Road Trip 1983

After resuming work at the GE facility in Binghamton, I arranged for some time off in late May and early June to take a trip out west. I had kept in contact with Kathy Humphries, who was studying at the University of Wyoming, and had promised to come visit her. I also planned to stop in Boulder and see Paul and Sarah there before returning to New York.

Allegheny Reservoir (?)

The first leg of the trip took me across the southern part of the New York panhandle on Highway 17 (now I-86). Some of the most beautiful farmland in the country lies in the rolling hills west of Olean. I snapped a few pictures from the moving car as I drove along.

I don't remember stopping anywhere along the way, which is consistent with my habit of the time. I thought it was expensive to stay in motels, so I would usually drive straight through. On that trip, I was driving the 1980 VW Dasher Diesel that I bought used when I started graduate school in 1982. The car reliably got 43 mpg cruising on the highway. So with just a 10 gallon tank, I could easily drive 8 hours without refuelling. On the leg of the trip across Nebraska on I-80, I got 50 mpg, so I nearly crossed the state on one tank of fuel.

A field in Nebraska along I-80

One thing that I noticed was that many of the fields along the road were under water. The Platte River must have flooded, and the waters had not yet receded. What I didn't know was that flooding had not yet reached its peak, and would only start to recede as I drove home more than a week later.

As I drove into eastern Wyoming, I saw a late-afternoon thunderstorm approaching. I wanted to be somewhat more presentable when I showed up in Laramie, so I pulled off the highway and down below the overpass. I took a bar of soap from my backpack and waited for the storm to arrive. Then I stripped down and had my shower right out in the open.

It must have been late when I arrived at Kathy's apartment. I was warmly welcomed, and must have stayed at her place during my visit.  Kathy showed me her lab at the University, and we made several side trips to places of interest around Laramie. On the first day, we drove to a nearby wildlife refuge and hiked a bit, but it was very cold and windy so we did not stay long. 

The author

Kathy

Next, we drove out to the Snowy Mountains and through the Snow Range Pass. We stopped to admire the deep snowpack. From there, we drove west to Saratoga and admired the old buildings there. I recall seeing an old schoolhouse, but (evidently) did not take any record photos of the place.

During this trip, the weather was blustery -- not really spring weather, even for late may. During our trip out to Saratoga, we even saw a few snow flurries. Based on our experience, we concluded that Wyoming has four seasons like many other places, but in Wyoming their names are: Early Winter, Deep Winter, Late Winter and Spring. I just happened to show up during Late Winter.

The Laramie River s. of Laramie

Rudolf on Route 10

Our next adventure was to head southwest out of Laramie on Highway 230 -- following the Laramie River -- and then south on Route 10 to see if we could drop down into Colorado and loop back via Highway 14 and US 287. The Laramie River was still out of its banks after the spring floods, so (in retrospect) the plan was rather optimistic.

A Laramie River Tributary

We passed more evidence of recent, and even ongoing flooding as we drove along, so it was no surprise when we came to a place where Route 10 had been completely washed out. There had been signs posted at the turnoff, warning that the road was impassible, but (ever optimistic) I thought that there might be a side road that cut across the ridge that would allow us to complete a slightly smaller loop. That imagined road did not exist, so at the washout we were forced to turn around and retrace our path back to Laramie.

The washout on Route 10

After leaving Laramie, I evidently decided to try driving as far west as possible before I ran out of time? fuel? interest? A frame in the series claims that I was viewing the sunset over Little America, but the next frame taken less than 30 minutes later claims to put me between Laramie and Cheyenne. Both may be taken with a grain of salt.

What is true is that I knew I liked the drive from Walden to Granby, so I probably went west on Highway 230 through Woods Landing to pick up Colorado 125 to Walden. This view through Kings Canyon confirms that.

A view southwest through King's Canyon

 

At Walden, I stopped for fuel. I remember being thankful that they carried diesel, since I did not have enough in the tank to get me to Granby. I would have been willing to pay a premium price at that point but it turned out to be a bargain.

CO 14 near Walden

In order to record the back side of our High Adventure adventure from 1976, I drove a short distance out Highway 14 to get a good view of the Rawah Peaks. Then, I continued south toward Granby and Berthoud Pass.

As I drove south between Tabernash and Fraser and through Winter Park, I was again impressed by the quantity of snow that remained on the peaks in early June. A record shot of the Continental Divide looking north near Berthoud Pass looks more like a winter scene than the advent of Summer.

Looking N near Berthoud Pass

It seems that I wanted to visit many places familiar to me as I drove from Wyoming down into Colorado. I continued east and stopped to take a picture of Clear Creek where US 6 branches off from I-70. The creek was very full -- another indication that the spring floods that year were far from over.

Descending Clear Creek Canyon, I took the turnoff and headed north on the Peak-to-Peak Highway (CO 72). When I got to Rollinsville, I stopped and climbed up to the Fritz Peak Observatory.

Niwot Ridge from Fritz Peak

There, I took more pictures of the mountains up on the Divide. Then, I drove on to Boulder.

I was staying with Sarah and Nino in their house on Seminole Drive. Their cat, John, had staked out the basement in the usual fashion of territorial predators, so my recollections contain an olfactory element. I didn't see much of Nino during that visit. He was spending long hours working at ComputerVision.

Finding myself idle on another day, I decided to drive up to take a hike up above Loveland Ski Area. I parked at the base of one of ski lifts (now deserted, of course) and headed off in the direction of the ridge leading up to the continental divide. Shortly after leaving the parking area, I was already walking on snow. But practice allowed me to choose a path over firm snow, avoiding both drifts and the thin crusts that lead to postholing. 

Long's Peak (?) and others far to the north

That meant that it was easy going. I soon crossed the bowl, and gained the ridge where it met the bowl at its western edge. Then, I walked up the ridge to gain views of the surrounding mountains. There, I took a series of picture that covered the panorama.

Snow boulders triggered by me

As I hiked up the ridge, I occasionally heard a muffled "whump" sound. I didn't think much of it at the time. However, when I returned to the bowl I saw that there were a number of snow boulders that had come down from the cornice where I had been hiking. My extra weight on the cornice had knocked the boulders loose, and the whump sound was that of the boulder separating and starting its downhill plunge. I thought it was lucky that noone had been hiking in the bowl below, and even luckier for me that the cornice had not broken loose altogether and caught me in an avalanche. On the cornice, I was probably hiking out way past the edge of the ridge, and only realized that after I had returned to the bowl.

As I hiked up the ridge, I remember remarking to myself how much snow remained there on the 4th of June. So that must be the date of my hike. 

I also remember picking up the aluminum seat that had blown off one of the chairlift chairs some time after the ski area had closed. I thought, "This could be useful", so I carried it with me back to New York. The GE plant in Binghamton had a small sheet metal shop, so I took the seat in there during one of my lunch hours and with the idea of converting it into two cookie sheets. The shop technicians wouldn't let me use the tools myself, but one took the seat and cut off the curvy parts, returning to me two flat pieces of aluminum, which I use as cookie sheets to this day.

Very full Platte River

I returned to Boulder via I-70. 

When I left to return to New York, I drove out I-76 toward Sterling. The route follows the Platte River, and I was impressed by how much water was still in it. The river was still out of its banks where I-80 crosses it near Vroman. I stopped and saw that the flood was still within 1 foot of the high-water mark, and that mark was above where the piers met the cross-beams. It seemed to me that another foot or so of water would have been enough to push the road deck off its footings, breaching the Interstate.

I drove straight through the night, and found myself driving in traffic around the south end of Lake Michigan around mid-morning. As I drove through South Bend, I noticed that the red LED that indicated a charging fault was glowing yellow. Then, smoke began to curl up from below that dash.

I phoned ahead to Uncle Mark, and invited myself to stop in Ann Arbor around noon. After lunch there, I removed the instrument panel from the dash, but was unable to pinpoint the problem. I had the suspicion that the battery was not charging, but all I knew at that point was that the charging fault indicator had been zorched. The diesel would continue to run as long as I had enough charge left in the battery to keep the fuel solenoid open. But of course, that was playing with chance.

Rudolf and 3 other VWs at 1930 Cambridge

I must have chosen to go across southern Ontario as the fastest route home, because I ended up going south out of Buffalo toward NY 17. At some point, I had picked up a hitchhiker, which was a good call. While driving on a 2-lane road, a yellow wire behind the dash shorted out with the metal car frame and started making sparks. I reached inside the dash to reposition the wire while continuing to drive. I didn't notice that I was approaching a curve, but my passenger did. When it got to the critical moment, he said "Turn here!" So I did that. Otherwise, the trip might have ended abruptly.

We stopped for dinner in a small town south of Buffalo. I asked a service station to charge the battery for us while we dined. We took our time with the meal, but only spent an hour there just the same. The battery was not fully charged, but it would have to do. It was about 8:30 in the evening when we left.

I disconnected one of the headlights to lessen the drain on the battery, and drove on. After we went through the little hamlet of Fraklinville, I opened up the throttle. Then, I noticed flashing lights in my rearview mirror. I was pulled over for speeding. We were escorted back to Franklinville, where they assembled a kangaroo court, found me guilty of speeding and exacted their fine. My passenger had to kick in $10 to cover it. They must have been very proud of themselves, extracting the last dollars from two young men just trying to get home. And their lack of curiosity regarding the circumstances was at once consistent and astounding. It had not occurred to me or my passenger to carry in the instrument panel (that had been sitting the back seat) as evidence that we had no idea how fast we were going. But in that court it probably would have made no difference.

I continued to drive toward Binghamton, afraid that at any moment the fuel valve would snap shut and we'd be stranded. At one point east of Olean, I was too tired to continue, so I pulled off on an overpass and napped for an hour on the shoulder. I roll-started the diesel to save battery, and we continued on to my apartment, arriving in the early morning hours.

I let the hitchhiker sleep over, fed him breakfast and carried him out to a point on I-88 where he might get a ride, and paid him back his $10. Then I went to work.

A later diagnosis found that the electrical problem was caused by the voltage regulator in the alternator failing closed (short-circuit rather than open circuit). This caused the output voltage to shoot up and reverse-bias the indicator LED to its breakdown voltage. Part of that circuit supplied current to the rotor windings; without it, there was no charging. Replacing the voltage regulator fixed the problem.

Mt Marshall 1983

I worked summers at the GE facility in Binghamton. One weekend, I decided to drive up to the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Park and go for a hike -- with no particular destination in mind. I had hiked Colden Peak with coworkers from the Binghamton plant, so the way to the Upper Works Trailhead and Lake Colden were familiar to me.

At Lake Colden, I turned left and hiked up Mt. Marshall. From the top, I looked north and decided that it was not too rugged. I went cross-country from there, with the goal of striking the trail running from Lake Colden toward Indian Pass.

By the time I found the trail, it was past sunset. My map showed that there was a lean-to shelter nearby, but I was unsure where I had hit the trail relative to it. I hiked a bit southeast and then decided that was wrong. I turned around and found the lean-to just as night fell. I was a bit worried about bears, but soon drifted off and slept soundly.

It was another fine day when I awoke. I started out heading northeast toward Indian Pass. There, I turned north and hiked in the direction of Lake Placid. I decided to make a bee-line for Lake Placid, and hiked to the west of the Loj, picking up Bear Cub Road near the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail. 

I hiked down past the ski jumping complex, but decided it was too far out of my way to hike downtown and pick up more food. Instead, I hiked back down the Highway toward the road to the Loj. A short way up the dirt road, I stuck out my thumb and a motorist gave me a lift up to the Loj.

I hiked to Avalanche Lake, and followed the trail along its edge. This brought me back to Lake Colden. From there, I took the well-worn trail back to the Upper Works Trailhead.

I had hiked close to 20 miles, traversing the High Peaks region in one day: From the lean-to in the middle of the high peaks out to Highway 73 near Lake Placid, then back through Avalanche Pass all the way out to the Upper Works. My short ride subtracted only about 2 miles from the loop.