Alaska: Day 9 (13 June 09)
Up at the crack of dawn -- oh wait, I don't think the friggin' sun ever bothered to set. LOL. Actually, we haven't been in a real hurry any morning yet, most days getting on the road about 8:30 or 9.
We rode in to Fairbanks, waving to Santa Claus at the North Pole on the way. (You do know there's a town in Alaska called North Pole and that whenever you send a letter to Santa, that's where it goes, right?) In Fairbanks, we scouted out that most quintessential icon of consumerism: the local Walmart. We needed gas cans to carry with us up the Haul Road, just to be on the safe side. We finally found the Walmart, bought our cans, and since we'd gone in by the auto service department, I walked over to talk to a couple of the auto mechanics. I explained that in 2 days time we'd be coming back from Deadhorse and needed to do an oil change. I explained that we had all our own tools and we'd hauled along oil filters, but we needed a drain pan and someplace to dump the old oil. I asked them if we bought our oil from Walmart, would they mind loaning us a drain pan and letting us change our oil there outside their shop. They were more than willing to help out. THANK YOU, WALMART!
With that load off our minds, we were ready to face the infamous Dalton Highway, known as the Haul Road. I was glad to find a plan for the used oil. Later in the trip, Danny and I talked to a father and son team on FJRs who said that they'd found an old country road and simply dumped their oil on the ground. I bit my tongue and didn't tell them what I thought of that.
Anyway, we hit the road for points north. Took our pictures by the Dalton Highway sign. Took our pics at the Arctic Circle. Soon we were in Coldfoot -- last gas stop. We topped off our tanks and filled the 1 gallon jugs we'd bought in Fairbanks. Then it was up the road just 17 miles to the little burg of Wiseman, where we had a room reserved at the Boreal Lodge.
Tomorrow, the hard part of the journey -- the infamous Haul Road, nearly 250 miles of deep, treacherous gravel and dirt laced with calcium chloride. Dusty as can be when dry, slippery as whale snot when wet. We'd been rained on damn near every day of the trip so far. Should we expect anything less for tomorrow...?
Yours truly at the start of the Dalton Highway.
And the Arctic Circle.
Boreal Lodge in Wiseman, AK. Our home for the next two nights.
We had the room on the end -- #1.
Brave adventurer (still in his rain pants).
We rode in to Fairbanks, waving to Santa Claus at the North Pole on the way. (You do know there's a town in Alaska called North Pole and that whenever you send a letter to Santa, that's where it goes, right?) In Fairbanks, we scouted out that most quintessential icon of consumerism: the local Walmart. We needed gas cans to carry with us up the Haul Road, just to be on the safe side. We finally found the Walmart, bought our cans, and since we'd gone in by the auto service department, I walked over to talk to a couple of the auto mechanics. I explained that in 2 days time we'd be coming back from Deadhorse and needed to do an oil change. I explained that we had all our own tools and we'd hauled along oil filters, but we needed a drain pan and someplace to dump the old oil. I asked them if we bought our oil from Walmart, would they mind loaning us a drain pan and letting us change our oil there outside their shop. They were more than willing to help out. THANK YOU, WALMART!
With that load off our minds, we were ready to face the infamous Dalton Highway, known as the Haul Road. I was glad to find a plan for the used oil. Later in the trip, Danny and I talked to a father and son team on FJRs who said that they'd found an old country road and simply dumped their oil on the ground. I bit my tongue and didn't tell them what I thought of that.
Anyway, we hit the road for points north. Took our pictures by the Dalton Highway sign. Took our pics at the Arctic Circle. Soon we were in Coldfoot -- last gas stop. We topped off our tanks and filled the 1 gallon jugs we'd bought in Fairbanks. Then it was up the road just 17 miles to the little burg of Wiseman, where we had a room reserved at the Boreal Lodge.
Tomorrow, the hard part of the journey -- the infamous Haul Road, nearly 250 miles of deep, treacherous gravel and dirt laced with calcium chloride. Dusty as can be when dry, slippery as whale snot when wet. We'd been rained on damn near every day of the trip so far. Should we expect anything less for tomorrow...?
Yours truly at the start of the Dalton Highway.
And the Arctic Circle.
Boreal Lodge in Wiseman, AK. Our home for the next two nights.
We had the room on the end -- #1.
Brave adventurer (still in his rain pants).Labels: Alaska, motorcycles
posted by Brian A. Hopkins at 12:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home