It is now September 1st. I know now that the Dalton Highway will not close today to the public as I learned and had been concerned about the whole trip. The government may not close it down but I am still concerned Mother Nature might. I am taking the day off here at the Gateway Salmon Bake. The food is great. I ordered the King Salmon and can
‘t believe food can taste this good. With the all-you-can-eat buffet I eat more food than I normally eat in two days. I built a fire that night an waited for the Northern Lights which never came.
I take the next day off to rest but mainly I want to have another fish buffet. I explore the town of Tok for a while including the visitor center where I watched a film about Brown Bears and their behavior. They had many large animals stuffed including a large Brown Bear, a Musk Ox, a Walrus, and a Caribou. I picked up another package today at the Post Office and mailed several more rolls of film back to be developed later. I realize when I get back to Florida I will have more than 30 rolls of film to develop. I had the Halibut tonight at the Salmon bake which wasn’t nearly as good as the King Salmon.
On the second of September I made it to Dot Lake. Not much here. I bought a new rope just like the old one and received a new bike cover in the mail so I’m back to normal. I sit and stare at the Big Dipper – still trying to catch a glimpse of those elusive Northern Lights. I think about the Bakers and contemplate getting a job at the oil rigs when I reach Prudhoe Bay.
September 3rd – I broke four spokes today and only had three to replace them so I’m still one spoke short on my back tire. I stop for the night at Bergstad’s campground in Delta Junction. I was a real nice day today. No clouds and it wasn’t that cold. I took a hot shower shortly after I since it had been a while since I had one. This campground like many others was just some lady’s house and a very large front yard. She told me about how sometimes Moose will come right up to the house. Minutes after talking to her on the way back to my tent I looked up to see a Moose standing right in front of me. I went to get my camera and tried not to startle it. It was looking right at me and started to head the other way but I got a couple pictures.
The following morning I get up to take another shower an overhear a conversation between two Moose hunters. They were trying to pretend to each other that they only take showers about every six months but since it was only a couple quarters they might as well just for something to do.
I made it to a State Recreation Area on the Salcha River since the lodge was RV only. I made a fire and listen to a local station. (Yukon Women). I stopped in the town of North Pole which has a very busy post office around Christmas time. The lady at the visitor center called the post office to get information about the Dalton Highway for me. I called Mom and Dad and they had just sent my other jacket the day before so it probably won’t make it to Fairbanks in time.
I made it to Fairbanks, Alaska on September 5th. I stayed at some campground in the center of town but it was a pay campgroiund with no showers so the next day I took off for the Norwood Campground across from Alaskaland. Alaskaland is like a large amusment park type place for tourists. It was mainly closed exept for a few bars, including The Palace, which had a live musical play called “Into the Bush” I thought it was great and wanted to see it again on my way back down but it ended that Saturday.
I hung around Faibanks for another day to explore the town. I left my bike helmut at the bike shop and it was closed Sunday. I did some grocery shopping and bike repair stuff to prepare myself for the 500 mile journey ahead, including the Dalton Highway. I didn’t want to take any chances since I was ultimately leaving civilization behind at this point. I spent around $110 at the bike shop and left Monday morning for the Dalton.
Heading north from Fairbanks is kind of like blasting off for the Moon. Fairbanks is the northern most actual city in the Western Hemisphere and leaving it to head north is a venture into the unknown. There is a truckstop called Coldfoot a little more than halfway between Fairbanks and the Arctic Ocean but other than that there is nothing but stunted trees for the first 300 miles and open tundra past the Brooks Range. Miles of wilderness with nothing but the Alaska pipeline to assure me that humans have been here before.
That, and the road itself, but that’s another story. The 500 miles of road from Alaska to Deadhorse is little more than a trail of dirt and rocks spread across the open wilderness. Something for the trucks to drive on as they haul their supplys for the workers on the Prudhoe oil fields and the other inhabitants of Deadhorse. It was not graded like a regular highway would have been. There is not much leveling of the land to make it flatter. It pretty much follows the natural lay of the land and consequently has some pretty steep spots with 12% grades and crazy twists and turns. My first day out of Farbanks and I travel less than 25 miles and camp out by a river near the Chatanika bridge.
The next day I don’t get much further, about 34 miles. The Elliot highway is still paved at this point and I meet a man who is sitting in a chair by the road with a bunch of objects scattered around him. I guess he is a typical Alaska eccentric. Someone who just wants to get away from it all and be his odd self with no one around to bother him. He invited me to his cabin and showed me a magazine article featuring him and his colorful array of junk which fills both his yard and cabin. He told me he used to work at the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and was a truck driver. Shortly after leaving his abode the pavement ran out and I was now on a gravel road. I ended up crashing in an old gravel pit.
Today is the day I finally make it to the sacred Dalton Highway. It is a stark contrast to any road I have ever been on. You can tell right off your leaving it all behind as start heading down this road. This is the last road I will ever have to turn on for my little trip and in that respect it’s a great milestone, but the trip is far from over at this point and I I would come to realize later, it was just the beginning of an entirely unique adventure. I still had more than 400 miles to go which in a 7000 mile plus trip does not seem like much but it would be more difficult than any 1000 stretch I had made. This road was made of rocks and dirt. Not just little tiny rocks either. Their was a good deal of softball size and larger making up this road that seemed to go straight up and straight down at times. It would go straight up and straight down while at the same time going what seemed like 180 degree turns. I was happy just to make it to Lost Creek Culvert at mile 5.6 which would be the first pipeline access road.