The Alaska Trek Begins! [260603]
(Posted 260608) The adventure begins!
-----
After literally years of planning, we departed on our Alaska Trek just after 2:30 in the afternoon. Being "just a 3 month trip" the T42 is considerably less loaded than she was when we left on our 11-month East of the Rockies Trek two years ago (most notably missing is the bike rack and bikes, since we don't think there'll be enough opportunities for use to warrant the weight this time around), but she's sporting her new '26 edition "RV2AK" (the Facebook group that Christine has been using in a lot of her planning) sticker on her rear window to identify ourselves to other group members making the same journey. We're also carrying a reverse-souvenir with us: a wood-burned sign that we made, that we're intending to leave behind at the Sign Post Forest as we're passing through the Yukon; more on that when we get there.
(Editors' Note: Readers of our previous trip blogs know that despite our best intentions, we are notoriously bad at letting the blog fall hopelessly behind the actual travels. While we'd love to be able to truthfully promise "we'll do better this time", the truth is that our data access is going to likely be even more restricted than it has been in the past - particularly on our transit through Canada - so staying on top of things is going to be even harder than before. We have some ideas on how to try to mitigate this which may or may not work out, but we've come to realize that one of the major reasons that we fall so far behind is that having to wait for "data/bandwidth availability" to push out lengthy, photo-filled content is part of the issue. In the interest of trying to balance pushing out some sort of update with our classic story-telling style, one of the things we decided we'll try to do is to at least update the blog header description on a regular basis with "our most recent" location; as long as you see that keep changing it should be a reasonably good indicator that we haven't been eaten by a bear or mauled by a moose. 😉)
About an hour into the trip we realized that while we've driven the T42 36k+ miles now and have driven the I-5 N route more times than we can count, this is the first time we've actually taken the T42 on the I-5 N route. Our late start time was unusual for the route, though, so this was the first time that we passed Mt. Shasta while it was illuminated by the evening sun. (Since it will be awhile before we have an actual Alaska photo to use: Mt. Shasta will also be the banner photo for awhile - until something more interesting comes along.)
As we moved further and further from the Bay Area the temperature continued to get warmer. It felt a little odd to have spent months prepping the van and ourselves to survive the cold Alaskan summer, and be starting our trip by blasting the air conditioner as we headed north to fight the 95 degree temperatures outside.
Our "Plan A" for the evening was to spend the night at the Weed Airport Rest Area, but when we arrived we saw one of the dreaded "No Overnight Parking" signs had been posted. Rather than risk getting "the knock" in the middle of the night, we decided to stay long enough to have a quick dinner (leftover rice with tinned fish for Tom, and deconstructed egg salad on homemade sourdough flatbread for Christine) and then go with "Plan B" for the evening, which was to continue another 21 miles up the road to the the Rain Rock Casino in Yreka.
We pulled in to the "RV Dry Camping Lot" at Rain Rock just before 9 p.m. The reviews on iOverlander had us expecting a reasonably nice RV-only parking lot that you could park a few days in for free, but what is actually there exceeded our expectations considerably: a dozen or so good sized spaces, separated by rectangles of Astroturf with small picnic tables on them; frankly nicer than some for-pay RV parks we've seen! We followed the instructions on the sign to check-in with Security, and then settled in for the evening.
Another unexpected perk of the Rain Rock lot is that it had WiFi available, so we spent the rest of the evening doing a little more trip research as well getting our various trip journals and tracking documents started.
As we got ready for bed, we fully tested one of our "for Alaska van mods" for the first time: a light shield for the van's MaxxFan.
When we're sleeping, we like to have the bedroom window cracked open and the MaxxFan on at 20% to promote the necessary air circulation, which is not a problem when we're parked in a shady area. Unfortunately we're often not - and Tom is very sensitive to light when he's trying to sleep - so in those situations it's a trade-off between how badly we want to be able use the fan vs. how grumpy Tom will be if the sun shining through the fan lid wakes him up in the morning. With Alaska being "The Land of the Midnight Sun" - and a fair number of our overnights likely being boondocking locations that won't have guaranteed tree cover - having some sort of solution that allowed the use of the fan without having to worry about the light waking Tom up seemed to be a necessity for this trip. Hence, Tom came up with the light shield.
The shield is actually the cousin of the shade seen over the bedroom window in the photo above. And that's actually Rev. 3 of that shade. Having the window cracked necessitates having the stock cassette shade cracked open at the top as well, which - as you might guess - also lets light in. That became an unbearable annoyance shortly into the East of the Rockies Trek, so Rev. 1 of the shade was constructed out of cardboard (the only lightweight "won't kill Christine if it falls on her head in the middle of the night" material we could "get for free" and easily work with while "on the road") to solve that problem. It performed admirably well, but eventually moisture softened and weakened the cardboard to the point that it sagged considerably in the center of it's 33" horizontal span necessitating Rev. 2. Rev. 2 was also constructed of cardboard, but was reinforced in the center of its horizontal span with a pair of wooden sticks (harvested from hand fans obtained from the Ohio State Fair) and coated in duct tape for moisture protection; it performed better, but still sagged to the point of needing replacement by the end of the Trek. Rev. 3 was constructed at home out of foam core board, which hopefully will have the right combination of lightweightness, stiffness, and moisture resistance.
The MaxxFan's light shade is also constructed from foam core board, and is tapered to only have a 2" opening pointing toward the front of the van. It has magnets in the same position as the original Reflectix cover's, so attaches to the fan frame the same way. It's lined on the inside with Reflectix - partially because white foam core board is still semi-translucent when light is behind it, and partly so that the shade can better be used on hot days (using the unprotected fan would mean letting radiant heat into the van).
The 2" opening size was selected because we believed it would both be large enough to allow running the fan at 20% without it having to strain to suck air in, and wouldn't extend from the ceiling low enough for us to hit our heads on it when walking under it. This pair of photos (taken during full mid-day sun during the build process) show the effect of the shade. The first shows the fan without the shade:
Tonight was the first time we've really tried running the fan + light cover with all the van's other windows and vents configured as they normally are at night. So far, so good!
It was 11 p.m. by the time the lights were out, and everyone was finally in bed. Tomorrow would be another travel day.
Comments
Post a Comment