0026 Mon 2nd June - Arctic Circle to Ice Cut

It wasn’t actually raining when we woke up, so we were able to have some breakfast and a hot cup of tea from our thermos, and were on the (muddy) dirt road north by 9 am.  Stopping at scenic Gobbler’s Knob for a quick stretch, the views weren’t as clear as I had hoped, but weren’t too bad.  Many of these places were named by the early truckers and freight haulers who have driven this road for years, and are certainly interesting, like Roller Coaster, Connection Rock, and Gobbler’s Knob, while Indian names reflect the past history of the Athabascan Indians and Inupiak Eskimos who hunt and fish these lands, and  Prospect, Gold Creek, and Bonanza speak in turn of the dramas of the miners.

 

We continued north, with the stunted black spruce again present, their short height having no bearing to their age – Often 100 or even 200 years old, but stunted by the extreme weather conditions and the constant perma frost below the ground limiting their root growth.  We passed Pump Station No 5 – One of the 12 pump stations built to help keep the oil moving down the pipeline and over mountains, to Valdez.  Glacial moraine marks the southern boundary of the Brooks Range glaciers during the most recent ice age. We passed Grayling Lake on our right, where there is apparently good fishing, and after a brief stop continued north, taking increasing care on the slippery and muddy track, across the Koyukuk River (where the pipeline has its own covered bridge alongside), and on into the foothills of the Brooks Range towards Coldfoot.

We pulled into Coldfoot camp and went and had a yummy brunch (breakfast, really !) and coffee.  Afterwards I went out to top off with fuel before the prices got REALLY expensive in Prudhoe, with the hope that I could get back to Coldfoot (or even Fairbanks) without needing any more fuel (twin 90 litre tanks and a range of 1300 – 1400 kms between fill ups helps immensely in avoiding expensive fuel !!)  While I was filling up, a BMW from Kansas pulled up, and both the rider and the bike were FILTHY with mud, from top to bottom. His windscreen was opaque with mud.  The rider told me the road north was a nightmare due to heavy rain, with thick mud on the road, and mud spray from passing trucks just covering him. He had been creeping along at 5-10 mph ! There was also word of “freezing rain” nearer Prudhoe, which is rain that comes down as rain, but as soon as it lands on anything, including the road, it turns to ice immediately !   Hmmmm.  I was certainly learning a new respect for the Dalton – I had been here in Coldfoot (and 60 miles north) in the Lotus, but there is no way I would have got through this year.  As I went back inside, I noticed two trucks had pulled up with M-I SWACO (my old company) chemicals aboard. I went to find the drivers because I had met a couple of drivers 2 years ago – One of them was Shawn who I had chatted to on the CB Radio from the Lotus – and I wondered if they might know them.  So you can imagine my amazement when I went inside and found out that was Shawn himself again !!  What are the chances of THAT happening – Two times in my life in Coldfoot, and I meet the same guy both times !!  So we had a good natter, and he told me about his new (red) truck, and we took photos – Janet especially has been dying to meet a real “ice road trucker” so she had to have one with Shawn !!

Time to hit the road, but we went over first to the nearby information centre to check on conditions, animals in the area etc, and to use their nice flushing loo !!  Then we set off north, past Wiseman, and towards Sukakpak Mountain, which is where I turned back in the Lotus 2 years ago. Almost at exactly the point where I turned back before, as we crossed the Hammond River, Troopie turned over 300,000 kms, so obviously a quick photo was called for there, to celebrate both the mileage, and the start of new territory for me.  This section from Coldfoot is all smooth tarmac – lulling one into a false sense of security in regards to what lay just around the corner !!  Sukakpak mountain looks a bit like a rhinoceros, with a big horn at one end, and is a stunning start to the Brooks Range. The tundra beside the road is all ice underneath – you can clearly see the grasses and soil on top, with the white of frozen ground underneath where it had been exposed.  And lots of puddles and ponds, because melted snow gathers but cannot permeate through the permafrost, so just sits on the surface, providing rich pickings for migratory birds from the south, from here all the way north to the Arctic Ocean. 

The dirt road was back, and we started to climb slowly but steadily.  Into the North Slope Borough, past the most northern Spruce Tree (killed by vandals a few years ago, but still standing until recently – Now it had been cut down to be preserved.  Past the chain up area for the trucks in winter, we started up the Chandalar Shelf, surrounded by glacial moraine and incredible views over the Dietrich Valley. This was our first taste of the Atigun Pass that was to come, and we then drove on through this incredible valley, where you stop to allow oncoming trucks a free run at the slippery and steep uphill gradients, on past one of the old road construction sites with reindeer and Father Christmas on their sign !! The we finally got to it – One of the great drives of our age – The Atigun Pass, made famous by the Ice Truckers TV show.  And what a scenic and stunning pass it is, made all the more amazing by the slippery dirt track (even without snow and ice it is quite treacherous), winding up the scree covered side of the mountain. You are constantly looking ahead for oncoming trucks, as the road is hardly wide enough for passing – If you see one, you pull over immediately and let them through. By this time it was snowing lightly, and getting colder, and by the time we got to the top of the pass it was almost a white out !  Oncoming trucks were absolutely filthy with mud, and were a foretaste of what lay ahead.  At the top it was -0.5 deg C, and we pulled over and took some victory photos in the snow, before heading down the other side.

 The views were stunning, and as we descended there was evidence of several recent avalanches of snow down the sides of the mountain, and across the road so it was piled high on both sides where the bulldozers had pushed it to clear the road again.  And on the road, the mud started to get deeper and deeper.  We stopped at the bottom for more pics up the mountain and across the valley floor, and the mud there was 6 inches deep – We had no choice but to push on through it !!  We drove on for another couple of hours through increasingly muddy roads and reducing visibility – No mountains visible, but treeless tundra around us everywhere.  By 5.30 pm we had to stop at a partially ice free pond so I could wash some of the mud off the windows – I couldn’t see out of the back windows, and when the side windows started getting covered with mud, I could no longer see trucks behind, so I had to wash them off, even though the water was freezing my hands !!   Once we had made things a little clearer, we plodded on for another hour before pulling over at the bottom of a hill called The Ice Cut, where there was a big gravel area.  We had a quick bit to eat, and fell asleep exhausted.  Just before I turned in, I did see Shawn coming back down the hill from Prudhoe – He had already got up there, unloaded and was on his way back to Fairbanks for another loaded, and he tooted as he recognised us on the way past. 

A long, amazing, and very difficult day – But also extremely satisfying – We had finally crossed the Atigun Pass !!

 

Photos are here  :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0026ArcticCircleToIceCut?authkey=Gv1sRgCKvp9_XajMmtSA#