On the Road

Several years ago, we visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks but not the Coast Redwoods.  After our annual NPS trade show meeting in Portland, Redwood National and State Parks invited us to visit and perhaps make a screened print to fit our series.

Here’s our trade show–our 20th year!  We post on Facebook also. This year the meeting was held in Portland and we brought the whole gang.  Chuck Ziga of Ziga Media even attended from Connecticut–he publishes our calendars.  Afterwards, we all (well most) headed for the famous Oregon Pinot wine country to celebrate this anniversary. The next day, Ranger Doug and his sidekick Martina rode south to the big trees….

These are truly magnificent forests–and consider 95% of these trees have been harvested by the timber companies.  In 1918, the Save the Redwoods League formed and began buying up groves assembling a chain of preserves along the northern California coast now managed jointly by the National Park Service and the California State Parks.

These trees were not harvested for fancy wood products, but chopped up on sight and trucked down to the Central Valley and San Joaquin Valley mostly for grape stakes and picnic tables.  The harvesting of Redwoods continues to this day….and so does the League.

When you visit, make sure to stop at the Visitor Centers–this one at Prairie Creek–built by the CCC.

Here is the interior with a beautiful fireplace.

Here’s another big tree called Big Tree.  It’s over 300′ high.  The Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is 100′ taller than their mountainous Sequoia cousins.  Forest floors are filled with fern and rhododendrons.  This is spotted owl country!

 

Wow! And we’re looking at about 5% that’s left.

In Eureka, we stopped by an old theater for a photo op. Lots of roadside attractions here.

Here’s one.  A 40′ concrete Paul Bunyan and his anatomically correct “Babe” the Blue Ox.  We stumbled into the little museum here and were blown away by Marylee Smith’s collections of Indian art and artifacts; defined as the largest private collection of it’s kind.

This was worth the drive alone.  Don’t miss this stop.

Or this one–the World Famous Tree House.  We must push on to Wyoming so we drive south, but not before I break my leg tripping on a stage enroute to a piano.   I’ve always been a sucker for pianos and didn’t see the dimly lit raised stage.  Tore my knee all apart so I’m now languishing in Jackson Hole while everyone tweets their skiing to me……Stay tuned!

Tomorrow is the winter solstice–which is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.  These panels are located at 56.8027° N, 132.9935° W, the sun rises at 8:26 am and sets at 3:14 pm for a 6 hour and 47 minute long day.  Google Earth just put up a very hi-resolution view of Petersburg–take a peek here on this very cool lat/lon calculator.    And today at least the sun is out.

This is all we get although this was taken about 10:30 am; somewhat less than the 9.73 degrees above the horizon we’ll expect at 11:51 am tomorrow.  The Arctic Circle will see the sun on the horizon briefly at noon–Fort Yukon lies right on this line (which moves about 25′ a year due to the wobble of the earth).

This is the backside of our 12 solar panels.  These wires pack about 132 VDC on a nice sunny cold day.   I’ve made adjustable poles to tilt the panels as the earth swings around the sun to the summer solstice in 180 days.  Here, they’re about 33 degrees from vertical–I forgot to shift them more upright to the winter position in October (about 21 degrees from vertical).   I’ve a summer position, a winter position and a midway (equinox) position.  I’m good til February 18 when the sun is back 11.7 degrees up from the winter low at which time I’ll go back to the middle position and await the summer solstice on June 21.  An equal time thereafter, August 22 when the sun is 11.7 degrees down from it’s solstice, it’s back to the middle again.  Man I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it.  Many plants and flowers automatically track the sun daily–boy is this a crude system but we’re off the grid and must do it manually.  If you want to calculate the angle of the sun from anywhere on earth and any time of day click here.

Not much current flowing today even though it’s clear.  Sixty-two volts putting out 233 watts at this time–telling me one panel is off line (I’ve divided the 12 panels). Turns out it’s snow and ice on the first panel seen in the first photo here.  I should be getting about 132VDC.    Ohm’s Law is Amps X Volts = Watts but there is some resistance here.   The total power generated is 100 watts/hour (since midnight) or enough to run a 100w light bulb for an hour–well, this is our slowest solar time.  In peak summer sun, we’ll get 8.1kwh; more than enough to run everything.   All this is stored in eight L-16 lead-acid batteries which are slowly dying off after 6 years of constant use.  They ran dry once–not good but we’ve ordered 40 (yes, forty) new nickel-iron “Edison” batteries which are now produced in China.  These NiFe batteries essentially last forever & can’t freeze; but they’re spendy…..

This big fuel barge happened by this morning–our lifelink to the rest of the world and the reason we’re going solar (and hydro).  All the mountains are proudly displayed here in our front yard.

Here is the moonrise the same afternoon.  Yesterday, I went out and got a shore pine xmas tree–they grow very slowly and have a nice full shape.  I slurried it down the hill with much rigor working up quite a sweat–good exercise.  Then I stumbled upon these tracks:

This slide went on for 20-30′ at a time with little push mark footprints….a river otter simply out having fun.  Olaus Murie, in his book Animal Tracks says these animals will tuck their front paws to the side and skid on their stomachs with an occasional kick/glide much like a cross country skier.  This guy covered a lot of ground!  My snowshoe tracks lower left for scale.  Tonight a solstice fire on the beach with eggnog & friends–stay tuned and Happy Holidays all!

In Europe the best way to get around is by train–and we take the ICE train from Frankfurt to Paris.  This train reaches peak speeds of 315 k/h!  And wait til you pass on oncoming ICE train–wow!  We’re in Paris in about 5 hours.

Paris was overwhelming–we spent a total of two days there–and were mainly sick with the flu.  Mr. Eiffel must have owned an erector set when he was a little boy–we’re awed by the amount of steel here (and the long lines).  What a massive structure.  Our favorite time was walking around Montmartre.

Here we stumble across a street musician; aka “organ grinder.”   I spent last winter rebuilding an Estey portable pump organ and love this music.  We tipped him generously and continued to walk up the hill.

Our next stop was Lyon where we became couchsurfers hosted by a very nice chap named Nick.  Martina found him on the website and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening with him–he is an expert climber/extreme skier and loves climbing in Yosemite.  We will certainly invite him to Alaska!   You rock, Nick!

Being a country boy-camper type, it’s time to move on south to Provence!

It was here that we fell in love with France and most of all our French hosts.  Le Degoutaud is a 100 acre B&B run by the parents of our last summer’s guest, Tibo (see previous post).  We were really in for a treat.  Besides a well deserved mention in Rick Steve’s guidebook, they spoil their guests with home-made apricot nectar, preserves, tree ripe olives, & figs, and of course, locally produced wines.  Le Degoutaud is run by Veronique and Pierre and Pierre’s parents, Hubert and Josefine and we adopt them into our family immediately.  What hospitality!!

How can you top this?  Tibo takes us on a personal tour, through the vineyards around Suzette, and the villages NE of Avignon and Orange.  We drive up Mont Ventoux and see the tip of Mt. Blanc.  I acquire a strong French accent,  and a desire to sample the local wines.

Some of the 100 acres.

Meet Jean David and….

….Chateau Jean David

Martina and Tibo take an afternoon catnap by the pool ala Maxfield Parrish.

Last summer, Tibo and I began an outdoor kitchen here in Kupreanof.  Here he explains the finer points of French country cuisine.    A traditional Provencal dinner is planned this evening.

The outdoor kitchen is fired up, wine arrives along with the best that Provence can offer in culinary treats.  A night never to forget;  and such wonderful hosts!

What else can you wish for…. but a drive to the French Riviera and the southern Mediterranean coastline. Tibo, ever our faithful guide, takes us south to Marseilles and then eastward along the French coast towards Italy. Simply beautiful!

We drive up the tortuous roads above Cassis to the limestone cliffs where climbers prepare to descend.  In the old days, we climbed up, not down but it’s a new world.  Amazing exposure.

Well, I’m dizzy so we drive down to sea level and have lunch in a Mediterranean seacoast town (there are too many to count or remember). Can you imaging rowboats kept this nice in Seattle?  Never.  These Mediterranean French are perhaps the happiest ever.  Next stop–Languedoc-Lunas where we pick mushrooms and enjoy perfect French hospitality!  Stay tuned.