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When Karl was preparing to cross the ice from Alaska to Russia, I worked with him a bit on a kite-flown camera system to help him get a Birds Eye view of the fl
by K0balt 11mo ago
When Karl was preparing to cross the ice from Alaska to Russia, I worked with him a bit on a kite-flown camera system to help him get a Birds Eye view of the flows to chart his course. I engineered a ruggedized wireless camera in an aluminum housing, I don’t remember much about it other than I was doubtful that the resolution would be able to give him the data he needed on on small low resolution screen. (This was before consumer drones were common or affordable). We built some devices, not sure if he ever used them or if they helped. I urged him to do a lot of testing to make sure they would be worth the weight.
We spent a lot of time at college coffee house in Fairbanks Alaska working over the ideas and overall design.
Nice fellow, strange aspirations, indomitable spirit. I’m glad to see his trek is nearing completion, and I wish him well on his further adventures. Good luck and Godspeed, Karl.
- japhyr 11mo agoWhen was he in Fairbanks? I bicycled around North America for a year in 1998-1999, and finished in Alaska. It was wild to live on a bike for a full year, and then meet people who had been living that way (on bikes and on foot) for years at a time. There were a lot of people just starting out on aspirational long trips, but there were also a handful of people who had already gone a long long way. Fairbanks was an interesting meeting point for many of those travelers.
- K0balt 11mo agoHonestly, I don’t really remember. More than a decade ago, but I think maybe I was already working on my sailing adventures by then and working the summer in Fairbanks? Or maybe that was before, I’m not really sure. Too many relationships, kids, and big life changes between here and there to have a sense of the thing. I’m sure you can look it up? IIRC he was in Fairbanks for quite a while. Was a bit of a fixture at the coffee house.
- JKCalhoun 11mo agoInteresting. I hitchhiked through Fairbanks four decades ago… Kind of the gateway to the Arctic Circle for a lot of travelers I suppose. Perhaps this guy was waiting out the weather—for it to turn favorable to continuing his travels.
- K0balt 11mo agoIirc he was there for more than a year, flew home for a while, came back? Not sure. I do remember him being there during a summer and also during winter. I think one year the ice was impassible and he was waiting. But I don’t really remember, such things might have been mere conversation crystallized into memories. He seemed a kind and pleasant man , though, of that I am sure.
- hatradiowigwam 11mo agoI spent alot of time in Fairbanks throughout 2006 and 2008, doing aerial surveys from plane. Fairbanks was a good airport to get stuck at, and you do meet some interesting non-traditional travelers. I've never met the guy in the article, but I've met a few bike/hike travelers there who were either moving horizontally or vertically across Alaska (no small feat at all), and I always thought it sounded like an adventure.
- tomrod 11mo agoI would be interested in learning about the logistical details. Calorie requirements? Sleeping? Costs? etc. A blog or a book format would make for killer reading!
- jraby3 11mo agoI rode a bicycle from Canada to Mexico (in about a month) with a close friend. We bought a book called Bicycling the Pacific Coast (before smart phones). I had a cheap $150 univega bike and my friend had a $3000 cannondale. His broke mine didn't :) We were amateurs. We hitchhiked to a bike shop near San Francisco to fix it. Had some saddle bags with our tent and sleeping bag, clothes and water. It's very doable. Hardest part is just showing up.
- LorenPechtel 11mo agoAmerica, definitely doable. He's got that cart and he's going through civilization as much as possible, so long as you do time it reasonably there shouldn't be any major problems. Darian Gap, though, wow! Likewise, the Bering Straight.
- japhyr 11mo agoI read a book called A Walk Across America in college, by Peter Jenkins. I liked the idea of traveling under my own power, but I didn't want to spend years walking. I kept when I got my driver's license, and I was bike commuting in NYC at the time, so biking was a natural fit. I was teaching at the time, so the first summer without any obligations I rode across the northern US. Then I rode across the southern US the next summer. I loved it, and wanted to live outside for all the seasons. So the next year I quit my job and circled the continent: Seattle to Maine, down to Florida, across to California, then up to Alaska. I moved to Alaska a few years after the trip ended and spent 20 years there. We moved to North Carolina last year, because dark southeast Alaskan winters were getting old, and all our family is on the east coast. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to do that trip in the era of paper maps, and truly being out of touch for so much of that time. It pushes you to meet so many new people in all the places you visit, instead of staying in constant contact with people you already know. It was also nice to not see satellite imagery of the road ahead. Every day was a surprise. :) I did write a book, The Road to Alaska: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Alaska-Eric-Matthes-ebook/dp/B0722L4RMB/ https://www.amazon.com/Road-Alaska-Eric-Matthes-ebook/dp/B07... One of my claims to fame is writing one of the best-selling Python books of all time (Python Crash Course), and one of the lowest-selling travel books of all time. :)
- thenthenthen 11mo agoAny tips or build plans for KAP (kite areal photography) using modern action cams? I build a clothing hanger setup but the imagery was unusable due to vibrations
- timonoko 11mo agoSuperstable "Picavet" with heavy video-8 camera, before digital cameras was even invented. Note propellor and gears making slow 360 degree pans. https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFP9Rf1w9Xs93sfu7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFP9Rf1w9Xs93sfu7