We woke to another blue sky and bright sun day, but with that same strong wind of last night.
The drive south to the Yukon river was uneventful, though beautiful, as again we drove through river valleys flanked by mountains - mountains that we had not seen anything of on the way north.
Again we marveled at the difference a few days had made to the snow cover. Places that 2 days ago were covered by 2+ feet of snow were now bare ground. The roads still had some water in them but where the vehicle drove the water had been largely squashed out to form a smoothish lane of packed clay.
At one point we came across a team of two men connecting a hose to some pipes coming out of the ground so we stopped to see what was up. We had observed pipes, about the size of water pipes, coming out of the ground on both sides of the road at irregular but frequent intervals along the entire length of the road and now we would find out what they were for. Well - I don't think we would have guessed.
The pipes are situated at places where there are culverts or drains running under the road. During the winter the water in these drains freeze, and when the spring thaw arrives the ice in the drain pipe would, unless attended to, be the last thing to thaw thus preventing the draining away of road side water. The pipes allow road gangs, like the two men we saw, to pump hot water through the pipes and thus melt the ice in the drain. I must say we found this a little amazing as there are hundred of places where these pipes emerge from the ground. A huge job.
The Yukon River was still frozen but the surface of the ice was showing clear signs of melting.
South of the Yukon the road became more gravel, than clay and now being dry was a great source of dust. This had one advantage in that now we could see the 18-wheelers coming because of the dust storm they trailed. It was a mixed blessing however, as once a truck passed, we could not see anything.
We stopped for lunch at the junction of the Dalton and Elliot Highways - the end of the Dalton. And there we met a local man out for his first spring ride on his BMW motorcycle. He was kind enough to tell us where we could find a car wash in Fairbanks and remind us that we should clean the mud from out lights and license plates as the local police would otherwise give us a ticket.
Back in Fairbanks our first task was to wash the Tiger. About an hour with a pressure washer got most of the Dalton mud off but I am sure we will have to clean it a few more times before it is finally free of all mud.
We have opted for another motel stay, the same place as last time. They have a spring special going. Two nights for the price of one - $89.00, so we will stay two nights.
