ALASKA AT EIGHTY - DAY 12 Fairbanks to Coldfoot

July 17th, Leaving Fairbanks early AM with Coldfoot in mind. Here are scenes from the road.

North of Fairbanks, Livengood is the turn off for the Dalton Highway.




Over the years adventure riders have covered the road signs with their little stickers to the point the sign is unreadable. It used to be riders would carry a pen or marker to leave their name and date on the signs. Now, everybody has to have a preprinted sticker to leave their mark. Modern version of post-it notes





The majority of the Dalton is hard pack dirt gravel with rough patches and frost heaves every so often.




Since the Dalton, also known as the Haul Road, was built to service the north slope oil fields and the Alaska pipeline, we will parallel the pipeline all the way to Prudhoe Bay. Many times we will cross it, sometimes it will be buried, other time exposed. There are several pumping stations along the pipeline to either keep the crude oil flowing or to slow it down when desending a steep slope.




The Yukon River bridge has a wood surface that is slippery when wet. Luckily today it is dry. Notice the steep slope of the bridge?




On the other side is a pull off where you can get a good photo of the pipeline, your rig with the bridge in the background.
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Bought gas in Coldfoot. Think your gas is overpriced where you live? How about paying $7.499 a gallon.




Serene scene from the north.




I was concerned about clogging the Wings radiators with mud and muck from the road. So I fabricated cheap bug screens using a hot glue gun, attached them with Velcro, to catch any mud or muck before it reaches the radiator grills. The Wing has two radiators that are recessed and not easy to reach and clean. These I will discard them after we leave Canada. 

On another ride up here, the bike's radiator grill was clogged so bad the engine started to overheat. Has to stop, find a twig and clean it enough to continue.





What a peaceful scene, until the Alaska State Bird finds you... on other words, their giant mosquitos make stoping anywhere more than a few minutes miserable. Unless the wind is blowing, then no state bird bothers you.



Information on this lake near Coldfoot



We reach Coldfoot camp, truck stop, fueling station, restaurant and rooms for rent.



Tomorrow we ride further north to Prudhoe Bay.