Ugh, only 5 hrs of sleep! I'm too sleep deprived for this! Unfortunately, I couldn't fall asleep again; been doing night shift for too long. I didn’t have to wait long before Mat was up, then Kristy. We made a quick breakfast and packed up our stuff. It was a damp campsite so the tent and my sleeping bag were pretty wet. I'm not convinced bivy sacks work for me, my second time using it and both times it just trapped moisture inside, making my sleeping bag damp. Maybe I'll give it one more shot sometime. We hit the road and continued north, stopping at the Arctic Circle for some photos and the trash bin. Before long, we passed by Grayling lake, small puffy clouds were clinging to mountainsides here and there giving a misty and mythical appearance.
 |
| Arctic Circle campground |
 |
| The Dalton Highway and the pipeline |
We were looking for a side road to shoot the rifles and make sure they were still sighted in; we hadn't shot them since the move up here! We found one small, overgrown dirt road just past Grayling lake with a large puddle not too far from the entry. We hopped out to check the depth, it didn't look too deep at all from the first 2/3rds we could see. We decided to go for it and did fine until we got to the far end where the water got deep and pushed up over the car hood... woah! But we made it, until we came around the corner and found another deep puddle. We stopped again, Mat sunk into the mud walking around the puddle/marsh and walked up the road to check it out. He came back reporting there are even more deep puddles further ahead so we decided to turn back and find another side road. We turned the car around and got a nice, steady speed to get back through that first puddle.
 |
| The culprit puddle! |
Sure enough, the water rushed up over the hood right away. We caught a glimpse of our front license plate as the water forced the plate holder off our car and pushed it up over the hood and off to the side, almost like it was saying "adios suckas, I'm outta here!" We made it to the other side of the pond but the car was shuddering and blowing off a lot of steam. I got out to try and locate our missing front license plate but it sank to the bottom and the puddle was too muddy to see where it was. We decided to keep going and try to retrieve it on our way back. We headed north again, revving the engine a little to try to dry off the engine block.
 |
| Fall in the Brooks Range |
Not even a mile down the road we passed a nice gravel road to an empty rock quarry sitting above the road. Well this looks a little easier! We pulled up and found a good place to sight in our rifles. We left the truck idling so as to dry out the engine block. It was a good thing we sighted in the rifle because mine was way high, I wasn't even hitting the target. Mat's was still accurate. I ended up shooting eight rounds and got the rifle sighted in.
 |
| Fall in the Brooks Mountains |
We headed north again. It was a beautiful morning with sun dispersing the misty clouds. We stopped in Coldfoot for some snacks and gas before heading into the heart of the Brooks. We ooo'd and ahh'd over the scenery, stopping to take photos. Didn't see too many hunter camps though. Mt. Sukapak looked amazing, as always. We climbed to the Chandalar shelf, an amazing, wide open valley. This was one recommended spot, easy to walk in the required 5 miles from the highway to rifle hunt. We decided to cross over Atigun pass and check out the north side since we read about a lot of successes to the north. Atigun pass was something else! Super steep incline and decline; it's amazing the semi trucks can do it at all and would be super sketchy in the snow and ice! We watched one truck crawl down the north side before we descended.
 |
| Mt. Sukapak |
 |
| Chandalar Shelf |
We got to Galbraith Lake. There was a road to the west that ended in a campground 2.5 miles from the highway so hunters only have to hike another 2.5 miles to be able to rifle hunt. There were a few hunters camped here. We decide to continue north to check out Pump Station 3. We were back on the haul road when we spotted two dozen Dall sheep on a slope right above the highway. None of them looked legal though. We were soon out of the mountains and onto the north slope, then we hooked in with the Sagavanirktok River. It's absolutely gorgeous up here but seems way to open for caribou. However, the Mile Post talks about all the caribou hunting in the area, Mat had read about and seen photos of successful hunts out here, and we started seeing more hunter camps.
 |
| The North Slope |
 |
| Sagavanirktok River |
We reached Pump Station 3. No sign of caribou but lots of hunting activity. We were only 100 miles south of Deadhorse at 5pm. We decided to drive all the way to the end since we've always wanted to and we wouldn't get very far hiking in today anyway. We continued north and watched the terrain become more flat and desolate. The north slope is amazing and beautiful! We were driving along scanning for critters when Kristy shouts "Musk ox!" Sure enough, there's four of them between us and the river, munching on willows. We stopped and watched them for a while. Eventually, we also noted a young caribou on the west side of the road. A quick glass revealed there was a few more caribou beyond it but the land was so boggy and tussocky that we didn't even dream of hiking out five miles there. All the same, it was an amazing day on the north slope: high thin clouds streaking across the sky and the lightest of breezes; not too hot, not too cold, and no mosquitoes! Must be a rare perfect fall day!
 |
| Muskox! |
We continued north, eventually coming upon some road construction and we had to stop and wait for the pilot car. The flagger talked to us for a bit. He's from Yukon Village but was spending the entire summer flagging for this construction site. He was telling us about getting snow on summer solstice (the same storm we experienced on the Sheenjek river!) and then 85° day three weeks later. We told him about the musk ox we saw, he informed us that he saw some walking by earlier, and a grizzly that walked up river before that. "He didn't heed my stop sign, though," the guy informed us, "he must be a young bear, never listens!" He was a funny dude.
 |
| Construction on the Dalton Highway |
Eventually, the pilot car showed up and we were on our way north again. It was a long construction site, they were raising the road higher. We spotted more musk ox by the river but we couldn't stop due to the line of cars following the pilot car. After finishing the one construction site, we passed by a sign that said "End such-and-such (company name) construction site, start such-and-such (company name) construction site" and were hit immediately with waiting for another pilot car! Weird! We didn’t have to wait too long though and eventually we made it through all the construction, passing by more musk ox. Now we were 20 miles from Deadhorse.
 |
| Marshy North Slope; I can see why the birds love it here so much! |
We pulled into Deadhorse around 7:30PM, a lot later than we expected due to all the construction. It was a bigger town than we imagined but full of industrial buildings and vehicles. Mat likened it to what a world without women would look like: muddy, industrial, void of human-created beauty, and full of trucks and snow plows and cats and all means of big vehicles! I guess it is a world devoid of women anyways, not too many women doing the work up here. But surrounding all the industry, the beauty of the north slope pervades. Big open sky with beautiful cloud formations, various ponds reflecting the sky in the gathering dusk, most with some sort of bird floating on them. It was an ugly, man-made outpost in a beautiful and harsh world that will be here long after we're gone.
 |
| Town of Deadhorse |
 |
| Deadhorse |
 |
| Deadhorse |
We found the gas station, $5.07 per gallon! We put a few gallons in since we were carrying a lot of extra gas in the back. We drove through the rest of town. Three hotels and even a medical clinic! It was a balmy 56°, no wind. The air smelled of sea salt (but not as strong as places further south) mixed with the smell of metal and industry.
 |
| The only gas station in town, $5.13 for a gallon of regular unleaded |
We started our way south again, hitting the construction just right so we didn't wait. We saw more musk ox and stopped to watch them a little more. By this time the sun dropped behind some low clouds and sent purple pink rays of light on the land, it was spectacular. The small lakes and ponds reflected the sky's dramatic display, some of them absolutely clear as glass thanks to the lack on wind. We drove back to a wayside with a pit toilet and primitive camping overlooking the slope. We pitched our tents in the dying pink sky. The landscape is timeless here, very quick to remind one that people and animals have lived here for tens of thousands of years and will be here long after I am gone. The only other place I've been that clearly and prominently makes me think about my own brief time on earth was walking through the back roads of Canyonlands National Park. After dinner overlooking the land, we crawled into bed around 11:30PM.
 |
| 450 miles north of Fairbanks! |
 |
| Gorgeous sunset on the North Slope |
No comments:
Post a Comment