George & I had been watching the weather in Deadhorse and it just didn't look to promising! 32 degrees snowing with a wind chill of 19! So we decided to head for the Arctic Circle as the weather down lower looked good even as far as Coldfoot.
I've heard plenty of stories about the Dalton, even had the old fat boy a bit worried!
First sighting of the pipe line
Pretty decent black top for a ways, don't let it fool you.
And now some gavel, not bad stuff really.
Where is that darn happy face!
That's the Yukon river.
To pay for gas at Yukon River Camp you take a photo.
Got to keep pushing north as we are doing an up and back!
Made it with nice weather to boot!
This nice lady took our picture, She stays in a little Cabin down at Yukon River camp with no electricity. Gave us a little paper saying we had made it.
When we get done taking our pictures and talking to the nice lady (Nora, George?) we move the bikes and head for the latrine and start talking about weather we should go all the way back to Fairbanks or just go back to the River Camp as we had been dawdling when this car with three folks in it show up and start talking about Coldfoot & how they stayed at Wiseman and how cool it was.
George and I look at each other and say what the heck, we didn't think much of the Super whatever anyhow.
One thing about the Dalton, you will hit pleasing black top, broken pot holey nasty black top, nice black top and miserable wash board up hill gravel SHIT.
And lots of beautiful country.
Lots of scrawny trees in BC, Yukon & Alaska.
Well we made Coldfoot.
Gas station, Restaurant & Bar.
$210 a night for a room across the lot.
We meet up with Heidi from Boreal Lodge in Wiseman over at the visitor center, she and her husband Scott own and run the lodge. She told us to go look around and that Scott would meet us later at the lodge.
We went back over to the Coldfoot Restaurant & Bar.Restaurant & Bar and ate dinner and got a call that Scott was back at the lodge so we headed another 18 miles north,
I think George thought he was still camping, the room had two twins and you had to go out to the rest room/shower area. What the heck only $110 for the night.
This place is off the grid, Scott has a $17,000 dollar bank of battery's, three small Diesel gen-sets and some solar panels. Dish something for a few TV stations and another dish for internet (good for e-mail).
We went out for a walk in their hood.
Old Tom or Eight-Ball as he liked to be called had his treasures.
His museum. Told us we could go in but it had a lock on it and didn't want to bother him (Big Boy) mad me look tiny.
More treasures.
George taking it in.
Saw this pretty little bird.
Alaska life style.
It does't get dark much up there that time of year, I noticed that I wasn't sleeping the best, oh well good enough to ride.
Coming up next, even farther North. Atigun Pass.