Well, it's been quite a few good days. Sorry for the delay, but we've been out of contact for a while....
We started on the 10th. We left out of Fairbanks, heading toward Coldfoot, about 250 miles north of Fairbanks. The Dalton Hwy ( the road to Prudhoe) started about 60 miles north of Fairbanks.
From here to Coldfoot, we saw some pretty amazing views. We followed the pipeline the whole way.
On our way, we passed the Artic Circle.
66.33 degrees north latitiude. Waaaay up there. But it was warm...about 60 degrees or so.
Our first and only fuel stop that day was in Coldfoot. Good thing too, because Brian was on reserve, and Doug wasn't far behind. The Kawasakis that Brian and Doug were on have about a 270 mile range. The beemers have about 300. Coldfoot was basically a crappy motel made out of a double-wide, and a couple gas pumps. The was also a buffet style restaurant that wasn't so bad. This looked like a scene out of Mad Max; people were carrying spare gas cans, tires, and we were all filthy from the dust on the road... as you can see, we also met a few other bikers, and all were motorcycle cops with LAPD.
About 10 miles north of Coldfoot, was our stop for the day, Wiseman. This is where we celebrated Mark's 50th b-day. Notice the bottle of bourbon next to Brian. This had nothing to do with the following picture:
Well maybe... Special note: thanks mom for the wonderful cards!The following morning, refreshed from our birthday celebration we were back on our way to Prudhoe bay. On our way we encountered some interesting sights. Frequent stops were made for photographs.
There is just no nice way to describe Prudhoe bay without saying how utterly crappy it is there. Almost every aspect of that place had a negative connotation from the wind (with dirt and grit in it) to the temperature, to the hotel accommodations. The only good thing about the place was the people. Most people there work two weeks on and two weeks off and they seem to like the pay. About 6,000 people are there at any one time so roughly 12,000 people work in Prudhoe Bay.
You can't get to the Arctic ocean without taking the tour as there are "secure" oil wells and other operations between the public road and the ocean. If you want to go there, you have to take the tour. The last stop on the tour is the Arctic Ocean. For those brave (or dumb) souls that want to take a dip in the ocean, they hand out towels on the bus. In our group, Dan and Mark displayed their superior intelligence by staying warm and dry while Brian, Doug and Paul became wet and cold. It was impossible to get a photo of all three in the water at the same time- jumping in was fairly quick but not compared to how quickly they got out. The only thing holding them back was the lack of motorskills from being in the water for 5 seconds.
If we weren't convinced that staying dry was a good choice, listening to them complain for the next 15 minutes about how cold, hot, numb, etc. they were was pretty good confirmation.
After a lovely evening of diesel generators and midnight sun, we packed our bags and high-tailed it out of there. Now, we are going south - with Paul and Dug driving a fast pace. We were going 65 mph on gravel roads with a side wind of about 40 mph. We leap-frogged our LAPD buddies - this one is from just before Atigun Pass:
From here, Mark and Brian spent some time taking pictures - at the very top of the pass, we encountered some Dall sheep from above us, dropping rocks on the road - they eventually crossed the road about 10 feet in front of Mark:
Back into Wiseman, it was an unbelieveable afternoon - sunny with beautiful views of the Dalton highway, Alaska pipeline and mountains such as this:
We had a great stay at the Arctic Cabin B&B with some great story's from the Patriarch/proprietor Bernie about Bear attacks and pipeline workers / brown-baggers. The owners of the B&B are from Germany - Bernie and Uta with kids Julia (10) and Leo (7).. They were smart kids - no TV but liked the attention of having new people to interact with. Wiseman has a population of 13... Here is a picture of Leo jumping his bike:
Then Brian tried it:
The family was really unique - lived off the land and hunted Moose and Caribou for sustanance. Also, Bernie had quite a gold nugget collection as he helps some friends mining. From here we gassed up @ Coldfoot and had a relatively fast paced ride into Fairbanks - 255 miles. Here is a picture 1/2 way at the Hotspot Cafe - showing how hungry Mark was:
So that's it for now - hope you enjoyed it - more to follow from Dan, Mark and Paul.
Brian, Dug and Dan
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