The Artic Ocean

Welll obviously from the last post you know we made it. No trouble with the little SUV. This is me in the Artic Ocean. Notice the ice of the ocean in the background. Oh, you can't see it? Well, thats because our ace photographer Kim took the picture and assured me the ice was visible. The other pic is of us crossing the Artic Circle. Deadhorse is about 400 more miles north. This picture was taken by a Bureau of Land Management person who greets people at the wayside there. She had practice taking pics of people with the sign visible.

On the way up we stopped for gas at Coldfoot. Next civilization - Deadhorse 244 miles away. The town of Coldfoot is made up of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge/Gates of the Artic National Park Vistor Center on one side of the highway and a resturant, gift shop, gas station on the other. Surprisingly gas was only about a dollar more per gallon than Fairbanks. The road before Coldfoot was paved for a time, then turned into gravel. After Coldfoot is almost all gravel until just outside Deadhorse. Strangely, the roads in the town of Deadhorse are gravel. In someplaces the highway gravel is packed so hard and smooth its almost like pavement. At others its more like a normal gravel road. At still other places its like a washboard or worse - many potholes some of them large. In places I could drive 50mph, but the average was around 35 to 40. In the bad areas 25 mph was pushing it. The trucks hauling to Deadhorse cruise along at 50 no matter what. They have larger tires with more plys so they hold up better as well as much better suspension systems. I kept an eye on the mirrors and would pull over to let them pass. When they approached from the opposite direction, it is custom for cars and trucks to move way over to the side. After about an hour on the gravel north of Coldfoot, I checked my side mirrors and no trucks. I decided to check the rear view mirror and discovered nothing but black. The rear window had become so covered with dust and mud that it was completely opaque. It stayed that way until we returned.