Coldfoot to Prudhoe Bay
On the road at 9:00 this morning, the road immediately became packed dirt, but it was a nice dry day, so no dramas with traction. I stopped off at a few nice spots along the way and took the time to soak it all in since I had a bit of time up my sleeve.
Hmmm... Mountains, coming into the Brooks Range and the Continental Divide
...and the view from other side a bit later
Peaceful babbling brook
At about the 100km mark, I came to Atigun Pass. People had been warning me it was gnarly and tough and had snow on it, but when I got there, the road surface was stable gravel, and the snow was just a few patches on the slopes off the road. The Pass road itself had a few hairpins and it is quite beautiful, but with no problems to navigate on the fine pebbly surface. Just don't get behind a truck here!
Up the Atigun we go...
The view looking back from the last pic
After Atigun, the scenery turned quite beautiful, wide open and rolling tundra.
The countryside is starting to open up - no more trees
At one rest stop I met Matt and shortly after, Scott, both doing the trip south by bicycle. They had buddied up with Mark, a Swiss guy also biking, but much slower as he is a MS sufferer. More power to him! These guys and others are doing 20 to 80 miles a day, in country with up to 100 miles between population areas, packing food andthe necessities and tenting in bear country. I'm starting to feel a bit humbled by people I'm meeting, all the bikers have travelled far more road miles than I have, and as for the bicyclists, well, it's definitley not my kind of adventure!
This passed while I was with Mark and Scott. A real load, 130 ft long, 115 tons, one truck pulling, one pushing. The pilot car driver told us this was a baby load. The big one uses 5 pusher trucks!
Wide, wide open tundra.
At the 260km mark, the road becomes paved (euphimistically) for 10k, but long enough to lull you into a false sense of being almost there, only to become 85km of gnarly, bumpy, gravelly horrible road. At about the same time a breeze started to come up. I've been dreading the Alaskan winds I've heard so much about, they are rather strong, but not a lot worse than the run up the Rangitikei Plains between Himitangi and Sanson, only with a real Arctic bite to it.
The Franklin Bluffs in the background, still with snow on them. It's about 8 degreesC and blowing now. At this stage I'm thinking Fiji might have been a better choice for a holiday!
But they sure are pretty close up
At last Deadhorse appears on the horizon just after 4:00, a bit of dark sea cloud on the horizon and temperatures falling to low single figures.
I come across a BMW R1200 rider ridng a little strangely. It seems Doug spent the previous day running the new gravel at 80 mph and cut hisrear sidewall. It gave out a wee way out of Deadhorse and he plugged it with 3 tubless plugs and spent most of the afternoon going about 100-200 ft at a time between airfills. We resolved to look out for each other that evening in Deadhorse, as there was noting I could do for him and he had it well under control, as much as a 30 mile trip 200 yards at a time can be under control.
I've had to top up at the 260km mark, and hit reserve again with 20 signposted miles to go. I filled up from the second jerry can just in case and get into Deadhorse just on 5:00. There is nothing attractive about Deadhorse, it's totally a place for workers, so I head straight to the Motel and a substantial Arctic dinner.
Time on the road, 8 hours, 385km, all but 32km unpaved.
64/53mpg imp/us, headwind and lots of lower gear work.
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