Day 18 – Tuesday, July 17th (390 miles, 3 miles north of Yukon River Camp to Pump Station 2, Dalton Highway, then back to Coldfoot):
Yun and I left our campsite this morning around around 7am, with the goal of reaching Deadhorse. It was a cold morning, but thankfully there was no rain. The dirt/gravel parts of the road were rough the entire way, with many potholes. Surprisingly though, there was more pavement today than I would have expected.
When we reached the the Arctic Circle sign, we stopped and took a few pictures. I couldn’t believe I had ridden than far north! We continued riding until Coldfoot (around 11am), where we filled up our gas tanks and walked inside to pay and eat some lunch. It was neat experiencing a small camp like this that is so vital to the truckers driving the Dalton year round. After lunch, the temperature warmed up to around 60 degrees or so, which was a great relief and allowed me to shed some of the layers I had been wearing.
The ride today was absolutely beautiful! The Dalton follows the Alaskan Pipeline, winding through mountains, over rivers, and through the tundra. It was a great experience to be riding on this road and somehow my bike managed to stay in one piece! By far, the hardest part of the road was avoiding the potholes as there were so many of them.
We hit some construction work and a one lane road north of Coldfoot and had to wait for about 10 minutes before we were allowed to continue. The road in this area was extremely slippery as it was all dirt and there had been some light rain earlier in the day. Although I thought that my bike might slip and go down, I was able to avoid this since I took the road slowly.
One of the scariest parts of the Dalton Highway for me was the Atigun Pass. This pass is roughly 170 miles south of Deadhorse and the road here is extremely steep and narrow. To make things a little more difficult, it had snowed here 2 inches in the morning and by the time we had arrived in the afternoon, most of the snow had melted and left some very slippery mud roads. Needless to say, I took the pass as slow as I could.
When Yun and I reached the top of the pass, we stopped to admire the scenery for a few minutes. The views were amazing from the top! Leaving the top of the pass, I went ahead of Yun so I could take it slowly, knowing he would catch up shortly after. The road after Atigun pass ran through the open tundra and was one of the most beautiful places I have seen. There were mountains, lakes, rivers, and the pipeline, but that was about it. No trees or plants grow this far north, only grass grows in the tundra.
The road in this area seemed to have a lot more potholes than what I had experience before. I was driving very slow to avoid as many as I could, but I was still hitting some periodically. At the Pump Station 2 for the pipeline, about 105 miles south of Deadhorse, I decided to turn around and head back to Coldfoot. I was only going about 15-20 miles an hour and didnt want to ride for another 4-5 hours before reaching Deadhorse and knowing that there was a chance of rain beginning in the morning. I hadn’t yet passed the “point of no return” in regards to gas, so I began the ride back through the tundra, over Atigun Pass, and back to Coldfoot.
Several hours later, around 9:30pm, I reached Coldfoot, where I stopped to get gas and eat some dinner. With the anticipated rain and also because it stays light out so late during the summer, I decided to keep riding through the night and head back to Fairbanks.
Day 19 – Wednesday, July 18th (255 miles, Coldfoot, AK to Fairbanks, AK):
I’ll never do that again! Riding through the night, by myself, on the Dalton Highway was not a favorable experience. The worst part about riding through the night was the temperature. It was so cold and even with all of my cold weather gear on, it still felt like I wasn’t wearing much.
Thankfully the ride back to Fairbanks was uneventful. It was nice to pass back by some of the beautiful areas I had ridden passed, on the way up the Dalton. There were some semi trucks that I passed but, other than that, I think I was the only other person on the Dalton in the middle of the night.
I rode into Fairbanks around 7am and stopped at a McDonalds to rest, eat, and drink lots of coffee. I hung out at the McDonalds for a while and decided that I would spend the rest of the day and night in Fairbanks so that I could make sure to get some good sleep.
I eventually got a room at the Bridgewater Hotel in Fairbanks, did some laundry, and took it easy the rest of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow I head to Talkeetna to do a flight seeing tour over Denali National Park!
Stopped for a quick photo op at the Arctic Circle sign
Stopped on the side of the road to take pictures with Yun’s drone; just north of Coldfoot.
Alaska Pipeline running parallel to the Dalton Highway
Reached the top of Atigun Pass! 2 inches of snow fell here earlier in the morning
View from the top of Atigun Pass. The dirt road leading north to Deadhorse runs between these mountains.
Riding down Atigun Pass, heading north towards Deadhorse
Beautiful scenery in the tundra!
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