Wasi's trip LAX to ANC

Day 1	Saturday, July 16, 2005
516 miles

Day 2	Sunday, July 17, 2005
685 miles

Day 3	Monday, July 18, 2005
516 miles

Day 4	Tuesday, July 19, 2005
573 miles

Day 5	Wednesday, July 20, 2005
435 miles

Day 6	Thursday, July 21, 2005
698 miles

Day 7	Friday, July 22, 2005
225 miles

Day 8	Saturday, July 23, 2005
564 miles Arctic cr

Day 9	Sunday, July 24, 2005
0 miles Visiting Denali National Park.

Day 10	Monday, July 25, 2005
240 miles - Total 4452 miles

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Misc |

Day8 Saturday July 23rd, 564 miles
Feeling a little nostalgic this morning, I looked at my bike, and it seems incredible that I rode it out of Southern California a week ago and here I am in Alaska. We asked some locals about the road to arctic and the availability of gas along on the way. We learnt that there was gas at Fox and at the Yukon River Camp. Rick who is a master planner called ahead to the Yukon River camp to confirm that they had gas and that they were open. This was an exciting day; we were going to ride to the Arctic Circle.

We rode North on the Elliot highway through Fox, and past Livengood where we turned onto the James Dalton Highway, the Haul Road. Almost immediately the road or lack of it got very interesting, gravel portions interspersed with packed gravel and some asphalt. Out of the blue came about three miles of black wide asphalt with some sweet curves. It was like a race track as Rich described it. There was some of this type road on the Elliot Highway earlier too. Large trucks carrying everything from logs to industrial equipment bound for the oil fields on the north end of Alaska would approach at high speed and you have to pull over to let them go and wait for the dust to settle a bit before proceeding. We made it to the Yukon River camp in good time that morning and we decided to have a big breakfast, I ordered the Haul Road Special. We got gas from an over ground tank and a single pump with two hoses out in the open. Using the honor system you have to note how much you pumped and then go inside to pay. The word around the gas pump was that there was gas at Coldfoot for those riding to Prudhoe Bay. By this time we had seen the Trans-Alaska pipeline several times as it meandered and crossed under the road at different points. We continued to ride north towards the Arctic Circle.

The road was graded gravel and mud, packed gravel and loose gravel almost all the way. I watched my coordinates on my GPS as we got closer to the Arctic Circle. The latitude reading increased slowly up to 66 degrees and 33 minutes and with in a few yards was the turn off to a sign that is probably one of the most photographed places in Alaska. The mosquitoes also know this and they were present in large numbers to great us. We took our share of pictures including one I took holding the Acorn which is a local paper that may publish your travel picture if it shows you holding it up. This was the northern most point of my trip and from then on it was all south for me. As we pulled out onto the Dalton highway I looked north towards Prudhoe Bay and wondered when I'll be back to ride all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

On the way back some of the roads were being sprayed with water and Calcium Chloride which made for some slippery riding. We made it back across the Tundra to the Yukon River crossing to fill the tanks for the ride back to Fairbanks. As soon as we got there we looked for car wash to scrub the mud off the bikes. After the wash I parted ways with my two companions, I had to ride South to the Denali National Park area to meet Laura. Rick and Rich were going to stay in Fairbanks before heading out to ride more of Alaska and Canada and then eventually ride back to San Diego.

7/23/2005 2:14:24 PM

Arctic Team