Dalton Highway Adventure

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May 12 to 15

Dalton Highway from Fairbanks north to Prudhoe Bay and south as far as Chena River State Park

The Dalton Highway is 416 miles straight north of Fairbanks. Well not quite.
The highway meanders along the Prudhoe Bay Pipeline, past mountain peaks draped in snow and stunted trees and lots of stones from small to big. The road is winding, steep, and kept up by the state of Alaska. It was built in 1974 in just 154 days. Crews moved from south to north meeting and then working again in another section. At this time of year all is frozen and fine brown silt covers the roadside and all that passes. Our truck, at the end of a run, is totally encrusted in the dusty sand including the spout from where we get our drinking and cooking water.

At one stop “tors” sprouting up out the hillsides were explained on info plaques. These huge pieces of 110,000 year old magma rock have been pushed up by the frost. One such tor called Finger Mountain has been pointing towards Fairbanks since the ancients roamed this area.

The lakes are still frozen. Inside the truck we are freezing. Most of us are sitting in our sleeping bags and many of us have bought extra blankets.

Because the way is far and the driving is hard we have had to stop along the highway to eat and camp. The huge hauling trucks are hurtling past creating immense clouds of dust. The sweet and sour chicken on rice served at the side of the road has the added spice of road grit!
The sleeping was soft for those who chose to pitch their tent beneath the trees on a moss and lichen forest floor. The other pitched the tents at the side of the highway in the dry sand ?????? close to our truck. Because of the cold I was grateful for the king-size blanket I bought at Fred Meyers. Fairbanks at 80,000 inhabitants has a Wal-Mart and two Fred Meyers and a Safeway.

In the morning one of our numbers was so cold and felt so unwell that she and her husband opted to stay at Coldfoot, an old service centre that has revived since the completion of the highway in 1974.
Another feature sighted along the way is the Yukon Bridge, the only bridge to cross the Yukon River. Before the bridge the transports drove across the river ice or used barges in summer.
Across the road from the info stop is a ramshackle hotel housed in prefab trailers. A number of hunters with boats were parked in the vast space in front of the Hotel.
No houses or other form of habitation can be seen along the road. Little toilet huts with deep endless capacity for s--t and paper are available at hour intervals. Driving speed is limited to 50m/hr. The roughness of the road makes even that speed inaccessible for our truck on these dirt roads. On the highway the maximum speed is 80K because higher than that makes the whole vehicle vibrate too much.

And the pipeline runs on …north towards Prudhoe Bay.

One of the goals is to cross the Arctic Circle and have pictures taken at the site. A commemorative display has been arranged but unlike at Greenwich, England there is no line drawn in the sand.

The Arctic Circle lies at 66’33”N. Everyone poses before the sign and Rob takes a group shot

Cold foot was reached for a varied choice of truck driver lunches. Biscuits and gravy was one of the things not eaten. Neither the endless mound of fries!

Bill and Janet decided to stay here instead of going on. In the lunchroom sat a young Japanese kid who was on his way to Prudhoe Bay by Bike. He had already cycled from Anchorage in two weeks to Cold foot. Upon hearing the weather report … snow and below 0 temperatures he had decided not to continue. Sad really…he had come all the way from Japan to cycle from Prudhoe to Argentina…basically the same thing we are doing….hope he makes it. I have his email so success will not be a mystery.

Stopped at Wiseman, a community since 1908. Nine people still live there including a family with two small children who run a B&B. She has space for $90 a night and said she is very busy in summer….June, July, august! Many of the old log cabins have been picturesquely preserved.

And we follow the pipeline on to Antigun Pass.

The rough dirt road winds up and up past steep rocky mountains, some covered in snow others surrounded by mounds of glacial silt. Signs along the road distinguish access points to the pipeline and denote the names of intermittent rivers that are still at a trickle.
The massive curve at the cusp of the pass was partially snow covered and the truck brakes and geared down motor slowed us down. And as fate would have it as we negotiated the slow decent two massive transports came hurtling up. These vehicles slow down for nothing! Not even adventurers in an orange 4x4.

The higher the road the smaller the spiky spruce. All along the climb we are on the lookout or wildlife … the Bear our most illusive prey! We do spot cariboo along the flats and Dahl Sheep on the steep bits of shale.
Also the higher we go the colder it gets. The windows of the truck have totally frosted up and a few are vivid JackFrost Creations. People have put on extra layers. I bought a yellow sweat shirt at Coldfoot. Credit cards are being used to scrape away the frost so we can look out. Tooth paste stops the fogging up of windows but it is no match for plummeting temperatures.

The pictures of the Atigun Pass speak for themselves. It is vast, breathtaking and challenging.

Once thru the Pass the search is on for a camp site. And on both sides of the road all that is to be seen is SNOW covered tundra… and more SNOW COVERED TUNDRA!!

I FEEL A MUTINY COMING ON!

No trees! No campsites! And no water when we stop!
THE WATER TANKS ARE FROZEN!

Snow is gathered. We brought enough wood for a fire and the cooking starts. Tea and coffee we made from ’clean snow’. We eat curried chicken and potato soup. The potatoes froze unwashed, the onion froze unwashed and I had nothing to do with the chicken. The meal was quickly eaten. Dishes were not washed. Two couples erected their tents … our fearless leaders Will and Karen and an amateur photography couple, Rob and Lynn. The rest of us break out our sleeping bags and any blankets we can find to make ourselves as comfortable as possible inside the truck.

Early in the morning, when we get up the screws in the ceiling and any other metal inside the truck is decorated with frost.
It is &^%$#*& COLD. The truck has had to run all night so that the diesel line would not freeze up. We eat porridge and STRAWBERRIES for breakfast ???
We are off to Deadhorse as fast as possible. We eat breakfast in the workers canteen …. Chilli or navy bean soup plus many kinds of pastries, sandwiches, fruit and hot and cold drinks.
The temperature is -16C with a wind chill factor of -28C!!

For $37 we get a ride on a heated bus to view the 45mx15m Prudhoe Bay oil project. To begin with an information/propaganda film is viewed. Had to hold my hand over my mouth so as not to burst out at some of the claims made. In two

As the crude oil comes out of the ground from this ABSOLUTELY HUGE reservoir it is separated into three by a valve called a Christmas tree; oil, water, natural gas. The oil is sent directly thru to the pipeline, the beginning of which we could not see because of 9/11. Little square huts house these valves. Each oil concern has their huts strung out in a line. Drilling methods have changed. Technology is bringing up the crude more quickly from a greater number of pockets under this huge deposit. Enough oil for decades … according to the video.
The oil comes out of the ground at 2600psi and that force sends it down 800 miles of pipe to Valdez where tankers … now all to be double hulled because of the Exxon Valdez which spilled its guts in 1989. BP, Shell, Exxon, Halliburton, Schlumberger are companies profiting from this find.
Once in the heated bus we drove out of Deadhorse which seemed to be just a building…. no stores, no school, no church, no kids, no families, no private vehicles, no alcohol … just 6000 workers who are flown in to work 12 hour shifts for two weeks and then flown out for two weeks by Alaskan Air .. Good contact that! The video did mention ‘native contracts’ but the reference was so short it was nearly missed.

The bus driver took us around and explained the methods used to extract the oil. He drove us to the Arctic Ocean…WHICH WAS TOTALLY FROZEN … so we snow dived and glided as we posed for pictures. Also during this ride we saw two musk ox far in the distance. Their horns could be made out with binoculars.
One more feed in a second canteen and we were back on our running truck for the return trip.

The second drive thru the tundra was as spectacular as the first. This time many more caribou were spotted. Paul the forest ranger from Australia is doing a great job. The list of sightings has been augmented by two fox, a huge flock of ptarmigan, more Dahl Sheep up on the scraggy slopes and a large flock of some kind of tundra goose (not Canada Goose). The Canada Geese were seen flying south…that’s how much winter is still here. No open water… no food… no place to build a nest. The bus driver from Prudhoe Bay cannot see sighns of global warming …. Tell the glaciers in Prince William Sound!
The massive mountains look from afar like piles of sugar poured from huge sacks. The mountains are natural pyramids, heights with created edges and enormous deposits of broken bits of rock. It takes more than an hour to cross the tundra … at least one call of nature stop in the flat open tundra expanse…to get close to the first mountains of the Brook Range.
And as we proceed we are once again in the grandeur and splendour of the Atigun Pass. Once out of the pass we bump steadily over the rough road occasionally encountering transports but more often than having the road to ourselves.

AND THEN we spot our first bear in 14 days of searching the bush, scanning the hills and probing the woodlands. It was a split second sighting ... a sow and her cub … but it counts!
We drove until we were close to Wiseman again. But the distance was too great and we camped within less than 15 min of sighting the bear we made camp by a trickling river where bear tracks could be seen.
This river bed had so many beautiful rocks it made me sad that I took only one … a heart shaped igneous rock.

Put up the tent, have a dump, help Paul clean up the spilled curry, help wash yesterdays dishes, finish tent set up, eat macaroni and cheese, brush teeth, go for a walk, try to work on laptop in the truck … next to impossible with all the coming and going and talking! Pablo tells me I need to tune out.
And it’s into the sack…literally to sleep and get ready for the 240 run into Fairbanks for showers, laundry and Internet.

This was a ride not to be missed. Met a Japanese cyclist who did not ride his bike to Prudhoe Bay. Good thing too. He would definitely have been in serious difficulty had he proceeded. We did eventually see him along the Highway as we headed south.
We drove until we were close to Wiseman again. But the distance was too great and we camped at lovely spot.

Stop at Coldfoot to pickup Bill and Janice. After eating a truck-drivers breakfast we are once more on our way.

In Fairbanks….NO SHOWERS, NO LAUNDRY. Hit Fred Meyers … another one of those huge anything-you-want-and-don’t-need stores in the same vein as Wal-Mart, Safeway and Costco.

We stop at the North Pole RV camp. This counts as our stop in the town of North Pole … a place from where many of our group were hoping to send cards and letters so as to get a postage stamp with Santa’s hometown.

Having to be satisfied with a few photo shots of absolute kitsch, we drive on after a stop which gleaned no postcards or postage stamp cancellations.

Camp is stuck in an area next to Chena River. The river is never seen. A tall bayou of crushed rock obstructs the view. A quiet beach and children’s playground is visited just as the sun sets.

Some quiet time and feeling like the tail of the dog, I ready myself for the drive to Chicken, Alaska, permanent population … nine!









POST SCRIPT:

May 12, 2007

Getting used to the routine on the truck, interacting with 22 strangers and their quirky habits, being careful not impose all of my quirks on them too soon and surviving everyday is a work in progress!

Talking Cooking
Interneting Eating
Sleeping Toileting
Laundry Weather
Shopping Blogging
Photo shooting Watching
Interacting Organizing
Planning Relaxing

The list of things goes on and up to now has had difficulty realizing why my blogs are scattered and unfunny. Have yet to find my comfort level. Not being in control and watching things being done totally counter to my method and having to be quiet (well almost) about it is the biggest task of the day!

The bulb light flashed this morning as I was joking about the list of opportunities which are presenting themselves for our three hour stay in Fairbanks. There’s the first clue…. Time limits …It’s as it must be with 23 people. The choices for the three hours are museum, laundry, shop, internet access and shower. Unless all five are in close proximity to each other a choice will have to be made. Do I choose the museum over the laundry? I THINK NOT!!!

Hopefully the laundry will be set up like the one in Kodiak where internet, laundry and showers were all found in one place.

Now that I realize the reason for my scattered ness I will strive to fit myself into the rhythm of the leader. By making the list above I will at least stick to specific topics.

Weather: lousy….cold….wet….foggy…finger numbing…nose dripping…. hat hair heading… tent condensing… puddle forming…ass nipping… undies undrying…bone chilling!

Some in the group bring their sleeping bag into the truck, especially now that we are heading for the Artic Ocean.
Can I do that? …of course not …it would dirty the bag and then how do I sleep in it comfortably.

Comfortable may be difficult today….had to wrap the tent up wet…slept in a puddle last night because the rain had collected under my tent.
This was in the ‘wild’ campsite at the side of the highway with transport rigs thundering by and creating clouds of ochre dust. Most in the group pitched their tent on the same ochre sand. I put up my tent further in the bush. And when it rained the rain dripped off the tent and ran under the tent on to the tarp. Have to make sure the tarp is totally under the tent so water can run off the fly and soak into the ground.





THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL STORY

Monday May 14

Dalton Highway
The Dalton Highway is 416 miles straight north of Fairbanks. Well not quite.
The highway meanders along the Prudhoe Bay Pipeline, past mountain peaks draped in snow and stunted trees and lots of stones from small to big. The road is winding, steep, and kept up by the state of Alaska. It was built in 1974 in just 154 days. Crews moved from south to north meeting and then working again in another section. At this time of year all is frozen and fine brown silt covers the roadside and all that passes. Our truck, at the end of a run, is totally encrusted in the dusty sand including the spout from where we get our drinking and cooking water.

At one stop “tors” sprouting up out the hillsides were explained on info plaques. These huge pieces of 110,000 year old magma rock have been pushed up by the frost. One such tor called Finger Mountain has been pointing towards Fairbanks since the ancients roamed this area.

The lakes are still frozen. Inside the truck we are freezing. Most of us are sitting in our sleeping bags and many of us have bought extra blankets.

Because the way is far and the driving is hard we have had to stop along the highway to eat and camp. The huge hauling trucks are hurtling past creating immense clouds of dust. The sweet and sour chicken on rice served at the side of the road has the added spice of road grit!
The sleeping was soft for those who chose to pitch their tent beneath the trees on a moss and lichen forest floor. The other pitched the tents at the side of the highway in the dry sand ?????? close to our truck. Because of the cold I was grateful for the king-size blanket I bought at Fred Meyers. Fairbanks at 80,000 inhabitants has a Wal-Mart and two Fred Meyers and a Safeway.

In the morning one of our number was so cold and felt so unwell that she and her husband opted to stay at Coldfoot an old service centre that has revived since the completion of the highway in 1974.
Another feature sighted along the way is the Yukon Bridge, the only bridge to cross the Yukon River. Before the bridge the transports drove across the river ice or used barges in summer.
Across the road from the info stop is a ramshackle hotel housed in prefab trailers. A number of hunters with boats were parked in the vast space in front of the Hotel.
No houses or other form of habitation can be seen along the road. Little toilet huts with deep endless capacity for s--t and paper are available at hour intervals. Driving speed is limited to 50m/hr. The roughness of the road makes even that speed inaccessible for our truck on these dirt roads. On the highway the maximum speed is 80K because higher than that makes the whole vehicle vibrate to much.

And the pipeline runs on …north towards Prudhoe Bay.

One of the goals is to cross the Arctic Circle and have pictures taken at the site. A commemorative display has been arranged but unlike at Greenwich, England there is no line drawn in the sand.

The Arctic Circle lies at 66’33”N. Everyone poses before the sign and Rob takes a group shot

Cold foot was reached for a varied choice of truck driver lunches. Biscuits and gravy was one of the things not eaten. Neither the endless mound of fries!

Bill and Janet decided to stay here instead of going on. In the lunchroom sat a young Japanese kid who was on his way to Prudhoe Bay by Bike. He had already cycled from Anchorage in two weeks to Cold foot. Upon hearing the weather report … snow and below 0 temperatures he had decided not to continue. Sad really…he had come all the way from Japan to cycle from Prudhoe to Argentina…basically the same thing we are doing….hope he makes it. I have his email so success will not be a mystery.

Stopped at Wiseman, a community since 1908. Nine people still live there including a family with two small children who run a B&B. She has space for $90 a night and said she is very busy in summer….June, July, august! Lots of old log cabins here some picturesquely preserved.

And we follow the pipeline on to Antigun Pass.

The rough dirt road winds up and up past steep rocky mountains, some covered in snow others surrounded by mounds of glacial silt. Signs along the road distinguish access points to the pipeline and denote the names of intermittent rivers that are still at a trickle.
The massive curve at the cusp of the pass was partially snow covered and the truck brakes and geared down motor slowed us down. And as fate would have it as we negotiated the slow decent two massive transports came hurtling up. These vehicles slow down for nothing! Not even adventurers in an orange 4x4.

The higher the road the smaller the spiky spruce. All along the climb we are on the lookout or wildlife … the Bear our most illusive prey! We do spot cariboo along the flats and Dahl Sheep on the steep bits of shale.
Also the higher we go the colder it gets. The windows of the truck have totally frosted up and a few are vivid JackFrost Creations. People have put on extra layers. I bought a yellow sweat shirt at Coldfoot. Credit cards are being used to scrape away the frost so we can look out. Tooth paste stops the fogging up of windows but it is no match for plummeting temperatures.

The pictures of the Atigun Pass speak for themselves. It is vast, breathtaking and challenging.

Once thru the Pass the search is on for a camp site. And on both sides of the road all that is to be seen is SNOW covered tundra… and more SNOW COVERED TUNDRA!!

I FEEL A MUTINY COMING ON!

No trees! No campsites! And no water when we stop!
THE WATER TANKS AE FROZEN!

Snow is gathered. We brought enough wood for a fire and the cooking start. Tea and coffee we made from ’clean snow’. We eat curried chicken and potato soup. The potatoes froze unwashed, The onion froze unwashed and I had nothing to do with the chicken. The meal was quickly eaten. Dishes were not washed. Two couples erected their tents … our fearless leaders Will and Karen and an amateur photography couple, Rob and Lynn. The rest of us break out our sleeping bags and any blankets we can find to make ourselves as comfortable as possible.
When we get up the screws in the ceiling and any other metal inside the truck is decorated with frost.
It is &^%$#*&COLD. The truck has had to run all night so that the diesel line does not freeze up. We eat porridge and STRAWBERRIES for breakfast yesterday??? Today we are off to Dead horse as fast as possible. We eat breakfast in the workers canteen …. Chilli or navy bean soup plus many kinds of pastries, sandwiches, fruit and hot and cold drinks.
The temperature is -16C with a wind chill factor of -28C!!

For $37 we get a ride on a heated bus to view the 45mx15m Prudhoe Bay oil project. To begin with an information/propaganda film is viewed. Had to hold my hand over my mouth so as not to burst out at some of the claims made. In two hours of tour the wish to build the gas pipeline thru Canada was heard.

As the crude oil comes out of the ground from this ABSOLUTELY HUGE reservoir it is separated into three by a valve called a Christmas tree; oil, water, natural gas. The oil is sent directly thru to the pipeline, the beginning of which we could not see because of 9/11. Little square huts house these valves. Each oil concern has their huts strung out in a line. Drilling methods have changed. Technology is bringing up the crude more quickly from a greater number of pockets under this huge deposit. Enough oil for decades … according to the video.
The oil comes out of the ground at 2600psi and that force sends it down 800 miles of pipe to Valdez where tankers … now all to be double hulled because of the Exxon Valdez which spilled its guts in 1989. BP, Shell, Exxon, Halliburton, Schlumberger are companies profiting from this find.
Once in the heated bus we drove out of Deadhorse which seemed to be just a building…. no stores, no school, no church, no kids, no families, no private vehicles, no alcohol … just 6000 workers who are flown in to work 12 hour shifts for two weeks and then flown out for two weeks by Alaskan Air .. Good contact that! The video did mention ‘native contracts’ but the reference was so short it was nearly missed.

The bus driver took us around and explained the methods used to extract the oil. He drove us to the Arctic Ocean…WHICH WAS TOTALLY FROZEN … so we snow dived and glided as we posed for pictures. Also during this ride we saw two musk ox far in the distance. Their horns could be made out with binoculars.
One more feed in a second canteen and we were back on our running truck for the return trip.

The second drive thru the tundra was as spectacular as the first. This time many more caribou were spotted. Paul the forest ranger from Australia is doing a great job. The list of sightings has been augmented by two fox, a huge flock of ptarmigan, more Dahl Sheep up on the scraggy slopes and a large flock of some kind of tundra goose (not Canada Goose). The Canada Geese were seen flying south…that’s how much winter is still here. No open water… no food… no place to build a nest. The bus driver from Prudhoe Bay cannot see sighns of global warming …. Tell the glaciers in Prince William Sound!
The massive mountains look from afar like piles of sugar poured from huge sacks. The mountains are natural pyramids, heights with created edges and enormous deposits of broken bits of rock. It takes more than an hour to cross the tundra … at least one call of nature stop in the flat open tundra expanse…to get close to the first mountains of the Brook Range.
And as we proceed we are once again in the grandeur and splendour of the Atigun Pass. Once out of the pass we bump steadily over the rough road occasionally encountering transports but most of the time have the road to ourselves.

AND THEN we spot our first bear in 14 days of searching the bush, scanning the hills and probing the woodlands. It was a split second sighting ... a sow and her cub … but it counts!

And within less than 15 min of sighting the bear we made camp by a trickling river where bear tracks could be seen.
This river bed had so many beautiful rocks it made me sad that I took only one … a heart shaped igneous rock.

Put up the tent, have a dump,help Paul clean up the spilled currie, help wash yesterdays dishes, finish tent set up, eat macaroni and cheese, brush teeth, go for a walk, try to work on laptop in truck (next to impossible with all the coming and going and talking; Pablo tells me I need to tune out) and its into the sack…literally getting ready for the 240mile run into Fairbanks for showers, laundry and Internet.

No shower...no laundry...no internet .... did hit Fred Meyers again ...only because WalMart had no food!!

Heard that the Top of the World Highway was open. We ae on our way to Dawson City. Somewhere there must be a shower. We will be stopping in Chicken, population NINE with a saloon and a small store. A real big treat to look forward to.

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Photos

Canteen at Prudhoe Bay
The men worked, ate, smoked then flew out for a break and returned for a repeat of the same. No Alcohol here with 6,000 workers in close quarteers.