| Saturday, August 20, 2005 |
10:32 - It's ending well, so it must be well
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I'm home now. Finished the last leg yesterday with a quicker-than-expected drive down from Yreka to my parents' place in Redwood Valley for the debriefing, and then a longer-than-expected drive down through the Bay Area (running into Friday night rush-hour traffic, a stern welcome back from the wilds of the North) to arrive in town two minutes after the car wash place closed.
I'll download the last GPS track log and set of photos now, and then begins the pleasantly absorbing task of stitching them together and touching up the photos for presentation. More—much more—later. Right now it's time for relaxation.
...And e-mail. 7,500 messages. And that's after SpamAssassin got through with it. (Mostly errors and bounces.)
Heh. Mighty Mouse, huh?
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| Thursday, August 18, 2005 |
06:00 - AUTO-POST: Here Comes Nothing
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Note: This post was submitted by an automated script.
Day 20, Thursday, 8/18: The rest of the trip is pretty much at our discretion. We could spend two leisurely days coming down 101, or we could barrel down I-5 and make it home around midnight. It all depends on how exhausted we feel.
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| Wednesday, August 17, 2005 |
06:00 - AUTO-POST: Stumbling Out of the Wilderness
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Note: This post was submitted by an automated script.
Day 19, Wednesday, 8/17: Back on good ol' BC 97, southbound this time, and riding it all the way to the junction with BC 99, the road that leads straight to Vancouver and the real world once again (though not before taking in Whistler, which as I understand it is to BC what Aspen is to Colorado). The night's destination can be anywhere in the Vancouver area, perhaps even as far south as Seattle.
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| Tuesday, August 16, 2005 |
19:19 - Reports of my becoming lost in the Yukon and being taken off to be raised by wolves are greatly exaggerated
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Hey, guess where I am? Hint: it's not actually any different from my plans. I'm in Williams Lake, BC, a few hours north of Vancouver.
We drove here straight from Prince Rupert, where the ferry dropped us off this morning at 6:15. Which means we caught the ferry from Juneau just fine, which means we caught the ferry from Skagway just fine, which in turn means we successfully made it from Valdez over the Top of the World Highway, spent a night in a tent on a bed of rocks in the middle of downtown Dawson City, and drove down to Whitehorse and through to Skagway through a pall of impenetrable forest fire smoke. All reservations at hotels and ferries were magically there waiting for us, and there were no problems of any note. Well, except that the "EPC" light came on on my dashboard just after we came across the border northeast of Chicken—the most remote possible location in the entire vacation, the place where I knew deep in my bones that if anything was ever to go wrong, that's where it would be. Fortunately, as we were frantically looking up the meaning of the EPC light in the manual (apparently it means the engine computer has malfunctioned and reset itself to a backup set of dilithium crystals with less power), it went off, a minute after it turned on and just as mysteriously. I'm thinking maybe it was a combination of the altitude, the smoke, and the dust from the road somehow choking the air mixture, but I can't confirm it. No recurrences since then, though, so that's cool at least.
The ferry ride was nice and relaxing, and sleeping on deck chairs in the solarium was actually really fun and quite comfortable—heat lamps hanging from the partial overhang roof, and lots of people to get to know and talk with for two days, really reinforcing the feeling of being a couple of bums slumming it across the planet on a budget. Given the cost of the tickets it's hardly accurate, but it's as close to the penniless-bearded-backpacker thing that I'm ever likely to get. Plus we got to commune with a grizzled old Alaskan native the whole time, which is something I was specifically hoping to get to do sometime this trip.
It's raining now (southern BC—surprise, surprise), and the grime of two and a half days of ferry rides is now washed off, so now it's time for some food.
Just a few more days and I'll be back in the land of the living—but ever since Prince Rupert it's felt like the real world again...
   
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06:00 - AUTO-POST: Land Ho
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Note: This post was submitted by an automated script.
Day 18, Tuesday, 8/16: The Yellowhead Highway (BC 16) inland through woods and coastal mountains to Prince George, a metropolis we missed on the way up. That's probably enough driving for one day.
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| Monday, August 15, 2005 |
06:00 - AUTO-POST: Arr, gettin' me sea legs, mateys
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Note: This post was submitted by an automated script.
Day 17, Monday, 8/15: The ferry makes quick one-hour stops at Petersburg and Wrangell and Ketchikan, finally arriving at Prince Rupert, BC, at 6:15 in the morning on the 16th. We wake up, fresh and bright and ready for another hard day of driving.
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Brian Tiemann
