“–ADMIT NO IMPEDIMENTS, ALLOW NO SKID DEMONS–” ………….River-Horse
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Virgin Air Comes to Anchorage
Virgin America Airlines announced their new flight between San Francisco and Anchorage. In the press release, Virgin proclaims, “Mood-lit flights take off to the land of Northern Lights.”
Mood-lit flights?
Northern Lights?
Virgin will be serving Anchorage only during the summer months.
Luckily, Alaska Airlines flies to Anchorage when the Northern Lights are actually visible.
The Cult Grows
I made what was meant to be a quick stop at the hardware store late this afternoon, because I was roped into a quick repair job for someone’s mother. In the parking lot was a ’66 Series Ex-Mod pick-up with its parking lights on. My intention was to hunt down the owner right away, but I ran into someone who I hadn’t seen in quite a while, and became distracted. Finally, someone came in to jog my memory by asking, “Who owns that Jeep?”
“It’s a Land Rover,” I said with disgust. “I don’t know who owns it, but I was going to try to find out.”
“It’s mine,” a voice calls from somewhere in the store.
“Well, your lights are on,” said the guy who can’t read name plates. He then left, after giving me the evil eye. The nitwit.
A young college kid comes up and asks about his lights, and I tell him that the marker lights are on. He then informs me that he’s not worried about it, because the truck has a crank start. That makes me chuckle a bit.
So I ask him questions about his Rover, and he’s more than willing to answer them. One of the employees asks what year it is and he tells them it’s a ’66. Then she asks me what year mine is.
“You have a Rover?!” That’s when the fun really started up.
We compare parts and upgrades and both of us had seen the recent ad for a ’67 that’s rotting away among the spruce south of Fairbanks a ways (see above). Eventually, the kid realizes we had met before when I describe my Rover. I remembered him then, but the truck was painted two-tone awful last time, and it’s looking sharp now in a more traditional desert tan.
I tell him that I had The Rover down in Mexico, and then he promptly tells me that his goal is to take his Ex-Mod down to the tip of Argentina. My eyes grow as big as saucers, and the entire contingent of hardware personel exclaimed various phrases such as: “Holy shit, there’s another one! How can there possibly be two of them?!” He looks puzzled, so I have to tell him that Mexico was the warm-up trip, and my goal is to drive The Rover down to Tierra del Fuego. Then another round of Rover stories and suggestions flood the store, to the point that we were now boring the hell out of the employees.
It turns out that he did have an idea for my running hot issue. He has an oil cooler that normally would run on the Ex-Mod, but he doesn’t need it, because he has no reason to install it. Afterall, this is Fairbanks. He suggested that we exchange phone numbers & email, which I promptly did because I know the first thing I do when I go home will be to google that Series oil cooler.
Kind of pointless in Fairbanks at all times, unless you’re towing (since I’ve been back, The Rover has been running around 180 when I’ve taken it on the road), and far from ideal at -50, but for a long trip south, it is worth looking into.
6 June
War correspondent Robert Capa took this photograph while wading ashore Omaha Beach with one of the first landings of soldiers. Capa took 79 images during the first hours of the invasion. A careless lab tech ruined all but 7 of the negatives.
Over his 22 year career, Capa covered the Spanish Civil War, the London blitz, World War II, the birth of Israel, and the war in Indochina. He was killed in 1954 when he stepped on a mine while covering his final conflict in Indochina.
Jefferson River
August 4th, Sunday, 1805
“Proceeded on verry early and Brackfast at the Camp Capt Lewis left yesterday morning; at this Camp he left a note informing that he discovered no fresh Sign of Indian &c. The river continued to be crouded with Islands, Sholey rapid & clear; I could not walk on shore to day as my ankle was Sore from a tumer on that part. The method we are compelled to take to get on is fatigueing & laborious in the extreen, haul the Canoes over the rapids, which Suckceed each other every two or three hundred yards and between the water rapid oblige [us] to towe & walke on stones the whole day except when we have poleing; men wet all day, Sore feet, &c, &c.”
———————William Clark
Monday August 5th 1805
The river today [Capt Clark] found streighter and more rapid even than yesterday, and the labour and difficulty of the navigation was proportionably increased; they therefore proceeded but slowly and with great pain as the men had become very languid from working in the water and many of their feet swolen and so painfull that they could scarcely walk. At 4 p.m. they arrived at the confluence of the two rivers where I had left [another] note. This note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note; the possibility of such an occurrence never onc occurred to me when I placed it on the green pole. This accedent deprived Capt Clark of any information with ripect to the country, and supposing that the rapid fork was most in the direction which it was proper we should pursue, or West, he took that stream and asscended it with much difficulty about a mile and encamped on an islandthat had been lately overflown and was yet damp; they were therefore compelled to make beds of brush to keep themselves out of the mud. in ascending this stream for about a quarter of a mile, it scattered in such a manner that they were obliged to cut a passage through willow brush which leant over the little channels and united their tops.”
———————-Meriwether Lewis
From The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
—————————————————————————————————
“Above its junction with the Madison, the Jefferson wanders, staggers, and crankles, flushing half its waters askew, the other awry, and throughout its upper and lower miles manifests little urge to go anywhere other than sideways; when it’s not hunting a new route or sending one channel off in search of two others, it will flow properly just long enough to fool a boatman. In short, it is the little Jefferson that puts the mischief into the big Missouri, and, like its descendant, it seems always to ask ‘Where am I?’ although it stays not for an answer.”
———————William Least Heat-Moon, “River-Horse” c1999
The Return of Dragnet
From the Unalaska Police Blotter
22 May, Wednesday
0001 – Drunk Disturbance – A dipsomaniac reported that his dipsomaniac sibling was causing problems at their shared residence. An officer responded and told the two fully grown men to behave.
2130 – Assault – Caller reported being struck several times in the face after he squirted a former coworker with a squirt gun. Under investigation.
12 May, Sunday
2311 – Suspicious Person/Activity – A man reported being threatened by another man, of whom he was able to provide only a vague description. He asked that officers locate the nondescript suspect and talk to him. Officers were surprisingly unable to positively identify the unremarkable man in question.
1608 – Welfare Check – Caller reported a young boy riding a bicycle without supervision. Officers found the young boy’s mother not far behind him.
2246 – Fire Safety – Fire personnel responded to the apartment of a woman who reported that her smoke alarm was beeping incessantly.
2247 – Assistance Rendered – An officer helped a homeowner change the batteries in her smoke alarm, so the incessant beeping would stop. The Fire Chief returned to the homeowner’s residence a few minutes later and helped her change the batteries in her other smoke alarm, so that it too would quit beeping
1155 – Environmental – Two callers reported 20-40 eagles feasting on discarded fish fillets conveniently left in the back of a pickup truck, and the sheer number of eagles made it difficult for other drivers to safely access vehicles parked nearby. An officer scared the eagles away and advised the owner of the pickup to properly dispose of the fish.
Alaska Marine Highway
The Alaska Marine Highway System officially turned 50 this year.
Originally started in 1948-49 by Steve Homer of Haines with a WWII Landing Craft christened the M/V Chilkoot. The business was sold to the Territory of Alaska in 1951 and the M/V Chilkat was introduced, replacing the landing craft. In 1963, the young State of Alaska officially designated the system The Alaska Marine Highway, new ferries were purchased under a state bond, and the route was extended to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. In 1967, the southern terminus was extended to Seattle’s Pier 48.
Today, the Alaska Marine Highway’s routes cover 3500 miles from Bellingham, WA to Dutch Harbor on the Aleutian Chain with 30 terminals in between, transporting people, vehicles and freight. In an average year, AMHS transports 350,000 riders and 100,000 vehicles. It’s active year round, although the Aleutian Chain route only runs in the summer.
AMHS is a vital lifeline for communities in Southeast and Southwest Alaska that have no road access. Riders use it to get to doctor appointments, shopping and entertainment in Anchorage, Sourdoughs trying to escape Outside, even high school athletes use it to get to sporting events in other coastal villages. The trip up the Inside Passage is beautiful with seemingly endless fjords, lush forest, wildlife galore, and over 1000 islands and 15,000 miles of shoreline in Alaska’s portion alone. It’s a phenomenal trip that I’ve done once aboard the M/V Matanuska. Often the deck of the ferry between Bellingham and Haines is loaded with tents, as riders “camp out” on the deck instead of getting staterooms. The trick is to duct tape the tent to the deck.
The M/V Tustumena serves the Homer, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor route. Built in 1963 in Sturgeon Bay, WI, the Tustumena, along with the Kennicott, are the only cross-ocean certified ferries in the fleet. When the Tustumena docks in the villages along its route, the full service dining room draws a crowd of village residents who often do not have a restaurant in town. This has earned the Tustumena the nickname “McTusty” along the Alaska Peninsula.
All current ferries are named after Alaska Glaciers.
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