Anchored down in Anchorage

Denali National Park is a 'Must Do' for any visitor to Alaska, but as we rode past the entry, the hoards of 'Blue Rinses' and kids turned us off. That, and you can only ride 15 miles into the park before having to pay a large sum of money to take the shuttle bus. Stopping further south we managed to get some photos of the cloud shrouded Mt McKinley (Denali) before continuing onto Anchorage.

Mt McKinley, Denali National Park

So you'd think things would be easing up, a little less stressful being this close to the end. In desperate need of a beer, and being a Friday night, Mike and I head out in Anchorage. We've got the low down on where the live music's at, we've changed out of mucky riding gear and we even went to the trouble of washing. We walk six blocks to find an ATM. My mood turns from bad to worse when I can't withdraw $100 (Don't worry, this was to last me a few days, I wasn't going to spend it all on beer). I try again, it will give me $60. Stupidly I look at the balance. -$1872. Ouch! My monthly 'allowance' should have gone in few days ago. Had I really spent it all in two days?

In a foul mood we walk another block to get that beer. What do you know, with no USA identity you need your passport. We can't convince the bouncer that we're older than the 21 years we obviously look (This adventure has taken years off, evidently) so have to traipse back to the Hostel.

As a result of our mood and the fact that we did end up getting that beer (after walking 21 blocks), Saturday turned into a duvet day. Lazing in bed with a hangover and afterwards, bike chores.

Still miserable on Sunday, the rain not helping our moods, Mike headed off to Tok while I decided to stay in Anchorage and sort out my financial woes. It was time to check the dreaded bank balance. Ah ha, it would appear that I had been feeding the population of Caracas, Venezuela for a few days. I was kind of glad that it wasn't my financial mismanagement that had lead to my money troubles but with only $32 in my wallet, a credit card that was nearly maxed out and having only one night's accommodation paid for, I was kind of in a pickle.

But as a guy once told me in a Hostel in San Diego, years ago, when I had less cash and no credit card, 'Something always turns up', it was chin up and get on with it. By 10am Monday morning I had a job spring cleaning a Motorhome for $100. Not bad for five hours work. I also get fed and watered and taken on a rather long scenic drive.

Seeing as how the bank wouldn't send me a replacement card (That would be sent to my friend's house in London who happened to be on 3 weeks holidays, great timing) or refund the stolen money for some time, my best chance of escaping Anchorage before the winter was to try and catch up with Mike, at least Mike had a credit card that wasn't almost full. With it still raining and after having thanked the staff at the hostel who had continually tried to put a smile on my face, I rode out of Anchorage on Tuesday morning.

I hadn't heard from Mike since he had left but I figured if I kept emailing him with what had happened and where I hoped to meet up with him, he might wait for me. Five hours down the road I see Mike's bike parked outside a campground in Tok. For the first time in days I've got something to smile about. Bless him, Mike had been emailing me since Sunday afternoon to tell me he was waiting in Tok for me, but for some strange reason, his emails were bouncing back. As a last ditch effort, he had parked his bike on a road that he knew I'd be passing on. And boy was I happy to see it.

Been there, got the t-shirt!

Caribou and oil pipes, that's Prudhoe Bay.

The tundra around the oil field is very barren yet the Caribou are everywhere. We even see some Arctic Swans, just like normal ones but bigger. Then it's time for some postcards and souvenir shopping. If I've ridden all this way, I want the t-shirt! We get our photo taken for the post office wall of fame (Which I guess the locals all look at and laugh, thinking we're mad) and decide we can't be bothered cooking. And as it's already 7pm we may as well celebrate in style. $20 each for a buffet dinner, but by damn it was worth it. New York steak that was delicious, and a really good salad bar. Plus we were allowed to take food for the road. The restaurants in the only two hotels in Deadhorse certainly look after their clientèle.

A photo for the Post Office wall of fame, Deadhorse.

It was 8pm before we turned around to head south. Passing Galbraith Lake we decide to skip the mosquitoes and get back over the pass into the mountains aiming for Coldfoot. The ride was one of the most memorable of the entire trip for me. The light from the midnight sun was beautiful as was riding up through the mountains. We rode until almost 2am, the sun never setting but weirdly the light changed from an 'evening' kind of light to a 'morning' kind of light. It was so beautiful. If my eyes weren't falling out of my head I think I would have liked to kept on riding all night.

The evening light on the North Slope.

The Dalton Highway was one of the best gravel roads we have ridden on and for me, one of the most scenic. The trick was I figured, to have the appropriate vehicle with the appropriate tyres and of course be able to ride the thing. And we met some interesting characters on the way up. But it was time to head back south and towards the end of the adventure. In Fairbanks it was time for a shower for both us and the bikes and Mike finally changed his tyres. Next stop Anchorage.

Dawn light, nearing 2am just before Coldfoot.

It's the journey not the destination!

For the entire ride up the Alaskan Highway, any other riders that we'd met have been going on about how rough the roads were, how rough the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse was, telling me this as is if they I shouldn't attempt it. It's slippery, full of potholes and the trucks are just downright dangerous, not slowing down to pass. This made me a little nervous about the final stretch of our little adventure. Would the bike break down on the 900 miles of gravel up to Deadhorse and back? Would I have an accident so close to the finish line etc....? But as I finally got around to telling one particular biker, 'Hey, we'd survived riding through Bolivia in the wet season, nothing could be worse than that!'

The Dalton Highway, a good gravel road!

Either we got lucky or these other riders just weren't up to the task. We managed to miss the rain that makes the road so slippery, we arrived just after the grader had been through, so no deep ruts of gravel, and what do you know, the trucks slowed down for us.
Other people had said to us 'Why do you want to go to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay? There's nothing there but an oil refinery!' Well for us it was a must. It was the end of the line, from tip to top. It wasn't about the destination so much as it was about the journey, but we had to finish somewhere.
So we set off from Fairbanks at the reasonable hour of midday and meandered our way through the many roadworks and potholes, stopping briefly to chat to other riders, most of whom had made it to the Arctic Circle and decided that that was far enough.

Another imaginery line to cross, the Arctic Circle

Ourselves at the Arctic Circle got lucky. An extended family travelling up from Anchorage in their motorhome were so excited at meeting us at the end of our journey, they fed us sandwiches and gave us beer for us to celebrate. Ham sandwiches beat pot noodles any day of the week.

We ran into Jeffrey, who we'd shared a tent pitch with in Watson Lake and I was very glad to see that he had made it all the way to Deadhorse as he seemed a little wary about the road, like I was, after listening to all the stories. Jeffrey warned us the mosquitoes get bad on the North Slope, and he wasn't far off.
Our first night we pitched at Galbraith Lake, overlooking the Arctic tundra. I would liked to have stayed awake to watch the changing sky - passing rain storms, which were thankfully in the distance - and the midnight sun, but the mosquitoes kept us well and truly wrapped up in our tent and I couldn't help but fall asleep, despite it still being light.

Galbraith Lake, and mosquitoes!

It was exciting, our last day's ride before reaching Deadhorse! I'd booked a tour for 2pm that takes you to the Arctic Ocean and drives you around two of the sixteen oil fields on the North Slope. It's the only way to get to the Arctic Ocean. We'd heard that the last 50 miles into Deadhorse were hard (worse than the rest of the highway apparently) and I'll admit that they weren't the easiest 50 miles we'd ridden. But we were still making good time for our 2pm appointment to the end of the road. That was until Mike got a puncture in his 'beyond bald' rear tyre (He was carrying a brand new tyre but didn't want to wear it out on the sharp edged gravel roads, so had refused to change them until after the Dalton Highway). Fortunately we didn't have any banditos about to shoot us here and we manage to get it plugged with no dramas. Pulling into the carpark with five minutes to spare for our tour, the BMW's next stunt was to run out of petrol, maybe Herr Bertie was doing his best to prolong to the adventure.
Loaded onto the bus after passing our security checks and an introductory video, we're given the tour of the oil field. It's obvious that most of the passengers aboard are there for one thing only, to get to the Arctic Ocean. So the tour guide does his best to make the oil field sound as interesting as possible, which I guess, it is, and we arrive at the ocean. After being instructed that if we hear the horn of the bus we're to gather into a group and head for the bus in an orderly manner, no running, as there is a bear in the area, we're allowed out. Mike and I prove to be the not-so-hardcore ones of our group and only dip our toes in the water. The other few passengers get changed into their swimsuits and lay down (It's very shallow and to actually go swimming you need to walk out a couple of miles) in the below 1 degree temperature water. Hmmm....... I guess each to their own. Mike and I instead crack open the beer and celebrate, the end of the line!

Celebrating in the Arctic Ocean!