Tuesday, June 4,2013 Coldfoot, AK

In a category that didn’t even exist until this trip, Coldfoot has won the title, for:  Best Shipping Container I’ve ever slept in!  You have to understand that this is the nearest town to Prudhoe Bay that isn’t dry.  The next closest is about 200 miles further south.  Whatever they put there to sleep in, will wind up being occupied.  It’s muddy and cold and the “motel” is not in great shape, but the food is pretty good, and the beer is cold.

We left Fairbanks in the morning and traveled about 80 miles to the Dalton Highway (The Haul Road) and stopped to have our obligatory group picture taken in front of the sign.  After about a 20 mile drive, we came across our first construction stop.  There is always construction going on at the Dalton, and sometimes it’s a 10 mile affair so you have to wait for a “pilot truck” to escort you through the construction zones.  This road repair was so drastic that as we went up the grade, a tractor/trailer was actually stuck in the middle of the road, and as we went by we saw a large front end loader on its way to pull him out.  Between wet roads, and construction zones, the Dalton can make for exasperating driving conditions.

At mile marker 115 was one of our destination photo ops – The Arctic Circle!  While we were there we met a fellow motorcyclist from Colorado, driving by himself, who is also attempting to drive to Deadhorse, but he’s on a Honda road bike, with road tires!  And he’ll also be 70 tomorrow.  I don’t know if he’ll make it because I’m not sure what to expect myself, but I wish him luck – he’ll need it!  Today was about 100 miles shorter than yesterday, but the time was about the same because of construction and road conditions.  I’m afraid that even as the miles per day get shorter, the time may even increase because of the road.  I hope I’m wrong.  We aren’t traveling long miles, but they’re hard miles, and we’re all pretty much wore out by the time the day is over.