We left Fairbanks Saturday morning for Wiseman – more or less the half way point of the 498 mile ride to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay. The forecast for the next several days is a bit sketchy but Saturday morning was partly sunny with scattered, non-threatening clouds. The strategy is to be able to do the stretch from Wiseman to Deadhorse on dry roads. Lots of bad things can happen to the road when it rains. The Calcium Chloride they use as a hardener turns into what Joe describes as unicorn snot – something you don’t want to have to ride a motorcycle on. The forecast for Sunday/Monday is for rain so we kept an option open to lay low in Wiseman for a day or two if it looked to be really bad.
The ride was beautiful all the way to the Yukon River Camp with a winding road through dense forest up and down the mountain passes. One stop for photos a the famous Dalton Highway signs and then it’s mostly all dirt with only a few patches of tarmac all the way to Coldfoot. No huge elevation gains in this stretch – maybe just 500-600 feet up and down rolling terrain through dense forests. Yukon River Camp has the first fuel opportunity so we stopped to gas up and grab some lunch. The menu was Vietnamese so we had a couple of Bahn Mi sandwiches – super delicious! Was a great spot for a break in the middle of the day.
The rest of the ride into Wiseman is pretty much all dirt. This is where I dropped my bike for the first time on the trip. I was holding the handlebar leaning the bike towards me while bending over to check the oil sight glass when the kickstand moved forward and it toppled over. I’m glad Joe was there to help pick it back up. Fully loaded the bike is much heavier than the stock 350 lbs. We were able to make pretty good time – averaging around the speed limit of 50 or sometime maybe a bit over – all the way to Coldfoot. That is the last gas stop before Deadhorse so I filled it all the way to the brim. My gas mileage has been a bit off lately so I was a bit nervous knowing I have to make 250 miles on the one tank. Most of the time I’ve been averaging 40mpg + or – 3-8mpg so with a 6.6 gallon tank the math doesn’t inspire confidence. I have a rotopax one gallon fuel cell that I usually carry – but left it off for this trip because I couldn’t get the panniers to fit right with it bolted on the rack. Now I wish I had it.
From Coldfoot we rode the short 12 miles to our sleep for the night – the Boreal Lodge. It really was a great set-up with 4 cabins sharing a common kitchen and living area. Since we were the only guests in the cabin area we had the common area to ourselves. Noodles for dinner, then early to bed as we had decided to get up at 6 with a 7am planned departure. The forecast is for rain but we decide to go for it. The road will be closed a few miles up the road on Monday from 6am – 6pm so we would have to wait 2 days if we didn’t leave Sunday morning. It will be closed every third day for the rest of the month. We booked a bus ride to Prudhoe Bay for Monday so we can get to see and swim in the Arctic Ocean. They need a 24 hour minimum reservation lead time to compete the required security pre-check. The route goes right through the Prudhoe Bay oil fields which are private property and heavily protected.
We woke up and were packed up right on schedule as I fired up my bike at 7am sharp. We had picked this time to leave as the rains were supposed to start in the Wiseman area at 10am. We thought we could as least stay dry on the south side of Atigun Pass. It ended up starting to rain about 8am and never really stopped all day. It just went from spitting to pissing. The road turned out to be not too bad in spots and a big handful in spots. The worst was the freshly graded sections that were soft and slippery – pretty much like unicorn snot. The back end would dance all over the place with the occasional front end wobbly too – no fun. It also didn’t help that visibility through a wet muddy shield was a problem during entire the ride. Trucks would come by in the opposite lane and just blast mud, rocks and water from head to toe. The only stops were waiting for a pilot car in the construction zones and once or twice to pull out a rag to clean the mask. Stopping attracted thousands of swarming mosquitoes – most brutal mozzies attack since Siberia – probably equal in relentlessness.
We finally made it into Deadhorse with the last 20-30 miles mind-numbing washboard with mixed in potholes. The trucks seemed to be going faster and splashing even more water in the that final stretch. I couldn’t wait for it to be over at that point. I was really cold even through it was only about 50 degrees and wet. I was just pretty much mentally done – having given full concentration for six hours straight in those extreme conditions.
The town (more like industrial city) of Deadhorse is a bit confusing once you ride into town. We just kind of drove around until we were in front of the Prudhoe Bay Hotel so went in to ask about sleeping arrangements. They have double twins for $95 per person – but that also includes three squares a day + unlimited snacks and to go sacks. You can pretty much grab anything all day long. So that makes the rate a bit more reasonable. Tonights featured entrees are prime rib and battered shrimp. We went ahead and booked it.
Monday, to be rainy all day, is a road closure day so we are staying two nights at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel. We have booked the 3:30pm bus ride to Prudhoe Bay – the only way you can get out there. The roads are private and owned by the oil companies. Planning to jump in the Arctic Ocean when I get there… we’ll see.
Bike covered in mud and calcium chloride…
From the rear…
At the Arctic Circle…
