by elsietee » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:14 pm
LOL - someone was complaining that they were posting last year's [outstandingly beautiful] photos, instead of this year.
Their response:
Slaven's Roadhouse is one of the very few locations along the Yukon Quest - Official Site trail that is at a very remote spot off the road system access, along the Yukon River, 55 miles from the closest 'civilization' and the Alaskan road system. There is no phone, internet, running water, nor electricity. It is a cabin built in the early 1930s to serve the steamboats in summer and dog mushers in winter - specifically built at a very remote location where access is essentially otherwise not possible. The closest thing to services and technology is the NPS summer field camp located four miles up the Coal Creek drainage from the roadhouse. It doesn't sound far, but there is no vehicular road, nor vehicle, and to get there, staff must snowmachine the trail and across, along, and through the creek with overflow water on top of the ice in temps (last night) of 40 below zero. When they arrive, the camp is shut down for winter. There is satellite internet, but even in summer, it is brutally slow at times. In winter, it requires firing up the generator (at -40F - EXCEPTIONALLY difficult), starting a fire in the wood stove and heating the mess hall for at least two hours before it is even safe to turn on the computer (after it has warmed up). Then, hopefully, connect to the very spotty satellite internet, upload 300 pixel wide photo (Facebook photos are 2048x), and keep your fingers crossed that it actually uploads. One photo. And then before leaving, stoke the stove so it hopefully only drops to about zero degrees before you can make it back again for the second time in one day.
We tried all this last year and while it worked, it was incredibly challenging, dangerous, exhaustive of time and resources, and pulled staff away from the real duties of being at the roadhouse to serve the mushers and dogs. Alas, posting past years' NPS-taken photos (not YQ photos) are the best thing we can do each year and it also allows us to post updates many times a day, thanks to our two-way handheld text messaging device the staff have inside the roadhouse (it runs on AA batteries). We do the best to pair current conditions and circumstances reported by the roadhouse staff with past years' photos to match. Using this method, staff in the office can notify staff at the roadhouse when dogs are approaching and then reply with all the details of the current conditions and happenings at this very remote location, where the only other option for communication with the outside world is through satellite telephone (limited by rechargeable battery power). Thanks for understanding. -JS
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elsietee AT ponyhill DOT org
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, CA
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