Alaska attempt daily report

[Bill]

Noticed the trees fully leafed out in Skagway. Here in NS just starting to show green! Also the back seat crew are all camera shy... suspect witness protection lol.. Bill

[Ol' Ron]

I have the same camera and it doezent do what yourz doz. Haven't slept in 3 days, crowed back here. Thought you'd stay the night. Weel time for amother thumb tack. Take care,

[FlatheadTed]

Great stuff Henry, That's got to be one of the most travelled stock Flat heads around .Ted

[AKCJ]

Glad ya made it!

[Ford46]

Craig, great pictures and I (we) always enjoy your travels, great job of documenting your flathead trips. Let those guys in the back seat out for air, poor Ol' Ron will be getting all cramped up soon, if not already! Thanks again for taking us along. LouB.

[Fredb_]

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Great photos. That terrain reminds me of the high country here in the Oregon Cascades, beautiful!

[flatford8]

Do we hafta go home allready????.....Mark

[tony starr]

Wonderful scenery, loving the photographs.

[RalphM]

Congratulations Craig! You know you could have caught the ferry to Valdez and kept going north!

By the way, first pic was a black bear, not brown( and a very nice sized one too).It was just a tad different color phase. We get them all the way to a reddish cinnamon color.
And the can look like grizzley/ brown bears except for the hump on thier back.

[flathead48]

God speed Ol Henry

[Lanny]

Been a fun trip so far, but kin we stop again,
I have to go to the baffroom......










.

[petehoovie]

Craig,

We know it's you who drives 'Old Henry'.....But what drives YOU???

[al's28/33]

Professor I can't believe you're doing this trip by yourself...... at least no grandchildren navigating for you ?......... I am so glad you have been safe and made the journey trouble free. God Speed and safe return home..... maybe try a little gold panning before you leave the Yukon, you never know ?!?!?!?!

[tony starr]

I might of missed this somewhere but do you mind me asking what transmission / rearend setup you have to be averaging speeds of 60-65 mph?

[Old Henry]

EXTRA EXTRA
OLD HENRY HAS HIS FIRST CAR TROUBLE

Yup. I was just cruising along counting my blessings that I'd had no problem when I looked down at the battery gauge and it was way to the left, so far that my first thought was a short somewhere. But, I didn't see or smell any smoke. (Remember, I still have all original 69 year old wiring.) I started shutting of electrical stuff one at a time to see what would return the needle to the charge side. Nothing did. That could only mean the generator had quit. Now, I've had the generator quit on many a road trip, in fact on my very first one on Route 66. So, I knew it was a little annoying but no train stopper or deal breaker. I'd driven 250 miles before with no generator and now I had two batteries. So, I figured I could make it home charging the batteries at night at a motel (cuts out camping) then drive all day just firing the sparkplugs off of two batteries. Still, I'd have to leave the heater fan off, which we've used the whole way, and the computer. Yeah, I have spare brushes to put in but figured I could make it home without that effort.

Before I left and all the time I've been traveling I've thought, "What is the most likely thing to fail on this trip?" The generator was the most likely candidate mainly because of the brushes that just don't seem to last very long. Other than that, it would have to be a break in my 69 year old wiring. Thinking more likely the brushes, I started up the engine, got my hammer out of the tool box, reached under the hood, and gave the generator a few sharp taps. Low and behold, it came back on and worked fine the rest of the night. So, false alarm, not that big of a news item after all.

I had the same experience recently with my electric fuel pump that hadn't been in very long when it quit. So, I ordered a new one. When it came I thought, "Before going through all the effort to drain the tank and remove and replace this pump that quit, let's try a hammer on it." Sure enough. A couple of taps with the hammer and it was as good as new again. I have had to use it continuously on sections of this trip and it's still working fine. I now have a spare in the trunk, just in case the hammer loses its magic.

[Old Henry]

Day 8

A lot of miles today, 518 from just east of Teslin, YT to Kitwanga, BC. Total 3,153 so far. 1,667 to home.



Just before Watson Lake we left the Alaska Highway to go south into British Columbia on the Cassiar Highway.



Now, whoever suggested this route home I've got to thank a million. That Cassiar Highway was thee funnest road I've ever driven.



Not particularly any more scenic, but it just bobbed and weaved like a drunken sailor, up and down and back and forth. The sections that were brand new asphalt as smooth as glass such that there was no feel whatever of the road surface were like flying a stunt plane or a race car on a grand prix course. Absolutely tons of fun. Some of the other sections of the road were more like riding a stagecoach they were so bumpy. I got a lot of good video to share driving this fun road when I get home.

One of the nice things about stopping to take pictures was to be able to hear the sounds of silence. None of the "background noise" that all cities and large towns have. Just total peaceful silence broken only by the chirp of birds or buzzing of flies or bees. And, I got u[ close with some of the beautiful wild flowers that lined the road all the way.

These little purple ones.



Blue ones.



And, of course, the ever popular dandelions.



I have to tell you about the best surface for dancing the "bias-ply boogie". It's the surface of these cantilever bridges.



It is a grate that throws the bias-plies around like nothing else. You just gotta drive them with the good boogie music on.



There were certainly more scenic vistas along the way.





I was sure glad to stumble on this great little camp ground late that night when I was too tired to drive any more.

[Old Henry]

Day 9

Only 374 miles today from Kitwanga to Quesnel. Total of 3,526. 1,293 left to go.



Spent a lot of time this morning getting caught up on my reports.



So, you thought the days of the old camera drape for photography were over.



Not quite. In order to accurately adjust all aspects of my photos for posting I had to be able to view my computer screen without any reflections in it. This was the way I finally figured out to do it in my tent in the bright morning sun. Funny thing is, after sitting there over an hour editing the pictures, I realized that I'd turned the screen brightness down when driving the previous night and that's why I couldn't see the screen very well.

So, that's why we didn't go many miles today.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by tony starr

I might of missed this somewhere but do you mind me asking what transmission / rearend setup you have to be averaging speeds of 60-65 mph?

It's all original stock stuff. Standard three on the tree and 3.78 rear end.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by petehoovie

Craig,

We know it's you who drives 'Old Henry'.....But what drives YOU???

I may seem "driven" for what I have a passion for, which is different for every person. I think everyone is "driven" for some passion. While mine is driving, for others it's building engines, etc. On one of the first days of this trip my wife informed me that the father of my son's wife, whose children she is babysitting while they went on a cruise, reached the top of Mount Everest with two artificial knees. What made him do it? It wasn't his first attempt. I had a law partner for years that did the same thing - climbing mountains, that is, but with his own original knees. For me, I seem to have this passion just to see what I can do. I have discovered that the only way to really find out what you can do is to find out what you can't do. In other words, shoot for the stars. If you only reach the moon, you know that was the best you can do. If you just shoot for the moon and make it, you're not sure whether that was really the best you could do. My law partner rarely reached the tops of the mountains he tried for. "The top of the mountain was just there to get me to find out what was the best I could do. I always found that out, unless, of course, I reached the top." Likewise, if I successfully complete this "quest", I will know that I can do this. But, I won't know if that was really my best. I'll have to take a longer, more difficult trip and fail to find that out. I've done that a lot with R/C airplanes - tried stuff just to see if I could do it then find out it was beyond my abilities. At least I then knew what my very best was. I seem to have to find that out for some reason.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Lanny

Been a fun trip so far, but kin we stop again,
I have to go to the baffroom.......

OK. We've stopped. Do you see that bush on the side of the road? Make it quick. We haven't got all day.