Mileage= @500 miles felt like 2000.
I woke up in June's bunkhouse having slept for 9+ hours. I'm normally good to go on 6 hours so I must have been knocked out. I ate a powerbar and then made myself some coffee. I then packed the bike and headed out towards Deadhorse. I still don't feel anybetter, but for once in my life I can't be a big baby and just go to bed.
When I get out to the bike I realize my GPS is jacked up. The top screen layer has bubbled and it was making it go into fits. i've been slowing peeling it off and it seems to actually work now.
Wiseman is a beautiful surreal place. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, I knew I had a long day ahead of me and time was of the essence. I did stop while pulling out of town to get a shot of the river. This is mining country so everywhere has basically been dredged.
So I headed up the road. Luckily i only had to wait 5 minutes for a Pilot car to come through. Wiseman is smack dab in the middle of a 22 mile construction zone. Depending on the time of day depends on if it can be passable or fine. Luckily this morning most of it is packed down and the mud is down to a minimum. I head north on the Dalton and get used to the vibrations of the road again. I happen upon a bicyclist on the road and slow down to see if he was alright. Now these guys are nuts. He waved that he was fine but I noticed a clanking coming from my bike. I slowed down and noticed my light bar was smacking off my fairing. Really, this thing didn't even make it half way up he Dalton. Mental note to contact Twisted Throttle to see if they will replace it.
So I took out the good old zip ties and zip tied it to the fairing. And headed out.
onward I started heading towards the Brooks range. If people get turned around it's usually here because of the weather going up into the mountain. This range is more beautiful then you could imagine.
As you continue to drive into the Brooks range it is time for the Forest to End
and the Tundra to begin
The weather was iffy at the moment but not that much rain. Some sections of the road were slick but for the most part once entering into the Brooks range there was more gravel mixed in. As I keep heading north it was time to get to the dreaded Atigun Pass. (just watch ice road truckers for the full hype). It's a big mountain pass with some guardrails. The inclines/declines are pretty big so I can see where a truck would have issue with it.
After Atigun pass you find yourself in the valley of the Brooks Range. It's beautiful, but of course there had to be construction. This stuff was pure mud. The bike was all over the place and I was just waiting for the front to go on me and I would go boom. Somehow, I was able to stay on the wheels and kept going. Not far out of the construction I stopped and took these pictures.
As you go further away from the Brooks range you go out into the full blown tundra. It's weird. It's all green but you know it's surface plants and they are on top of permafrost.
It was around here that someone thought a good road surface would be baseball sized rocks.
Unfortunately the old saying go faster it will smooth out only went so far on this section. However, it was better then mud so I wasn't complaining. Eventually the road turned to gravel with HUGE troughs and gravel peaks between them. A few times my front caught the peaks and the bike went into fits. Then came the Caribou. Now, these have to be some of the dumbest animals I have ever seen. I was careful with them, but man, some would hear me coming get scared, run 3 steps away from the road, turn around and run across the road and keep running. Speaking of animals the arctic squirrels are hilarious. They love to dart out on you. However it became a game. They make this squaking noise sometimes, if it made the noise as it was running for it's life that was a +1. If it didn't then it was a -1. I actually lost count when I hit some bad road.
So I kept heading north. About 50 miles south of Deadhorse there was this cloud looming. It looked nasty. I was tired, not feeling well and to be honest if I had the gas to turn around I would have. However, I had no choice. I would never make it back to Coldfoot even with the extra gas I was carrying. I knew there was a turn around point and I was well past it.
The temperature plummeted into the 30's and then the wind picked up. I'd say it was blowing about 20 mph. As I approached Deadhorse they started with the road again. The graders were out and the trucks were dumping tons and tons of gravel/dirt onto the road. Damn you Mr. Dalton you are testing me at this point. Again the bike goes into fits in this deep loose stuff but I somehow make it through it. I pull into town and look for the one gas pump that is open to the public. Now when I say town that is a big over statement. This is the most industrial place I have ever seen. Everything is metal and square and it's only purpose in life is to get the oil out of the ground and into the pipeline.
I find the gas, then hide out in the pay area of the pump. I'm a bit concerned as they took a $400 hold on the credit card when getting gas, and as of writing this the hold is still there. From there I headed to the NAPA/General store.
So basically think of being sick and going outside on a winter day when the wind is blowing. This is how my day is going so far. It's in the 30's in Deadhorse windy and I'm miserable. But, I made it :) I tried to find out if I could trade my bike for a truck, find a trucker that would haul me back to Fairbanks. I could find no takers. Most of the people up there were in awe of seeing a bike make that trip.
Funny anecdote: The lady working the store asked me what bike I rode in on. I told her a Suzuki Vstrom. Her response was, "Seems like only the Suzuki's actually make it here" hehehehe
So I leave the store and head to the Arctic Caribou Inn where my tour will be leaving in a few hours. I wanted to sit down, get warm, get something to eat and make some phone calls. I arrived at the luxurious ACI. Actually it wasn't that bad.
I went inside and bought a PB&J, a pepsi and a cookie. Even the chocolate chip cookie wasn't making me feel any better. I talked to my sister and contemplated not doing the tour and seeing if I could stay there that night. They are super expensive and I'd still have to pay for the room I had in Wiseman. That would turn into a 300 night for lodging. My sister kind of talked me into bucking up and taking the tour. Thankfully she did, as miserable as I felt she was right. I would have been pissed at myself if I had given up.
So off on the tour. Of course it starts late because some people on the tour got a flat outside of Deadhorse.
Here are the pictures from the tour.
Then we headed for East Dock and the Ocean. Well, it's Prudhoe Bay which is part of Barrows somethin which is part of something else which is the Arctic Ocean. I wish someone told me that before I came all this way. I could have say Goose Bay was the Arctic Ocean.
I got out of the tour bus for a whole 3 minutes. I took the pictures and then went back tot he bus. the wind was blowing and there was nothing to do. I originally was going to jump in, but no way I was doing that now.
On the way back to the Inn, the driver and all the other tour people got very excited about this duck. It's some special duck that normally flies away. I figured why the hell not take a picture. The Pretty one is the male.
So I'm now back at the ACI and it's time to head south It's 8 p.m. and I'm starting out for a 5-6 hour drive an hour late. I forgot to mention my eye. While in Deadhorse I noticed my right eye had swollen up something fierce. I sure as hell wasn't staying in Deadhorse. So I packed up and hit the road.
Of course the road still as horrible leaving Deadhorse the wind was still blowing and I just wanted out of town. I was hoping the weather got better more inland and I would eventually get to the line of the cloud and it would be nice again.
For some reason when a truck was coming I went too far into the shoulder. This was the worst fit the bike had been in on the trip. It was wallowing and every time the rear would kick out I was whackin the trottle trying to bring it under control and get it back on some harder stuff. At one point I tucked my knees and my elbows in accepting the fact I was was about to crash. I decided to not give up, and kept working at it. I got it back and now the adrenaline rush had me wide awake and not thinking about my eye, my nose or my new cough.
I ran out of the miserableness and started into the tundra and backt o the Brooks Range. The construction was no longer going on, but the road was still very soft and muddy. As I got into the brooks range I stopped to chill for a minute and took these (which I think are some of the best so far) pictures.
Mind you these were taken @midnight.
From there I headed up Atigun pass which at this point was muck because it had rained there. As I slid sideways down the back side of the pass at one point I just said outloud. "Ok, Mr. Dalton, I have a black eye, feel like sh*t and you threw everything at me. I admit it, you win, you kicked my ass."
Amazingly, the clouds went away and the rest of the trip to Wiseman was uneventful. Except for missing what could have been the best picture to date. I round a turn and come to list little lake with a mountain in the background. Standing in front of the lake is this Cow Moose with the mountain and sky reflecting off the water. I was going too turn around but it was past 1 a.m. I had been on the road since 7:30 and I needed to crash.
Pulled into the Boreal Lodge and hit the hay.
I woke up in June's bunkhouse having slept for 9+ hours. I'm normally good to go on 6 hours so I must have been knocked out. I ate a powerbar and then made myself some coffee. I then packed the bike and headed out towards Deadhorse. I still don't feel anybetter, but for once in my life I can't be a big baby and just go to bed.
When I get out to the bike I realize my GPS is jacked up. The top screen layer has bubbled and it was making it go into fits. i've been slowing peeling it off and it seems to actually work now.
Wiseman is a beautiful surreal place. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, I knew I had a long day ahead of me and time was of the essence. I did stop while pulling out of town to get a shot of the river. This is mining country so everywhere has basically been dredged.
So I headed up the road. Luckily i only had to wait 5 minutes for a Pilot car to come through. Wiseman is smack dab in the middle of a 22 mile construction zone. Depending on the time of day depends on if it can be passable or fine. Luckily this morning most of it is packed down and the mud is down to a minimum. I head north on the Dalton and get used to the vibrations of the road again. I happen upon a bicyclist on the road and slow down to see if he was alright. Now these guys are nuts. He waved that he was fine but I noticed a clanking coming from my bike. I slowed down and noticed my light bar was smacking off my fairing. Really, this thing didn't even make it half way up he Dalton. Mental note to contact Twisted Throttle to see if they will replace it.
So I took out the good old zip ties and zip tied it to the fairing. And headed out.
onward I started heading towards the Brooks range. If people get turned around it's usually here because of the weather going up into the mountain. This range is more beautiful then you could imagine.
As you continue to drive into the Brooks range it is time for the Forest to End
and the Tundra to begin
The weather was iffy at the moment but not that much rain. Some sections of the road were slick but for the most part once entering into the Brooks range there was more gravel mixed in. As I keep heading north it was time to get to the dreaded Atigun Pass. (just watch ice road truckers for the full hype). It's a big mountain pass with some guardrails. The inclines/declines are pretty big so I can see where a truck would have issue with it.
After Atigun pass you find yourself in the valley of the Brooks Range. It's beautiful, but of course there had to be construction. This stuff was pure mud. The bike was all over the place and I was just waiting for the front to go on me and I would go boom. Somehow, I was able to stay on the wheels and kept going. Not far out of the construction I stopped and took these pictures.
As you go further away from the Brooks range you go out into the full blown tundra. It's weird. It's all green but you know it's surface plants and they are on top of permafrost.
It was around here that someone thought a good road surface would be baseball sized rocks.
Unfortunately the old saying go faster it will smooth out only went so far on this section. However, it was better then mud so I wasn't complaining. Eventually the road turned to gravel with HUGE troughs and gravel peaks between them. A few times my front caught the peaks and the bike went into fits. Then came the Caribou. Now, these have to be some of the dumbest animals I have ever seen. I was careful with them, but man, some would hear me coming get scared, run 3 steps away from the road, turn around and run across the road and keep running. Speaking of animals the arctic squirrels are hilarious. They love to dart out on you. However it became a game. They make this squaking noise sometimes, if it made the noise as it was running for it's life that was a +1. If it didn't then it was a -1. I actually lost count when I hit some bad road.
So I kept heading north. About 50 miles south of Deadhorse there was this cloud looming. It looked nasty. I was tired, not feeling well and to be honest if I had the gas to turn around I would have. However, I had no choice. I would never make it back to Coldfoot even with the extra gas I was carrying. I knew there was a turn around point and I was well past it.
The temperature plummeted into the 30's and then the wind picked up. I'd say it was blowing about 20 mph. As I approached Deadhorse they started with the road again. The graders were out and the trucks were dumping tons and tons of gravel/dirt onto the road. Damn you Mr. Dalton you are testing me at this point. Again the bike goes into fits in this deep loose stuff but I somehow make it through it. I pull into town and look for the one gas pump that is open to the public. Now when I say town that is a big over statement. This is the most industrial place I have ever seen. Everything is metal and square and it's only purpose in life is to get the oil out of the ground and into the pipeline.
I find the gas, then hide out in the pay area of the pump. I'm a bit concerned as they took a $400 hold on the credit card when getting gas, and as of writing this the hold is still there. From there I headed to the NAPA/General store.
So basically think of being sick and going outside on a winter day when the wind is blowing. This is how my day is going so far. It's in the 30's in Deadhorse windy and I'm miserable. But, I made it :) I tried to find out if I could trade my bike for a truck, find a trucker that would haul me back to Fairbanks. I could find no takers. Most of the people up there were in awe of seeing a bike make that trip.
Funny anecdote: The lady working the store asked me what bike I rode in on. I told her a Suzuki Vstrom. Her response was, "Seems like only the Suzuki's actually make it here" hehehehe
So I leave the store and head to the Arctic Caribou Inn where my tour will be leaving in a few hours. I wanted to sit down, get warm, get something to eat and make some phone calls. I arrived at the luxurious ACI. Actually it wasn't that bad.
I went inside and bought a PB&J, a pepsi and a cookie. Even the chocolate chip cookie wasn't making me feel any better. I talked to my sister and contemplated not doing the tour and seeing if I could stay there that night. They are super expensive and I'd still have to pay for the room I had in Wiseman. That would turn into a 300 night for lodging. My sister kind of talked me into bucking up and taking the tour. Thankfully she did, as miserable as I felt she was right. I would have been pissed at myself if I had given up.
So off on the tour. Of course it starts late because some people on the tour got a flat outside of Deadhorse.
Here are the pictures from the tour.
Then we headed for East Dock and the Ocean. Well, it's Prudhoe Bay which is part of Barrows somethin which is part of something else which is the Arctic Ocean. I wish someone told me that before I came all this way. I could have say Goose Bay was the Arctic Ocean.
I got out of the tour bus for a whole 3 minutes. I took the pictures and then went back tot he bus. the wind was blowing and there was nothing to do. I originally was going to jump in, but no way I was doing that now.
On the way back to the Inn, the driver and all the other tour people got very excited about this duck. It's some special duck that normally flies away. I figured why the hell not take a picture. The Pretty one is the male.
So I'm now back at the ACI and it's time to head south It's 8 p.m. and I'm starting out for a 5-6 hour drive an hour late. I forgot to mention my eye. While in Deadhorse I noticed my right eye had swollen up something fierce. I sure as hell wasn't staying in Deadhorse. So I packed up and hit the road.
Of course the road still as horrible leaving Deadhorse the wind was still blowing and I just wanted out of town. I was hoping the weather got better more inland and I would eventually get to the line of the cloud and it would be nice again.
For some reason when a truck was coming I went too far into the shoulder. This was the worst fit the bike had been in on the trip. It was wallowing and every time the rear would kick out I was whackin the trottle trying to bring it under control and get it back on some harder stuff. At one point I tucked my knees and my elbows in accepting the fact I was was about to crash. I decided to not give up, and kept working at it. I got it back and now the adrenaline rush had me wide awake and not thinking about my eye, my nose or my new cough.
I ran out of the miserableness and started into the tundra and backt o the Brooks Range. The construction was no longer going on, but the road was still very soft and muddy. As I got into the brooks range I stopped to chill for a minute and took these (which I think are some of the best so far) pictures.
Mind you these were taken @midnight.
From there I headed up Atigun pass which at this point was muck because it had rained there. As I slid sideways down the back side of the pass at one point I just said outloud. "Ok, Mr. Dalton, I have a black eye, feel like sh*t and you threw everything at me. I admit it, you win, you kicked my ass."
Amazingly, the clouds went away and the rest of the trip to Wiseman was uneventful. Except for missing what could have been the best picture to date. I round a turn and come to list little lake with a mountain in the background. Standing in front of the lake is this Cow Moose with the mountain and sky reflecting off the water. I was going too turn around but it was past 1 a.m. I had been on the road since 7:30 and I needed to crash.
Pulled into the Boreal Lodge and hit the hay.
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