7/3/22

The James Dalton Highway is also known as the Haul Road. It was built to "haul" supplies and building materials to support the oil pipeline and the drilling up in Prudhoe Bay. Featured on the reality show Ice Road Truckers, it is known as one of the most dangerous road in the world. It is currently now about 30% paved in various condition from smooth to broken up with giant pot holes and frost heaves. The rest of the road is a gravelly dirt road. With only three fuel stops, numerous semi-trucks, relentless mosquitoes, the infamous Atigun mountain pass and a remote vastness that makes you feel like the loneliest person should anything bad happen to you, it is the most challenging road that I have ever attempted to ride. The Dalton has been on the back of my mind ever since I crossed into Canada. There were times that I wondered if I was crazy to try to ride this road without years of off-road experience under my belt. Going up with the Brazilians made me feel better but at the same time, I didn't want to be the guy holding them up either.

The morning of July 3rd, Ken was packed up and ready to head back down to Whitehorse, Yukon to start his return to Toronto.

I was then going to meet up with the Brazilians at their hotel. The Brazilians are Gustavo and Carlos and their wives riding as pillion. They started from Brazilian before Covid and rode their 1200GSs up to Florida. They left their bikes with Gustavo's cousin and then flew back to Brazil. Then they came back to Florida and rode it across the US and left it in storage for over two years due to Covid. Now like so many other riders, they're back to ride it up to Prudhoe Bay.

It was a bit of a late start since they still had to fetch their bikes from the shop after getting new tires. If it sounds like a broken record that's because everyone is getting a new set of tires before going up the Dalton. After they got their bikes, they had to go back to the hotel to fetch their wives, load up the bikes, we then had to fuel up and get some lunch. We didn't hit the road until 3pm. Good thing it's 24 hrs daylight up here.

Once we got going though, we went! These guys are fast! Before we get on the Dalton we had to get on the Eliot Highway. Upon leaving Fairbanks, we had to get on AK-2/Eliot Hwy north for 78 miles.

https://goo.gl/maps/Sem4jQ3w64woNFFC8

Gustavo leads, then me, then Carlos in the back. Gustavo takes off. I'm following at 65mph but he starts to separate fast. Carlos is way behind me. I'm not sure what's going on since they said they won't be going fast. I try to keep up but with Gustavo's 1200GS, I start to fall behind. Carlos is prob 10 car lengths behind me. And that's how we get on the Eliot Highway.

The Eliot is paved in it's entirety albeit some of it is pretty crappy pavement. The clouds are dark. I hear thunder on my left and lightning on my right. A light rain comes. We continue on. Five minutes later the rain stops. Lucky. 

After 78 miles, the Dalton Highway begins and it turns to hard packed dirt and gravel. I hit the very first section of dirt and gravel at 50mph. I can feel the front tire and handlebar wiggle as it rolls over each bit of gravel and dirt. Not a complete foreign feeling with my previous light off road experience and the two day BMW class. It's manageable. After a mile, we come upon one of the iconic stops on the Dalton, the sign signaling the start of this infamous road.

It's hard to believe that I'm actually here on the Dalton and at the end of this road is Deadhorse Camp and Prudhoe Bay. We all take our photos at the sign and then get back on the bikes. We have 190 miles to go today and tonight to get to our rooms at Wiseman. It's a five hour ride total and considering we didn't get on the road until 4pm, we're not getting into Wiseman until 10 or 11 PM tonight.

We get back on the road. I'm feeling out these new 50/50 tires on this dirt and gravel road. The handlebars are wiggling slightly but the tires seem to be doing their job. I feel a certain stability and am surprised as hell that I'm going so fast. I'm rolling between 45-55mph. I was tempted to kick it up to fifth to go a bit faster to stay closer to Gustavo but then my rational brain kicked in and said I was going fast enough, keep it in fourth and keep the revs high around 4k. With each mile, I'm constantly surprised by how stable the bike feels. I can feel my confidence growing as ten miles turn to twenty miles, twenty turns to forty. By now, Gustavo is long gone. I can't even see him anymore. Carlos is way behind me. Sometimes I can't even see his headlight. I am essentially riding by myself. At one point, I pull over to wait for Carlos and as I can see his headlight appear, I pull back out on the road and continue on. Is he riding so far behind because he’s tentative on dirt especially while two up? Or is he just keeping his distance because he’s following me and doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall and has no idea what my capabilities are? 

After another 20 miles or so, we pull into Yukon River Camp. 

YRC is the first fuel stop on the Dalton. I have to fuel up with my four gallon tank but the Brazilians skip fueling with their GSA six gallon tanks. They next stop is Coldfoot Camp at 120 miles away. A bit too close to running empty for me if I don’t fuel up here. Along with fuel, Yukon River Camp also have a small gift shop with t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and all the usual stuff stamped with Yukon River Camp and Dalton Highway. They also have a cafeteria with excellent burgers and a very good coconut salmon soup. I wasn’t expecting to stop here long besides fueling up but the Brazilians all order dinner. I get an apple pie ala mode. 

Surprisingly there is another Brazilian here on another GS and they start to chat. He warns us that the road up ahead has been sprayed with Calcium Chloride, a common liquid chemical they use here to keep the dust down on the road during road construction. The result of this Calcium Chloride on the dirt road is a muddy dirt road. And this muddy mixture will stick to every nook and cranny on your bike which must be washed off soon or otherwise it will start to eat away at paint, chrome, and clear coat. I’ve heard stories of this corrosive mixture eating away the clear coat on wheels if left on too long. 

After dinner, we get back on the bike. Carlos come up to me to explain that he’s way behind me because of the dust. “Don’t worry about me,” he says. “You don’t have to wait for me.” Good to know.  

Gustavo takes off like before but not two miles after we leave YRC I see his brake light fire up and he slows down fast. I slow down and am only a couple car lengths before him now.  We have encounter the Calcium Chloride mud portion. The road is now shiny, glistening with the wetness from the Calcium Chloride. I drop down to second gear and slow down to 25mph. Trying to keep a decent distance from Gustavo, I try to loosen up my shoulders and just lightly steer the handle bar through this section. I can see the thin tire threads of Gustavo’s GS carving a line thru the mud. I follow his line as close as I can.  A couple times I can feel the front of my bike wiggle a bit more than I’d like. I lightly pull it back in. I have no idea how long this stretch is. I am just trying to stay in the moment and focus on just one thing - being as smooth as possible on the throttle and on the handle bar. 

Luck is a big part of riding this road. The weather is constantly changing. The construction is constantly changing and hence the road condition is constantly changing. After what was probably four miles max, the mud transitions back to a dry dirt road. Lucky. This mud could have gone on for tens of miles. We kick up the gears and resume our previous speed. Once again, I see Gustavo take off into the distance. 

Another 70 miles of dirt, gravel and mixed pavement, we turn off the Dalton to mark another milestone. At latitude 66º 33’, we have reached the Arctic Circle. I can barely comprehend where I am at. I rode my motorcycle from Raleigh, North Carolina to the Arctic Circle in Alaska! It seems impossible that someone can do this on a motorcycle but yet here I am. Surreal.

We take a bunch of photos and get back on our bikes. We still have another 76 miles to go before we can stop for the night. It’s strange to say “the night” when the sky is still lit like an early evening. 

After 173 miles of dirt, gravel and mixed pavement, I am still cautious about going too fast on the road but I am also thinking “this is very manageable.” But let's not be too over confident. 

After losing sight of Gustavo for miles, I come upon him waiting at an intersection. We’ve arrived at Coldfoot Camp. 

Coldfoot is not much to look at. There is a gas pump for regular gas and diesel. 

We fuel up and I make sure to fill my one gallon fuel bladder. I am almost certain that I would need to use this fuel bladder the next day to make it to Deadhorse. There is also a cafeteria here with food that looks way worse than what was at Yukon River Camp and an old motel with crappy plywood boxes masquerading as rooms here at $250/night. 

Thankfully, we have lodging at Wiseman, a tiny settlement ten miles north of Coldfoot for a much more reasonable $95/night for a simple two single bed room and shared shower and toilet. We fuel up and continue on. This portion of the Dalton directly after Coldfoot is paved for a good ten miles until we turn off to the left on a dirt road into Wiseman. Three miles of dirt and we come upon the Boreal Lodge at just around midnight. 

We’ll spend the night here, get up at 6am and hit the road by 7am so we can make it to Deadhorse Camp to catch a 3:30PM shuttle that will take us to the Arctic Ocean. Not exactly how I would plan this trip but I’m thankful to be going up with these folks. If all goes well tomorrow, I’ll be at the northern most point in Alaska that’s accessible by road.