July 12 – Valdez

Seems like every other day there is something to troubleshoot. This past winter we upgraded to lithium batteries in our trailer allowing us to be less dependent on either being plugged in to shore power or a generator. The batteries supply most of our power needs. The new charge controller has not been keeping the batteries fully charged so it was time to dive in and figure out what is going on. Here in Valdez, we have good internet plus we are plugged in to shore power at the campground so it’s a good place to work on the problem. Thanks to various RV discussion forums and YouTube the device that charges our batteries, the charge controller, auto detects if it is charging lead acid batteries or lithium batteries. It now thinks we have lead acid batteries so it’s not properly charging our batteries. The charging mode can be reset by draining the battery way down then complete a full charge cycle. This morning we unplugged from shore power then turned on the two DC fans and all the DC lights in the trailer. About seven hours later with the batteries down to 30% we plugged back into shore power. At least for now it seems to have corrected our problem, but we will not know for sure until tomorrow morning after the fully charge cycle is complete.

With both fans running on high the noise level was a bit much. Marsha did laundry and walked around town while I headed out to Keystone Canyon to photograph a few of the stunning waterfalls there. After that while heading back to town, I took a short detour off the main highway and came upon two brown bears, a sow and a cub. I never got a great shot off but at least captured a few images which I’ll post here.

A bare bear butt shot

Momma

The road through Keystone Canyon. It’s wider here with the pull off otherwise the canyon is narrow. This is the only land route in and out of Valdez.

A vertical panorama made from 4 different photographs

Panorama shot, again vertical, of one of the many waterfalls in this canyon.

Lowe River though Keystone Canyon

The headwaters of the inlet leading to Valdez. The land across the marsh is the site of Old Valdez which was destroyed with the Good Friday Tsunami in 1964.