Wed, 29 Jun 2005

Dalton Highway

If you ever looked at an Alaska road map, you may have noticed a very strange road that stretches from about Fairbanks to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean coast.

The Dalton Highway is a supply road for Prudhoe Bay, a major oil field that pumps crude directly into the Alaskan pipeline. This pipeline runs from top to bottom of the state, and along side the dalton in this particular case.

People build roads so you can DRIVE on them, right? Well, apparently no one thought so. After asking several Alaskan friends and family of mine about this road, i was told that "it was closed to the public", "oh, no, you can't drive on that road", and "thats not a real road".

As you may already know, I do not like answers like these. Thats like someone saying "Oh, no, i NEVER been in my backyard. I hear you are not allowed to go back there."

Yea, so, I got myself a nice rental car. It was a nice Ford Escape -- until i was finished with it.

After winding and twisting through the hills towards this crazy highway, we finally made it. A big sign said "DALTON HIGHWAY", along with some pretty funny signs telling you to keep your headlights on for the next 414 miles.

And then the pavement ended. Oh crap, apparently its a 400+ mile dirt road. Up some crazy hill i climb, lose gravel flying. It was barely wide enough for two people, let alone enough room for me and a large semi.

I pulled off the side of the road, scared shittless of what I got myself into. Yea, this road is too rough. My wife noted that we already bought the "Drove to the Arctic Cricle" bumper sticker, and we couldn't stop now.

She was right, the Arctic circle seemed pretty close on the map. I expected it to take us about two hours tops. We hit the Dalton at about 5pm.

The Dalton is a crazy road. Not only do the big rigs take up most of the road, but they drive FAST. I clocked one guy at over 100 miles per hour....while I was doing 70. Yes, 70 miles per hour on a dirt road with potholes. Eventually you just sort of glide over them.

The highway was not all dirt, there were a couple mile sections that were paved. I have no idea what possessed anyone to pave these roads, but they were pretty steep hill climbs. It just seems funny to stumble on pavement in the middle of nowhere.

I was shocked to find most bridges over streams were not cement, but WOOD. Yes, rotten wood bridges with deep pit marks. Thats ok, you just drive really fast over these and close your eyes.

After hours of driving, we approched the Yukon River. The river was pretty large and spectacular. The bridge was made out of, you guessed it, rotten wood.

After crossing this crazy, sloping bridge, we finally reached a fuel point. Oh, and in case you haven't realized yet, there are a whole two gas stations on this 400 mile road.

I needed gas, the tank was getting pretty low. I was making very bad time, and the loose gravel really killed my SUV's gas mileage. I go up to an old analog pump, put it up to the vehicle, and turn the lever. Nothing happened.

Weird...I flipped the lever over and over, still nothing. I figured it was broken. Suddently, a lady walks from the collection of gift shop shacks across the dirt driveway.

"Hold on, I have to turn it on."

"Oh, ok," i said, noting the extensive apparatus connected to the gas pump.

She flips on a large Honda generator, which has several jury-riged, partially exposed wires running directly to the old fashioned pump. On the pump hangs a sign "No Smoking, Stop vehicle before fueling". Right. Ok. I feel safe.

I top off the tank, pay her in cash, and go on my way.

Driving further down the road, I noted an odd rail-road crossing. Well, it was actually said "STOP - AIR TRAFFIC".

apparently, if someone wants to fly onto the Dalton highway, the plane radios a small control shack, the gates drop, and the plane lands on the highway. Very creative use of space.

After more endless driving, we finally reach the arctic circle. There was a cute sign to take your picture next to, along with a campground. A head was another endless dirt road -- but i decided to turn around at this point. I did not want to spend my entire weekend on a road to the arctic.

On my way back, the rental car started to make noises. Loud rubbing sounds, squeels, etc. I picked up the cell phone to call my rental company, but noticed that there was no signal....for about 200 miles. It would not have been a good thing anyway because apparently my rental contract forbids me to drive on this road.

I explained these noises later in great detail to my dad, and apparently I really dicked up the thing. But who knows if I actually was the cause .. it was a Ford.

Next time, I am going to have to get a proper vehicle and drive the entire road...

[/alaska] permanent link

Tue, 28 Jun 2005

I am in Barrow this week. I'll start with the technical/business/etc
aspect first.

Not much has changed since last time we were up, but there are a couple new things in town.

Polar Bear PC opened up on the first of June. This is located on Boxer street in the "UIC Business Park", which is just a collection of various buildings over on the Browerville side of Barrow owned by the local native corporation (UIC). This is the first Internet center in Barrow, and features a entire slew of computers filling the entire space. Rates are at $5 per half hour.

Proprietor Mike Stotts got a pretty amazing deal on a T1 through ASTAC. Keep in mind that Barrow is served only by satellite, so T1s in Barrow are (nearly) impossible to obtain, even if you could actually afford one. Naturally, latencies can be a bit high, but it makes up for it in speed. He has big plans for this place.

If you are in the mood for coffee while you surf, take caution. "Coffee Shop", next door, sells latte's for over $6 for a 16 ounce and the service was a little bit questionable. Not the best or cheapest place in town! Take the extra walk down the block to Stuaqpak (AC Value Center) for some much better java.

Still no sign of CDMA or GSM .... its still AMPS/TDMA. ACS and ASTAC both have cell towers in good operation up here, but apparently SprintPCS was a little too cheap to extend the ACS roaming agreement to include the Barrow market. I have been living off some AT&T calling card instead -- just so i don't rack up everyone's bills. I saw some guys in town before i left with some Erricson gear....looked like cell hardware. Maybe someone is doing some upgrades.

Also: Barrow public transit will be no more in a short couple of weeks. GCI bought out Barrow cable (which was owned by the biggest ANC of them all, ASRC) promising "high speed cable internet". And locally/natively owned telephone co-op ASTAC, threatened by GCI's internet offering plans, now offers DSL service in Barrow! I was also told that no one has planned to bring fiber into Barrow yet, and the nearest fiber optic line is on the pipeline...so maybe someday.

Everyone back at home has been asking me what I have been up to lately in Alaska. Well, here is one particular day's journal entry:

All the tourists in town have taken up all the rental cars. I keep calling every morning, and none are available. So I got to take out my wife's cousin's vehicle for half a day. I went for a drive with a couple in-laws.....now where to go? Naturally, someone wanted to go to shooting station (furthest east part of town) and one wanted to go to fresh water lake (furthest west part of town). I think we were all half way joking, because there is nowhere to really drive around here. For those who don't know, this place is only a couple miles across.

Then, just before we left, someone thought it might be a good idea to wash the car. In Barrow, all the roads are dirt/gravel, and it can get a little bit on the dusty side. Naturally, it does not take long for your car to get very dirty once the snow melts (which was a couple weeks ago).

After grabbing a water bucket, some rags, and some dish soap, we were off to fresh water lake. The drive did not take long...first you go from the Browerville side to Barrow side. Second, go past the airport....tried not to drive up on the tarmac though like i did last time...third, out past the satellite array, past the graveyard, and then you are at freshwater lake. The road ends here in a little bit of a coul-de-sac, except no houses or anything. A sign post sits in front of the lake completely shot up beyond recognition...i wont even pretend to guess what it said.

We pull up, and sure enough, some car had this camera with a freaking lens about a mile long, sticking out the window. Numbers on the car door....brand new, overdressed yuppie REI arctic gear....yea, one of those crazy bird tourist people again. These guys will go out to fresh water lake and sit there for hours taking pictures of these damn birds. click..click..click..wait......click click click. She's taking pictures of two stupid birds sitting in some mud puddle, littered with old soda cans and boxes, about a couple feet off the gravel road. I wonder if she'll frame it...?

Out pops a bunch of eskimos and some white guy out of the dirty vehicle. Its time to wash the car! My daughter Jasmine, sits in the drivers seat, and whales on the horn. BEEP BEEP! We walk over to a slowly thawing tundra pond full of fresh water, fill up the bucket, and drop in some dish soap. Everyone starts scrubbing away, singing an improvised "Eskimo carwash!" song we came up with on our way there. Water is splashing everywhere, soap bubbles flying, everyone is yelling.

Needless to say, the stupid birds got scared shitless and flew away. No more birds to take pictures of..but that doesn't matter, because our little friend in the other vehicle was watching us in horror. I looked over a couple more times, and they seemed to have gotten a bit of a kick out of our little performance.

After we finished rinsing off the SUV with fresh, cool tundra water, we began to realize how freaking cold our hands got, taking in account the wicked wind chill. Just before we left, i had to take a couple more pictures of our great work on the vehicle. Just then I noticed a dead wolf laying behind a snow drift. I don't know why, i didnt see any blood or signs of struggle, it looks like it just died. It had a very nice coat of fur on it and i wanted to retrieve it, but it was sitting on some thin ice over the lake, and it probably wasnt worth falling in for. We left after that. Yea...would have been nice if this story ended with a hungry polar bear, but there really wasn't one in sight.

Off to the shooting station we went....we trailed this slow dump truck full of soil most of the way over to the Browerville side. I took another road and cut it off..and got onto this nice, fast 45 MPH speed limit road. Yea, it was on loose gravel with tons of bumps, but oh well.

Finally got out of town, to a place I havent really been since last year. Shooting station is in the direction of Point Barrow, that really long, skinny arm thing you see on the map that leads out to the sea, which also is the highest point of the USA/Alaska. Lots of whale bones are usually found on the sea side of the road. Passed some people ice fishing, and some people out by the NARL station and the DEW station. Finally, reached the shooting station. This is a given because right near the end is a set of fake palm trees made out of whale bone, baleen, and real coconuts. I think there was one new tree here, but i'll have to check last year's photos. We took pictures of everyone next to the trees, and headed further out to Point Barrow.

Point Barrow is really weird because its a flat strip of land, maybe a couple times wider than the road you are driving on. Errosion barriers are constructed, but its a pretty flat geographic structure. We were going to drive up to the polar bear sign, but there was a road closed sign before that, along with an erosion barrier blocking general vehicle access.

This is probably a good thing because driving all the way to the end of the point can disturb the bears and bring them back into Barrow or the dump. This can be bad. They also bring lots of waste meat, bones, etc. out to point barrow to keep the bears way out of town -- or perhaps to keep the bears in place for tourists going on the polar bear tour ;)

After turning around, i saw another road heading towards Barrow. This was the gasline road and I turned on it. I'm very curious because nobody has taken me out there before. I pass the last turn to take alternate routes into Barrow, and I start to worry my passengers.

We keep going, and found a lot of (nice) houses off the pipeline road. After a couple of miles, i pass the same lattitude of the Satellite dishes and keep going. People start to get even more worried, like they were not supposed to be out this far. The road was still in good condition, and i saw buildings in the distance.

Eventually, i had to turn around at one of the pump stations. I didnt want to upset anyone, and I probably should not be driving aimlessly out on the tundra. We went back and randomly drove around until about 5pm that time. I asked someone later that night, turns out its a public road, and the sucker goes out for 12 (!) miles to a natural gas well. (Speaking of gas, gasoline is $3.50/gal here)

After snaking around some outskirts of town, we finally get back to Browerville. Nothing to do...lets go to Stuaqpak and BUY something! We can't really go about 10 feet out of the parking lot without running into someone we know. Everyone knows each other around here, and I do see a lot of my wife's family in the store. Her cousin makes me a mocha.

It sometimes is fun to go to the store and gock at the prices, but it gets old really fast when you take out your wallet. This is fine, considering the alternative of not having the item. $9.99 for orange juice, with a AC sticker under it saying "Save $1.59 over national brand". Or how about $1.69 for a small container of yogart? There are reasons for this, but its kind of interesting to see.

I think the biggest shock for me is finding an item out of stock. Well, shit. That sucks. No more CDR's in Barrow. They are ALL GONE. Who knows when the next shipment comes in. Nevermind that they were $59.95 for a pack of 50. The shelf is still empty as of today...wonder when I can upload my pictures?

Oh well....thats what your neighbors are for. I should have bummed a CDR off Mike today.

Nalukataq was a blast, as always. Lots of food...lots of people....tons of family. Kids run everywhere, which is good because I can let my baby loose and let her play on her own. They all dig on the dirt, play with the blanket, etc. and cause lots of general trouble.

I have been trying so hard to get my daughter to eat real food. Its always "uh-nuh" this, "dado" that, her words for "milk" and "popcicle". She eats spuratically, but not really enough to sustain herself. So its milk, mainly.

She won't eat any Western/American fare, but she will stuff her mouth full of maktak (half blubber/skin cut of whale; raw), miqiuq (firmented whale meat in whale blood; raw), quaq (raw whale meat), eskimo doughnuts (fried bread doughnut with no frosting/etc), eskimo icecream (whipped animal fats, meat chunks, berries), whale tounge, etc. like its freaking candy. Good thing I have a big stock full of this stuff.

Me? Well, I decided to eat as much native food as I can while I am up here since there is a plentiful supply around this time of year. I think I have grown a new taste towards eskimo food....its now just delicious as opposed to interesting and new.

I am really eating maktak, miqiuq, quaq, etc. like its candy. The one I really like right now is Miqiuq. It tastes like roast beef, soaked in a sparkling red wine...and it does amazing stuff to the tip of your tounge. It tingles like champaign, but I can't quite explain the sensation. I am also told its extremely good this year...

What happened when I went from vegetarian fare to a diet that would make Dr. Atkin's proud? Nothing.

[/barrow] permanent link

Fri, 24 Jun 2005

Back From the Top of the World

I would have made an audio blog update, or maybe even an internet update, but no luck with that. I found an internet "cafe" (sans coffee), but I could not manage to get SSH to function over the satellite link I was using.

I have a pretty good article written up about my "adventures", but I currently have no method of posting it. Stay tuned..

I am in Fairbanks for the rest of the weekend. For some reason, this seems like a very big place. I now have to wear my seatbelt, watch for cops, and I can't really walk anywhere. Its busy here and HOT. 65F currently.

If you want a sneak peak at some pictures, check out the June 2005 section of my photo album. Lots of good stuff there...I also have some pretty interesting videos on my phone waiting for upload as soon as I enter SprintLand. And no, I completely forgot to get some videos of the blanket toss and people flying in the air :/

More soon!

[/alaska] permanent link

Fri, 17 Jun 2005

Probably taking off tonight

Looks like the flights are pretty packed this weekend, so I am highly considering leaving tonight. It will be a red-eye, but it may be our only way into Barrow for almost a week. Looks like everyone is trying to go up for Nalukataq...

I am going to try to blog and update pictures while I am up there, or at least Audio Blog.

Bandwidth is limited, so I may have to wait to use my sister-in-law's cable modem in Fairbanks before I put up all my photos.

Stay tuned, and check my Audio Blog from time to time.

[/alaska] permanent link

Fri, 10 Jun 2005

Internet Storage

So....I am now storing data on the internet. No, I do not mean an ftp server, a web server or using GMail as a file system. I am actually storing data ON THE WIRE.

During a spanning tree change last night for work, I was thinking about loops. You know, the kind of packet forwarding loops that can bring any network to its knees, retransmitting the same data in a circle. This could be a nifty way to store data! But how could I do this on the public internet?

There are two solutions to this: Write custom software to loop packets between a list of various hosts (and running it on all these hosts) OR make use of existing loopback systems (such as ICMP ECHO) to echo data back to my self. Instead of discarding the data, I would simply foward it again back to the host with the same data.

I am currently using some prototype software to store over a hundred bytes of data on the public internet. As the echo reply's come back in, i send the payload back again. The very interesting thing I have found is that the hosts with the highest latencies can hold more data. Yes, this means that international connections and satellite links are prime real estate for this venture.

The data lives on forever...well...until a packet is lost. I need to probably come up with a solution for this one.

How do I store data? This is done by a simple injection. Each ICMP Echo packet is marked with a 4 byte unique identifier and contains 12 bytes of data payload. This gives me a bit of address space to play with, so currently, I can store about 786Kb. Once these packets are sent off to a host, my software see's the reply and re-transmits it.

Now how about getting the data off the network into my hands? I have a piece of software which collects all of these bits of information over a short period of time, organizes the address numbers, and prints out the entire payload.

I am sure a file allocation table may allow me to store multiple pieces of data, as well as maybe interfacing to the unix file system, but this is all for later development. A proof of concept is all I need right now :)

I admit, I am not really the first, second, or even third person to think of this idea. A lot of old cyberpunk books told tales of storing data in "cyberspace" using packet loops...I just brought it to reality.

[/crazyideas] permanent link