On The Road #6

Our daily schedule on the road

After five road trips with my dogs, I finally realized that there is no reason to lug along a library of books to read. The reason is that there is little time to read, as the below daily scedule shows. If I am luck, I can get in 30 minutes of reading a day, unless I am staying at a camp for more than one day, which happens sometimes. I also decided that I would not take along any e-books this time, mainly becasue they consume valuable iPad battery time, and I would rather page through a hard-cover book anyway.

0600 Reveille

0615 Walk the dogs

0635 Breakfast for dogs

0650 Breakfast for me

0720 Plan the day*

0730 @Service Defender*

0750 @Clean Defender*

0815 @Groom/wash dogs*

0835 @Leben’s therapy*

0845 Exercise/therapy for me*

0900 Strike Camp*

0930 Load Defender*

0945 Shower

1000 Move Out

Drive*; pit stop*, walk dogs*

Errands en route

Drive*; pit stop*; walk dogs*

Drive*

1600 Arrive camp; check in

1630 Survey camp site*

1640 Walk dogs

1700 Set up camp*

1745 Supper for dogs

1750 Prepare fire

1800 Supper for me

1830 Clean up after supper

1845 Chores (laundry; repair, etc.)

1930 Plan Remaining trip

2000 Journal; blog

2030 read

2100 Taps; lights OUT

* Treat dogs @Do evening before to move out by 0900

Prior trips with Leben and Erde

Here are my prior trips with Leben and Erde.

Black line = 2001 trip, 14,500 miles, 50 days

Red line = 2002 trip, 10,000, 60 days

Blue line = 2011 trip, 8,000 miles, 42 days (cur trip short to do overheating Defender and Leben's medical problem)

Brown line = 2012 trip, 4000, 21 days (trip got delayed do to Leben's surgery and then got cut short when he became paralyzed at Thunder Bay)

July 1, 2013 - Main Plan (Going)

I have decided that the main route we will take will be from DC to arond the east side of Lake Superior via either Ottawa or Toronto, then on to Banff and Jasper, up to the ALACN ("Alaska Highway") to Fairbanks, and then up to our old stomping grounds on the North Slope to Prudhoe Bay. This is shown on the below map. The map beneath it show some possible variations or sidetrips and the possible routes back home. (Click on the map to enlarge.)

Here are some variations or sidetrips, plus a couple of routes back home, explained beneath the map. (Click on the map to enlarge.)

The black line shows the main route depicted in the first photo.

The brown line by the ON (Ontario) shows a possible sidetrip to Lake Bukemiga, where Leben, Erde and I spent an intresting eveing in 2011.

The yellow line shows a possible alternative route from Japser (Alberta) to the AlCAN via a little place called Kitwanga (BC) which is most noted (by me anyway) for its famous sign, "North to Alaska." If you don;t believe me Google Earth it and go to the street view and see for yourself.

Back on the ALCAN, I might decide to take a sidetrip or detour of a couple of thousand miles and head up to Inuvik, NorhtWest Territories near the Arctuc Ocean. (Red line.) The 500-mile dirt and gravle Dempster Highway that goes there is only one of two roads in North America that cross the Arctic Circle.

At Fairbanks, the end of the ALCAN, we hope to head up to Prodhoe Bay from there, along the Dalton Highway, the 500-mile dirt and gravel road, which is the only other road in North America that crosses the Arctic Circle. This will be the end of the Outward Bound leg of the trip, 5880 miles form home.

The blue line shows the first portion of the return trip, down to Fairbanks and then Denali, hopefully a sidetrip to the end of the road in Denali if we win the July 15th lottery, and then perhaps on to Anchorage for a few sidetrips. From there, it is not clear if we will head to Juneau to hope aboard the five-day ferry to Seattle, Washingon, where I hope to spend a few days on Vancouver Island (and maybe in Canda, too).

Depending upon any number of factors, the last leg of the trip may either be directly home to DC (orange line) or perhaps a sidetrip (light purple line) down the western coastal highway to Coit Tower in San Francisco, where we will turn the Defender around, point it northeast, and head home, 7 days distant.

All of these lines and the underlying plans are, of course, subect to change. While I have plans in mind, whim and the wind will be the two main spirits that move us in one direction or another. Right now, there are only three entires in my 90-day itinerary: Leave DC July 15, Denali September 15, Home October 15. Your guess is as good as mine about what those in-between dates will be filled in with.

July 1, 2013 - Decisions, decisions, decisions

I still hope to get on the road on July 15th, although as my to-do list gets longer, that date may have to slip until July 22nd. My first rule for these trips is to leave when I am 100 percent ready and when I am well rested, and I follow the rules I lay out. Fortunately, I have my last five trips to fall back on and I started the preparaiton tasks for this trip much sooner. I will not find out if I won a slot in the Denali lottery to drive the whole road to Wonder Lake until July 15th. If I win a slot, that changes the plans for the trip somewhat because I will have to prepare for the severe winter weather that can occur in Denali in mid-September, and I would not be returning home until about Octobr 15th.

Fortunately, the dogs are in good health and I have not had to rush to the vets every other day with one new problem or another as I did two yers ago. The Defender has been in the garage a few times for a few problems (e.g., would not start in the rain), some of which would hve been trip-stoppers if they had not been resolved, but they were. I also added a new AC for the dogs, an air-snorkel for the dirt and gravel roads as well as for a few steams I may have to cross; added new side runners; and added a new radio that is both USB and BlueTooth equipped.

I am adding the complete works of Mhaler and the Best of Arvo Part to to my iPad music collection.

I am still trying to decide if I should take some audio books to listen to on those empty, long Alaskan highways, but my guess is that I will not, and opt to listen to the music or just think.

I am also trying to decide if I should take along a i-book or two, but my guess is that I will not as they consume the iPad's battery which I need for other things. Worse, the only time I have to read anything other than trip related materials is late at night, just before lights out, and the white light from the screen interferes with my circadian rythm and makes it harder to fall alseep, the last thing I need on a road trip involving hundrdeds of miles each day.

I am also still trying to decide which hardcover books I should take along. The probem is that these books take up valuable space in the Defender and I have virtually no time to read on days that I am moving on, which is most days. I am inclined to take a bunch of those Decline books (e.g., Kennedy's book on the Decline of the West, Gibbons book on the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Diamond's book Collapse, among others), but my concrn is that I will not get to then more than it is their sense of where we are going ourselves.

ED

Day minus 14.....

Blue dot...DC...where we are now
Red dot...thunder bay...where we stopped trips last two years
Purple dot, Prudhoe Bay...penultimate destination, again. Ultimate destination is home

There is a Solution for every problem ....leben's wheelchair on the road

For all my road trips, to ensure my own safety and the safety of my dogs, and to help make the trips more enjoyable, I always prepare a list of rules i must follow on the road. I get this list laminated and refer to it every to make sure i am following the rules. Always near the top of my list is rule that there is a Solution for every problem, as well as its corollary, Don't give up till the problem is solved, if it is worth solving, that is. This problem solving takes place long before the trips start, when it involves measures to take before we leave to avoid problems on the trip.

Ever since I got Leben's wheelchairs in November, I have transported them in the rear of he vehicle with one or the other of my dogs. Needless to say, this takes up space, valuable space, and causes problems in the process. In thinking about the problem yesterday as I stood at the rear of my defender, the solution to this problem jumped right at me. A picture of the solution is shown above (or below). Leben's wheelchair fits nicely on the ladder on the rear of my defender, secured by at least six bungee cords. This was a big problem, but now it is solved.

Saturday, May 25....

I’m off in a few minutes to check out some new tents, as if I needed a 7^th tent. I actually take 2 tents with me on these road trips. Our main tent is a four person tent that provides some room for the three of us, allowing me to set up that new air mattress I got last year, which the dogs seem to enjoy at my expense. I also take an emergency tent that I can set up quickly in foul weather or backpack into a campsite remotely located from where we park the Defender. On all five of my prior road trips, the tent I used for this purposes was a Northface 2-person 4-season expedition tent. It was a bit cozy inside the few times I used it with Leben and Erde in the past, and I imagine it would be even more so with Leben’s situation, so I decided to get a 3-person tent. The two candidates are the NorthFace VE25 or the Eureka K2 XT.

May 23: On the Road maps (1-6)

Below is a crude map showing my six "on the road" trips with my dogs.

1- (Green) 2000, with Sonntag, 12,500 miles, 42 days: Dc to Prudhoe Bay Alaska and back.

2- (Khaki) 2001, with Leben and Erde, 14,500 miles, 50 days, from DC to Inuvik, Canada, then on to Prudhoe Bay, then down to San Francoscom and back.

3- (Red) 2002, with Leben and Erde, 10,000 miles, 60 days, from DC to Nova Scotia to Newfoundland to Labrador to Prince Edwards Island and back.

4- (Pink) 2011, with Leben and Erde, 8,000 miles, 38 days, from DC to New Brunswick, to Labrador, to Quebec, then on to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and home.

5- (Blue) 2012, with Leben and Erde, 4,000 miles, 27 days, from DC to Ontario, around Lake Superior and then home.

6- Planned (Yellow), with Leben and Erde, maybe 14,000+ miles, maybe 75 days, from DC to Prudoe Bay again, and then back home.

If #6 goes off as planned, these trips will have covered 63,000 miles over 292 years, camping every night.

If you are wondering why there are no lines to the north-east of the lines shown, it is because there are no or few roads in that area.

May 21:, Day -56

Plans and preparations are progressing with 56 days to go before our scheduled departure. Here are some highlights.

We're still undecided about the route we will take to Alaska. The options are:

1- Start the 2011 trip all over again and head from DC up to Maine, then through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia, hop a ferry to Newfoundland and then another to Labrador (Port Sablon, Quebec, actually), drive the 1300-mile dirt and gravel Trans-Labrador Highway counter-clockwise to Northwest River, Labrador, which is the end of the road in the northeast, head to Alaska and then to the end of the 500-mile dirt and gravel haul road in the northwest at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, 8060 miles in total, and then figure out how to get back to DC. This was the original trip (16,600 miles) planned in 2011, but we had to cut that trip short at Thunder Bay, Ontario because of Leben’s terrible skin allergy and the Defender’s (false) overheating problem.

2- Head from DC up through Maine to New Brunswick, hop a ferry to Tadoussac, Quebec, head to Prudhoe Bay Alaska via Chibogamu Quebec, 6087 miles in total, and then figure out how to get back to DC.

3. Basically pick up where we left off on last year’s trip at Thunder Bay, Ontario by heading directly to Thunder Bay via the east coast of Lake Superior, head northwest via Banff in the Canadian Rockies and then to Alaska via one of the few routes there, 5022 miles in total, and then figure out how to get home from there.

The only deadline I have for the trip is to be at Denali park by September 13^th in case we win the lottery to drive the 80 miles back to Wonder Lake, assuming there isn’t three feet of snow. If I win the lottery, my guess is that we will take option 3, but we will not know that until days before we leave in July.

May 14: Getting ready

Last week, I started my planning for my trip this summer with my dogs, Leben and Erde. They are now 12, and I am very mindful that they may not be around much longer. I have such wonderful memories of my previous four trips with them to Alaska, Labrador (2 times), on all through Ontario (three times) that I would be a fool not to try to solidify those memories deeper by one last trip. This trip will not be easy because of Leben's situation (he is paralyzed), but that just makes the challenger greater. Fortunately, there's little more I need to do to make the trip less difficult because I just about improved everything that could be improved on from the previous trips and I am planning and preparing this trip well in advance.

The biggest challenge of the trip this year will be space in the Defender, now that I have to make room for Leben's wheelchair and stroller and make him (and his sister) comfortable and clean. I have already installed a new AC in the Defender because I do not want to run the risk its failing. I already removed the Defender's front passenger seat to give the dogs more room up front. I just ordered a new 4.7 gallon Big Kahuna portable shower to give Leben the twice-weekly showers he needs for his skin allergy. I am now painstakingly scanning in the 1100 pages of my Defender's Workshop and Parts Manuals so I can leave the manuals at home to save space and view them on my iPad. Tomorrow I will start working on my formidable to-do list and to-take lists, using 2012's as the starting point. I will probably only be posting to this blog each week until the trip starts, and then it'll be every day, or so I hope. And to make my blogs easier to write, I just bought a new LogiTech keyboard for the iPad.

The two options for the trip this year are to head to Alaska via Ontario or via Labrador. I am sure no one has ever done the latter for the simple reason that it is time-consuming, if not expensive and tiring. But the three of us have plenty of experience on the road and if we do not do it now we may never do it.

Until I organize this blogger, readers might wish to look at the blog from last year's trip by clicking here or the reference to it to the right.

ED

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Abbreviations

Abbreviations for this trip

OTR = On the Road (OTR6 = this trip, my sixth road trip)
L&E = Leben and Erde, my dogs
PB or PBA = Prudhoe Bay (Alaska)
DNP = Denali National Park
D or D90 = My Landrover Defender 90

Leben

I got Leben (German for "life") and Erde (German for "earth) in May 2001. Two months later, when they were four months old, I tossed than into my Defender and we headed to Alaska. The main purpose of that trip was to spread my previous dogs Sonntag's and Kessie's ashes over the tundra of the North Slope at a site Sonntag and I overnighted at on our trip to Prudhoe Bay. (The site turned out to be in one of photos in the National Geographic story about Sonntag in January 2002.) Before we got to Alaska, we took a side trip of a few thousand miles to Inuvik, NorthWest Territories, Canada, and while en route Leben started limping. After consulting with a vet at North Pole, Alaska, and Sonntag's own vet, Dr. Jodi Korich, we continued the trip. When we returned home, Leben was diagnosed with an ununited anconeous. The vet performed an ulnectomy and six months later his anconeous was declared united. Unfortunately, a year later, when he started to limp again, he was diagnosed with a fractured coronoid process and OCD (loose cartilage) and was again operated on. He underwent additional surgeries for the loose cartilage again in 2005 and 2010. In 2010, he was also diagnosed with a hyper-extended carpus, the result of a poisonous spider bite, and worse a brace for the next two years.

Shortly after his 2010 surgery, I noticed that Leben was always sitting down at every opportunity and his rear legs were beginning to splay on slippery floors. The vet could find nothing wrong orthopedically with him. I again asked to vet to look at this in 2011, but the result was the same. In May of 2012, I noticed that Leben was beginning to lose control of his defecation function and he was having trouble running after a few feet, always favoring his right rear leg. On July 11, 2012, an MRI showed he had two serious disc ruptures in his mid and lower spine. In looking at the ruptures on the MRI, it could not be determined if they had calcified (which would have reduced the chances of a successful surgery), but it was clear to me that he would probably would become paralyzed over the next two years unless something was done to arrest further decline. Although Montag's (my first dog) and Sonntag's similar spinal surgeries were unsuccessful, I decided to go ahead with Leben's surgery because in case case we would be catching it before he became lame or paralyzed. The unknown was whether the disc ruptures had calcified.

On July 17th, the day of his surgery, Leben was able to leap up into my vehicle and walk on his own. The operation lasted four and a half hours. Unfortunately, the ruptures ha calcified and there was little the vet could do except proivde some decompression of the spine by opening up a window to the spine and chip away at that calcified stuff for most of the time. His recovery from the surgery over the next few weeks was pure hell for him in me. That alone was reason for me to decide never to put any dog of mine through that surgery alone. Eight weeks after he surgery, Leben could get up on is own and barely walk except with a serious wobble. Since his healing period had ended, not knowing what the future held for him, I loaded him and his sister Erde int my Defender for another road trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and if all went well, to Banff in the Canadian Rockies. It was a lot easier to manage Leben on the road then it would have been at home. Then, one morning at Pukawasa National Park on Lake Superior, Leben could not longer get up on his own or walk. The operation had paralyzed him by chipping away at critical nerves and exposing others to the wear and tear of normal activity. We ended our trip at Thunder Bay and headed for home, where I ordered two wheelchairs for him from K-9 Karts (East) and Eddie's Wheels. It took Leben weeks to adjust to his new situation, but eventually we both made it and life goes on.

In retrospect, it was a serious misjudgment on my part to put Leben through that operation. I should have taken my chances and waited to see if he became paralyzed on his own and , if he did, put him into a wheelchair right away. The odds of that kind of operation being successful are very low, unless you get to it within days of the disc rupture. I did not know this before because Montag and Sonntag were already lame or paralyzed when they received their surgeries. Leben's symptons started to show up two years before his surgery so he was really not a good candidate for the operation. He was also not a good candidate because of his age, size, and other issues (front carpus and elbows). In the future, I will know these things.

Leben has adjusted quite well to his new life. We do everything he did before, just a little more in moderation and little different in style. But the truth is, when I push him around in one of his two strollers, I actually think he enjoys it and thinks that he is finally getting the treatment he always deserved. If the latter is the case, he is right.

In 2002, the National Geographic article about Sonntag labelled his trip, "An Incredible Journey," and it was. This upcoming trip for Leben (and Erde) will be just as incredible, just a little bit more difficult for one of us.

TRIP TRACKER

Click here for the lastest planned journey.

The trip so far is shown in the links below.
Legend:
Black line is outward bound leg of this part (2) of our journey
Blue line is return leg (by sea shown with hash marks).
Green line is part 1 of this trip.
Red lines are prior "Been there, done that" excursions.

Click here for day 59 (final) track

Click here for day 57 track.

Click here for day 56 track, October 9

Click here for day 55 track, October 8

Click here for day 53 track, October 4

Click here for day 32 track

Click here for day 22 track.

Click here for day 14 track

Click here for day 9 track

Click here for day 5 track

Leben and Erde's road-camping travels prior to this trip

About this blog

I keep this blog really for my own purposes. It is a large paart of my journal for the trip so I can recall what took place before, during and after the trip. This is why a lot of stuff appears here that is not normally found in a travelogue. I also keep a written journal (some of it in Russian so no one can read it but a Russian, and even they would have a hard time understanding what I wrote) in which I record thoughts others would have no interest (or reaon) in reading. On the road, in the evening, as one of my last chores for the day, I make my entries for the journal and only then do I write the postings for my blog. Sometimes, I don't have time for either my journal or the blog, or I am just too tired to keep it.

If you have chosen to read this blog, do not expect to see any expert descriptions of the flora and fauna I encounter all the way. I am no David Thoreau, and do not pretend to be.

Nor should you expect to read any insights I might have on the state of America like John Steinbeck had when he wrote his Travels with Charley. First of all, most of my trip will be through Canada, althouhg Candadians would argue that Canada is part of America, North America. Second, for all the good America has, I am trying to escape certain things American on this trip, mostly the pollution caused by our dysfunctional politicians just down Pennsylvania Avenue, on which I live. Third, I do not have time on this trip to chat with people about anything other than logistical things like where I can find a good campsite up the road.

Finally, those who are expecting me to wax poetic about my profound thoughts on this trip will be greatly disappointed. I am more concerned on these trips about the health of my dogs and not of the nation, about the destiny of my tent, and not the destiny of mankind. I have no time to ponder the meaning of life, as I am struggling daily to ponder the meaning of the poorly written instrctions for something I brought along. If I spent anytime trying to answer the question, Who I Am?, I would be justly faulted for having too much time on my hands.

So, this blog is about nothing more than a recoding of progress made on the road that day, problems encountered and solved, and whatever other trivial thoughts are bouncing around in my head, late at night, in a tent, when I am tired and anxious to get a good night's sleep before the routine of life on the road repeats itself again and again and again until the trip comes to an end.

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