All the way to Prudhoe Bay and back!

I believe this is Wednesday, or Thursday, the last few days have just ran together. I am not going to try to fit everything in this blog entry, as I feel that I have lived a lifetime in just 3 days.

Over the last few days, I have seen both Heaven and Hell! My body, my motorcycle, my equipment is battered and beaten. My computer is broken, my gps is broken, my camera is broken, two sealed cans of Vienna Sausages, were broken and soaking in their own "mire" in the bottom of one of my side boxes!

I write this blog from a computer in an office of a motel in Fairbanks, the people were nice enough to let me use.

To back up a few days, Monday morning I left Fairbanks, AK to start up the "Haul Road" or actually the "Dalton Highway". This road is the only overland supply route for the North slope, Prudhoe bay oil complex, which provides %20 of our nations oil supply. It parallels the Alaskan Pipe line and and provides the only overland route to the farthest point north in America, to the Arctic Ocean!

20 miles outside of Fairbanks, the road begins, and continues almost 500 miles to Prudhoe Bay. It also transverses the most rugged and virgin wilderness of the United States. Once you have left Fairbanks, there are few services and no real towns, other than a few old mining towns left over from the Gold Rush days. I had to carry and extra gas tank along to get myself between fueling stations.

The best way to describe the road is to imagine the worst country road you have every driven on in your life, then multiply that by X2 and drive it for 900 miles. The interesting thing is that out of the middle of no where a perfectly paved section of road will appear, and will extend for many miles, then abruptly it reverts back to pothole filled dirt road. Then there are the trucks!, They blast down the highway at breakneck speed, and they hate motorcyclists, they give not quarter...Trucks are king! Carrying fuel and equipment like you would not believe bringing supplies to feed the oil fields of the north slope.

To digress for a moment, the morning I left Fairbanks, I stopped and ate breakfast at McDonalds, a few minutes after I had sat down, a group of motorcyclist pulled in, their bikes were dirty, they were dirty and they looked like they had been on the road for days. After they say down, I went over to their table and asked them if they had come from Prudhoe bay, they said no way, they had gone up the highway 50 miles and turned back.

In retrospect, I think that they were just "wimps", but at the time it gave me time to pause, not doubt, just pause.

Without a doubt these last 3 days have been the toughest days of my life, I have been pushed to the limit in every way. My poor motorcycle was asked to do things that no machine should ever be asked to do! It did not let me down, and nor did I her!

The scenery and environment was with out compare, aside from previous posts, nothing compares to what I have seen the last few days. I almost felt guilty to have witnessed such magnificence. The north side of the Brooks Mountain range leading onto the Arctic Tundra, brought tears to my eyes! Magnificence that few will see, the sacrifice to get there is too great.

On two occasions while camping I encountered "Grizzly" bears the size of small cars, so close, that I could smell their musky wild smell. Wolves bayed in the night and I could see the glint of their eyes beyond the light of my campfire. Moose, Caribou, Dall sheep where as plentiful as the stars in the sky.

My time is short on this Internet connection, and my thoughts are many, I will continue when I can.

Tim