Tues July 12 Fairbanks to ?

I awoke at 0430 expecting to find last night's rain continuing and therefore just pee and go back to sleep but looked out window and saw only high clouds with breaks and not the rain that had been predicted so thought what the heck, I'll  get going now and see if I can beat the rain.

Loading up took some time as all my stuff was scattered about as a result of all the maintenance I did the past 2 days in Fairbanks, so finally blasted off from the hostel at 0708.

It wasn't long before it began, lightly at first and then in earnest. Stopped first to put my gortex mits over my road gloves then again not too long thereafter to change those out for my big green rubber gloves as the mits were beginnning to leak.

Big Green Neoprene Chemical Gloves I picked up at a hardware store because the Gortex mits (blue ones underneath) were not waterproof

The heated vest is, as several riders before me have commented, worth its weight in gold up here. It's really not that all fired cold, probably in the 50's, but combined with the constant soaking rain and windchill off wet garments (even when they don't leak and my skin is dry, the wet outside of my clothing is wind chilling nonetheless, and that conducts the heat right out of me) so those few watts of electric heat being pumped into my body are delightful.

Gradually I had fully accepted the reality of riding for hundreds of miles in continuous rain and foot dampness and none too soon the pavement ended with the beginning of the haul road, aka oficially Dalton "Highway" (generous use of that term). That was the point I really began to feel that this was indeed going to be an adventure and that I really do not have a clue what I will encounter.

Pavement goes to dirt... for next 425 miles!

Really not a bad road...hard-pack dirt with a smattering of gravel on top

Just add rain for a nice soupy consistency

Fireweed replaces burned forest. there were many acres of this

Big rollers!

Zig-zag of pipeline allows it to stretch for earthquake and thermal expansion / contraction

One mile, five miles, ten miles and then 15, really not bad, hard packed dirt with a thin and patchy overlay of gravel. The gravel here is about the same size as I've seen on gravel roads in other palces but the stones seem to have sharper edges. Then at mile 17 the haul road claimed its first casualty, a guy on a BMW cross bike with a flat rear tire. I stopped and offered help but it was obvious that there was nothing to do and no good way to repair a rock-slash with tire plugs, which is all they had and were trying and all I have, for that matter. With about 400 miles to go, and this being the supposed "good part" of the road, got me thinking about the possibilities. And probablities.

Highway stretches thru rolling Spruce forest

I was more than ready for a stop by the time Livengood came up, and I was disappointed to see the sign that it was 2 miles down a very muddy dirt road, but that was moot since a sign informed that there were NO SERVICES there anyway. So off the side of the road it was to whiz and take stock, whizzin' in the rain, mosquitos (the Alaska State Bird) buzzing. Then there was nothing to do but carry on. 

Crossing the wet and muddy wooden deck of the Yukon River Bridge was no big deal despite all the warnings I'd read about how slick the planks would be, but just before that the steep run down to the river had been a bit "loose" in deepening squishy mud and the bike starting to slide with a mind of its own into various tire tracks, but I tried to stay loose and let the bike find its own path, which it did just fine... the only potential is when there might be one of those big haul trucks coming upon at the same time the bike decides to wander toward the left side of the road...

Waiting for an oncoming truck to cross the mighty Yukon River on a wet and muddy wood-decked bridge, very slippery. The run down to the Yukon was steep and slippery in deep mud.

So far all my parts are dry with the possible exception of my forefeet. I can't really tell w/o taking off my boots but that's not going to happen untill I get done today (wherever that is) because, barring a hypothermic emerrgency, I'm not going to go thru the rigamarole of taking off one billion layers of clothing to take off my boots to check. Plus my boots are now totally covered with mud, which I am figuring is in fact acting as a protective layer.

Mudd!

Mudd!

First Bike anomaly - Hazard flasher button got stuck on and had to coax it out with pliers...assume this is a result of the mud spray

Met @ Yukon Crossing Pablo and Claudia driving a green WV bug with route plotted on map painted on bonnet who'd come all the way from the S tip of S America via the Pan American Highway and had just been to Deadhorse and reported on road conditions.

Pablo drove his green VW all the way from Chile up the Pan American Hwy to Deadhorse / Prudhoe Bay, farthest northern point of N America reachable by road... there are a lot of crazy people out here doing very crazy and special things

"From Chile to Alaska"

Plotting a new point on the hood

Upside down newspaper article on Pablo and Claudia & their long journey

Patrick with dreadlocks, whom when i'd passed him on the road looked to me like a girl, I also met in Yukon River Camp, was buying every tire repair device they had there because his godfather was the one who'd been claimed by the road at MP 17.

Patrick with dreadlocks was buying every tire repair device he could find to try to get his godfather's slashed tire repaired. I later saw then both riding south so the tire must have gotten fixed at least well enough to return to Fairbanks.

I thought myself a few pounds overweight when I began this trip but that has disappeared as I am busy long hours and tend not to stop to eat until I am past hungry, and usually then only for breakfast mid-morning and dinner late. When I eat I do not savor but devour as I am now some quite wonderful sausage, eggs and blueberry pancakes that are before me. My food appreciation factor is up since leaving home.

It's time now to leave this spacious and what is for this remote part of the world a delighful cafe and head on down the road to Coldfoot for fuel and beyond to Wiseman to meet Lorna from whom I am to rent a log cabin and who vows I will be well cared for and fed both dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow for the sum of $100, which is a real deal considering the alternative is a box in the Coldfoot Trucker's Camp for $199 + tax.

Passing the Arctic Circle

Spruce forest thins out

Why is the sign up so high?

Lakes formed by permafrost melting, sinking and potholing

Leaving muddy Coldfoot after fueling to the brim...

...because the next gas is 240 miles.

Do NOT Drink! I found these bottles in the trash and filled them with fuel...all told about 1/3 of a gallon, about 20 extra miles if I need it. Not sure why i did it because 20 miles is nothing out here.

It was a long, slow driving day in the mud and I was tired, but luckily only 13 miles down the road from Coldfoot was Wiseman where I'd pre-arranged lodging.

Arrival in Wiseman and met Lorna, inn keeper, and fellow biker guests Bas, David and "D",for Dorus, a name he hates. It's a girl's name in every language except Dutch (he and Bas are from Netherlands)

Dorus and Bas are just beginning their journey. Came by air to Anchorage, bought bikes, paralleling me to Deadhorse  then reverse course and do the entire Pan-American Highway southbound to the tip of Argentina. Lots of crazy people out here doing all kinds of incredible things.

Lorna gave us rooms and fed us dinner and breakfast the next morning. And serenaded us with her beautiful violin music.