This morning was a picture perfect day to ride the Dalton. Not a cloud in the sky and temps not too cold, we loaded up with a new vigor, knowing we would soon be on top of the world. We hooked up with Dennis and Rob from Calgary the day before and we headed out together. This day would turn out to be a long 250 miles. The road started out great....Paved actually. Then the dust came and our pace slowed slightly. Thor dirt was packed quite well which gave us the ability to clip along at a relatively quick pace. Water trucks would occasionally pass us dumping water on the road to settle the dust. There were patches of calcium chloride that made the road almost pavement like, giving us s breather from rock negotiations.
We neared the last set of mountains before the arctic tundra set in. They rose to the height of around 8000 feet. They produced magnificent views for hundreds of miles around.
The quickly road turned into a hard loose gravel that slowed us down considerably. One wrong move and things could be disastrous. We tightened up and rode on, gripping the handlebars like they were our last lifeline. We were thankful that we mounted a brand new set of dirt tires which made life a lot more comfortable.
Then came the the highest and most treacherous part of the trip...Atigun Pass. Luckily for us the only time it's treacherous is during the winter months. It winds it's way up a steep escarpment and drops quickly on the other side
We passed several trucks along the road. Most of them would really slow down for us and give us a wide birth to pass by. A couple others just sped on by, making us disappear in a yellow cloud of thick dust. We rode blind for several seconds before the dust settled and we could see the road again.
Finally on the other side the landscape changed considerably. Mountains that contained trees were now just a smooth silky grass. Not one tree could be seen for hundreds of miles
Then the mountains were gone the the landscape was almost
2-dimensional. It was so flat that I could literally see for hundreds of miles but saw no end in sight.
Then from a distance we could see Deadhorse.
...and in the middle of nowhere a small village appeared.
We had reached the end of the road in the North America!
We went to the general store and purchased a handful of stickers proving our achievement and then got on a bus and took a tour of the oil field and the arctic ocean.
We saw a few animals there ranging from a snowy owl a fox and a herd of over 3000 caribou grazing in a field.
The bus stopped at the waters edge and we were invited to wade into the brisk waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Keith and I had accomplished our long sought after dream of riding our motorcycles to the top of Alaska.
It was a bitter sweet moment. Yes I had accomplished a dream that I had for years, and yes it was over now...time to head home. The anticipation had reached it's peak and I had been to a place only a small percentage of the worlds population will ever go. Yes what a great moment it truly was!
We age supper at the Caribou Inn and fired up the scooters to head back down the road we had just came up. We didn't want to pay the $200 a night hotel fee, so we rode just outside of town and camped along side of the road on the arctic tundra.
We still have the Denali Highway to look forward to, visiting with old friends in Anchorage, and of course the Dempster highway, another 1000 miles of dirt road that reaches the highest point in the Yukon.
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