Ice Trucker Road, The Dalton......Day 1

Fairbanks to Coldfoot.
A short hop; 70 miles out of Fairbaks you join the Elliot Highway and follow that until the end when you jump on the Dalton. Now for the last two days we had been talking to riders who had returned from this ride, we could see the weary riders return all muddy, with tales of deep gravell, mud like ice, storms and running out of fuel. More than one said they would never do it again. Taz listened with earnest, making a calculation if she really wanted to do this. We have another 5000 mile or so to get home, did we need to do this? It was my idea and felt I confident about Taz's skills. Her confidence was something she battled with about making this whole trip. I had no doubts about her ability. We agreed that if either of us said "no" we would turn around immediately, no discussions. This made us more committed. The first part, we were warned could be pretty rough, they deliberately left this part of the road bad to discourage the tourists. After the first 20 miles of sandy dirt there was tarmac! albeit broken and only short stretches of it but it gave a reprieve of the sliding- snaking of the bikes in the dirt. Taz and I both grew with confidence as we edged further to the Arctic Circle at 120 miles marker.
We managed some impressive speed and our skills grew.

WE WERE DOING IT!

After the Arctic Circle we had another 65 odd miles of Dirt and steep hills to contend with. Some of our biggest concerns was the trucks, you may have seen Ice Truckers, these trucks that take this road are carrying Oil Drilling supplies to Prudhoe Bay and they are not small trucks! They can travel very quick and if the road is dry they can hide the road and even other trucks in their dust wake. As this is summer we had no snow on the roads but it still hides in the gullies and streams along the roadside. On either side of the track there is a verge of deep gravel and then a drop, so pulling in to it dodge a truck, is somewhat dodgy. Your front wheel skids everywhere and the best way to stop is to accelerate, not really what you want to do when dodging a 60 odd ton truck... timing is everything, narrow bridges and bends had to be timed well. It was challenging but we loved it. 260 mile dirt track!
Coldfoot an old mining community is now a truckers haven, the rooms here are so expensive the type of money you expect to pay at the Hilton, but with out the luxury. I guess that what it cost to run a motel in the Arctic Circle.
Tomorrow Atigun Pass and Deadhorse...