Day 16, 17, 18 and 19
Haul Road also known as Dalton Highway
To Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay
Day 16
We pulled out of Fairbanks from Wayde and Jeans house about 9AM. We are headed to Prudhoe bay. It will take us two days to get there and we hope to get a dorm room at Deadhorse Camp. We did not reserve as we HOPE to get therein two days but we have no idea what lies ahead.
As we are rolling along the road is easy until we hit the first road block due to road construction. It took us two hours to go 60 miles. We had some great conversations with the flaggers. As you know by now we do not stay in the back of the pack, we roll to the front.
As we get rolling the road is absolutely beautiful. The Alaska Pipeline comes into view and it is Boyd's first time ever to see it. We will follow this all the way up to the Arctic ocean. Later in the trip we will hit to bottom end of it in Valdez.
This pipeline has much of it above ground as well as underground. When my father was an early barber he worked a workers camps on the pipeline as a barber. Pretty cool.
Well we have to not only look at the pipeline as we follow it all the way up, we have to get up and personnel with it.
After we left from behind the locked gate we hit the road and continued north .
The land mass up here is just overwhelming. For as far as you can see there is nothing but nature.
We get to the Yukon River and cross a long wooden bridge to the other side. There is a National Park visitors center there so we check it out. The ranger gave us a heads up for what is ahead of us. Today will be the good part of this ride going up.
We will gas up here at this Yukon crossing. Our goal for tonight is to get to Marion Creek campground above Coldfoot.
We met up with Owen. He is riding a Kawasaki 300. He rode it all the way up from Brazil. Yes Brazil an this little bike. Had some great stories he shared with us.
We also met a new biker brother Mike that will ride with us for the next three days. He is riding solo from California. We let him know where we are camping and he is welcome to share our site.
As we gas up we also have to put up one of our stickers. We grab a bite to eat so we can skip mountain house dinner tonight.
With pegs up and the gear dropped into 1st we throttle back and next stop will be the Arctic Circle.
We roll into to it at about 6PM. It is 80 degrees here at the Circle man is it hot.
Of course I have to tilt to bottle back for my buddy Spencer. So here's one for ya buddy.
We roll north and head for Coldfoot. We gas up and hit the Visitors center for some education. Pretty cool.
The sun is almost straight up like it's 1 in the after noon.
Camp is set and we are enjoying a much needed drink of Crown Royal. About 10PM Mike rolls in. He sets camp and we all have stories to share. About midnight we hit the sleeping bags.
Day 17
We will have to cross Atigun Pass, it is steep and beautiful. On this road the truckers have the right of way so we stop a lot to let them blow by. They do not slow down so for a bike the best rule is to stop.
This is coming down the north side of the pass. So awesome.
As we continue north we are following some awesome river. We have to stop and get the fly rods out and give it a try. We can't pass this up. When is the last time we ever fished above the Arctic Circle.
Boyd has some luck and breaks in his fly rod that he actually built and lands his first Grayling. I got skunked. However the mosquitos were biting big time...
We continue on and pull up to another road block of road construction. We have a great visit with the flagger.
He tells us that we will have 16 miles of road work. He say's "Just warning you it's pretty soft."
DAMN little did we know. about 1 mile into it we started the soft stuff. We were leaving ruts about 4" deep and sliding all over the damn place. after about 4 miles of that we hit the Soft stuff.
For about 4 miles they were tearing up the road and adding water to it to make it soft for them to work on.
Ruts were everywhere and about 6" deep. I can't believe we did not go down. It SUCKED.
We made it out to the other side and what a relief.
The last 50 miles into Deadhorse were great. About 6 years ago all the road got wiped out due to flooding. They built a actual paved 50 mile section and what a welcome after that mess 50 miles behind us.
Boyd's tank ran empty but we were not concerned as we had plenty of spare fuel. Were he ran out was literally across the road from Deadhorse camp where we hope to stay.
It was very windy and 55 degrees with coast cloud cover. It was so awesome to have the Cariboo welcomed us into town.
We hit the camp and they had a bed for us. We showered up and hit their cafeteria style dinner. It was fantastic. Boyd was shocked that the dinner was prime rid and was was unreal and they served up their homemade cheese cake.
We met a group of four bikers from Brazil after dinner outside by our bikes after dinner. Of course they spoke Portuguese. Portuguese is similar to Spanish. I know enough Spanish that I could talk with them. They rode their bikes all the way up and were now headed back. They have done over 25,000 miles so far. One couple was riding two up. How they got thru that road construction would have been to ask. I am sure the women on the two up got in a vehicle with someone. No way could they have both done it on one bike.
I was surprised that they came all this way and did not swim in the Arctic. He said they didn't want to pay the $89 it cost to be driven there in the van. Seriously, you have spent a ton of money to get here and you turn away because of $89? Hey, whatever blows your hair back. They headed south now starting at almost 8PM.
Day 18
At about midnight the sky opened up. It rained over an inch between midnight and 6:30AM. Man it poured!!!
This morning we have to take a van to the Arctic Ocean as all the shore up here is controlled by oil companies. There is only one outfit that has the rights to take people to the ocean. We hook up with Mike and we load into the van. It is 43 degrees and the rain let up a little but it is cold.
When we get to the ocean Mike needs a haircut. Well hell I am not going to pass up an opportunity to do a video haircut on the ARCTIC OCEAN. C'mon it is the Style Renegade here we are talking about.
So we pick the perfect spot and the hair starts flying.
Mike can't believe that he just met this dude yesterday and now he is cutting my hair on the Arctic ocean and recording it all. All he can say is "WOW!"
Wow what a rush. Frozen in all it was a thrill. We return back to Deadhorse camp in about 30 minutes. Take a quick shower to get the sand and saltwater off of us in preparation for the ride.
Now let's go peg up and throttle back in the rain.
We rolled into Five Mile campground at about 11Pm. After the day we had and putting in over 350 miles we were all beat up!!! We dropped or tents and hit the sack, lights out. Oh wait no lights out as the sun is straight up over us.
We did a long push yesterday so we could have an easier day today. We know we have three long construction road blocks on this leg however nothing like yesterday.
It is still about 45 degrees and a light rain. We gear up knowing we are going to get wet. Forecast shows that about 75 miles south we should ride out of it and get some clear skies. Well this far north mother nature and the weather apps as I mentioned before "Do not get along."
We aren't to concerned about it as wet gravel dirt mix is usually ok on a motorcycle. We get about 50 miles south and we get a break. It is only a lite mist. Our biggest concern is the 16 mile stretch of the road construction that we hit on the way up.
It rains on and off with an occasional break here and there. We pull up to the flagger at the road construction site. All three of us are in the front of the other vehicles.
Boyd is in the lead. As we start we see the water trucks firing more water on all of it. It is already a rock, dirt and mud mess. Heavy equipment of every kind you can imagine working all over. Boyd yells in the communication to me "This is horrible!!!" He is sliding everywhere. I get about 1 mile into it and I am stuck in ruts that are anywhere for 10" to 12" deep. Ruts are crisscrossing everywhere. Finally my bike goes down in the mud. I managed to step out of it before my left leg is under it. I motion to Mike to not stop and keep going. Worst thing you can do in this is stop your momentum once you are going. He seriously wanted to stop and see if I am ok but I wave him on. Two of the workers were behind us in a big pick up. They came out and helped me get the bike up.
They held if upright as I tried to move forward. My front wheel hit a cross mud track and and jumped over hit. My skid plate came down hard into a deep mud wall and i went down hard. Luckily it's all deep mud so it was like landing on an air mattress. I couldn't get up as the bike was laying across my leg leg. The two workers came quick and got the bike off me.
Boyd and Mike could see from about 1/4 mile away that I was down. Boyd is asking on the com "Dave I need to get back to you and help!"
I am yelling him "I am fine not hurt at all and the these workers are staying with me and us until we got out of this hell hole!" I encourage them to keep going.
I finally get going and fighting it for about 1 mile. Then the back wheel is just spinning and can't bite. I start sliding into a massive mud bank. I roll the throttle hard to get the wheel to try and bite into the mud and find some traction. No luck and I an sliding out of control. I jump off the bike and hit the mud but this time I got off in time to not get pinned under it again. The workers get out and pick the bike upright. As I am getting on it the bike is sinking into the mud deeper.
One of them lifts as much as he can as I work the throttle and manage to got going. Sliding and fighting every direction I am almost at the end of this 4 mile section. One of the pieces of equipment went across the road about 100 yards in front of me. When it did it dug in a cross rut. I couldn't get the bike to get out of the deep rut I was in. I knew what was coming when I get to that spot. So I didn't want to break my momentum as I finally was biting into traction. Well when I hit it the front tire pushed thru it but the skid plate high centered and down I went for the forth time. Boyd is on the com's asking if I am ok. I said yes. He and Mike made it out of this stretch and were waiting for me. The pilot car wanted them to keep moving and Boyd gave him an earful.
I finally made it to them and was exhausted. We took about a two minute break holding the few trucks up that were behind us. The workers said "Hey man take as long as you want. This is the worst this has been."
Boyd in the lead and then Mike then me. We now had about 8 miles of making deep ruts ourselves and fighting to stay upright all the way.
Finally we hit the end of that hell hole. We rolled for about 30 miles and the weather finally started to show broken clouds and no rain. We stopped for about a 5 minute much needed break. I don't ever need to relive this part of the trip again. Damn what a mess.
We are rolling along and all of a sudden we roll up to some Muskox along the side of the road. They could care less about us. So photo opp time.
We get to the top of Atigun pass and stop as the clouds are finally giving way. I have to tip Spencer's bottle back for him as this is to great great of a spot to pass up.
Mike did not get any pictures when he went ahead of us yesterday so he was thrilled to get them today.
Once we drop to the other side the weather was calm and and it had not rained at all. It's about 72 degrees and beautiful. Finally I am warming back up and drying out. Not a whole lot of fun riding in wet gear. Even with all the so called rain gear riding hours at a time and in the mud you get wet.
Day 19
We say our goodbyes' and share the love with Mike as he will head out on his own again from her. He is one great quality of a man. I am so glad that he allowed me to make memories and share a piece of his life. You will be missed brother. Three of us went through a lot together in three days.
Before we headed out the last person at the camp was a guy on a bicycle. Boyd went over and started talking to him. Once I tied down the last of my gear I went over.
His name is Kim and he is from Tasmania. He lives his life all over the world on his bicycle. He is a very intelligent man and very articulate. The three of us hit it off right at the introductions. As no one is a stranger to any of us.
Listen to him share his life. Really listen to his words. So fantastic.
We rolled across the Yukon river again going south. We couldn't resist getting a few more pic's off of the wooden bridge. So we dropped the pegs and got it done. You are not supposed to stop on the bridge but no one or traffic as far as the eye can see, so no big deal.
We rolled up to the Dalton highway sign and had to say goodbye and thank this Haul road for a great four day adventure.
We rolled into Boyd's nephew and his wife's place. They were very generous to have us spend another night with them.
First thing we did was wash the thick mud off of the bikes. Then a much needed shower and do laundry.
Jean cooked us up another FANTASTIC dinner. We are do thankful for them both.
How can you not love this???
Let's see what tomorrow brings.
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