The Lure of the Dalton

[dave6253]

Curse You Alcan Rider! I've been intentionally avoiding the Alaska photos for some time now. You see, I had finally realized I may have to wait 'till retirement to do my dream ride that far north. Now I may have a window of opportunity this summer... So I opened up this thread and realized...




Alaska Still Calls.

[Alcan Rider]

Originally Posted by soph9

You can do the Dalton in 24 hrs if you sorta push it and it doesn't snow.

Minor re-wording.

Some people have a different definition of "pushing it".

[Alcan Rider]

Originally Posted by dave6253

Curse You Alcan Rider! I've been intentionally avoiding the Alaska photos for some time now. You see, I had finally realized I may have to wait 'till retirement to do my dream ride that far north. Now I may have a window of opportunity this summer... So I opened up this thread and realized...




Alaska Still Calls.

Lots of photo opportunities up this way. Better start packing.

If you need any more encouragement, just holler. We specialize in enabling.

[soph9]

Originally Posted by Alcan Rider

Minor re-wording.

Some people have a different definition of "pushing it".

met two guys who rode up to Deadhorse, stopped for food and said they were heading back in one day. Not sure if they made it. I doubt it because they looked pretty tired when I saw them at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel. My gut says they must have camped out. If you really must do the Dalton so fast I think more like 48 hrs.

Atigun Pass and this is how it was both ways for us...

[Stretch67]

Pics from the 2007 Alaska trip featured in the link in my Signature below...




The southern end of the Dalton Highway.








The Yukon River, Mile 56.





Finger Mountain, Mile 98. Have you ever visited a place that just felt ancient and pre-historic? I got that feeling here, and hard. It was very windy here (most of the time, I understand) and overcast. In all my travels, I had never visited anywhere that felt this primeval and old. I absolutely loved it here, while at the same time, felt a bit wary of it, as if I were in the wrong time, and if I walked too far from the road, I would remain in 20,000 B.C.

I fully expected a herd of Mammoths to come charging from around the rocks...







The Arctic Circle, mile 115.


I couldn't resist. Mile 132.


Getting darker, but never completely. About Mile 150.

Coldfoot...


The restaurant / bar / Post Office / fuel depot.


Not my photo


Not my photo


The motel.

Everything here at the truck stop is a prefabricated building, trucked in on the Dalton Highway, also called The Haul Road...






This is Simon, from Great Britain. He had bought that KLR brand new in Anchorage four days before, and was already on his way SOUTH from Deadhorse. He has a few more months off from work, and is headed for Argentina. He must be somewhere in Mexico by now. The folks around Coldfoot were calling him The Mad Brit. A Studly Adventurer, no doubt.

-----------------------

Edit- Simon made it to Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. He posted this photo on New Year's Eve 2007...



Congratulations, Bro! Badass!

Moving on...



Sukakpak Mountain, Mile 204.


The southern base of Atigun Pass, Mile 242.


From Atigun Pass itself, looking north. Elevation is 4700 feet as it crosses the Brooks Range (also the Continental Divide: On the north side of the pass, water drains to the Arctic Ocean, and on the southern side to the Pacific).





This is Scott. He was heading south from Deadhorse, after having ridden up there from Sacramento. At this point, he was still north of Atigun Pass. We thought we were really something until we met Scott, pumping his bicycle over the ground on which we were "roughing it" on ADV bikes.


About Mile 260





Somebody back East is saying "Why don't he write?"

Caribou, probably. Maybe hit by a truck. Most of the rigs have huge grille guards, reminiscent of the Mad Max movies.


The Arctic Tundra was thawing out, with water standing a couple inches deep as far as the eye could see...

It was like walking on a wet sponge, with ice-cold water squishing up around your boots.

I pity anything living out here when the water warms enough to hatch the mosquitos.



Caribou. The same species as reindeer, but not domesticated.



We made it!


Not my photo.



This is Hermàn, from Florida, originally from Colòmbia, so he talks with a cool-ass accent. He met us on the road where I had found the caribou skeleton. He stopped to chat for a minute, taking a short break on his ride ALL THE WAY FROM FAIRBANKS! What we had done in two days, he did in a single day, riding a KTM 950 Adventure. He was up on the pegs most of the time and flying. He got back on the road from our break just a couple minutes before we did, and beat us to Deadhorse by over an hour. He spent the night there (like we did) and rode all the way back to Fairbanks, over 500 miles, the next day. Tough.


The cafeteria at the Arctic Caribou Inn.


Not my photo, but curiously enough, it was taken from our table.

While we were eating, a few oil men passed by our table, noticing we were wearing motorcycle gear.

"I guess those are your bikes out front?"

"Yeah. They're not on fire, are they?"

He laughed. "Nah. You rode up here from Fairbanks? On the Haul Road? You guys are nuts."

We spent the next few minutes talking about bikes in general and the conditions we experienced on the Dalton Highway. The oil men working the rigs on Alaska's North Slope are some tough dudes, and it made me proud to have done something in Alaska that they respected.



Not much to Deadhorse, architecturally. Every building is a heavily-insulated prefabricated building set on short stilts (to keep the permafrost frozen). Everything is either brought in on barges by way of the Arctic Ocean, or on trucks by way of the Haul Road when the ocean's still frozen...



There are no weight limits on the Haul Road, and widths are limited only by the bridges. Especially heavy rigs use a 'pusher truck' to help keep the load moving up steep hills. At Coldfoot, there was a photo of a huge prefabricated module being hauled up to Prudhoe Bay in the ice and snow that was so heavy (and traction was so poor), it required twelve pusher trucks.






This photo was taken at 2:30 am. No sunset on the Arctic Ocean this time of year.


Drilling rig. These things are portable. Once they've drilled as far as they want, they cap it, move the drilling rig to a new site, install a well head on the new well, and start drilling a new one. The green sheds shelter the pump gear on top of the separate well heads.


Giant wheels and axles used to move drilling equipment on the open tundra.


We had been planning on doing the Polar Bear Plunge in the Arctic ocean - those crazy bastards that swim in ice-covered lakes just for the fun of it. I had NOT been looking forward to it, but knowing it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I had resolved that I was going through with it...

But I was spared...



Thank God.



The gas station at Deadhorse. Credit card only.

We still made pretty good time, arriving at Coldfoot at about 7 pm.

Scott the bicyclist was there, camping out behind the hotel. He had made pretty good time himself, especially considering he was creating his horsepower himself.




Rain and wind. Joy.

But looking back, it just wouldn't have been right to have ridden the entire Haul Road with perfect weather.

It was pretty slow going, with our Avon Distanzia street tires. I have these tires on my Tiger, and believe me, whoever named these things 'dual-sport tires' was high.


Back to Mile 0!

[togume]

Thanks for the pics and stories, Stretch! All of these posts are only stoking the fire. I´m thinking it´s going to have to happen in July... I just got off a 6 day hike in Colombia where I had the same prehistoric feelings many a times.

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=...&p=0:0&t=False - unfortunately ADV bikes won´t make it up there (challenge?).

[Alcan Rider]

Took another little jaunt to Deadhorse this past weekend - leaving home at 9 minutes past midnight, arriving in Deadhorse (after many delays at various construction sites) around 7:30 PM with 841 new miles on the odometer. Spent a little over an hour signing witness forms for riders who had made a long trek from Key West, FL, then turned around and headed back south. Managed to get a few new photos on both north- and southbound legs, but not as many as usual. Weather was phenomenal and the road was - comparatively speaking, of course - in superb condition.

From Mile 236.5, a look at the road up to Chandalar Shelf, the beginning of the final climb to the top of Atigun Pass.


A few of the riders hitting the bottom of Atigun Pass, northbound.


Another shot, with 3 riders and more of the mountains.


Near the bottom, looking toward the top.


And going back down, into the Atigun Valley.


Even out across the vast reaches of barren tundra there's something to see. Here, the Franklin Bluffs are nicely illuminated by the evening sun.


Clouds often provide welcome subject matter when viewed from far north of the Brooks Range mountains.


And clouds sometimes produce rainbows.


That one developed into a really nice full bow a little later.


At 1:00 AM the sun in the northern sky provided nice lighting to the mountains lining the Atigun Valley.


Reaching out with the telephoto provided this nice shot.


Wasn't able to complete the 1500 miles in 36 hours that I had optimistically aimed for, thanks to a rear Tourance that was wearing far faster than expected, but still managed to get 1588 in a little over 42 hours by the time I arrived back home. All in all, a very good trip.

[Alcan Rider]

Originally Posted by Stretch67

Pics from the 2007 Alaska trip featured in the link in my Signature below...

When I came by that sign this past weekend I noticed that DOT had raised it considerably higher - maybe to avoid having to replace it every year with one that has no stickers?

[Stretch67]

Originally Posted by Alcan Rider

When I came by that sign this past weekend I noticed that DOT had raised it considerably higher - maybe to avoid having to replace it every year with one that has no stickers?

That's pretty funny.

There's a street here locally named...





... wait for it...





Knob Lick Drive.

Gub'mint Streets and Roads had to bolt the street sign 15 feet up on a phone pole because it kept getting stolen.


Also, if I recall correctly, the Hot Spot at Dalton Highway mile 60 or so has a Dalton Highway sign that reads "James D Dalton Highway". I guess when DOT corrected their mistake, they gave the old one to the Hot Spot.

[MrKiwi]

Just caught up with this, great report. Love the photos. Am planning to cruise this next year in July...

[rgiroux]

You're killing me, Alcan! Those are some great shots

[togume]

Alcan - That last picture... wow... Thanks for sharing!

Out of curiosity, what did you shoot these with?

I'm on track to head up there around August 5th. Anyone thinking about a similar timeframe?

[Alcan Rider]

Originally Posted by togume

Out of curiosity, what did you shoot these with?

All those were with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P90, a fairly capable point-and-shoot that stays handy in the tank bag.

[MotoMarkus]

How steep is that rollercoaster hill?

Amazing fotos and scenery, I have to go to Alaska sometime.

[mundobravo]

GREAT PHOTOS RIDER !!!
a oldy but goody , my ride to the AC in 2008