Up the Elliot Hwy to Globe Creek

On Friday afternoon, I went to Globe Creek Camp which is located on the Elliot Highway north of Fairbanks. It was 33°F and sleeting when going over Wickersham Dome but otherwise, a nice ride. I did opt to dig out the heated liner and gloves for the first time. I'm still using the old First Gear riding gear but have received a tracking number from Aerostich. I'm looking forward to getting the Roadcrafter Light back. This is the first snow of the year for me.

I did attach the GoPro to the sidecar and filmed a time-lapse. I couldn't figure out any good places to stop for a picture on the way out as the weather was overcast and foggy. The lens ended up getting covered with snow on the trip out so here is the footage from the return trip. I left when the temperature started to drop again. The Ural started easily and I even used the kick starter partly to make sure I reassembled it properly a few weeks back.

The Crack of Dawn

Getting up and about before the crack of dawn is getting easier and easier. This was taken around 9:00am which is still about ½ an hour before sunrise. Soon it'll be even easier! This is using the Apple Photo app Noir effect. Better than the bluish hue most of my winter photos seem to have.

I received my GripStuds from Aerostitch last week and finally tried to install them last night. Not quite enough tread left in the center of the old K37 tread to install them. The studs need to go 10.7 mm into the tire according to the GripStuds website.

Steve from Scooter in the Sticks asked that I occasionally include something warmer in my posts. This is about all I can think of. This image is from the Vermont Castings web site. I really like their wood stoves but we don't have one so this will have to do for now. If they are allowed to burn hot enough, they are pretty clean.

I didn't check the temperature before heading out this morning but I appears that it's sort of on the cold side. I didn't have very far to go on Sunday mornings so I didn't even bother with any of the heated gear. Just the FirstGear jacket and fleece liner. The fleece liner is still my favorite jacket and I recently replaced the worn out zipper. The biggest challenge was removing the old zipper.

Last night, I finally got around to opening up the crankcase vent to the atmosphere instead of the Raceway vent recovery canister. For now, I simply used the same hose until I can come up with something better. The outlet from the front cover is ⅝" and I'm thinking of using an insulated copper pipe with the lower end clamped to the exhaust pipe. I'm thinking that the copper should conduct heat pretty well...