Thursday, July 1, 1999

We got up about 5 a.m. and were trying to quietly get the car loaded.  Ted and Beth are both going to work and we planned to head out somewhere around the same time.

It was a sunny beautiful day again and it really gets quite warm in the afternoon.  Our path going out was the same as it was the day we went to the White Mountains.  About 15 miles from there you change to the gravel road.  We were on the Elliot Highway for a stretch before changing to the Dalton Highway.  The Dalton Highway is named after an oil explorer.  I think the road is simply there to get to the oil fields. 

We were still on the Elliot Highway when we spotted our first wildlife.  We saw two lynx right off the shoulder of the road.  They were just beautiful and were as interested in us as we were in them so we got good video of them.   Not terribly far after that we drove up a rise and over where a lynx and a fox were fighting in the road.  Each went to a different side when the truck coming the other direction spooked them.  The fox came toward us and was perched about 10 feet away on the hill side when the other driver drove up to talk to us.  We were sick. We had the thing in the camera lens and he got right in the way!!!  We felt so robbed!!!  He had no idea the fox was still there. 

Our information heading out was that the trip up would be about 12 hours.  We planned to stop anywhere we wanted to take pictures of the landscape or animals we might see so we were working under no particular time restraints.  Destination was Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean.

The pipeline runs the entire distance.  Sometimes it is buried and others it is above ground.  It is constructed to be forgiving for frozen soil, earthquake or whatever might occur.  Sometimes it is close to the road and other times it is way off to one side or the other.  You never quite lose it though.  Markers are placed every mile and are numbered in the opposite direction of the road markers.  We used a Mile Marker book that gives a complete description of ANY thing you might see or expect at any point along the road.  It was wonderful to have it to travel with.

The conditions of the road changed occasionally but the majority of the way what you had to contend with was the dust.  It’s very dry and everything kicks up dust as they pass.  The huge trucks have so many tires and so much weight that they just about create a storm as they go by.  All vehicles are to drive with their lights on.  Cars are to ALWAYS give right of way to trucks.  We pulled over and to a complete stop when they went by to get minimum speed between the vehicles and as far over from spraying gravel as possible.  You just have to sit a few minutes for the dust to clear so you can see if anything was behind the truck before you start back out.  It’s such a fine dust that it penetrates into the car and over everything.  We've heard some horror stories about wrecks and accidents along the way.

        We did go through several sections of construction where we were pulled over and parked waiting for the belly dumpers to make it past.  They were hauling gravel to widen and build up the road in sections.  Then come the tankers loaded with water to spray the surface down… That’s great if you’re a couple hours behind them…. No dust…. But, if you are right behind them it’s MUD.  The cars are unbelievably dirty after awhile!!

We spotted a red fox that was just beautiful.  She posed well for us.  They tend to run along the edge of the road in front of you for a bit.  When they get tired they run off to the side knowing that we won’t follow.

Stacey spotted a huge moose crossing the road at one point.  Rus was out of the car filming the pipeline that was close to the road at that point.  We couldn’t just pull up to see.  About that time I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a huge tanker barreling down on us.  I pulled as far to the right as I could.  He moved to the left lane (where the moose was and I think spotted it at that point).  He braked and slowed and stopped before he got to the moose.  By the time the dust cleared and we got Rus in the car we couldn’t find the moose.   He was probably stunned somewhere thinking about how lucky he was!

We drove all day and until about 2:00 a.m.  It is daylight 24 hours that far north so it never was going to get dark.  We found a little side strip near the river and pulled the car off to take a nap.  We slept for almost three hours.  I was noticing how much cooler it was when we hit the tundra.  We left Stacey asleep on the back seat and started out driving again about 5:00 a.m.  We pulled into Prudhoe Bay about 7:30.  The rest of that day will be continued on the next page. 

These are just some pictures along the way on our first day.  The two fellas by the car are from California.  Mario (Dad) is on the left and Emanuel on the right.   Emanuel is 18 and is riding a mountain bike from Prudhoe Bay to the tip of Argentina.  He had ridden about 101 miles to Happy Valley (nothing there any longer - used to be a construction sight)  He fused a back wheel and had to stop.  They drove back to Fairbanks and bought another bike (then found they could fix that one as well).  They were driving back to Happy Valley to officially start again.  When we caught up with them they had had three flats.  They helped us with our first and we followed each other into Coldfoot and had our tires repaired at the same time.  We planned to eat there and then start back out.  It turned out that a back hoe had cut the electricity and they were without... No cash registers, no gas pumps, no lights in the restrooms.  SO.... we were there about three hours waiting to get gas.  There are no other services the rest of the way.  We had ten gallons on the roof but that would have been a little risky so we waited.  That was the clincher to not making the trip in 12 hours.  We think that would be pretty impossible anyway.  Our time would end up being about 18 hours each way.  (Don't forget besides flats and waiting for gas - we stop for ALL animals!)

The mountain pass was beautiful and we just loved the views of the mountains and the changes as they occurred.  They tree line here is about somewhere over 2000 feet - that's pretty low by usual standards.  White and black spruce are the most common trees.  I've been fascinated by their shapes.  They are just about straight up. The limbs don't go far out to the sides at all.  The pinecones are ALL clustered at the top.  My theory is that's so they can blow out and spread since the tree can't bend too far.  The black spruce are the short stubby ones growing on permafrost or poorer soil.  The white spruce will grow taller.  In the Fairbanks area you saw birch and aspen and lots of cottonwoods but they ceased along this route.

In one section we passed Slope Mountain which the Mile Marker told us had Dall Sheep on it last summer.  We stopped to look and sure enough there were.  They were so far away they just looked like spots of snow or rocks but we could pick them out using the 360 on the video camera. We'll get the binoculars out coming back!

The whole day was a wonderful and exciting view of the "frontier" of Alaska for us.  It will be a highlight of our trip for us.