Day 30 - We woke after a great nights sleep to a rainy morning. The breakfast at the B&B was wonderful: eggs, sausage, bacon, French toast, milk and grape juice. We checked out about 10:30 and then rode to the visitors center at Denali National Park, looked around and mailed off a few postcards. We stopped for fuel at a gas station in the busy park entrance area and it was 50% more than anywhere else, so we waited on fuel until we got to Nenana. It was still raining but it was amazingly beautiful country.
We rolled into Fairbanks and went to Fred Meyers and purchased a 2+ gallon spare gas can (we already had been carrying a 5L spare can since Washington State). We went to lunch at Boston Pizza Company and then went back across the street to Fred Meyers to fill our tanks and gas cans before heading into the wild.
We then headed up the Steese Hwy, to the Elliot Hwy, to the Dalton Hwy. The Steese was a full-sized highway, there were a few small unpaved patches on the Elliot Hwy, but the Dalton Hwy was immediately a dirt road. We had nice weather as the rain let up when we were about half way up the Elliot Hwy. The Dalton Hwy was mostly drying-out until we got to the Yukon River crossing were we stopped for gas.
Continuing north after the Yukon River Crossing the road was horrible for a couple of miles. There was recent water truck wetting of the mud gravel mix with chloride. Although it was not even started to be packed-down, luckily it was recently graded and most of the crew had quit for the night. There was loose, deep, slippery wet gravel and grading piles along that 2 mile stretch. It was sloppy bad and we were hoping we didn’t see too much more of those conditions.
The roads became nice semi-dry dirt roads or gravel again with about 50% + paved surface until we got to the Arctic Circle. Along one of the sections of dirt we saw some animal moving slowly across the road. When we got to it we saw that it was a porcupine shuffling across! At the Arctic Circle marker we stopped for obligatory pictures. The view on the way to the Arctic Circle was beautiful with places like Finger Mountain, mountains covered with Fireweed, etc.
After the Arctic Circle it was 99% paved up to Coldfoot Camp where we spent the night. We got there about 22:30. We met Mark who was working as Cashier, Waiter, Busboy, and Hotel Front Desk clerk. He is a rider from Florida but didn't bring his bike during his summer job in Coldfoot.We asked a State Trooper eating there if he carries Bear Spray, he answered, "Yes, I spray them with lead 12 gauge slugs." This seems to be a common refrain.
While we were eating our dinner we met 3 guys who had just returned from Deadhorse. They said the rain on the road on their way up made it the worst riding in their lives, but then when the rain stopped and it cleared for their return trip, it was maybe the best ride of their lives. The forecast for the next 5 days was rain, and that meant mud and very slow going, so we decided that in order to stay on schedule and make it to our Ferry Reservation in Skagway we needed to head back to Fairbanks in the morning and not attempt the rest of the Dalton to Deadhorse.
The hotel room was small but nice and clean with a super small toilet shower room with the shower being very tight and there was a convenient sink in the bedroom. We slept well each in our own twin beds after a 12 hour day of riding.
