Day 16 - Guess where I went today?

So today will go down as one of the coolest.  Me and Red Velvet made the trip up to the Arctic Circle!

This morning we got up and made the trip north to the Dalton Highway, also known as the "Haul Road" made famous by being built in the early 70s when black gold was found on the northern slope of Alaska, right on the Arctic Sea.  It is the road that made it possible for the building of the Alaskan pipeline that sends the oil down to the lower 48.  The road is also famous on the show Ice Road Truckers.  

The road was everything you might think it would be.  It was paved and smooth, paved and super rough. dirt, mud, dust, gravel with small rocks, gravel with big rocks...some of the riding was world class and some was worst class.  Here are some pictures.

There's the oil pipeline...it is always nearby.

  

This is the mighty Yukon River.  Notice the bridge decking is wood.  Most of the bridges I crossed  today had wooden decks.

 

  

Trucks were constantly passing me going south.  On the Dalton Highway trucks always have the right away...and they make it very clear...most of the trucks had very heavy loads or two trailers.

 

I stopped at the famous "Hot Spot" and had one of their burgers, which they are famous for.  Between Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle there was this place to stop and eat and one place for fuel. It was 200 miles from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle and it is desolate.  That is Red Velvet in the foreground with her friends.  I ate lunch with the guys riding these bikes.  All three are pilots for large airlines.

So from here it is only 50 miles but I picked up fuel which is recommended and normal, even though I still had 6 or 7 gallons left.  This is what the gas station looks like and it cost $5.19 per gallon.

I ran into a friend of mine "Harold" from Edmonton. He rides a mean KTM that is bad to the bone, love KTM's.  He carries extra fuel with him because his tank is smaller and his bike drinks petrol like water (poor mileage), I think he said he gets 28mpg.  He is quite a character but a helluva a good rider.

The road got muddy.  It was very slippery...I went through this 4 or 5 mile stretch at about 45 mph, one of the slowest sections.

 

This was one of the scariest sections...very steep hill for a long ways, it's called the "Beaver Slide" and is famous for wrecks and has been featured on Ice Road Truckers.

I did not see any wildlife except a lot of birds, big birds, they looked like crows and they hung around the road a lot and I just missed 3 or 4 of them.  It took me 9 total hours to ride up and then turn around to come back.  It was grueling because there's no time to relax, the road is constantly changing conditions and the turns are awesome.  Sometimes the roads were wide and dusty and sometime it was very narrow and slippery.  It was a total of 413 miles today and it wore me out!  

I am ready for sleep and tomorrow I start my progress of heading back towards Canada and eventually home.  Have a great day, I did!