Points of Interest on the Richardson Highway

16 January 2012
1:52 PM

Sunrise at	10:25 AM	in direction	144°	Southeast
Sunset at	3:37 PM	in direction	216°	Southwest

Duration of day: 5 hours, 12 minutes (5 minutes, 50 seconds longer than yesterday)  

View of Mt. Hess and Mt Hayes (Mt Deborah is tucked behind Mt Hess)  near Ft. Greeley

First, I have to say that blogging every day is a lot of fun and also a lot of work.  So far, there has been no lack of topics, but timing is challenging.  For example, my first night in Glennallen I found that I needed to buy internet service to have access from my hotel room.  I debated that.  It was $4.50/hr or $8.99/day.  Then I thought, it would be easier than walking down to the hotel lobby and at the time, I did not know the set up at Race Central.  My commitment is to write daily and post on each day.  So, then I caved in and tried to sign up for the service, but it never got past the point of my entering a user name and password to pay for the service.  I took my digital camera and walked down to the lobby to enter the post for 14 January 2012.   As it turned out, had I gone over to Race Central early, it would have worked out.

Then too, I enjoy adding photos to the site, so I devote time to looking over what I've taken or searching for ones that I can post with permission.  Adding them takes time if they are grabbed from the web because my Mac captures as a higher resolution TIFF image, but JPEG is more suitable for web pages as it requires fewer kilobytes storage.  Preview makes the conversion easily, but there is another time investment.  I also think twice about turning my camera so the image is taller than it is wide.  That is another time investment as I have to convert it to the upright view on my desktop before I insert it.

Still, I persist because Alaska is such a wonderful place, such an amazing experience for me and this is the best way for me to share it, I think.  And, I am writing every day!

So, on to today's topic - traveling the Richardson Highway in winter requires care.  There were several times I was grateful that our car is all wheel drive (with a 4 wheel option for speeds below 25 mph) and we have new Blizzaks brand tires - very good on ice.  That does not mean I never felt a slight slip on the ice, but honestly, the Honda Ridgeline was superb.

Two days ago I posted a photo of sunrise through the ice fog.   Ice Fog hovered along the roadway from Fairbanks to Delta - approximately 98 miles.  There were breaks when I climbed above it for sections of the road, but it was thicker than usual and I did need to pay attention to the farthest point I could see.  Until I passed Eielson Air Base the roads were clear.  Then the roads were less traveled and I was driving on ice and snow pack most of the way to Delta.  From Delta, roads were clear until I was past all Ft. Greeley entrances when the roads became snowy and icy again.

Delta River Basin

The worst sections, as I mentioned yesterday, were also in the sections that were the warmest, between Summit Lake and the final climb before Ft. Greeley.  The section of the road that runs near the headwaters of the Delta River was the iciest section, yet provided fascinating examples of overflow.  Being narrow, twisty and glare ice, I did not stop, so I couldn't take a photo of the water flow, freeze, water flow, freeze phenomenon.  In this case, snow melt flowing down into the river's tributary had created successive layers that were higher than the road I was driving upon.  Looking across at the ice, patches of water were clear along the surface.

This trip, the road around Summit Lake was not bad, although it is a very dangerous stretch many times.  A friend told me that one year they drove on ice in a rear wheel vehicle, white nuckle all the way.  There are no guard rails on the sliver thin roadway.  Later they heard someone had gone off the road into the lake.  Although the photo below does not reveal it, blowing snow created frothy peaks across the lake surface.

You may notice I was above timber line.  Whereas timber line in Colorado is above 11, 000', at this northern latitude, timber line is roughly 3000' or less.  You will also notice I tipped the camera - oh, well.

I don't have any photos of Copper Basin looking south toward the Wrangell Mountains.  The sun was low in the horizon behind them, so all the views you will see from the basin face north.  Alaska 101: Glennallen describes the four peaks easily discernible from Glennallen.  By the way, the Wrangell-St.Elias National Wildlife and National Parks extending south include the second tallest mountain in both the US and Canada, Mt. St. Elias at 18,008'.  I am not mentioning it here because I could see it from Glennallen, but because I previously wrote that several tall peaks rose within 100 miles of the coast.  Its base is 10 miles from the tidewater of Icy Bay.  Being the second highest mountain in both Canada and the US makes it the 3rd highest mountain in north America.

Once past Summit Lake and Paxon, the highway climbs up to run along the crest of a ridge that opens out for views across the flats.  To the South are the Wrangells; to the north is the Alaska Range.

View of the Alaska Range from Richardson Highway About 40 miles south of Paxon

The photo above reminds me that I really need to make use of the telescopic lens more, but hopefully it gives you the feeling I wanted to capture of the basin.  The basin is surrounded by the Wrangells, St. Elias Range, the Alaska Range, the Talkeetna Range and the Chugach Range.  From the basin, when you reach high points the views are spectacular.  Notice the stubby trees along the side.  These are black spruce, growing contentedly in the permafrost.

The blue skies and intense light of the Copper Basin Valley are not what we usually see in Fairbanks.  Fairbanks is about 200 miles north of this spot.  The winter light is different and the Interior weather is different.  Here is a photo of the sky in the Interior.  It does not do the colors justice.  I REALLY need to hone my skills with this digital camera.

Interior Winter Sky

All in all, I am glad to have served the CB300 Race, even for a short while.  I may do so again, but I would rather be at one of the check points.  As I worked with the figures and HTML at Race Central, I realized it was too much like my professional job.  They have some very talented and dedicated volunteers at the Race hub, so I will not be missed.  I want to be outside and get a stronger feel for the race - something different from my work life.