This morning in our motel room was a time to catch up with emails, journal entries and talk to Rick and Brendon, consequently we got a late start from Fairbanks.
Fairbanks struck us as a disorganized town, the streets curve in all kinds of directions, the railways system seems to cut right through the town, and now that most of the snow has melted the clutter of backyards and industrial lots is visible. A lot of shops have gone, or are, going out of business. Seems like the economic downturn has hit Fairbanks.
The highway north out of Fairbanks is also a bit messy. To start with one follows the Steese Highway towards Circle turning off at Fox. Then onto the Elliot Highway to Manley Hot Springs eventually intersecting with the start of the Dalton Highway about 85 miles from Fairbanks. Both the Steese and Elliot highways are paved but have been damaged by the cold - frost heaves again - and are quite bumpy and in places pot holed. They wind through hill country north of Fairbanks with regular views of the Alaskan Pipe Line.
The Dalton of course is a dirt road and has a some what fearsome reputation for the rough surface, sharp rocks - which tear up tires - and big trucks. So it was with some nervous anticipation that we started down that road.
The first few miles were quite rough and we met our first few trucks within those miles. Nina decided that she would count the trucks we pass - we are up to 17, and we have another crack in the windshield. At about mile 20 and again at mile 40 we encountered paved sections that extended about 5 miles each. The first of these is apparently old and was in very bad condition with significant frost heave damage; the second was like a new regular road.
At mile 57 the road crosses the Yukon River on a wood decked bridge that slopes down from the south bank to the north bank - we have never before been on a bridge that was also a hill. The Yukon is still white and we assume frozen, though we did not test it. A few miles further at mile 60 we turned into the entrance of the campground at which we had hoped to spend the night only to find all but the parking lot under a couple of feet of snow. We know the procedure now so we decided to spend the night in the parking lot.
Across the parking lot from us is a 2 inch pipe and large faucet with a 2 inch hose attached, water is dribbling from the hose - it looks like it is a spring. When we arrived there was a water tanker truck filling from the hose and later in the evening a security guard turned up with three of those office water fountain bottles and filled them from the hose.
A quick foray into the forest resulted in a good supply of firewood and soon after a camp fire was alight. For dinner we got a little ambitious, but succeeded in cooking an omelet in our cast iron dutch-oven over the camp fire.
