7/15/17 Never give a gabby Irishman a stage. I have much to say. Many decisions were made only after seeing where we landed. Coming out of the Denali road back to the epicenter of the tourist “fast see…bagged it”…AK trip… we stopped into the Denali National park. It was packed like Yellowstone mid summer…maybe worse. We drove up he road to the Savage River and then returned out. So glad to have driven the Denali Highway road… quiet and beautiful… so we went immediately north. As I type this I have been on the road four weeks, though because of the ferry have only clocked 5200 miles, (Luann with me 2000). This, by date, is the middle of the trip…not by mileage…. we have a long way to go. 

So we went on up to Fairbanks and got provisions needed. Not sure we saw the nice side of town but did have a nice halibut fish and chips at the Pump House brewery on the river…seeing the rear paddle steamer cruise by. Camping after a couple false leads north node Fox… on the Eliot Highway, a state park. Pop up…sleep and gone. Eliot Highway to The Dalton. A long day getting into the new driving conditions of paved, not paved good, not paved real bad… then paved worse. There are fort those who will nod their head a way to hit a 2 foot depression in the road at 45 mph… not a pot hole as those are there to see if the driver never lifts an eye away from 100 feet forward… but the ‘Dips’ as posted, are either single or multiple that drops your load then compresses the springs in a split second. Yahoo! A big frigging bounce! the multiple ones are interesting… The best thing to do on the big ones is to hit the break hard for a split second entering, dropping the nose of the truck, then accelerating to lift the front and drop the back…. what else is there to do but parse the problem and think of something to keep the stuff in the camper from being shaken up like a cement mixer. One learns to open the fridge door slowly.

We stopped at the Yukon River crossing and had a great visit with a local lady who was a homesteader who now does craft from birch bark, animal fur, skulls, …whatever was nearby to make things… one tough lady who with het husband had gone up the Yukon found a spot and with a chainsaw cleared the land for a cabin they built from the trees before October snows. The Interagency volunteer cabin was there to warn of the wildfires burning presently out of control…explaining the foggy haze obscuring the mountain views. Clear weather but no long vistas. She explained where to get artesian water on the way and a recommendation to take a spur road to Wiseman, AK… an occupied 110 year old gold miner village. 

A great walk around with very friendly property owners who go out of their way to explain their history living there for generations and still prospecting. We spent time with the man who moved there when he was five and his mom did the preaching in at the log cabin in-which we talked… her twenty years of hand written sermons still on the front table. Also a man there all his life prospecting named “Clutch” who has his own one room log cabin ’museum’  of his life's stuff… lots of dozers, pumps, pans books and old photos… he could talk forever.  He has been making a “white man’s totem pole” for some time (photos)… a lot of unique up here.

We came to the Coldfoot, AK, a truck stop all in one ‘town’….last stop fuel before starting the long haul over the Brooks Mountain Range through Atigun Pass. The place is expensive…has a huge buffet of one meal daily…a bottle only bar and shipping container hotel. A has to stop.

It had been a long day getting adjusted to driving the Dalton road so was tired. I t is still sunny at 10:45 and the sun barely sets then rises again… We camped at a Marion Creek Camp sites (National)…bear boxes, super clean pit toilets, a hand pump spring water and a site to camp with a fire ring. Perfect, quiet and clean for 26 sites of which maybe 10 were used.

Up and out this morning to head over the Atigun pass. yea-ooooh… crazy big, jagged straight up cliffs, massive… 100% mountains. The road was a mix of very reasonable dirt and actual pavement… still potholes and dips but speed could increase. The pass was as expected: a stunning road engineering job, open all year, a wild climb and descent to a completely different biome. On the ascent were black and white spruce trees and the descent to open tundra… going on another 30 miles to and stopped after the Toolik Lake pass and were in open Tundra. A caribou laying down by the road….. hundred mile view to ….another 100 mile view. If we were to drive across this space it would be another 250 miles straight to Deadhorse, population 4 permanent…. 3000-6000 part time oil production workers in temp housing.  One needs to pre arrange to go to Prudhoe on the Bering sea. We never meant to do this last 500 mile trip as it ends at an oil camp and there is sea water… done. 

We returned to Marion camp sites this evening to fill the solar shower and wait … had a burger on the grill with charcoal brought with us. Gray Jays seek out your site and I had to convince on that the scrappy sponge he held in his peak was not tasty. He dropped it eventually from the tree. 

Four weeks and I am beyond full. Yet tomorrow we set out for Fairbanks again, passing through and south to Tok, and then Delta Junction where we go northeast again to Chicken, AK. A town named by folks who could not agree on the spelling of Ptarmigan… so instead settled on Chicken. From this place starts the “Top of the World Highway” on up to the Yukon border. On a map you can follow us to A side road…. 360 miles of dirt road (The Campbell Highway) to Watson River. From there later. Though I could have fished a thousand places I have not taken the time. From here that is the goal for me.