British Columbia Scenic Drive

WE MADE IT!!!

I was right about Karma, my perserverance was rewarded with a smooth trouble free trip home. I wanna thank everyone who supported me and even the many that doubted I could make the trip, it only makes success that much sweeter! 3,800 Miles, 7 Days, 6 Nights, what a trip.

The Ballad of the Red Dragon

Tomorrow I leave Denali for the great unknown. The Red Dragon is prepped and primed for adventure. I feel its necessary to write a brief account of the drama that I've been through with this car.

June 28th: Purchased that car after hitchiking 249 miles to Anchorage. She ran great.

July 16th: Drove to Anchorage in route to Homer. Car got exceptional gas mileage :)

July 17th: Leaving Anchorage after filling up the car could barely climb the hills. Soon the car began to overheat, we realized that at this rate we wouldn't make it to Homer ;-(

July 18th: Figuring it was bad gas I drained the tank and swapped the fuel filter. No improvement still down on power and overheating.

July 20th: After much research I figured the cause of heat and power loss was due to obstructed exhasut i.e. a bad catalytic converter.

July: Cat finally came in the mail. No man was strong enough to loosen the old cat and remove it. Then we realized it would have made no difference, the aftermarket cat was too long. I went back to the drawing board (www.rx7club.com) to search for some answers. I discovered that lack of power is commonly due to a throttle cable thats slipped from its mount. I ran out to the car to discover that very problem, eureka! I took the car for a short jaunt to realize I've fixed nothing.

July: I never understood the ignition wiring on this car (rotary engines are completely different than piston engines) so I read up on that. I found that my wires we're wired wrong! I swapped them out and went for a short jaunt. Finally I solved the problem.

August: I deduced that on the Kenai trip I had indeed swapped plugs wires when I got the bad gas. With the poor performance from the tainted gas I didn't realize I had set the plugs wrong. ...Solving car problems is akin to murder mistery, I'm serious!

August: Johnny backed the company van into my car parked outside work. Wow I can't catch a break. Flawless exterior no more ;-(

August: Found that my oil cooler line (unique to rotary engines) was failing so I order and replaced that, after some bloody knuckles success!

Sept: After a 300 mile trip to the Chena Hot Springs I was feeling very confident about making it to Chicago. Inspecting the radiator I noticed a metal flange that held the radiator shroud was bent out of shape. I gingerly tapped the metal flange back into shape. With a look of horror on my face I watched green fluid oozed from the flange. I had made a hole in the radiator. With a failed radiator I wouldn't be able to get more than 50 miles ;-(

Sept: I frantically talked to everyone and each person gave me the same solution; a epoxy called J Weld may patch the hole. It had to work because there was no way I was going to be able to sell a sports car in winter in Alaska nor would I be happy about ordering and waiting for a new radiator to arrive.

Sept: A local friend came over with some J Weld and we put the first layer one. Later I put two more coats on. The J Weld cured rock hard, eveyone was confident I would have no trouble. With two days left before my planned departure I went on a 50 mile ride to retrieve my friends wallet from the bar. Car ran exceptionally well again, more importantly no bleeding radiator :-)

At this point I'm ready for anything. I feel that I've had enough bad car Karma in Denali that the trip will be nothing but good car Karma, it would only make sense right? We shall see. Next post will be Canada and the Lower 48...

ZONE 18: Mother Natures Wrath and Beauty

This pic was taken at the Eilson vistor center before we left for Zone 18. This is a pair of bull moose antlers locked together which ultimately caused their demise.

River crossing at the start of the 3-day trip. There are no bridges in Denali and drowning is the number one cause of death here. Not too deep luckily but boy is glacial water cold.

Night one camp. That night the rain started and it didn't let up for 2 days. My overpriced mountaineering gear which was once a source of ridicule soon turned to envy. Luckily I loaned Tyler my old Marmot shell which kept his core dry but his pants we're another matter...

It was wet and cloudy on day two but the beauty was still to be admired. Also a large golden eagle flew by before I could snap its picture.

Day 2: After a full day of hiking in the rain we desperately needed to get some shelter. I found a gully (as the Irishman would say) and stretched our tarp across it for a temporary shelter so we could cook and get our thoughts together.

Tyler was especially miserable in his blue jeans. We knew he did not have the appropriate clothing to head up the steep snow covered Anderson pass so we decided to camp out and leave the next day. Hypothermia was a real possibility at this point. Lesson learned: Gore-Tex does work, and jeans can kill you!

It was cold, wet, and windy, we became very resouceful.

That night we set up camp at 4:30pm and didn't get up till 6:00am. It was a long time in the tents but to be warm and out of the rain was the name of game.

Day 3: The next morning we hiked back the long journey to the park road. Amazingly by noon the clouds had lifted and the sun shined brightly.

A once in a lifetime spiritual encounter, a lone shewolf trots cooly before us as we stare on wide-eyed. I could nearly reach out and touch her she was so close, we couldn't have been more exicted. Our early departure turned out to be a blessing.

***Not shown here was Tyler releaving himself as a bear approaches. I shouted at the old griz and he took off. Thats the second time that has happened! Last time it was Emmet taking a number 2 in Zone 10 when hes spotted a bear mid drop and had to run. Never to be forgotten!***

View from the road before a park bus picked us up to take us on the looong 6 hour ride back to the the park entrance.

The fall colors are jaw-droppingly gorgeous in Denali. Every green willow and scrubby bush becomes a shade of firey red and flaming orange. The aspens follow suite by turning yellow and the all the tundra looks like a surrealist painting.

Mt. Healy Hike

Kelsey and Jenna at the base of Mt. Healy. Less than a week and these two are going home ;-( It's crazy how fast the time has gone by.

Rainbow arching over the Alaska range.

Here I am laying in a bed of tundra that has turned brilliant red signaling the end of summer. Soon all the mountains will be swathed in hues of red, yellow, and orange. Fall is short and brilliant, I can't wait to capture it on film. We didn't make it to the summit but 4 hours of hiking was long enough for a after work excursion. Just enough hiking to build and appetite for taco night. I think I'm one of those hike to eat people, but whats wrong with that?

Culinary Creations and those Bountiful Blueberries

Blueberries like this are ev-er-y-where!




After we finished the pie Jenna posed with it and almost spilled the whole thing on the floor. It was recovered and devoured. I did the crust and baking while the friends did all the berry picking.

Sooo delicious, I couldn't get over it. Who thought'd I'd become such a chef up here? Served it up with butter pecan ice cream, mmmm.

My most recent culinary masterpiece: Blueberry cheesecake. Just as much a success as the pie. Berries were even more ripe and tasty than before.

"I never liked fruit pies until I baked them myself, I guess what turned me off was that fakey pie filling that stores use, go natural and you'll never go back."

- Chef Nate

Dry Creek Jug Band - Cookin' For My Lady Campfire Performance

Return to the White's Cabin

After a wonderful night at the a dinner theater production we hiked up to the old cabin. On the entrance to the trail we saw this threatening sign. We were a little nervous because its actually getting dark here and these woods are thick! Fortunately our group was noisy enough to ward off this "agressive bear."

Here's a shot of the old stove in the cabin. We thought it would be nice to have a fire crackling but it turned out to be waaaay too much heat. I have no doubt this guy would keep you warm in the winter

Here we found a geocache. Didn't know what it was till we found it: "Geocaches (also called just "caches") are the key playing pieces in the sport of geocaching. The object of geocaching is to find these caches, which vary widely in shape, size, and appearance. Some are are placed in obvious locations, while others are hidden in maddeningly obscure ways." - wikipedia

This is a view of the valley from the cabin. You can see some of the smoky haze covering the mountains. Locals say this have been one of the smokiest summers in a long time. I could post a picture of the thick smoke I saw in Fairbanks but it would just be a gray square.

Savage River to Dry Creek Torture Hike '09

The idea behind this hike was to take the park bus to the savage river and then bushwack to dry creek which would bring us back to our camp in Healy. Last year two girls tried the same hike and infamously got lost. There was a $100,000 search party effort and it made a lot of rangers weary about park employees going out into the backcountry. Well we made it in one day; 12 hrs of nonstop hiking cause we're that good. Here's the news story from 2008 Rescuers Reach Two Missing Hikers in Alaska Park.

Rare find! You don't see Dall Sheep horns because unlike antlers which are shed annually, horns are kept for life. Looks like hungry bear or wolf had his way with this Dall.

BAD GAS FOILS KENAI ADVENTURE!

So we didn't make it to Homer. We we're flying down to Anchorage and got awesome gas mileage until we filled up to head down the peninsula. Thats when she started running poorly so we had to turn back but we made the most of it.

Lookin' sharp even when she's down on her luck.

Grizzly Prints on the beach!

The ocean can be seen here as it meets the mountains. Locals say the this Alaskan fireweed tells us when summer is over. The plant flowers from the bottom up and drops its pedals, when they're all gone winter is around the corner.

The following day we rode the park bus to the end of the line and got a rare peak at "the mountain." Not shown was the awesome grizzly bear fight on the park road. It was straight out of the "Grizzly Man" movie. Luckily no bears were hurt.

I love seeing these trucks around town that have custom cabs to hold all your sled dogs. License plate reads: "SLDDGS"

Born to bake?

One of the great things about being up here is that I have time to practice many crafts, I guess I'm a real Renaissance man. And guess what it turns out I'm pretty damn good at baking! Everything is made from scratch and I'm fraid to admit I'm getting pretty cocky about my abilities. I've made some dank wild crow berry muffins, blueberry pancakes, frosted brownies, and homemade pizza.

Natures Architect: The Beaver

Did you know that Beavers are monogamous and mate for life? Or did you know it takes a beaver 20 minutes to cut down a 6 in Aspen? Or how about their specialized digestive system with colonies of microorganisms in their intestines that digest up to 30% of the cellulose from the tree bark and other woody material they eat? Boy, beavers are fascinating. They are so industrious and driven, I wonder how all these beavers know to stick to the family business and not get a liberal arts degree. Yup, they're wise.

Alaskan Wildflowers

Circle of Life

Here's my pal Emmet with his first kill. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "oh poor rabbit." But if you eat meat than you need to put your money where your mouth is. I believe anyone who eats meat should have a chance to see the whole process on how that meal gets to the table. I found that the process of hunting game for meat is much more humane and respectful then buying a Big Mac and McDonald's.

With that being said, we felt a little tinge of sadness for the big hare. From an environmentalist standpoint the hare population in Alaska this year is out of control, the Ranger was joking that tourists should be given rifles to hunt out all these snow shoe hares because they're eating everything in sight! We joked "Save a Moose, Kill a Hare." We did our part. I've also had a chance to try reindeer and moose. Moose steak is delicious, give it a try when in Rome.

The final result looked beautiful! The meat was overcooked and veggies undercooked but hey we're bachelors and it was very tasty. I know Grandma would be proud. Next on the menu will be ptarmigan, should taste like chicken.

Nate + RX-7 = Sports Car Heaven

So after roughly 10 years of being an armchair rotary enthusiast I have my very own Mazda Rx-7. Sure the 93-95 model is sexy and supercar fast but how practical and affordable does that sound right now? No I wouldn't have it any other way the old 1st generation Rx-7 is the most popular, reliable, and lovable. I could go on and on about the virtues of this car but that'll bore 90% of my viewers. So much fun, and after driving the 250 miles from achorage to Healy I feel confident that she can go all the way to Chicago. P.S. Alaska plate are way cooler than any other plates.

Here I am posing in front of the ill-fated Igloo Hotel. This lonely monument is the only stop on a 100+ stretch of the Parks Highway. Legend has it that the hotel never opened for business do to its snow-like foam cladding. It never passed fire inspection so now it sits here for tourist photo ops like this one.

Talkeetna rocks!

Took a detour on the way home from Anchorage and stopped in Talkeetna. This is the town that inspired "Northern Exposure." It's actually more fun and quirkier than the fictitious town of Sicily, Alaska. It was great to stroll the old main st and talk to all the warm friendly people. It reminded me alot of Mycanopy, Fl. If youre driving down the Parks Highway you gotta stop in.