DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN [and] MATTIE'S FOURTH BREAK

                                               DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN

 The immortal words and music from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

/play#Bob+Dylan:Subterranean+Homesick+Blues:10284:s324959.8165829.4657974.0.1.54%2Cstd_2eb348c320e27e6b72a32268d9f36da4

"Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
By the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D.A.
Look out kid
Don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tiptoes
Don’t try “No-Doz”
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes

You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows..."

Something interesting happened in Alaska last week, from the 22nd to the 24th of November, 2010.

Alaska experienced it's most widespread-ever, since regular weather observations began (around 1915), freezing rain episode. 

At one time, on monday the 22nd of November, for three consecutive hours, freezing rain was being reported from Anchorage, north through Fairbanks, and all the way north to Barrow, on the Arctic Coast, at 70 degrees N latitude! Some even made it as far east as Prudhoe Bay that day. This had never been observed before, this widespread of a fast, large winter warm-up, with large amounts of rain. This link is for a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story about it:

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/10420107/article-Fairbanks-schools--offices-to-close-for-third-day-as-ice-storm-lingers?instance=home_news_window_left_top_1

Fairbanks received just about an inch of rain on the three days of monday-wednesday, 22-24 November, while Anchorage picked up .85 of an inch, or 22 mm. Temperatures stayed at or below freezing at both cities on the 22nd, but warmed up to 33-37F (+1 to +3C) on the following two days. But since temperatures throughout South-Central and Interior Alaska had been well below freezing for the past 10 days or more, the ground and most surfaces remained below freezing on these days, so ice accumulations continued on roads. 

On Monday the 22nd, Anchorage and Fairbanks were practically both shut-down, the roads were solid sheets of ice, even the busiest highways. It took your lead author an hour to get across Anchorage that day from the Chugach Front Research Centre, to near the airport. Traffic, much lighter than usual, was flowing at 30-35 kph (20 mph). Thank goodness most people were driving sensibly, or not at all, but there were still many cars in ditches.

What caused this unusual and unprecedented weather occurrence?

The usual pattern that brings anomalous warmth to Alaska. High pressure ridging centered just to the west of the center of the state, with a south to southwest flow aloft, moving vast amounts of warmer air northward. In this case, all the way from 30-35 N, the subtropics, north past the Arctic Circle.

This 500 mb analysis chart from Monday Morning, 22NOV10, tells the story. The contours of this chart are the height, in meters, at which the pressure is 500 mb. Which is a function of temperature, the heigher these heights, the warmer the airmass. The 500 mb heights over AK this day reached over 5700 metres (18,700 ft), over 500 meters higher than the average of around 5280 m (17,318ft). Free-air freezing levels in this air-mass reached over 2000 m (6560 ft) as far north as the central Interior. Meaning, snow levels also rose quite high. 

Around the top of the high pressure ridge, a strong moist flow of subtropical air containing abundant moisture (basically, a warm front) remained nearly stationary over the center of Alaska for over 48 hours. This infrared satellite image on the 22nd shows that moisture feed around the high pressure ridge, over the center of the state.

Average high temperatures during 22-24 November period were as much as 17C (30F) above average in South-Central, Interior, and some of Arctic Alaska. 

This high-pressure ridging pattern is how heat is transported northward to the higher latitudes, in winter, which have a net loss of energy to space, due to the low sun angles, and weak solar surface heating, since the Northern Hemisphere is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun by late December. Otherwise, the higher latitudes surface temperatures would plummet to unfathomable and unsurvivable depths.

The chart below, from the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a large globally-undertaken collaboration, shows the average temperature rises over the Arctic regions up until 2005 (the trend continues, 2010 was the warmest ever year, measured globally).  http://amap.no/acia/

What this is showing, is that there has been a roughly 1C average Arctic warming since around  1980. During this time, high pressure ridging episodes have been getting stronger, and more persistent. Bringing such events as the record Russian drought and wildfires of Summer 2010, the record heat and wildfire fatalities in Australia in February, 2009, 

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/03/warning-lights-are-flashing-australia.html and the record-largest wildfire season in Alaska in 2004

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/papers/Climatology_Alaskan_wildfires.pdf

These events, and the Alaska freezing rain event last week, were caused by anomalously strong and persistent high pressure ridging. Transporting large amounts of warmth poleward. These happened with 1C of average warming, as atmospheric CO2 concentrations rose from around 310 ppm in 1980, to 390 ppm in 2010. What do you think will happen as atmospheric CO2 concentrations reach 550-600 ppm by 2070, and Arctic average temperatures rise 3-5C (or more, if permafrost melting methane release becomes a significant positive feedback)? Will events like these become stronger and more persistent? As for us, it's pretty clear, YOU DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN (or atmospheric physicist, or climatologist) to know which way this wind will be blowing.

                    MATTIE'S FOURTH BREAK 

The Alaska Progressive Review headed over to Valdez for the Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate with our good friend Erik Hursh and his family. And then do a short ski trip into a cabin the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park.

We arrived in Valdez after leaving Anchorage in heavy snow, temperatures were finally falling after the epic freezing rain event earlier in the week. Valdez was calm and sunny when we arrived Thanksgiving afternoon. Bridalveil fall, in the amazingly sharp and rocky Keystone Canyon, about 20 KM northeast of Valdez,was frozen in all it's glory.

The next day, we all headed north to near Copper Center, to Erik's cabin on the bluff above the Copper River, to prepare for our ski trip. The view in Valdez, just as we left, was picture-perfect. So amazing how much snow accumulates in the mountains around it, that only rise to 1000-1830 metres (3280 to 6000 ft).

For our ski trip, Erik and I decided we would ski into the Nugget Creek Cabin, which is only 24 km (15 miles) in from the trailhead just off the McCarthy road, 24 KM east of Chitina, along a fairly gently sloping trail. Which leads you to a cabin at the foot of breathtaking 4996 metre (16387 ft) Mt. Blackburn, one of the dormant Wrangell volcanoes. 

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the trip, because Erik and I both forgot our cameras. Which was not so bad, as when we came out, it was in snow with poor visibility. We will return there in March, for a few sunny days, and take loads of pictures, as from the cabin, you can hop on the Kuskulana glacier, and view around the base of Blackburn.

Unfortunately for us, the freezing rain event earlier in the week had left at least a cm or two crust of ice on top of 10 cm or so of powder snow. Breaking trail for the 24 KM in this was at least twice as difficult and time-consuming as would normally be. In fact, this breaking through the crust, actually tore up the overboots on my classic ski boots.

So we didn't make it into the cabin until around 5pm, as it was getting dark, the temperature dropping to -18C (0F).  Toward the last KM or so, I actually groaned to Erik, "are you sure there is a cabin up here?", since it was so slow and arduous. But we were rewarded for our efforts. This cabin is clean, spacious, has a new woodstove (and decent wood supply, very important!), and cushions on the bed planks. In no time at all we had a good fire going, were warming up and drying out, and melting more drinking water. 

After a nice restful, warm evening in that cozy cabin, the next day, Sunday, dawned cloudy and breezy, with light snow falling, as we left. It had also warmed up to -13C (8F), which was nice. We left at 1000 and made much better time, since the trail was broken by us, the day before. It only took us 4 hours to return, with much less effort. But the return trip was not uneventful. 

Your intrepid assistant editor Mattie had three near-death experiences before this. 

The first when she and I were almost run over in 1/08 when a large truck killed our other companion Kiana, a beautiful 2-year old sled dog, on Chena Ridge Road in Fairbanks (it is unknown why and who did this, the truck never stopped or slowed, and was easily going 120 KPH). 

The second when she almost bled to death two months later, after stepping on a sharp object. Her slow arterial hemorrhaging from a knee laceration almost proved fatal, I got her in for surgery just in time. 

Then the third, was her three-day bum trip at Chitina in 7/09, http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/07/copper-river-red-blues-or-matties-bum.html

when she ran off and got lost, searching far and wide for me (as I was for her!), while I was dipnetting. When I got her back, from some people that found her, she had lost several kg and had torn and bloody paws. Since your lead author has had five near-death experiences in my lifetime, it has to be said, we certainly have much in common!

Her fourth then, was this past sunday, the 28th of November, as we all were returning from the Nugget Creek Cabin. Only about 8km from the trailhead, on a fairly straight flat stretch of trail, 2KM into the park (there is a sign marking the boundary), Mattie lurched off the trail and lunged at a piece of meat at the base of a small black spruce, just about two metres off the trail. She got caught in an unmarked lynx snare, similar to this. She lunged backward and screamed as it pulled taught and began strangling her, the more she resisted. 

I saw this happen right in front of me, so I threw off my skis and poles and yelled to Erik behind me "s..t this could be fatal!". Fortunately I was able to loose the snare off the tree, so it wouldn't keep tightening on Mattie. Then Erik was able to loosen it on her neck by bending the fine wire near the clamp, which released the pressure. So we slipped it off. Had we not been within a minute or two of her, she would have strangled herself. Inside the National Park, on a recreational trail.

She seemed to be none the worse for the wear, and I've been observing her since, she seems her usual energetic self. I'm so glad Erik and I were able to save her!

It was a nice drive back to Anchorage on the Glenn Highway the following day. Homer and Mattie were both tired from plowing through the crusty snow/ice the previous two days. The Copper River Basin picked up a beautiful 8-14cm of fresh snow the day/night before, and it was blowing in a cold -18C wind. I always love the views of the incredibly steep, rough, glaciated 2000-3500m peaks of the Chugach mountains from this road. The departing snowstorm and strong northeast winds left beautiful light and shading through the peaks. Cheers.

THIS IS WHAT WE GET [and] GROUNDWORK

               
                     THIS IS WHAT WE GET

when we allow our political system and economic system to be based on sociopathic behaviour, greed. Robert Freeman's article here sums up the mess the majority of the people in the US, and really, the World are in. Give it a read, and we'll offer our take on the situation. 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/14-1

It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class

by Robert Freeman

For the past thirty years the rich have been waging war on the middle class.  It’s been astonishingly effective, partly because it has been undeclared.  But even that pretense is now being abandoned.  The President’s National Deficit Commission [aka The Cat Food Commission, eds.] has effectively declared that the rich will now go after what is left of working and middle class wealth and will take whatever steps are necessary to seize it.  If allowed to succeed, their plan will reduce Americans to a state of serfdom.

Ronald Reagan began the war on the middle class with his “supply-side” economics.  Its very purpose, according to David Stockman, Reagan’s Budget Director, was to transfer wealth and income upwards.  It cut the marginal tax rate on the highest income earners from 75% to 35% while dramatically expanding spending for war.  The results were two-fold:  massive federal debt and an astonishing rise in the share of income and wealth going to those who were already the wealthiest people in the world.

The national debt quadrupled between 1980 and 1992.  George W. Bush would repeat Reagan’s policies and double it again between 2000 and 2008.  Meanwhile, the share of national income going to the top 1% more than doubled, from 9% to 24%.  The share going to the top one-tenth of 1% of income earners more than tripled.  We now (the US) have the most unequal distribution of income in the developed world and the inequality is growing rapidly.

Shifts of this magnitude over such short periods of time have never been seen in American history.  With the rich getting much, much richer, its means that everybody else is getting poorer.  And in fact, real wages for median workers are lower today than they were in 1973.  Indeed, while the inflation-adjusted income of the bottom fifth of workers fell by $6,900 between 1979 and 2007, the top 1% saw its annual income increase by $741,000!

To try to keep up with living standards Americans resorted to debt.  They increased their personal debt-to-income ratio from 62% in 1980 to 130% in 2008.  When housing prices fell 35% nationwide in the recent collapse it left Americans with a smaller share of equity in their homes, 48%, than at any time since the Great Depression.  The share they have lost has been taken by the banks.

In other words, all of the income and wealth gains for middle Americans from the “golden years” between 1945 and 1975 have now been wiped out.  Or more accurately, have now been transferred to the very rich. The top 1% holds 34% of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50% holds just 2.5%.  The bottom 40% owns absolutely nothing.

These effects and numbers can be numbing, even dizzying.  But it’s important to understand that they have not been the result of random events or impersonal market forces.  Rather, they have followed as the intended consequences of the relentless application of a wide array of government and industry policies.

The massive run-up in debt is one such policy. The wealthy are net lenders. This means that massive public and private debt transfers interest income to them from the rest of the economy.  Another method for effecting massive wealth transfer:  Beginning in 1981 the Reagan administration effectively stopped enforcing anti-trust laws, allowing monopolies to gouge everyone who had to buy their products.

The government actually provided tax subsidies so that corporations could eliminate jobs in the industrial heartland and ship them to Mexico and later, China, India, and other low-wage countries, reducing wages and pitting American workers against each other for those jobs remaining.

The bank deregulation that began in the early 1980s reached its apex with the repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in the late nineties.  This set up the “casino capitalism” of the next decade that would spawn massive criminality and mortgage fraud by the nation’s leading banks—none of which has been prosecuted.  The result was the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression.

But even as more than five million homeowners have lost their homes, the wealthy had their losses covered by the Bush and later Obama administrations.  Bloomberg news estimates that the transfer to the banks through the financial bailout comes to some $13 trillion dollars.

We could go on and on and on with the roster of ways the wealthy have used the government to transfer national wealth to themselves.  Environmental and health laws that are not enforced.  Deals with the pharmaceutical industry so they don’t have to compete with foreign manufacturers.  Health care “reform” that forces tens of millions of Americans to buy questionable insurance products, even as insurers continue to kick legitimate claimants off their rolls.  Give-aways of the telecommunication spectrum worth hundreds of billions of dollars to media monopolies that ladle out state propaganda as if it were news and never, ever challenge official narratives.

In these and a thousand other ways, the rich have conspired with the government they largely control to shift more and still more of the nation’s wealth away from the working and middle classes, to themselves.  It amounts to the most insidious class warfare and the most rapacious looting of public and private resources in the history of the world.

The result is vast impoverishment, demoralization, and the destruction of the American middle class.  One out of eight Americans are on food stamps.  One out of five people are in official poverty.  One out of four children are raised in poverty.  Twenty five million people cannot find enough work, while their skills atrophy and their families and communities are destroyed.  These are not figures describing a banana republic, a disaster-stricken region, or a third world country. They describe the United States of America after three decades of plunder by the rich.  And now they want to go in for the kill.

Not satisfied with the staggering wealth they have already siphoned away, the ultra-rich are now using Barack Obama’s National Deficit Commission to propose even more brazen plunder.  And the looting is no longer taking place behind closed doors or under the cover of arcane public policies.

The commission proposes to cut the federal government’s budget deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. But 75% of the “savings” will come from gutting programs that help stabilize the middle class and their communities.  None of it comes from policies that would harm the rich.

For example, the commission proposes cutting the tax deduction for mortgage payments.  Not only will this render housing much less affordable for millions of prospective home buyers, it will reduce housing prices, perhaps substantially, for without the tax writeoff, buyers will be able to afford much less house.  This will decimate the sole source of wealth of tens of millions of Americans.

It is housing wealth that undergirds retirement security for the middle class.  Or, at least it did until one out of four homeowners went underwater on their mortgage in the recent bank-triggered collapse.  Then, even as the Commission plans to decimate home prices and owner equity, it proposes cutting back benefits to Social Security recipients.

It would lower Social Security cost-of living adjustments while raising the minimum retirement age.  And this is being proposed at the very moment that the bank-owned Federal Reserve Board is beginning to print hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the banks from what’s left of their toxic assets still held from the housing crash.

The ensuing inflation is going to destroy the value of retirement incomes at exactly the moment that 77 million baby boomers head off into retirement.  It was exactly this process of money printing and bankrupting of retirees that destroyed the German middle class in the early 1920s, giving rise to Adolph Hitler.

The Commission’s proposals would increase co-pays and deductibles for Medicare, making it unaffordable to millions.  It proposes taxing as income the health insurance benefits millions receive from their employers. The Child Tax Credit would be eliminated as would 10% of all federal government jobs.  This, at a time when more than 20% of the workforce is already underemployed and there are five workers trying for every available job.

We should be crystal clear:  these policies amount to a mortal assault on what remains of middle class solvency and the democracy that a vibrant middle class makes possible.

But even as it girds up for this assault, the Commission barely touches the ultra-rich on whose boards they serve and who have gained so much over the past 30 years.  And it cannot go without being said that it was these same professional predators who actually wrecked the economy, pitching it into its greatest collapse since the Great Depression.

The Commission’s proposals would actually lower the maximum tax on the highest income earners, from 35% to 24%.  The nominal tax rate on corporate income would fall as well, from 35% to 26%.  There is nothing proposed to raise taxes after so many decades of steadily amassed wealth.  No financial transactions tax (as the IMF recommends) to stanch the kind of tsunami of speculative buying and selling that brought down the economy.  Such a tax would raise over $700 billion over the next decade.

Of course, there will be no claw-backs of the trillions of dollars transferred to the rich under the phony duress of “saving the system” during the height of the financial crisis.  No proposal that the cap on earnings subject to Social Security withholding should be removed.  That proviso alone would raise more than half a trillion dollars over the next decade.

In fact, it is in comparison with other give-aways to the rich that the take-aways from the middle class by the Commission can be seen as so one sided and venal.  Remember, they propose to save $4 trillion over 10 years.

But the war in Iraq, which we now know was entirely premised on lies, will cost more than $5 trillion, according to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz.  It has proven a huge boon to the rich weapons makers, bankers, logistics companies and oil companies that Bush used to coddle as his “base.”

As mentioned above, Bloomberg news estimates that the financial bailout cost some $13 trillion, all of it going to the very richest people on the planet.  There is not a syllable in the Commission’s report proposing getting any of that back to help reduce the deficit.

Or consider the notorious Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 where fully 40% went to the top 1% of income earners.  Obama once promised to overturn them but, as is his typically cowardly pattern, is now folding.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that they will cost the government more than $18 trillion over their lifetime—four times what the Deficit Commission claims it will achieve in savings.  But God forbid we should ask for even a penny of that back to help battle the deficit.

In other words, there are many, many substantial and just ways that the savings the Commission proposes to create could be secured via small contributions from those who have gamed the system and gained the most over the past three decades.  But that is not the Commission’s plan.  And it is in that omission that its true intent is revealed.

There is no more time for stealth, no more need for subtlety.  Western capitalist economies are declining at a pace that is frightening their elite stewards and compelling such desperate, slovenly measures as the wholesale printing of money to postpone the inevitable.  While Obama sings lullabies of “hope” and “change” to tranquillize the suckers out front, the rich are backing the truck up to the vault in the back, no longer even deigning to disguise the heist.  And of course, why should they?  They have the additional diversion of the moronic Tea Party vigilantes (“Keep the government out of my Medicare”), ever ready to cut other people’s throats to cure their own nosebleeds.

The Commission’s proposal is the most naked, undisguised declaration of class warfare possible. Its agenda is not to reduce the deficit but rather to reduce what is left of the American middle class and American workers, to a condition of servitude, of feudal peonage.  Their poverty will make them docile and subservient.  This will make possible the final looting of America by those whose sociopathic greed has brought it so low already.  The battle over this proposal is the last bulwark against the devastation and final destruction of America.  It must be fought and won or our freedom and security ceded forever.  There is no other choice.

Robert Freeman writes on economics, history, and education. His earlier pieces, "If You Want More Debt, Vote Republican," and "Obama Was Used, and is Now Used Up," were also published on Common Dreams.

This is a powerful piece, and one we here at A.P.R. are wholly in agreement with. It's always interesting to read the comments after different articles on the CommonDreams site, and others. We often learn a great deal from those, and sometimes, need to share them. Like this one:

One thing is blatantly clear, when a society's leaders make war for profit with absolute nonchalance, the ensuing moral vacuum makes it far easier to aim predatory practices at their own civilians. Hence: the Shock and Awe impacting the Homeland Security State!

The only critical detail Freeman forgot to mention was how the latest Supreme Court "decision" to turn money into free speech makes it even harder to capture the runaway horse that once made for the premise of democracy. Although always imperfect, apart from the robberbaron era, and the insidious McCarthy phase, who remembers a time when things were this f--ked up? 

Let's see, we have:

The War on Drugs

The War on Afghanistan

The War on Iraq

The Class War

The War on Nature (ecocide on amoral steroids)

Added to the UNSTATED wars on:

Teachers

Unions

Critical thinking skills/education

Regulating dangerous industries/polluters

Regulating what's in our food stuffs

The Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The Geneva Conventions

Habeas Corpus

Green technologies

Accountability in high offices

What has to happen is that the political process in the US has to be publicly funded, allowing no outside contributions from corporations and wealthy interests. But to get to that point, our corrupt two-party system, has to be forced to allow other political parties to participate and expand the discourse. On a personal level, we need to ask ourselves, and others, why do we have, allow, and even encourage a system that exhibits behaviour that all civilised people find abhorrent? And that would lead to the arrest and conviction of anyone performing them. It's not even about forcing spirituality into politics, but basic human qualities of kindness, concern, and empathy. Our capitalist, consumerist culture is diametrically opposed to those traits, since greed is the motivator, and gains for some, must be at the expense of others. It doesn't have to be so.

                        GROUNDWORK

A few weeks ago, our good friend, and chief pilot for Nunatak Air Service,http://www.nunatak-air.com/, Erik Hursh, sent us a link to a very interesting website.  

http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/

Ground Truth Trekking's use of wilderness expeditions to present and discuss pressing environmental issues and concerns is something that resonates with us here at A.P.R. and which we greatly admire. Give their website a look, and if you are in Anchorage on 12/06 or 12/07, be sure and catch the debut of their movie, "Journey on the Wild Coast" at the Anchorage International Film Festival. We'll remind you again, with more specific info., as those dates approach.

We hope to meet with the Ground Truth folks soon, and contribute an article or two for their site, about climate-change related issues. Keep up the good work!

WHAT LIES BETWEEN [and] ENDURING REMINDERS

 WHAT LIES BETWEEN

When your lead author moved to Juneau, back in 1998, I flew up, and my household goods were barged in. Since that time, on all my trips to the lower 48 to see friends and family, I flew over what lies between. I decided it was time to actually see what lies between on the ground, spend some time in it, and get to know it. What lies between Alaska and the lower 48? Well, for us westerners, that is the Canadian province of British Columbia, which is almost as large as Alaska, and contains many amazing natural features.

Our great friend of the Alaska Progressive Review, Erik Hursh, decided to accompany me on this exploration, whilst Mattie and Homer would stay home at the Chugach Front Research Centre, keeping an eye on things.

The plan was to drive south along the Cassiar highway, in western B.C., to Vancouver, then north, back up through the Canadian Rockies, including Banff and Jasper, taking the Alaska Highway further north, back to the Yukon. We were anticipating 12-14 days. With stops for running, hiking, and biking, and whatever else grooved us. The A.P.R. cruiser, a Honda Element, has a nifty feature. Namely, that the front and rear seats fold flat, into two sleeping areas. So, that was to be our shelter.

After driving to Erik's bluff cabin above the Copper River, near Copper Center on a nice cool, sunny fall day, this past 25 September, the next day dawned cool and cloudy. By the time we left that day around 1100, it was snowing hard, and around -2C (29F). As we approached the Canadian border near Tok, the roads were getting icy, and several cm of snow were accumulating on the ground. Rounding a curve just a few km from the border, Erik had to jam the breaks. A bad accident had just occurred. A small car and large U-Haul truck had collided and were in the ditch on our side. We were barely able to stop in time. As we crept past, I observed a man on the ground, with people looking at him. A sheet was pulled over him. I had Erik stop and asked a man who approached if there was anyone there with medical training. I used to be an EMT in one of the Fairbanks V.F.D.'s some years back. He said yes, he did. I said "he's dead, isn't he". And the man nodded. There was nothing we could do, though we did move back the safety reflector in the road behind the accident, to allow others more time to slow down, around that dangerous curve. This definitely put us in a down mood for awhile, and certainly made us be very cautious about driving in the winter conditions.

When we stopped for the night at a campground near Kluane Lake in the Yukon, it was brutal. -4C and 90 kph winds (25F and 50 mph)! Quite an introduction to winter so early, on 26 September! The APR cruiser, seen above, was crusted with a thick coating of slush/ice on the lower parts. But ensconced in our -20F down sleeping bags, in the Element, Erik and I were quite comfortable.

Our second day of driving dawned just as cold/windy. As we got further south toward Haines Junction, the snow was even deeper, 10 cm or more. But then, as we turned east and got into Whitehorse, one of our favourite spots, it warmed to slightly above freezing. We decided to break for a bit, run, and clean up after. There is an awesome public sports centre just outside town, containing an ice rink, water slides, pools, steamroom, sauna, and fitness equipment. We did a nice 12K run on the nordic ski trails outside this, in the cool 0C snow, then warmed up and cleaned up in the pools and sauna, followed by a shower. Worth every bit of the 7.00 Canadian we paid. Why don't Anchorage and Fairbanks have facilities like these?

The next couple days took us through the rest of the Yukon, then south down the Cassiar Highway, through Western BC, but still inland from the coastal range. As we got further south, it warmed up to well above freezing, and the trees also began getting bigger.

By the time we were south of Dease Lake, approaching 57N, and then 56N latititude, the boreal forest species of white/black spruce, aspen, birch, and cottonwood, began mixing with, and then being replaced by the warmer Rocky Mountain species types. Englemann Spruce, Lodgepole Pine, Subalpine Fir, Western Hemlock, and Western Red Cedar. Beautiful to see, as above, especially in areas where old growth was still present. Our third night's camp in this area, above, was at around 57N, a few hours south of Dease Lake, and very beautiful. The snow line was higher on the mountains here, than near Dease Lake.

As we dropped further south the next day (day 4), we cut inland, heading toward Smithers. Here, a little further inland, at only 55N latitude, it was even warmer, around 12C (54F), and sunny, very beautiful. These awesome 2000-2500 metre peaks to the south of the highway made a beautiful vertical wall.

I had heard good things about Smithers, BC over the years, and as we approached, Erik and I could see why.

It is backed by 2500-2800 metre glaciated peaks, and yet has open space with farms, ranches, and lakes all around. A very beautiful, lush, pastoral place, with a climate similar to, but slightly cooler and wetter, than western Montana. We did a nice 90 min. run around a lake there, followed by a hot shower in a campground. During our run, we ran right past a black bear in a field, just enjoying the fall sunshine.We kept driving after this for a few more hours though, sleeping in a nice wooded pull-out, on the highway heading toward Prince George.

By the end of day 5, after pushing through Prince George, a pretty, large Fairbanks-sized town (60,000 or so) on the Fraser River, and then down through the progressively drier and warmer southern interior, we came to a very interesting place in the canyon of the Fraser River, just north of 50N.

As you can see here, the Fraser River flows through a deep canyon, and the mountains to the west put this area in a strong rain shadow. It is almost as warm and dry here as in parts of Eastern Washington, much further south. We spent the night in the little native town of Llilouet, sleeping under the stars in the cool, dry, bugless (!) air. Falling asleep watching shooting stars and satellites. Something not often done in buggy, wet, Alaskan summers!

The next day, we pushed over the steep coastal mountains, past upscale Whistler, with all its ski-resort amenities, and dropped down to the coastal area north of BC. In gorgeous 21C (70F) sunshine! This is about 50 km north of Vancouver, looking across the Strait of Georgia. Reminds me of the time I spent in Juneau, I miss those beautiful beach areas, and driftwood fires. But not that coastal weather!

The descent into Vancouver on BC highway 99 (which is an extension of US Interstate 5), became increasingly

clogged with cars. By the time we actually got into the city, it was urban madness. We weren't sure how much actual time we would spend there, but quickly decided a very short stay would occur. We navigated through the busy city to Stanley Park, a beautiful old growth forest preserve on the north edge of downtown, with gardens and museums in it as well. We did a nice 90 min. run through the majestic old growth of douglas fir and western hemlock. I was almost overheating, it was 23C (75F!), on 01 October!  Some of these trees were easily 75 metres (250 ft) tall.

In spite of the busy city, there were some interesting things. Someone took the time and energy to raise a nice pine tree on their rooftop area. It must be 15 metres tall, and 30 or more years old.

OK, this is why Erik and I are not all that much into cities, and why we'll never live in big ones. This is heading east out of Vancouver, that same day, on Trans-Canada Highway 1. There are only two real freeways serving the Vancouver metro area, which has at least 4 million people! Traffic was like this for about 50 km east of the city and through the eastern suburbs.

We made great time that day, going north all the way to dry, dusty, Yakima-like Kamloops (yearly precip. only 27 cm, or 10.5 in.!), then east another 80 km or so. We spent the night on a pull-off above the Yellowhead Highway, which heads into the Canadian Rockies.

The next day, day 6, saw us push through Revelstoke, and into Glacier National Park, BC version. This is much more beautiful and majestic than the Montana one. Namely because the mountains are higher, and actually have real glaciers.

We did a nice two hour hike up a trail just past Rogers Pass in the morning, enjoying the beautiful views, such as this, of this razor-sharp peak in the late-morning sun. We probably ascended 700 metres (2000 feet) on this one, it was quite steep, but well worth the effort.

We were making good time that day though, and headed for the Canadian Rockies. Specifically, we intended to stay in the upscale resort town of Banff, here, then drive north on the Icefields Parkway the next day, heading north back to Alaska.

We got to Banff in late afternoon. It is pretty big, at least 10,000 or so, and full of upscale shops and restaurants. They have a world-famous film festival there every February, and of course, rich and famous people the World over come there to ski and vacation. We found a nice campground, got a good hour run in, cleaned up, and hit the town! Time for a fancy meal and to check things out. It was fun, but so different, being around all those fancy shops and places, clogged with people from all over the World. Not really our scene, too hectic and gentrified. But a beautiful area, to be sure.

The next day, it was time to head north, on the icefields parkway, toward Jasper. This amazing road has two passes over 2000 metres, which at these latitudes, 51-53N, is quite high. The road passes along the eastern side of the higher mountains in the range, which are extensively glaciated.

One of our favourite views was the mirrored gem of Bow Lake, which lies at nearly 2000 metres (6560 ft). We lucked out to have a windless day here, so that the full effect was visible.

Further north, about 40 KM or so from Bow Lake, lies the Columbia Icefield, a large glacial area fed by the snows from the higher peaks. We parked at the visitors centre for the Athabasca Glacier, and walked and biked up to it. Erik decided to actually bike on it! My shoes didn't have very good traction on the wet, slippery ice, so I stayed further back.

This large glacier has been in fast retreat for the past 80 years, and will be almost gone in 70 or so more years.

The Icefields Parkway traverses the eastern side of the crest of the Canadian Rockies, and is a must-see for anyone able. We got to the beautiful smaller resort town of Jasper in late afternoon. It is much more low-key and quieter than Banff, and was much more to our liking. After a lunch there, another hour's drive west on the Yellowhead highway, back toward Prince George, we found a real gem of a place.

Little Mt. Robson Provincial Park. 3955 metre (12,972 ft) Mt. Robson is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. We couldn't even see it until we pulled off the highway and drove into the park. Then we were stunned. On this mild sunny, 16C day (61F), there it was, looming 3300 vertical metres (10,800 ft) above the trail, through the beautiful old-growth forest of Western Hemlocks, Red-Cedars, Englemann Spruce, and Lodgepole Pine. This immense wall creates strong upslope precipitation enhancement here in west and southwest flow patterns, allowing this beautiful forest to grow. A truly magical and sacred spot. The more so because fast ice-blue un-navigable Robson River rushes past the main trail, adding to the beauty.

The main trail goes about 40 km in around Mt. Robson, to it's north side. We only hiked about 8 km up in the early evening, and found another mirror lake, Kinney Lake. Here I am showing off a nice purple rock I found near there.

This little gem of a park is my favourite place of the whole trip, and one that I want to return to. I'd love to come back in a feb. or march, some year, and ski all around there, or in summer, summit Robson, which is easier from it's north side.

The next few days saw us heading back north, back to Prince George, then north along the Alaska Highway through northeastern BC. Here it's progressively colder and drier, more Alaska interior-like, and so not all that special, for us, since we're used to that.

One nice area though is Liard Hot Springs, almost to the Yukon border, at 59N. We hit this in early afternoon. We had originally thought of spending the night here. Because I'd heard many stories over the years involving fun and interesting encounters between people I knew, and wild European tourists. But, when we got there, there were none to be had! Still the hot springs there are beautiful. A nice 1 km walk in on planks, brings you to a large outdoor hot pool, which is the perfect temperature to lounge in. On our day, it was cool out, near freezing, so the water felt great. But after an hour or so, we got out and went for a run down the highway, and up a side road.

On our way, we saw our first wood bison. These beautiful creatures, smaller cousins of the plains bison, mysteriously died out in Alaska and the Yukon 200 years ago, but still live in northern Alberta. A herd of 200 or so were reintroduced to northern BC 60 years ago, and now they roam around the Alaska highway corridor. We ran past a large one, and afterward, I came back and got a few photos. A few hours later, we hit the road, since there were no fun European tourists, and came across a whole herd, around the highway. They are fairly placid, and Erik got close to this one, but they can charge if they feel threatened.

We got all the way north to Watson Lake, Yukon that day, camping in the dark near it. There was still a little snow on the ground, from ten days ago, when that cold storm had come through.

The next day, day 10, saw us get back to Whitehorse, where we had another nice clean-up and run around their amazing sports centre. By early afternoon though, we pressed on, and came to Kluane Lake by evening.

And what should we see crossing the highway there, but this huge grizzly. With all his winter fat laid on from a summer of gorging, getting ready for his long sleep. He waddled across the highway, ending up on the lake shore, to forage for dead fish. He was so big, he probably couldn't even run. He was just 10 metres below us on the lake shore, while we just parked on the edge of the road and snapped pictures of him from the safety of the APR cruiser.

A few minutes later, we had to pull off the highway, just south of the Congdon Creek Campground, near Destruction Bay. To see our friend Buddy, whom you've seen before here.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/08/chilkoot-trail-experience-and-incident.html This is our fourth visit. As usual, we parked by the heavy equipment, whistled, and a few minutes later, he came running out. As large as Homer, and a few kg heavier (we think he has a good home!), he is always happy to see us. And of course, we always reward him handsomely with salmon, or some kind of tasty treat. A mandatory stop for all of our Yukon travels! If you are headed that way, be sure and stop in, he loves visitors!

We spent the last night out of our 12 day trip in Burwash Landing, on the shores of beautiful blue Kluane Lake. There is a little pull-out, just past the lodge, that is secluded, and right on the lake. A perfect place to car or tent camp. We got back to Copper Center, and Erik's bluff cabin in the afternoon the next day. Tired, from 11+ days of driving, but so glad we got to see and experience, what lies between. I hope to see more of it in the years ahead.

                  ENDURING REMINDERS

After Erik and I finished our BC road trip, I flew down to Oregon and California, to see family from 10/14 to 10/23. Beautiful places which I always enjoy visiting. So glad my family doesn't live in a place like Bakersfield, or Dallas! 

My Mom, who lives near Portland, and I drove out to the coast so see more relatives and enjoy the area. Strong high pressure ridging was bringing warm, sunny, offshore flow weather to the coast. Near Lincoln City, where these beautiful waves were crashing, it was 22C (71F)! Naturally, I had to go in the 11C (52F) water, at least for a few minutes. Though the coast here is treacherous with strong currents and "sneaker" waves, that crash suddenly, because of the rapidly dropping beachfront. These crash quickly with great force and can sweep you off your feet and into a maelstrom of cold, churning water. One of these hit me and nearly did that, and almost took my shorts! Fortunately, I was able to collect myself and make it back in quickly.

After we had lunch and a visit with our relatives in Lincoln City, and I warmed up and dried off, we drove south to Newport. 

When I saw the beautiful bridge across Yaquina Bay on US-101, that leads into Newport, I had to get a picture. And it came to me. 

This beautiful bridge, and all the others like it up and down the west coast of the lower 48, as well as many other important facilities nation-wide, are ENDURING REMINDERS, of what can and should be done with public funding, to provide meaningful employment and to improve the quality of life for all our citizens. This bridge, and all the others like it, was built by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935-36. The WPA was created and promoted by FDR's administration from 1933 until World War II, to provide employment for some of the millions thrown out of work by the Great Depression, and build up the infrastructure in the US. These incredibly beautiful and durable works of art, are still in use today, 75 years later!

Here's another one of those bridges, along the Big Sur coast of Central California, along California Highway 1. 

All of these were built between 1933-1940.

Other examples of important projects built during this time are many of the dams in the western states (especially along the Columbia and Colorado Rivers) and southeast, that provide electricity and water to these areas. 

Quite possibly one of the most beautiful examples of the WPA projects is Timberline Lodge, on majestic Mt. Hood, near Portland, Oregon. A very special place to me, since I learned to alpine ski there, and have many fond memories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timberline_Lodge

Finished in 1937, it has withstood nearly 75 years of some of the harshest weather in the US. It's impressive and durable construction of local timber and rock, with considerable artistry and great craftsmanship continues to support an alpine ski area and resort, with a large hotel and four-star restaurant.

At 2000 metres elevation (6560) feet, the lodge probably receives about 1270 cm of snow (500 in.) a year, often combined with strong winds.

Inside the lodge, the beautiful craftsmanship and artistry are visible at every turn. It's worth a visit up there just to see that. To remind ourselves what can be done when people are given the opportunity to create something they know will be great, and enduring.

But, since 1980, and the Ray-gun administration, there has been a concerted effort by them, their conservative successors, and the corporate media to demonise governmental efforts and projects (except for the military, of course) as wasteful and un-necessary. Today's politicians, democrat, and republican, will never sponsor programmes like the WPA, that produced such enduring and important structures and infrastructure.

So instead, what we get are un-necessary, illegal, and immoral wars killing hundreds of thousands of people, out of control defense/offense spending (more than the rest of the World combined), and increasingly greedy and predatory financial and corporate sectors. 

This article sums it all up quite well:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/19-1

This concerted effort to demonise government, with the exception of the military, and shift the prevailing discourse far to the right over the past 30 years has worked incredibly well. During republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration, from 1953-1960, the top tax rates on the highest incomes reached 90 percent. Today, for the same income levels (adjusted for inflation), it is only 15 percent! And many corporations pay almost no tax. With all the tax loopholes, billionaires like Warren Buffett, have actually admitted that they pay less of a percentage of their income in taxes, than their secretaries! And over the last several months, even the democrats are resisting re-instating an estate tax on multi-millionaires that was suspended by the Bush Administration.

Folks, we've told you before, but we have to keep telling you, because it is the truth. Both the democrats and republicans are only working for the top one percent of the income bracket. All their policies are benefiting only the ultra-rich, and will continue to do so. Because that is where they are getting their campaign contributions from, and armies of lobbyists continue the pressure. 

If we are ever are  to  reform our increasingly corporate-controlled, fascist, militaristic system, in the US, other parties are going to have to gain more support.  We must have a political and economic system that is based on compassion for, and recognition of human needs. Rather than one based on sociopathic greed, which is what we have now. 

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/01/legitimised-sociopathy.html

One of the ABSOLUTE WORST of the new breed of fascist "tea-party" republican candidates running for the US Senate this year, is Alaska's own Joe Miller, a Fairbanks Attorney. His campaign positions are very extreme, and level of hypocrisy, so blatant, that it defies the imagination. Fortunately, his campaign took a bad turn a few weeks ago, when his blatant fascism reared it's ugly head, and his security goons assaulted a reporter. 

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/18-0

This resulted in some serious questioning of Mr. Miller's actual sanity. Why does a senatorial candidate require a security team as large as the President's (no other candidates to our knowledge have this)? With all his posturing about Constitutional Rights, why did his team violate the rights of a reporter daring to exercise his in questioning him?  This did actually get considerable media attention, was posted on You-Tube, and now his chances of winning are considerably reduced. Thank the Goddess for small favours. Cheers.