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Published: June 14th 2016
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Today, we drove the northern half of the Dalton Highway. After a quick breakfast of sourdough pancakes and scrambled eggs, again courtesy of the fabulous Uta, we got on the road. One of the workers at Coldfoot said it was a 7 hour drive and we needed to be to Deadhorse by 3:30.
As it turned out, the weather was fabulous, the road was probably as good as it ever gets, and we made it in about six. It helped that we were in Wiseman, not Coldfoot. It also probably helped that we have Emmett (the Jeep). "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." We were very fortunate on the way up to see a moose unbothered by our attention. We took the coolest moose picture we've taken yet. We saw lots of different birds and even caribou for the first time this trip (or, I think, the last time we were here.) We drove through Atigun Pass again, where it was warmer. It is a beautiful area.
North of Atigun, the road definitely got worse. We met some construction and one hundred miles of gravel with plenty of potholes. We didn't blow a tire or have any
Aurora Cabin
When in the area, Arctic Getaway is a great place to stay. major damage, although the brakes do pull a little bit to the left and it's difficult to get in or out of the Jeep without getting at least some dirt. It really was not nearly as bad as we were expecting, nor as bad as the people we're calling "St. Louis". I'll get to them later.
Upon our arrival in Deadhorse, we checked into camp. It's a very interesting place. We had rooms across from each other. There are no keys because no one locks their doors. The bathrooms were down the hall to the left. I think the boys got a kick out of it. Jeff and I, maybe not so much.
At 3:30, we had our IDs inspected and hopped on a shuttle to Prudhoe Bay and the oil fields. We were joined by two guys from Europe, a family of four from St. Louis (heretofore called St. Louis) and another group. We heard from St. Louis about how bad the highway was. We also heard all about their travels to different national parks. They belong to a group that aims to visit all the National Park Service sites. One of their visits was a touch
and go, which seems a little odd. Jeff and I go back and forth on whether flyovers are acceptable, but for sedentary people like us, hiking in the middle of nowhere like Cape Krusenstern isn't practical nor advisable. Anyway . . .
Our guide kept up a running commentary on what we were seeeing--the hotels, the well heads, pipes, flares, the big man camps with their movie theaters. We saw a 737 come in. Finally, we arrived at the Arctic Ocean. It was still mostly iced over, but Jeff and I were able to find enough open water to wade in. The boys didn't intend to, but got wet anyway when they were jumping from ice sheet to ice sheet. The water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be.
The drive back seemed to take less time. We then had dinner at the camp and tried to sleep. Jeff fell asleep very quickly, so Cole had to come across to Liam's and my room to tell me. Liam's and my room was so hot, we ended up sleeping with the window open.
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