Day 333: I Walk the (Pipe) Line

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Ben

Leaving Lowe’s this morning, we drove North out of Fairbanks. We soon reached a roadside exhibit where the Alyeska Pipeline comes up next to the road. We are at the red “you are here” text, and we intend to reach Prudhoe Bay tomorrow:

There’s quite a bit of technology that goes into making the pipeline work. The support posts are filled with ammonia which acts to transfer heat from the ground to the heat-radiating fins on the supports. This stops the permafrost from melting, which would result in the pipeline sagging towards the ground and rupturing:

Hard to believe this 4-foot diameter ribbon of stainless steel extends another 500 miles North to the Arctic Ocean:

A modern pig was also on display, working its way through a cutaway length of pipe. The pigs clean the pipe walls as well as stabilize the flow of oil. Some of them have instruments for measuring pipe wall integrity:

We drove North on the Elliott Highway for about 70 miles until we reached the turnoff to the Dalton Highway:

The Dalton starts out as a pretty poor dirt road, then transitions to poor pavement. Of the 180ish miles on the Dalton today, about 120 miles will be paved.

We crossed the Yukon River:

We passed under the pipeline and arrived at a BLM information hut:

The visitor area had a nice view of the river:

We continued North, having to drive pretty slowly as the pavement kept transitioning to gravel and back. The pipeline paralleled the road:

Eventually, we crossed through 66.55’ North Latitude, where the sun doesn’t set on the summer solstice and doesn’t rise on the winter solstice. At our Northernmost destination, Prudhoe Bay, the sun doesn’t set for 75 days from May to August and likewise doesn’t rise for 75 days in the winter!

We continued another 60 miles North to Coldfoot, population 10. All the slowing for rough patches reduced our fuel economy to 7.8MPG, and the gas station at Yukon Crossing was out of fuel, so the truck was plenty thirsty by the time we reached Coldfoot:

We’re overnighting at Marion Campground, 4 miles North of Coldfoot. We’re doing this so we can leave the RV here tomorrow and drive just the truck the 250 mostly-gravel miles to Prudhoe Bay. It will be a 500 mile day over the most remote and unforgiving “highway” in Alaska.

The mosquitoes here are unbelievable! I broke out the mosquito head net we brought with us. After 30 seconds standing outside, I literally look like a bee keeper in a bad situation. I’m not kidding, it’s that bad!

Check out the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 308: Sand Lake, Day 2

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ben

This morning the winds were again calm, so I tried again:

Great inflation, great run out, and I’m in the air!

I was up for about 18 minutes and overflew a bit of Camp Meriwether, a Boy Scout camp I attended back in the day, and then flew South to circle Whalen Island. My landing flare was great, but somehow I forgot to get out of my seat, so my landing run didn’t exactly go as planned. Check out this video, which is also my debut of video editing using the most excellent (and free!) Lightworks:

M helped me carry back my wing:

Trish put this map work together a couple days ago to teach South American geography:

The kids shucked corn for lunch:

PPG pilots fly all day at the beach, but I had no way of knowing if the afternoon winds were normal, so I decided to wait. We all built castles and sculptures at the surf line:

And then we broke out the little kite:

Finishing touches:

At sunset, it seemed a little gusty, so I decided to try for another morning flight tomorrow.

Trish has been making wire wrap jewelry at night. Hopefully she’ll write about it on Tricia’s blog:

Day 307: Sand Lake, Day 1

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ben

This morning, the winds were calm. Excited, I got all set up to fly. Unfortunately, the fuel line quick disconnect I recently purchased was faulty, so I could not get fuel from the tank to the engine. By the time I diagnosed the problem, the winds were howling, so we stowed the paramotor in the RV and worked through a morning of homeschool.

In the afternoon, we drove into Pacific City, about 10 miles South of here, and I purchased a male-to-male barb fitting that I could use to replace the faulty quick disconnect, as well as a tarp to cover the paramotor.

Heading North back to the RV, we stopped at Cape Kiwanda:

The main attraction here is the massive sand dune at the North end of the beach. I trudged up to the top with the kids and we ran down:

Continuing North, we pulled it at Whalen Island and walked out to an overlook. It was very beautiful and peaceful. With days like this, it’s hard to remember that the Oregon Coast receives about 90 inches of rain a year:

Winds this afternoon topped out with gusts of 25 miles an hour. Tonight, it was still windy so I did a bit of kiting:

The kids ran down the dunes with my kite’s stuff sack. The best part was B yelling “clear prop!” before M started his run. At the end he would turn around and bring down his “wing” just like in training:

Hopefully tomorrow will be less windy. Goodnight from Sand Lake, Oregon!

Day 306: Coast-bound again

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Ben

This morning, I found this note on the doughnut holes. Our kids need to learn to share. Or maybe I need to learn to share:

Yesterday, my PPG companion Nick suggested we head to Sand Lake on the coast to do some flying. We hitched up and said our farewells to Portland. Heading West, we stopped at the dump station we used when we lived in Hillsboro (ah, the nostalgia!) Next we stopped at Lowes, which I think occupies the former location of Griffith Polymers. How’s that for progress?

We purchased the wall sections for the already built wall frame in the kids’ bedroom. Having it cut here is a big time saver:

I’ll install these while we’re at the beach. They are white and smooth, so we’re hoping the kids can each have a dry erase wall in their room!

We drove over the coast range to Tillamook, then South a bit to Sand Lake. Were staying at the West Dunes “campground”, which is just one large paved area adjacent to the dune field which is two miles long and about a quarter mile wide, and is adjacent to the beach at the South end where we’re staying. When we arrived it was very windy, but tomorrow’s forecast looks better. Hopefully I can get in the air!