Day 105 – Coldfoot and Wiseman, Rest Day 10/07/17 2

We slept in until around 10, I got up and made some breakfast/drinks while Tanguy got to work fixing the loose screws between my reserve tank and pannier racks. Yesterday we noticed my rear mud guard / chain guard had finally given up and completely snapped, (probably when I dropped it) so we had to pull it out on the side of the road, noticing how lose the screws had become under my pannier. Not ideal when your up the Dalton! The rest of the gang packed up their tents, we said our goodbyes and they set off back to Fairbanks just after midday. We checked the weather across the road at the visitor centre (no wifi here) which showed rain tonight and today in Fairbanks…

We then headed back up the road 13miles to the small community of Wiseman, home to between 10-30 people depending on the season. We chatted to some campers from Fairbanks on the lawn, wandered around the ancient log cabins and rusted gold mining equipment. Had a look inside a tiny museum and shop, and the alluvial river bed. By this point our stomachs were growling, and there was no restaurant of any kind in Wiseman, just two small simple lodges. We drove back to Coldfoot, filled ourselves up on the dinner buffet (it had just started – you can only have a la carte when the buffet isn’t going, they keep it simple up here!) while chatting to a tour guide, who runs guided trips up the Dalton. Back at the tent we figured we might head over to the visitor centre to watch some Gates of the Arctic documentaries, but we never made it there. We laid down for a rest around 1800  and didn’t emerge again until 9:30 the next morning!

-Zoe