Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

August 16, 2010
Today was a very HOT day! It was about 103 to 105 degrees! We washed our truck in the morning and when we were done we felt like we needed another shower. One, because the truck was so dirty and when you wash it the dirt seems to rub off onto you and second, because it was so hot out we were dripping...and not from the car wash water.After the truck wash we drove to the park which was only about 20 minutes outside of town. http://www.nps.gov/whis/ We started collection only to find that our first route was locked! We had just gotten done meeting with some park staff and went over all of the gate locations and we were assured they were unlocked...nope. The frustrating part was that the gate was at the end of a long windy route so I got the pleasure of driving it 4 times...up, down, up and down again. Each time saying "please don't let a car come". It was a pretty narrow road in spots and a pretty sharp drop off over the side with no guard rail. After that adventure we collected more routes and things went smoothly for about two hours.

Partly due to the heat and partly due to our slow speeds during collection the inverters in the truck were running low on power. The two truck alternators couldn't keep up with our power needs so the inverters were slowly giving up. They started beeping at 10.5 volts, they should normally be around 12.5 volts during collection with all of the computers on. We had to turn all of the computers off and drive the truck at highway speed for about 30 minutes to cool things down and get the power back up. After that we were collecting again but we weren't sure how long it would last. Luckily we were able to finish collection with the low point being 11.0 volts at the end of the day so we may have had a few more runs if needed. We did have the same "problem" with our last truck, when it is that hot out outside the truck has a harder time producing the power we need and keeping the inside cool. We knew today would be a pretty big test for the new truck. It handled the heat pretty well.
I wasn't able to get many photos of the park. It was just too hot to get out of our hot truck. We thought the truck was roasting until we got stepped outside to walk to the restroom. After we got back into the truck if felt "nice" but only for a few seconds.

And now, the kicker for the night...yes I'm back in my hotel room with the heat on! Yep, you read that right, the heat. The housekeeper cranked the AC while I was out and I enjoyed it for a few minutes but soon I switched it to the heater. Uhhhh....