B & D's USA Hideout: July 2016

Driving the Dalton Highway required a lot of preparation on all ends. Brian researched stories of other travelers who drove the 414 mile gravel, some parts paved, mostly dirt road. He read up on how to be ready for anything that could happen on the trip and about the things you might need for survival. Thus, we bought new all terrain shoes for Star as well as a tow hitch, an air compressor, an extra diesel jug, shovel, tire repair kit and the list goes on. The road, starting in Livengood and ending at the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay, was built in 1974 as a service road for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline itself runs 789 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and carries roughly 1.8 million barrels of crude oil per day. There are several must see sights along the way but mostly it is a very long drive with not much in between.

The camper is absolutely no match for the rugged, bumpy path so we left her at an Alaska State Park outside of Fairbanks. The truck was completely loaded down with all our tools, cooler, tent and other camping and hiking gear. On our first day of driving the Dalton we crossed into the Arctic Circle and made it all the way up to mile 175, Coldfoot Camp. There, we tented for free on the lawn in the middle of the trucker stop/town along with other travelers riding by motorcycle, 18 wheeler or trucks carrying piggyback campers. Coldfoot is also the first gas stop on the Dalton.

We visited the visitor center to Gates of the Arctic National Park in Coldfoot as well and made plans to hike into the park. The visitor center hooked us up with bear canisters to store our food and some maps and a general plan to get into the park. Gates of the Arctic is, by far, the most difficult park that we have visited. There are no trails. No roads. No facilities. No nothing except wilderness and wildlife. We parked the truck at Dietrich Camp and walked in with our packs and a hopeful spirit. Right off the bat we had to cross a major river and through a mountain pass to even cross into the park boundary. Brian got a real taste of what I do as a stream surveyor by treading over loose and slippery rocks and bushwhacking up and over steep hills. He was not a fan. Have I mentioned how bad the bugs were here? Oh, well they were about the worst I've ever experienced. No relief whatsoever. We camped on a ridge overlooking Kaaruk Lake just inside of the boundary line. Truthfully, we were over ambitious with the idea of how much we could explore by cutting our own track in the backcountry, but we had to try. We've decided to re-visit the park someday (as with most, we hope) and take a flight in (float plane or helicopter) and do a river trip or some kind of organized group adventure. But it was a sweet taste of how secluded, scabrous and sublime this park and preserve is.

After our overnight adventure in Gates of the Arctic, we made the rest of the journey north to Prudhoe Bay and the town of Deadhorse. There are no residents here. Everyone is an employee of the oil companies and they are flown in and out. It is incredibly industrial here and almost every building is made out of a shipping container. There are a couple places to stay, a gas station and that is really it. And of course you cannot get to the Arctic Ocean unless you pay for a shuttle bus to take you there. This is because the road passage is owned by the oil companies and for liability reasons they run a background check on you. So we paid the stupid $69 per person fee to say we've visited the most northern body of salt water. It was worth it though. We didn't drive all the way there to not see the Arctic. I got my feet wet, Brian went full monty and swam. As soon as we got back from the tour, we hopped in the truck and headed back down the Dalton. Brian drove up and I drove the road home. We made it as far as Galbraith Lake to camp for the night. We watched the sun fall into the lower part of the hemisphere and the mosquitos swarm like it was their last day to feed and fell asleep in our half dome tent loving Alaska a little more than the night before.

The Dalton Highway:

Finger Mountain

Atigun Pass

Happy Camp

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Galbraith Lake - yes, that is a mosquito on Brian's lens.

Coldfoot:

Fireweed

Gates to the Arctic Circle National Park:

Crossing the Middle Fork Koyukuk River

Prudhoe Bay:

Ground Squirrel!

Camping on the Sagavanirktok River. Note the mosquitos.

Brian swimming in the Arctic Ocean

Prudhoe Bay

Musk Ox!!

This is a really crummy photo but we didn't see caribou until our way out of town when we were following a pilot car through road construction. There must have been a thousand of them!

Next Stop: Chena Hot Springs

Flying into Anchorage will capture you immediately. Looking through the large glass windows of the airport will show you the multifarious, magnificent snow peaked mountains and give you a tingle up your spine with a strong notion that there are much bigger things than yourself out there in this world. I have flown in and out of Anchorage several times and have spent a couple weeks debriefing in the city while I was observing. As observers, we were very limited to travel other than by foot, so I don't know the city all that well but am familiar with it enough. I made plans to catch up with my long lost pal, Keith, who is originally from New Hampshire but now lives in Anchorage. Keith and I trained together back in 2012 to be apart of the first group of partial coverage observers to sail on vessels smaller than 60' in length. The funny thing is we never saw each other in the field and it has been several years since we've been face to face. Keith is the kind of guy you feel like you've known forever. He is a very sweet, funny and friendly soul. He also has a lovely lady friend, Sharon, who we met for the first time. We had an awesome weekend together mostly chasing tail, fish tail that is, with just a little luck.

Brian and I camped in Eagle River at Eagle River State Park. There were many others with the same idea, so we ended up in the overflow parking lot but that didn't bother us much because we weren't there except to sleep at "night". I put night in quotations because the clock says it's night but the never setting sun begs to differ. I showed Brian the downtown area and we hit the couple cool spots I knew of including Humpys Great Alaskan Ale House and had some yummy pizzas at the Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria. Keith and Sharon met us there and the fun began. Saturday we bought our day use Chinook salmon stamps and gave it our best fishing for them in Ship Creek. Fishing in urban Alaska is unique to say the least. You literally stand shoulder to shoulder with other fisherman alike, all casting lines in the water trying to hook onto the mighty King salmon. We had no luck there so we headed up north of the fishing area to view the hatchery where all these spawning salmon were headed. After that, we tried one more spot to get the most out of our King stamps for the day. We had no luck at the Turnagain Arm either but still had a blast trying. The four of us threw in the towel for the day and headed to Rochelle's Ice Cream Shop for a tasty treat and a short walk at Eklutna Lake to end the day. With fish on the brain, we planned for a Sunday funday day trip down to Seward to snag some sockeyes. Snagging is allowed here but only in the tidal zone. We started the day bright and early and made sure to pack plenty to beers and food. Our squad snagged our butts off from dawn til dusk but only the boys walked away a with fishes. Oh well, us lucky ladies got to eat those yummy salmon regardless. We took necessary hot showers and cooked up the fresh fish at Keith's for dinner and headed home for the night after that. Great weekend all around.