The Quest

June 10 - 15, 2011

I finally arrived at Fairbanks, Alaska and established a base camp at the China River State Recreation Site to prepare for my trip up Dalton Highway (The Haul Road) to the Arctic Circle.

The campground host and his wife had spent two seasons up that way as hosts at another campground. What a treasure trove of information they proved to be for me.

My Achilles Heel was the size and load range of the tires on my canoe trailer so I rented a 10 X 25 mini storage unit for two weeks and put my trailer, canoe and extra gear in there.

I headed out on the final leg of my quest to the Arctic Circle the morning of June 15, 2011. Destination: Gobbler's Knob as suggested by the Campground Hosts.

June 16 -20, 2011

I arrived at Gobbler's Knob and set up camp atop it. Just how I did that; I will not publicly post. Suffice it to say, I had a lot of help from others. I spent the rest of the 16th and the 17th preparing for the shooting of the video of the summer solstice.

The start time would be about 1:00 am Alaska Time. All set for a test run. Then I turned on the computer. Outdoors with the daylight I had been searching for and all I could see in the screen was a reflection of myself, three days unshaven and ugly as sin.

Okay! Cover it with a small tarp and get on with it. WRONG!!! The mosquitoes and blackflies that the breeze had been keeping at bay took full advantage of the shelter provided by the tarp.

Are the bugs really that bad? YES! THEY REALLY ARE THAT BAD!

Tally for the battle:

BUGS WON

GEORGE ZERO

FAILURE!!! All that I can say is "I tried".

I spent the next 20 hours hauling my gear down to the Jeep. It was between 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 miles one way. I made it in 10 trips. The hardest part was the deep cycle marine battery for the inverter and the 1500 watt generator to recharge the battery with. I spent 5 hours on those two items alone.

Disgusted and Discouraged: I refuse to give up!

I set up the equipment there in the parking area with the computer in the Jeep. The compromise: manmade objects in the picture and no walking stick.

I started over with the test run. The weather was perfect. I ran the program for the first time with some technical issues and a few miscalculations on my part but I got some good shots.

The following night I set up again. I had worked through some of the technical issues and started earlier. I got some better results but the weather was less than co-operative.

Before the third night's attempt the rain had set in and I headed back to Fairbanks. I'm confident that I have enough material to put something together that I feel is respectable.

Back in Fairbanks the first order of business was a bath for the Jeep before the mud dried. It needed an oil change and I wouldn't do that to a mechanic. Thirty dollars later it was clean enough. It gets a new air filter too, regardless.

When I went to get a site back at the campground the host and his wife wanted to hear my stories. After that the conversation turned to the "Road". As the host says, "Pictures can't convey the experience. You have to drive it!" I told them that I drove it at 40 to 45 mph when the speed limit is 50. Parts are paved and they give you a false sense of security; frost heaves and pavement breaks at any point; loose gravel placed on top of the asphalt to smooth the potholes make it feel like you are driving on ball bearings. Uphill grades are bad and downhill even worse.

I shared the story of a pick-up truck with an ATV in the bed who was on my rear bumper and no place for me to pull over and let him by. He blew past me on a double yellow line then when he hit the next set of dips and pavement breaks. All I could see were brake lights as he tried to regain control. In the next ten miles he never gained more than one city block on me. The campground host's wife slapped me a big high-five as she laughed over that one.

The campground host finished by saying "You started out coming up here not knowing how you were going to do what you wanted to do. Now what you are taking away is a memory that you will carry with you to your grave. And somewhere, someone among your family and friends, 10 - 15 or even 20 years from now will say if that old man could do something like that then I can too!"

I have to say I think he is right. And to those of you that he is referring too I would like to say: Yes! You can and in my heart I hope you do. The experience is worth it. No matter what your quest may be. On my trip back to Fairbanks I came across a woman coming up a steep hill on a reclining bike. I will never know if she was going to the next side road or all the way to Prudhoe Bay, but I will remember that she was going.

StillMovin

In closing this blog entry I want to say,

To THE GREATEST WIFE ON EARTH,

      THANK YOU BETTY

      for letting me try!

      I LOVE YOU!