Monday July 5, Arctic Circle, AK

200 Miles

Yes, tonight we are camped at the Arctic Circle….we have covered the first 200 miles from Fairbanks…..only another 300 to go! We were quite apprehensive about making it after the disappointment about not managing the Dempster Highway to Inuvik in the Yukon, but the Dalton Highway, or the Haul Road that follows the Alaskan Pipeline to Prudhoe Bay and the Ocean has proved to be quite manageable…so far. It is mainly a solid dirt road, although there are some sealed sections. On the dirt road Ian was able to travel at almost 50 mph in places.

We woke this morning to pouring rain, and were quite concerned about traveling the highway, so delayed our start, but by mid-morning it looked to be easing so decided to just do it!. With camping at Walmart there were no facilities to empty our tanks or fill with fresh water, which we needed to do as would be about 6 days on the road without these options. Found a dump station down by the river and by the time we were organized it was midday when we left town.

The scenery on the highway is just amazing, and with the pipeline snaking along beside us, sometimes suspended about the ground over patches of permafrost and in others it is buried, the views are just vast and always changing. This is really big country.

The truckers are the big boys on the road, and the etiquette is to pull over and let them pass, or if one is coming towards you, the same thing. So far it has been good, and they have slowed down so as not to spray too much mud. After the rain this morning parts of the road have been pretty muddy…Ruakiwi is not a pretty picture.

It was almost 8pm when we stopped tonight and the sun was still really high in the sky. The temp at 10pm is 14 degrees, and we are in shorts.

Walmart proved to be a great place to camp in Faribanks, with almost 40 campers parked in a corner of the vast carpark it was like a little city…according to some all the campgrounds in the town were chocker. Last night we parked and before long there was a tap on the door….Dave and Wanda had met us on the road about a week ago and remembered the van when we pulled up next to them, so popped over to see us. We had a great evening chatting, Dave had been a forester and they now live in South Dakota.