LA-SLC-Calgary-Anchorage-Seattle-LA WVO Road-Trip - Page 4

nick · #31 06-27-2008, 12:15 PM

Well, we've loaded up the Jetta with 18 cubes and it's squatting, but we are ready to roll. We take off tonight and hope to make it to Utah for our first hotel stay on Saturday night. We got a couple sites we want to hit up, but that all depends on our time schedule and if things don't break down.
Will post more (and images of this packed car

) once we find an internet connection in SLC.

nick · #32 06-29-2008, 06:07 AM

LA. 177010 miles on the odometer, 1am Saturday the 28th.
Tank full and 17.25 cubes in the car. It squats horribly, with maybe 2” of travel in the rear suspension and 2” clearance to the reflectix at the lowest point.

Death Valley, 177307, Sunrise to 7:30am.
Started experiencing power problems going up very steep inclines. This started after a 10 mile 6.5 degree decline in fourth on VO. From now on, we are running diesel on any major and extended decline, just to debug the power problem.
Stopped in Furnace Creek in the Nat’l Park, checked the suspension (which was even lower) and poured in 1 cube to top off the tank.

Tonopah, Nevada. 177470, 10:00 am Saturday the 28th.
Got pulled over for driving 37 in a 25 speed trap. He gave us a warning and asked us if we were using Diesel Secret. I almost scoffed, but held back the urge to laugh. Ate at the Banc Café and poured in 1.25 cubes

HWY 6, Nevada. 177495, 10:20 am Sat.
We decided to make a detour and avoid Rachel NV. Originally we were to check out the UFO crazies, but then we found some geographical oddities on the map. These places looked more interesting and it shortened our trip to Salt Lake City.

HWY 6-Lunar Crater National Landmark, Nevada . 11am-12:15pm
Visited Lunar Crater and it was 9 miles off the highway. The gravel road was like a washboard and we had to drive an average of 10 mph so as not to risk damaging the car. It seemed like a waste at first, but we managed to arrive at the extinct volcano in one piece. Luckily, it was well worth the terrible 18 mile round-trip drive.

Lehman Caves, Great Basin Natl Park, Nevada. 177700 3:00pm sharp Sat.
Big time must-see. This series of caves is full of stalactites and stalagmites. Hopefully if you decide to visit this park, you don’t have a bunch of noisy ditzes on your tour of the cave.

Mile 177773.
Ran the tank dry. Oops.

Mile 177775. Gunnison Massacre Site.
Added two cubes.

Stayed in Provo, Utah for the night. We are thinking of staying in Salt Lake City.
It appears that we have two options
1.) Try to have some stiffer struts installed. We've reviewed some TDIForum threads and it appears that Bilstein TC's are the ticket.
2.) Or, if it's that's little pricey, we can pull my undermount tank and put it in the trunk. Even though the car sits low, it's got a couple inches of travel.

More soon... We may be in Salt Lake for a couple days or we'll be on the road later tonight.

nick · #33 06-29-2008, 08:38 AM

Update: We are getting new struts installed Monday morning, so we are hanging out in SLC for Sunday.

nick · #34 06-30-2008, 11:41 AM

Well, the mechanic used an impact wrench and stripped out the threads on our new struts, while installing them. We are stuck in a public library here in SLC waiting for the mechanic to find another strut. This puts us back a day and if our Montana contributors are reading this, we'll call you today to discuss our arrival plans.
He got a bunch more images, but I forgot my USB cable in the car, that is now on the hoist. Also, we might be having a Hydroforce selector valve going on us...we burned thru two fuses in the last 120 miles.

nick · #35 07-01-2008, 07:23 AM

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. 178058. 2-2:30pm Sun.
We were able to break the land speed record for a VO-powered vehicle on the Salt Flats. They clocked us at 164 on the ten-mile straight-away, but our speedo only goes up to 140 (see image). We had to lay off because the valves were floating, but it was still a crazy ride.

West Wendover, Nevada. 178063. 2:52pm Sun.
Added 1.75 cubes.

Golden Spike National Monument, Utah. 178248.
Snagged a few pics in front of the monument.

Spiral Jetty, Utah 178265. 7pm Sun.
Access road is 19 miles of off-road delight. Thank god we left most of the other cubes in the hotel, otherwise this road was impassable.

Outside Golden Spike National Monument, Utah. 178289. 9:35pm
Fuse on First Selector Valve blown.
Fuse blew again 50-some miles later. We pulled off to inspect wires and try to find some wear, but couldn’t find any. We think that the coil on the Hydraforce valve has a short, but don’t really have any evidence for or against this.

Repair Shop, Orem, Utah. Monday, 8am to 2:30pm.
0.5 cubes added.
The shop told us the day before that if we came in on Monday, they’d have our new struts and time to work on the car. We’d been staying in Springville, which is 10 miles south of Orem, but we soon realized upon entry to the Orem State Street that they had a few other mechanics. About every other building was a shop!
Unfortunately, the shop we chose had a guy that stripped out the threads on our new struts with an impact wrench. They claimed that the part had some bad threads, but we could watch the junior mechanic reaming away on the bolts. Since they didn’t have another set of the struts (Monroe Sensatracs, unfortunately—we were looking for Bilsteins), it took an extra 4 hours to find another set and install them. We found a nearby public library and sat on the net for a few hours.
The struts did a lot. It sits about 1.5” higher and it takes a lot more to compress the springs.

Salt Lake City, Utah. 178474. 3:30pm to 5:30pm Monday.
After the strut repairs, we stopped off to investigate our valve issue. We don’t want to have a bad Hydraforce valve for 7000 miles and burning fuses, so while at that public library, we checked out Hydraforce suppliers in SLC. Turns out that Hydraulic Something-or-other Inc. is in the city and we picked up a spare coil. When we pulled out the old valve, the leads had some wear and exposed metal. We decided to try some tape first, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll replace the valve coil.

nick · #36 07-02-2008, 07:07 PM

Idaho Falls, Idaho. 178692. 8:30pm Monday.
Added one cube. We stopped off for a sandwich, but the restaurant just closed. Across the street was this falls.

Dillon, Montana. 178834. 11:55pm Monday.
Added one cube. Scraped off probably 25 lbs of bugs.

Mile 179002
Added 1 cube.

Missoula, Montana. 6:45am Tuesday.
We met up with Norman of Missoula who has been running a converted Benz for a couple years. We chatted about the trip and he advised us on the best way to Glacier National Park. It turns out that there was a decent snow in June, and Norman stated that the main road thru the park could be closed.
Then he showed us his filtration setup and offered four cubes for the drive up north. This was great, because this should allow us to make it to Whitehorse.

West Glacier, Glacier National Park. 179204. 5pm Tuesday.
Added 1 cube.
We approached the park and a ranger stated that only 30 miles of the road was completed. He said that we could drive in (but not thru) the park. We cruised the main path for a while and headed back to the entrance, adding another 150 miles to the trip. :-(

Crossing the Montana (U.S.) - Canada Border. 8:30pm Tuesday.
We drove up to the Canadian border about two hours before this particular station closes for the night. The border agent reviewed our passports and asked the typical questions. Then he said, “Alright, everything looks good. May I ask…What did you do to your car?” He wasn’t asking about the VO system, but rather it condition was pretty unpleasant. And the funny thing, it looked much worse just hours before this—this image is the condition of the Jetta prior to the rain. :-)

Calgary, Alberta. 11:45pm Tuesday, Canada Day.
We lucked out and arrived in downtown Calgary just at sunset. We are starting to notice the latitude difference, because it doesn’t get dark here until after 11pm. As we approached downtown, we parked just as the fireworks show began. It was a little crazy, because they were shooting them off of the top of a downtown building, and I’ve always seen them ignited near a water source.

West of Calgary, Alberta. 179502. 12:35am Wednesday.
Added 1 cube.

Edmonton, Alberta.
One of Glenn’s few requests for this trip was to visit the world’s largest mall. We arrived rather late in the evening, so all we could do is wander around the empty building. It turned out to be a little dumpy and lacking any uniqueness. Also dirty. We’re a little behind schedule so we pushed on toward the Alaskan Hwy.

Between Grand Prairie and Dawson Creek. 179765. Around 8am Wednesday.
Added 1.75 cubes.
Overfilled the tank. Luckily I caught this very early so we only spilled a few onces.

Nineteen miles south of Dawson Creek, 10:30am Wednesday
We stopped off at a lone gas station to grab some beverages, and I decided to inspect the hoses and engine compartment. Turns out our diesel return line looked a little worn and had some seepage. We spent 30 minutes replacing the line with some 3/8” fuel hose that I had stashed for just such an emergency.

Currently staying in Fort Nelson and heading up to Whitehorse tomorrow. We've hit some bad weather (storms and hail) but we are moving forward.

davidwolfe2 · #37 07-03-2008, 06:42 PM

sorry to hear about so many little petty problems on the road but it looks like your having a good time still...congrats on the salt flats, me eric got a good laugh about everything, what is your ETA for back to Los Angeles? If you would have let me know your car was so squated out before you left i could of helped with the suspension, although it looks like you may have found a fix. Good luck with the rest of your trip.
_dave

nick · #38 07-06-2008, 01:31 AM

Fort Nelson, British Columbia. 6pm-3:45am Wednesday and Thursday.
We decided to crash out in Fort Nelson even though we could have probably made it to Watson Lake that night. However, just shy of Fort Nelson we ran into a HAIL storm (what next?

). The storm was looming in the distance and we had to burn some cubie boxes to protect the windshields. Here is a pic of the hail in the ditch as we tried to get out of the storm.
We left Fort Nelson at 4:00 am and was surprised to see how bright it was at 3:30 am. I don’t think it got dark at all that night.

Alaska Highway, British Columbia. 180520. Thursday.
Added 1.75 cubes.

Laird Hot Springs, British Columbia. 8:00am Thursday.
We were told that the hot springs is a must-do on the Alaskan Highway, but we were concerned about time. We stopped off to investigate the springs and if we are on the plus side of the south-bound journey, we’ll test out the water.

Alaska Highway, Yukon Territory. 180782. Thursday.
Added.1.25 cubes. Also, on the road, a sedan kicked up a rock from the upcoming direction and cracked my windshield. Crap.

One the way up, we saw a good deal of wild-life on the side of the road. Several bison, many moose, possibly some caribou, a wolf, some sheep and three different instances of black bears. Also we saw what appeared to be a wild horse. Unlike other drivers we witnessed on the Alaskan Highway, we refused to feed the animals.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. 180918. 2:45pm Thursday.
Let me just say, Whitehorse rocks! We were planning on getting in Whitehorse around 5pm, but we made some good time. There was only one 30-some mile stretch before Watson Lake that was rather circuitous, but the rest was smooth-going. We got a hold of Skeeter and Mike and discussed the trip and other VO topics. Mike hooked us up for the trip thru Alaska and Skeeter committed to some cubes for the journey back to Seattle. The town is quite small and you can walk the whole place in an hour or less. The main drag (2nd and Main St) has many shops and restaurants. We ate caribou burger and halibut and chips at Klondike Ribs & Salmon BBQ and which was tight. And the scenery was great.

Haines Junction, Yukon Territory. 180990. 7:45pm Thursday.
Added 1.25 cubes. We are finally getting a steady radio station. It’s sort of like a NPR station, and maybe 15% static, but 100% better than nothing. We probably drove a 1000 kms with no radio, and a suggestion to future Alaskan Highway travelers: Bring an Ipod or CD player. There are no AM or FM (or short wave) radio for the 95% of the distance. I brought my laptop for the trip, but I don’t have many mp3’s; you can only listen to the same twenty songs so many times before it gets boring.
Random image...

nick · #39 07-06-2008, 01:39 AM

Sorry, I forgot the link to the hail...

nick · #40 07-06-2008, 02:22 AM

Entering Alaska. 10:30pm Thursday.
Traveling from Haines Junction to the border is more difficult than it seems. The road is segmented with quarter-mile portions of potted gravel and sections of heaved pavement. You average about 35 mph with a lot of stopping and starting. We were planning to make it to Delta Junction, but then we thought Tok, Alaska would be best. At our current pace, we wouldn’t make it there until 1am.

Tok, Alaska. 181282. 3:05 am Friday.
Added 1.25 cubes. It took a long time to get from the border to Tok. The whole stretch was under construction and we were even traveling at night, so we didn’t even have to contend with traffic. We didn’t get to any hotels until late and there was no vacancy on the whole northern stretch of the Alaska “highway” loop. Something to note to anyone coming to Alaska: There are probably on a dozen or so hotels from the border to Fairbanks, and most of them are really dumpy. In fact most of the everything on the north loop is pretty dilapidated. See image...

Alaska Highway 2. 12:05 am and 2:30am.
Here is a photo of the sun at midnight near Fairbanks.

Even though the sun did eventually set, here is what the sky looks like with the sun at 2:30 am.

Fairbanks, Alaska. 181492. 6:30 am Friday.
Added 0.75 cubes. After Tok and Delta Junction were booked up, we decided to push through and see some of our sites. We stopped off at the pipeline north of the city. This is the furthest north we traveled on the trip, and it’s under 200 miles from the arctic circle.

Denali National Park, Alaska. 181642. 11:30 am Friday.
Added .75 cubes. We wanted to spend a few hours at Denali to see the highest point in North America, Mount McKinley. We went to the Visitor’s Center and I asked if my 2008 parks pass would be accepted at the gate. They said it would work and that I wouldn’t need to purchase a “Private Vehicle” Pass. After a fifteen mile drive into the park, we get stopped a gate by a ranger. He said this is the farthest we could get into the park! Why would anyone pay $20 to drive only a fraction of the whole park? They stated that we would have to pay for a 6-hour bus ride to get closer to Mt. McKinley, or we could hike in.
We parked the ride and climbed the nearest moderate peak. Here is the path we took up the 5900-ft vertical.

Here is a picture of the mountain from our elevated vantage point.

Anchorage, Alaska. 181790. 4:45pm Saturday.
Added 1.25 cubes. We strolled into Anchorage mid-afternoon, but strangely it appeared that everyone was driving north. Traffic was backed up for miles.

When we arrived into downtown, it was pretty empty. We found only a few restaurants open the fourth, and one nice restaurant (the Orso) served up some great King Crab and Salmon. There really isn’t much of a beach there, but we still went to check it out.

We stayed the night in Anchorage and left early for the Portage Glacier, 47 miles south. It appears to have been melted some, because images of this just a few years ago show it much farther down the mountain. We got close to some of the icebergs, but the glacier was out of reach.