THE DALTON HIGHWAY

The 'James Dalton Highway' to be precise.....

the second of our 'Mini Adventures' within the 'Where To Next' trip.

This adventure started on July 1st 2017 when after stocking up on food and various other bits and pieces....we rode 135 miles from Fairbanks to the Yukon River. The sun shined all day and the surface of the road......easy hard packed gravel/dirt ..... which led onto some tarmac around mile marker 49.

On arrival we filled our bikes up and went inside for a cold drink. The Yukon River Camp is very basic but there were toilets, food, water, gift shop and accomodation with showers . There's also internet here but you have to pay for it. Our question was 'Where can we camp?'. The new proprietor told us we could camp near the river......when we asked how much, she told us we could camp for free.....bonus..... we ended up camping here for two days as we were running a day ahead of ourselves.

On Monday 3rd July 2017 we set off for Coldfoot....not far..... about 118 miles away.....on the way we called into the 'Artic Circle' pull in. There's toilets here and also camping.We had originally planned to camp at Coldfoot ....a truck stop with accommodation, food, fuel, a post office and the camping is also free here.....if you can find a nice enough area to pitch on. Again you have to pay for the internet....don't bother unless you're desperate....it's very slow and it's $4 for about half an hour....you'll probably spent that time watching the blue dot go round. It was only 3pm when we arrived in Coldfoot so despite the rain and after re - fueling we decided to ride on. And just to note for those of you who are interested....there's approximately 75 miles of tarmac between Yukon and Coldfoot.

So off we went again, the sun eventually came out.....thankfully....as rain was making the gravel/dirt sections a bit slippy for our bikes. We rode through some beautiful country including the Atigun Pass....one of Alaska's highest passes. Put an extra jumper on before you go up....I was cold....there was still some snow on top of the mountains......I even put my heated grips on for a short time. Having come down from there we found ourselves riding across the 'Artic Tundra'....a vast open place...very peaceful....nothing to look at......er.....oh yes ....reindeer, we saw some reindeer, great sight. Just short of 9pm we called it a day.....it's quite hard to do when it's permanent daylight.....you're almost drawn to carrying on.....anyways we stopped....we were about 96 miles short of Prudhoe Bay. The mosquito nets went on where we'd pulled in.....'Bloody Hell !' the mozzy's were big. After pitching the tent we made tea......well actually Chris just boiled some water and poured it into our pre-packed camping food....I had mushroom risotto...really good....if you've never tried any freeze dried camping food...give it a go. Put our extra petrol in the bikes here as well, especially the Sportster.

After a pretty good nights sleep....it was so quiet here, again we packed up and set off. We didn't get too far down the road before we ran into ..... road works. At first we didn't find them so bad but then another motorcyclist stopped and warned us that the road was bad...then they got worse...and worse.....and worse....to the point where I got stuck in a deep gravel hole and Chris had to ride my bike out and a lady from the construction team came to help out. Basically the river had washed the road away and construction was re-building.....great no problem with that but they'd only put the base layer of stone down and still expected you to ride/drive over it....der....I don't think so !!

7 hrs later.......we arrived in Prudhoe Bay......96 miles of on, off road works.....the last 60 were the worst.

And what a relief it was to see the hotel....The Prudhoe Bay Hotel... tired and dirty we checked in and unpacked. The Prudhoe Bay Hotel was great but pricey...they have you by the 'you know whats' up here ....it cost us $260 for the night but at least the food was free. No alcohol on the oil fields either...it's strictly forbidden.....and don't forget to put covers over your boots before you enter the hotel (there's some at the door)....otherwise you get a ticking off for mucking up the nice clean carpets. The hotel is spotless.

VIDEO

DALTON HIGHWAY VIDEO

It wasn't long before we crashed....let me re - phrase that Mum.....fell asleep.....the next day we were booked on a tour of the oil fields....about 8am, so we needed to be packed and ready to go. The tour is the only way you can get to the edge of The Artic Ocean (unless you have contacts up here) and leaves from the Deadhorse Camp. $69 per person.

We rode round to Deadhorse after re - fueling again and signed ourselves onto the tour. On the bus we got chatting to another motorcyclist..Alex....who rode a KTM. He'd also had problems in the road works.....his chain had come off and he'd had to do one of those 'make shift' repairs at the side of the road. After the tour he was off to find a mechanic. Well the little chat on road works turned into a full mini bus discussion with car drivers and 4 x 4 drivers complaining at the ridiculousness of the construction company......made me feel better and not so bad that I'd had a little 'faux par'.

The tour was quite interesting with the guide telling us lots of facts about the oil field and that we were not running out of oil any time soon to funny stories about bears on site and pointing out various wild life. Whilst we were staying here there was a grizzly and her cubs knocking about be we didn't see her.

The end of the tour is when you arrive at the edge of The Artic Ocean and here the guide parks up and you can walk to the end of a piece of land that used to be a dock. We only paddled in the ocean....some were brave enough to swim...apparently it's a 'tourist tradition' and the guide had provided towels for those that wanted to.

And then.......'well blow me down wiv a feather'......out of the blue....Christopher proposed.

I said Yes.

And that was that......back on the bus....back on the bikes and away we went. I wasn't looking forwards to going back through the road works but when we got there they had flattened and packed the bit where I got stuck down so plain sailing. The view riding back was just as spectacular, seeing it from a different angle and more wildlife encounters. This time we were able to get a picture of wild muskox....brilliant. The weather was good and we rode to a little campground about 6 miles outside Coldfoot.....Marion Creek Campground.....beautiful. Squirrels and Grey Jays joined us......loved it. This camp site has toilets (the drop down ones), fire rings, bbq facility, picnic table, private camping areas, hand pump water and only cost $6.....you just put your money in an envelope in the honesty box.

In the morning we had more fun with the squirrels and 'scally wag birds' as Chris calls them before setting off for Fairbanks. We had no intention of staying there and as the Dalton Highway came to an end we pulled into a gas station for fuel and a drink and met....'Irish Vincent'.....what a character...I hope we see him again whilst we're out here. Our day finally ended at a camp site just outside Denali. Reckon that just about concludes my little write up.....hope you enjoy the video and slideshow below.