burgers and indian bread was ate, crazy neighbor met, traditional made indian tools, weapons, and baskets examined, assault rifle passed around (loaded with safety off), fun had.

A Few Recent Photos

Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle. If you watched Twin Peaks the falls and the lodge were in the opening credits.















The waves are getting big (15 ft.?) after a couple of big storms this weekend.





















A barn near the NPS maintenance facility.
















Today on the Boy Scout Trees Trail

Bad Idea No. 7,384,485

Back when I was in Lake Tahoe I saw a guy order a pitcher of beer and a clamato juice and proceeded to mix them together in a glass. I've never heard of such a nightmare concoction. Seemed just terrible enough to have to try someday.

Clamato is what it sounds like, tomato and clam juice.

Not long after that I saw Budweiser and Clamato for sale together in one can. Every convenience store in California seems to sell it. In record time it went form drink I had never heard of to being prepackaged and for purchase in stores. I put it off as long as I could. This weekend I decided to try it, even though I don't like tomato juice. It tastes like weak fizzy tomato soup that contains 5% alcohol. I managed to drink about 4 oz. of the 24 oz. can. I'm sure it will go the way of Bud Dry soon enough.

Northern Exposure

As you can probably deduce from the photo I took a trip north. Way north. Beyond Arctic Circle north.

Flew into Fairbanks with light snow falling on a Saturday. The first snow of the season to stick. Went for a walk around town on Sunday with more gray skies and light snow. Nothing was open. Except for the visitor's center which one assumes would inform you of all the places that weren't open.

I did find one gallery that was open and a Korean restaurant for lunch.

Early on Monday the tour van came around for me and others booked to head north to Coldfoot, 55 miles above the Arctic Circle, for the next 3 nights. There was John and Jane from New Zealand. Larry from southern Mississippi and his son Adam who lives in Oakland.

To get to Coldfoot you head north on the Dalton Highway. A road built 30 years ago with the sole purpose of getting supplies to the oil fields at the Arctic Ocean and to build the oil pipeline. The pipeline is often in view from the road. How fast does the oil flow through? At the speed of a million dollars per hour. The light snow that was on the ground all the way since Fairbanks disappeared from the ground at the Arctic Circle. Go figure. But once we hit the Brooks Mountain Range and Coldfoot the snow was back.

Tuesday we went further north for a ride up the highway to the north end of the Brooks Range. Beyond there is just flat open tundra. On the way we passed the latitude where trees can no longer grow. The sky was actually clear on the north side of the range. Another 184 miles and we would have hit the ocean.

That night we went to Wiseman, a subsistence village with a population of about 13. It's been there since the early 1900s but the road to it was built just in the 90s. We went to meet and talk to Jack. He is a trapper and bush pilot as well as representative/liason for small neighboring village's concerns and to relay them to the state of Alaska. The sky cleared during the night and around 1 a.m. the Northern Lights finally showed themselves. Not the most intense display but good enough to satisfy me. Finally got in bed around 4 a.m.

The last full day there I walked around the the river, creek, pipeline, and airfield around Coldfoot. The night was clear but a faint glow behind the mountains was all the Aurora Borealis could muster.

The next day I got to fly back to Fairbanks with a bush pilot from the airfield. The temperature never got higher than the mid twenties and won't reach above freezing for another 6 months. Glad I wont be around to experience -60 Fahrenheit.

Some more pics from Alaska are here.

More pictures from the hill

This defunct building has a catwalk on all four sides at the top and a very large siren. The radar(s) have been removed from the roof. Inside there is lots of peeling paint, lead based I'm sure, and banks of antiquated monitoring equipment with many dials and buttons, plus a track on the second level ceiling for moving heavy equipment around. And this awesome sign…















Then there is the inside of this building…