At midnight last night even though the sun had set the twilight was bright enough to take photos. I guess we are in the land of the midnight sun.

Before leaving Deadhorse this morning we took a drive around the town - literally, as there is essentially only one main street and it circles a lake. During the process we got to revisit some of the world's largest pot holes and observed a large machine the size of a four story building being transported down the street.

Just out of town the CAT tractors were again towing sleds, this time the cargo looked like a string of motel rooms and they were towing these across the highway. Quite a sight.

The weather was good with light cloud and sun, as we started our return journey. The clearer weather afforded wonderful views of the Arctic Plain and then the Brooks mountains as we travelled south. Also the roads were drier and in noticeably better condition than yesterday. I was more than a little surprised that a day could make such a difference to the roads.

Again today I got to practice my CB skills, and I can now claim to be an expert having had a conversation with one truck driver about living in Washington, he came from Seattle and another about a sister who lives in Gig Harbor.

As we entered the north end of the Atigun River valley, the sky over the mountains was mostly clear with a few fluffy white clouds. The drive through the valley to the pass was spectacular, and we marveled at what we had not been able to see the previous day. The same snow blower and grader were at work on the pass road, the road was covered with slush but we had no problems negotiating the pass, no chains either. Though we noticed that some of the 18-wheelers were still chaining up.

South of Atigun the road flowed through the valley of the Dietrich River, which we found to be flanked on both sides by more spectacular mountains. On our northward journey we saw none of those.

Just before a refueling stop at Coldfoot Nina insisted we take a detour to a hamlet named Wiseman, a past gold rush town that is now not quite derelict. This involved a 5 mile drive over muddy roads covered with 2 feet of slushy snow. I was really pleased our vehicle was a 4x4!!.

About 10 miles south of Coldfoot we stopped at a pullout for the night. The sun was shining and we found it pleasant to stand around in the sun for sometime but there was a strong wind blowing so it was not yet a day to sit outside and have a beer.