We tried again to see the aurora, and again we failed. Again due to cloud-cover.

iDJ is diligently perusing the net and twitter trying to find out the latest details and if anyone else has seen it. He gave up a while ago on our taking a third trip up the mountain and opened a bottle of wine.

When you see the pics I took of the road up the mountain, you’ll see why sobriety is a must if you want to drive up…

I was less nervous tonight, in my passenger seat. Perhaps because I’d been on that road twice the night before and survived, or maybe because I was looking through a camera instead of my own eyes. Without a doubt I have been a passenger when the road was worse than it is this year. I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to drive it myself. Well, I would, but only if guaranteed no one was coming down while I was going up, or vice-versa.

Now, before I start with the pics, please remember we were driving and it was bumpy. Therefore, they are blurry. And dark.

This is the only ‘good’ picture, because we were stopped. It was also at the bottom of the hill on the way back home. This is the good part of the road: it is flat, it isn’t rutted, it isn’t washed away by rain or full of holes from logging trucks or tractors. Good road. Really.

I edited this shot to brighten it up and make everything more visible. Going uphill, and curving. Only spinning the tires a little bit here…

Getting worse, and steeper…

This picture is both cropped and brightened. Notice the ditch on the left, and the wall of vegetation on the right? Did you forget another car could be coming down toward us around the blind corner at any moment? Just where are we meant to pull aside to make room?

Still going…

Hooray! At the top. That’s my little town, all lit up and looking so small from here.

We might have missed the aurora, but I enjoyed seeing my home like this at night.