Dalton notes second day

Woke up rested at 5 am and fired on the furnace- took awhile, but it warmed up nice. I stayed snug in bed watching the sky lighten up and thought about the drive.

I’m still trying to take it easy- I don’t want a flat tire or to break something that’s 41 years old on the van. After making coffee and doing my morning chores I set off around 7 or so and headed North again. I’m still staying in D2 and around 35 mph, but some sections were good enough to go 40 and I even got into D once for a short while, but there were also steep sections where I dropped into D1 and some bad mud and potholes in one stretch that had me going slow and careful.

After about an hour and 15 minutes I saw that I had been climbing and was at almost 2,000 feet. Suddenly there was a thick mist that became fog with very little visibility. One of the Ice Road drivers- the only woman- had been killed on Friday in the fog- she'd missed a turn and had a rollover so I was mindful that fog messes up the truckers so it can't be good for me. I saw a photo opportunity sign for a rest stop about a mile down the road and pulled in there to see if the fog will lift before proceeding. Caution pays!

After waiting an hour with no clearing I began to drive slowly and carefully away and I found that as I descended the fog gradually cleared to a light rain. Soon I came to a section that looks like two lane blacktop, but it is really just a series of potholes strung along a double yellow line. Driving this was swerve and avoid and stay slow so if you hit one you didn't blow a tire.

The sad thing was that it looked like a really good road so you wanted to make time on it, as soon as you tried though it hit you with a nest of potholes and forced you onto the oncoming lane or to dance around them. Nerve-racking. 

If you got a flat heaven help you if its on the driver's side- you'd be out in the highway trying to fix it unless you faced the wrong way on the left side (which would probably be the safest thing to do). If you have a breakdown there is a $1,000 dollar flat fee on top of the distance towing fee for anyone who comes to get you here- really a stiff penalty for screwing up!

I was using my GPS reading out the distance to Coldfoot Camp to get an idea how close I was to the Arctic Circle pullout. 45 minutes after leaving the rest area I finally got there and found a three car line to get pictures!

Three cars from a Rally Club that had run the AlCan 5000 decided to make the run up here to the Arctic Circle and were memorializing the occasion. I chatted with one of the drivers while I waited- they had started in Kirkland, Washington.

Here's a link to info about them-2018 AlCan 500 Website

The car in the picture below apparently did an African Rally in the 1960's so another old vehicle being loved and driven- fun!

When it was my turn a nice couple who were walking their dogs offered to take my picture. They had spent the night at the same campground I had last night. The old van was really dirty for her pictures!

I got out and walked around checking out the sign and taking some pics of my sponsor's logo at the sign. They have some signage about the animals and climate up here and I took a few minutes to read them. 

I decided not to camp there and to head back to Fairbanks while the day was still young and the weather was relatively good. Back in the van and heading South now after our successful run to this Geographic Point!

When I got back to Yukon River Camp I stopped in for a bathroom pit stop and also ate a delicious fresh salmon sandwich they made that was soooo good! Right across the road from the Camp was a tiny log cabin and rest area that was the Yukon BLM Post. I went over there and met a nice volunteer named Bob who gave me my official Arctic Circle Certificate and stamped it with his office stamp! Very cool!!

He told me that the bad two lane road was one of the worst sections and had been nothing but potholes earlier in the season, but had been resurfaced in July and was really good up until 3-4 weeks ago when the holes started opening back up. Should have come earlier I guess.

I feel a little bad about not going all the way the Deadhorse, but I think I used good judgement and I accept this Circle to Circle as the new challenge!

About 10 or 12 miles from the end of the Dalton I saw the guys in the Solar Electric Van pulled over with all of their solar panels out trying to harvest on a cloudy overcast day. This is going to take them forever!

After getting off the Dalton it was still almost a 2 hour drive back to Fairbanks and my Walmart squatter's post. Tonight I purchased a quiche to bake and some more items to justify my stay. The oven is working great and I baked some Tollhouse Cookies as well- Yum, made everything smell great. Watched a movie and then to sleep.

Pictures:

8-28-18

This started out as a not so good day and then became a great day!

Up early this morning to get the van to her 8 AM mechanics appointment at University Chevron in Fairbanks- the mechanic will fix the transmission linkage and check out the cold start / backfire issue as well as checking a small oil leak its’ developed.

I got there on time and asked if they had a shuttle that could give me a ride somewhere with WiFi, like a McDonalds, and they had a man drive me to The ‘College Coffee House’ which they said had couches and WiFi. When we got there it turns out it had been closed for remodeling since July! Mike, the driver took me to the Sourdough Restaurant nearby instead. He dropped me off and turns out they did not have WiFi. Sad day. I found a booth in a corner that had a power outlet nearby and ordered breakfast.

After eating I plugged my phone in and the computer to charge it up and put earphones in to listen to a comedy podcast. I passed a couple of hours this way, drinking coffee and watching people come and go. When I first got there I received an email from the mechanics saying my vehicle had been checked in for service, but when it was 11:30 I got concerned that I had not heard from them again at all. I called them and when I got someone on the phone they said, “Yeah, your van is next up.” It hadn’t been touched in all that time! This meant hanging out in the restaurant booth until 2 pm and even then I never got a call from them. I called at 1:30 and no one answered so I left a message asking for a pick-up. By 2:00 when no one called back a kind waitress who was going off shift offered me a ride there.

When I showed up the van was outside and between two bays. Troy, the guy I’d been dealing with said he did not have the information on the van yet, but would shortly- when he got it he asked if I wanted the bad news or the good news- uh oh

.

Good news was that the linkage had gone together with no problems at all. The bad news was that they thought the hard start/ backfire was a carburetor issue and they did not rebuild/ work on those. There is only ONE shop in Fairbanks who does and they were too busy. The other good thing is they did not think the problem would get worse and I could have the work done when I got home, so not so bad. Troy also gave me a break on the shop expenses since they couldn’t fix it. He said the oil leak was from a gasket on the oil filter housing- a gasket, but not on the filter itself and no one around had the part sooooo…small oil leak.  That is not a problem, I’m carrying 8 quarts of oil and the leak is very small…I will just add oil as necessary and get it fixed later at home as well. $ 135 later and I’m back on the road.

I decide to go to Livengood, the last town before the Dalton Highway and wait there for better weather forecast for tomorrow. Today had been rainy and cold all day. I finally headed out of Fairbanks and got on a road North again.

It was a pretty drive and the road went from 4 lanes to a 2 pretty quickly with construction and frost heaves and occasional potholes around. There wasn’t much traffic so I cruised along 5-10 mph below the speed limit most of the way so the road didn’t beat me up. As I went farther north the weather started getting better- rain was stopping and you could see blue patches of sky and even some Sun breaks ahead! I decided to push on and get on the Dalton today; see how far I could get.

At the Dalton Highway sign I stopped to get a picture of the van by the sign and there was a touring bicyclist named Benji who had ridden all the way from Deadhorse. I took his picture by the sign and he took mine. He is riding the Pan American Highway North to South.  I asked him if he needed anything and he asked for some water so I got him my gallon of store bought water and he took what he needed. While we were hanging out two Aussies named Joel and Keegan drove up in their electric and solar powered camper van they had put together. They are also driving the Pan American Highway!

 We all shared stories and contact information and laughed about whether we would see each other along the road in South America or even at the end in Tierra del Fuego. Funny.

Driving the Dalton requires concentration. The road I’ve been on is not really all that bad, you just need to watch your speed and the loose gravel and mud and potholes and get out of the way of big trucks so you need to pay attention all the time. I kept in D2 most of the time and drove along about 35 or so, sometimes slower for most of the way. About 35 miles in the road became a very nice two lane blacktop and I could get up to 45-50…that was really flying!

I realized I should top off the tank when I got to the Yukon River Camp which was just across the Yukon River Bridge. There I had the pleasure of paying $ 5.49 a gallon for unleaded. It was 7:30 by now and even though it stays light here until very late, I was too tired to want to drive the extra 60 miles to the Arctic Circle today.

After spending the extra money on repairs coming up here I have decided to move the goalposts and now the Journey North will end at the Arctic Circle and I will not continue to Deadhorse. It would be another $ 300 in gas and I just don’t see the point now. If I can make it to the Antarctic Circle in South America (is there such a thing?) I will also call it Mission Accomplished!

I drove 4 miles past the gas stop to a campground and set up for the night. While I was there a USGS Surveyor named Darren was taking GPS readings and doing other surveyor stuff. I asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee and he did! I brewed two cups of maxspresso and gave him his in an unused Subway coffee cup with a lid I had acquired. I don’t know if this good deed helped, but I got my oven and heater working- got the dial moving and lit the pilot then set the heater and now I am toasty and in a beautiful, secluded free campsite….so a Great Day after all.

Tomorrow to the Arctic Circle!

Pics

Day 11- Stuck in Fairbanks!

I saw the mechanic today and unfortunately they don't have time to fix the linkage until tomorrow so I have an 8 AM appointment. Stayed at a paid campground last night (30 bucks for a tent site) to use the shower and to not abuse the Walmart. Will probably Walmart again tonight. Yesterday I hung out at the Morris Visitor Center which was very nice and today I am at the Noel Wren Public Library- also very nice! Had an eating out breakfast today at The Bakery- eggs, hashbrowns, toast and corned beef hash- yummy and lots of coffee. I have full phone service here so please give me a call if you think of it and have time to chat.

Here are some more pictures:of the Visitor Center and the exhibits- a caibin from 1909 that is all original and in its' original location. It was what they called a "starter home"that someone would live in while they figured out if they were going to stay.

Also there is a tent with typical gear of the 40's it looks like or even earlier, a stuffed grizzly bear, a picture of a couple who were instrumental in getting the Wilderness Areas named and preserved and some of the typical possessions of the First Peoples of the area. That bottle pictured is made of woven grass of all things!

Very nice and great, helpful staff- I spent a pleasant afternoon there.

More Pictures

Day 10- In Fairbanks Alaska

I finished the Alaskan Highway early yesterday through easily some of the most remote and beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

On Day 7 when I was driving I thought that this was a lot like driving through Oregon or parts of Idaho, but Days 8 and 9 were unreal- not like anywhere I’ve been.

The smoke finally let up when I hit the Yukon border with British Columbia. On Day 7 I left the Hot Springs Campground and ran past some open fire areas that were very smoky with some small flames still visible close to the road in burned areas. As soon as I crossed the border I could see dark, cloudy skies with some patches of blue. I ran along the highway doing about 60 most of the way then 55 since the speed limit reduced to 90 kph and the van was running really good so we made our way to the Yukon Capitol of Whitehorse.  I had now traveled 1,400 miles up the Alaskan Highway and almost 2,000 miles from Boise.

Whitehorse has a Walmart Super Center and after gassing up I parked there to spend the night with about 40 other RV’s and trailers and fifth wheels of all ages and types. It would be interesting to photograph them for a scrapbook, but I don’t want to get into a fight with an irate recluse.

I bought some eggs for a purchase and hardboiled them later in the van for healthy snacks and also got some milk for breakfast. The little fridge has been working well so far so good. I thought the spot I was parked in (well away from their normal parking) would be noisy because of a busy road beside it, but it turned out to be quiet at night and I had the best night’s sleep of the trip (9 hours) in the Walmart parking lot- too funny! After a quick breakfast of coffee, peanut butter on bagel and milk I hit the road again on another cloudy day. It spit rain at me occasionally usually not enough to make using the wipers worthwhile.

About an hour down the road I came to a place called Haines Junction that was the beginning of driving through a majestic mountain range and by a large river. For many miles I drove without seeing another vehicle and when you topped a rise all you saw around you were forests as far as the eye could see and the mountains on the left and big river on the right. People made no mark on this land, it was so remote.

The weather had warmed up so I stopped at a wayside for lunch and read about the First Peoples who still live and fish and trap this remote wilderness. What a life!

My original destination was Beaver Creek, Yukon, but when I got there in early afternoon about a million no-see’ums swarmed me while I gassed up so I asked how far the American border was- it was 20 miles away! Time to leave Canada for now and get too Alaska. I reset my GPS to Tok, Alaska and saw it was only 93 miles away. When I hit the Border the officer there just asked me a couple of questions about food from Canada and firearms and then waved me thru- easy peesy. I was pushing down the road now in a hurry to get the day done and then the road was very rough. I got to a section where traffic was stopped to wait for a pilot car to take us on the wrong side of a loose gravel section of the road. We waited for about 15 minutes and then the pilot car arrived leading long train of trucks and RV’s.

 The pilot car looped around and pulled in front of our line and off we went for several miles at 25 miles an hour or so with loose gravel flying around.  We got to the end of that section and the pilot car left us , but it turned out that there were sections of gravel road for miles- you would run a quarter or half mile on blacktop and then hit several hundred feet of loose gravel with potholes. I took advantage of this to practice for driving the Dalton Highway which has is mostly gravel so I tried to find the best speed I could do while still seeing and maneuvering around any potholes- turns out that is between 35 and 45 mph. This seemed to go on for a long time, but finally the road returned to normal, if not as good as some parts and I could cruise along. As I neared Tok the rain really started in hard and when I got there I pulled into a large gravel parking lot for a log cabin style restaurant.  

Inside they had a salad bar and lots of local color for decoration- snowshoes on the wall, pictures of miners, you know what I mean. I ordered halibut because I figured it would be incredibly fresh and tasty and then I started trying to get my phone to work. I had a Verizon signal and 4 bars, but could not make a call! I was receiving texts though so I updated some friends on my trip that way and then tried to figure out the phone issue.  It ended up being some kind of prepaid roaming issue that I managed to fix after two days and two calls to Verizon Customer Service. A manager approved my roaming to be transmitted to Verizon towers or some such thing so I will have normal service from now on. Please give me a call- it gets boring talking to myself!

The van had worked hard the last two days and she was hard starting – I think some of the Canadian gas had maybe been bad. Concerned I abandoned my plan to sleep at a turnout or gravel pit down the road a bit in case she did not want to start the next day. I went to an RV Park and paid 29 bucks for a tent spot with no hookups and free showers! So much better than paying a dollar for every 3 minutes! It’s now pretty cold at night so I close all the windows and I’m sleeping in my sleeping bag.

The next morning the van showed she had not burned any oil and the coolant level was perfect. I had filled her with high octane fuel in Tok to try to offset the crummy Canadian fuel. She started hard- the cold weather probably has something to do with that as well and she was sluggish pulling out; soon we were on the road to Fairbanks and the end of the Alaskan Highway.

Not too far out of Tok we began some short climbs and then dropped into another long river valley between incredible mountains- even taller than the ones the day before. There was snow on many of the mountain tops, probably permanent and they reached well into the gray clouds and produced weird looking spirals of broken mist at some of their peaks looking like whirlwinds. Unreal.

To my left at one spot there was a crowded observation area overlooking the biggest river delta I’ve ever seen. It seemed to go to the horizon. I will need to stop and photograph that on the trip back down when I’m in sightseeing mode; now is just about driving.  Leaving the mountains behind you come to some long areas through the forest and then the road changes to a four lane affair and passes Eileson Airbase. About 20 minutes later you are in Fairbanks, Alaska the official end of the Alaskan Highway- Success on Day 9! 2,581 miles from Boise in tow countries in 9 days in the 1977 Dodge Campervan!

Today is Sunday and a day for Thanks, Rest and Contemplation. Monday I will take the van to a mechanic’s shop and hopefully they will be able to reattach the transmission linkage with a proper fastener and give the engine a listen, maybe need to change plugs and then I will leave for the Dalton Highway and the Arctic Circle.

Thanks to those of you following me- I appreciate your thoughts and prayers!