Friday, July 2, 1999

It's hard to know quite where to start for today.  Yesterday just sort of didn't end.  We drove till about 2:00 this morning.   At that point we picked a little side road down toward the creek out in the tundra and decided it was time for a nap.  It was broad daylight.  Up this far (75 degrees N) the sun doesn't come close to setting at this time of year.  It's just a strange feeling.  What's hard for me is trying to tell directions.  You certainly can't use the sun until you figure the system out.  The only way I can guess is that I know the road is basically heading north!  

The mosquitoes are all you've ever heard about out on the tundra.  When we parked the car it was only seconds and they swarmed it... like they would a person.  I guess they just check it out.  They swarm around you but they don't just cover you and bite.  Thank goodness.   When you are walking it's like you are enclosed in a little black cloud.

Rus and I woke up about 5:00 a.m and started back on the road.  We left Stacey sleeping in the back seat.  The terrain really changed during the last 50 miles of this trip.  We came down onto the tundra and things really flattened out.  There are water pools everywhere.  It's a beautiful place for waterfowl in the summer.  The sun shines across the white flowers growing all across the hills and just about looked like dew from a distance.

We pulled into "Deadhorse" or Prudhoe Bay about 7:00 a.m.   We filled up with gas first thing at a totally automated station.  No person in sight.  It was interesting.  We found the Prudhoe Bay Hotel and immediately signed up for the tour out to the Arctic Ocean - it was leaving at 8:00 a.m.  There is no public access there.  The oil companies actually do the tour.  There were 13 of us on a little bus.  This has all been pretty fascinating to me.  This whole place has no permanent residents.  Everybody is just here in shifts.  Most of the time it's two weeks on and two weeks off.  The fella driving our bus has a unique schedule because he lives so far south.... in Alabama.  He works three months on and one month off.   

We drove all through the oil fields.  There was construction in a couple locations so there were roadblocks and detours.  The guide told us the two seasons up here are winter and road construction.  I believe it!  I don't think I've ever seen dust like this dust.  They treat the roads with something chalky (calcium chloride) and it will "paint" what it covers.  My hair was pasty when we got here!!

 

The "picture" that I've had in my mind my whole life of the Arctic Ocean was permanently altered today.  It was 69 degrees and perfect for short sleeves.  The ice in the ocean has moved out in the last five days or so.  You could see it off in the distance but soon it will be gone till about mid August.  There is ice in the Prudhoe Lake right in town so it does confirm that there is ice here.

We went out to Pump Station 1 on our tour.  We've been watching the mile markers on the pipeline since we left Fairbanks so it was a culminating activity to see mile marker 0!  There was a information display there and a couple sample "pigs."  These are devices they send through the pipeline periodically. Some are dumb - they clean out the wax buildup etc.  Some are smart - they actually measure the thickness of walls looking for thin spots, speed of flow and all kinds of things.

Rus is standing next to a "smart" pig sample.

 

Stacey became the self appointed hostess on the tour almost immediately. We have noticed the lack of kids up here.  Most of the visitors are older folks.  This leg of the trip is not traveled near as much.  It doesn't take too long to figure out why.  It's pretty grueling travel.  I don't imagine many ever drive this trip but once.  Much of this area was restricted to public use until 1995 so it really hasn't been an option for long.  The drive out to the ocean still is still restricted but there is a bill in the state legislature here.  The people feel like they should have access to travel to the ocean.  But for the present you have to take the tour with the oil companies.  I sure couldn't see coming this far and not going all the way out!!

The accommodations up here look like very long mobile homes from the outside.  This is the hallway as you walk in the front door.  There are wings out off the main hall and most is dormitory style.  We have a room with a double and a single bed and the ladies shower is in our hall so Rus goes one hall over.  This place is actually an  oil field dorm.  They have a full cafeteria open all the time.  You get breakfast, lunch and dinner with your room.  Snacks are always available and you can take your food out.  Don't know where the folks take it unless just to their rooms or maybe back to work.  Tourists are allowed to stay here and just blend in.  I guess that occurs because once they opened access to Prudhoe folks were showing up and there was no place for anyone to stay.  It's been a real interesting experience - almost like being a fly on the wall in an oil field workers environment.  It was something very new to me.

There are about 1600 folks on duty now but in the winter it can be up to 3500 if I heard right.  It looked small when we first drove in but after our tour today you realize how spread out it all is.  The whole place looks so industrial or military (my background)... that's just all it is.  It's fascinating seeing the pictures on the wall down the hallway.  They show the field in winter and will all the wildlife that comes in during that time.  Caribou can cover the area.  A bear was in town today.  There are 16 oil companies in the consortium here but two main companies run the field (Arco and BP).  

That's our car in the far end of the photo above.  It's not quite as dirty as most of the ones you see around.   We'll have a clean up job for sure.  Inside is covered with fine dust.  Stacey is modeling a tire.  We've come to realize how the smallest of things can be so important.   We're working under excellent weather conditions but you can get the feeling about how deadly this environment could be over a very short period of time under challenging conditions.   This has been a wonderful experience for us and we feel so lucky to have experienced it.

When we got back from our tour we got a room and showered and then went to the cafeteria for lunch.  It was about 12:15 p.m. when we called it a night.  We slept till about 4:00 p.m. when it just got too hot.  We should have asked for a room on the shady side for the afternoon.

We've walked around a little and will soon head in for supper.  I think the plan is to try to get a little nap after supper and then get on the road about ten o'clock tonight.  I'm hoping the sun will not be straight ahead but off to one side or the other.  It's so low to the horizon it makes driving into it about impossible.