It rained hard last night just as the forecast predicted and we woke up to a damp misty morning. Our Italian friends must have arrived late last night as their bike was hiding under a tarpaulin. They set up camp in an abandonned prefab building to shelter from the heavy rains. Zoe boiled some water for breakfast as we packed our bikes.
Luckily the road dried quickly and the tire tracks from the trucks we pretty good to ride on. On the sides of the road it was still pretty muddy. We met a rider heading north who told us it rained all day on the road yesterday maki g it quite challenging. I guess staying the extra day in Coldfoot worked out well for us! The ride back down was non eventful, we stopped at the arctic circle line for photos and for lunch at the hotspot cafe 5 miles north of Yukon River (the burgers there were huge!) we also met the owner of a bar in fox who gave us free beer tokens and invited us to stop by on the way.
Prudhoe Bay to Valdez pipeline carrying 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day!
Huge burger lunch at the hotspot cafe near the Yukon river
Another stop at the arctic circle
Bear warnings are everywhere… for good reasons!
A few more hours of riding and we were off the Dalton Highway and back on pavement. We stopped at the Howling dog cafe to claim our free beers, had a small snack and looked for a place to sleep in Fairbanks. Zoe found a little cottage on Airb&b for the coming 2 days and we headed into town. We have the bikes a good wash before heading to our cottage, bought some groceries and unpacked, washed, out some laundry on and had diner. All our gear was either damp, dusty, dirty or smelly so it took a while to get everything sorted, dried and folded! Another late night…
Free beers courtesy of Ralph, the owner we met on the road.
TA
Again mention of “huge burgers” and “beers”, is it all about the food up there? Only joking!
Mud-gravel road done, much respect for both!
A few days in a cute cabin will do you good now!
Enjoy it but beware for the bear!
Baci da papa