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Up, Up, Up…and Over

On the Dalton, the Brooks Range of Alaska is the definitive transition to the Arctic, not the Arctic Circle like the Dempster. The craggy, cloud covered peaks, shrouded in mist and pouring rain met us as we headed up the Antigun Pass. Up and up we went in first gear dodging the haul trucks and skirting the avalanche zone. Only the laundress will know how tense we werešŸ˜‚ Up and over we went to a record quick setup for the night due to the rain and very, very, did I say very thick mosquitoes.

Up we went into the clouds with the big rigs!

We woke the next day to sun in the Arctic with amazing views of the Brooks Range north slope and the tundra. We saw a single caribou being stalked by a huge wolf and we happened upon a musk ox chowing down! And we could actually see the pass on our way south!

We awoke in the morning to our first glimpse of the Brooks Range…north slope!
Hey look! It’s a musk ox chowing down. He was not impressed that we interrupted his breakfast.

What a placeā€¦

Amazing, and so worth the miles and miles of hills to get there.
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A Tale of Two Roads

It was the best of roads, it was the worst of roads (with apologies to C. Dickens), but which is London and which is Paris? The Dempster Highway of the Yukon & NWT vs the Dalton Highway of Alaska.

The Dalton was built in 8 weeks, during the 1970’s oil shortage, after vast reserves were discovered in Prudhoe Bay. The Dalton was originally known simply as The Haul Road and it was built that way. Straight up and over everything in its path! We were sometimes climbing in first gear for 10 minutes at a time. About half is paved, and most is rough from the weather and the constant flow of trucks supporting the oil infrastructure at Prudhoe (ironically many of them hauling fuel north to the various work stations).

The Dempster was built to explore for resources and to connect Inuvik via road to the rest of the world. It was built at a slower pace and follows the natural contours of the land it travels through. None of the Dempster’s 550 miles is paved, and much is rough from the weather and the materials used to construct it!

Glaciation is the biggest variation we saw over the 2 roads. The Dalton in Alaska traverses an area called Berengia that was spared the effects of the ice age glaciation. When you hit the Arctic Circle on the Dalton you could be in the Maine woods! It isn’t until you pass over the Brooks Range that you feel like you are in the Arctic. When you pass the Arctic Circle on the Dempster, you ā€œfeelā€ that you are in the Arctic.

Both roads are rough, the Dalton due to its route and the Dempster due to the materials used to construct it.

Both are long out and backs, the Dalton at 830 miles round trip and the Dempster at 1100 miles.

Both are beautiful in their own way, the Dalton has the Brooks Range and the Dempster has the Tombstones, Ogilvies and now the Arctic Ocean.

We found the Dempster road to be ā€˜expansive’ because much of it is Arctic tundra and the Dalton to be ā€˜industrialā€™ since it follows the pipeline and was built quickly as a truck haul road for the pipeline.

You will just need to add both to your bucket list and decide which is London and which is Paris!

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Beep Beep Beep

So, we go into Fairbanks, stock up and head north to the next gravel road, the Dalton Hwy. About 20 miles north of Fairbanks we come across Olnes Pond, a small recreation site for day use and 12 campsites for overnight campers. We grab one of the few remaining sites, set up and settle in for a quiet evening.

At 2 am we are awakened in our quiet little spot by trucks with back-up beepersā€¦and they run continuously for the rest of the night. Unknown to us, our idyllic campsite is next to a gravel pit and just south of a huge road reconstruction project, Alaska road crews apparently work 24 hours a day.

So much for our good night’s sleep.

Our idyllic campsite
The gravel pit across the road…
The road construction site just up the road.
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Eagle, Alaska

We made it into Alaska (yes, the US foolishly let us back in) and promptly took a right turn north on the first gravel road we came to. Sixty-five miles and a few hairpin turns later, we entered the tiny ā€˜city’ of Eagle, not to be confused with the native town next door of Eagle Village, or the suburbs in between, as the locals call it for when you need to move away from the other 86 people living in the area.

The gravel road to Eagle had a few turns!
And drop offs!
And it used to have a snack stop. (Apparently it shut down because the owners died, not because of lack of business)

We camped at the local BLM campground for 2 nights, $10 a night, and explored the area, in 90 degree heatā€¦an Alaska heatwave (we almost got caught skinny dipping, again)!

The town consists mostly of log cabins, even the town hall and church are in old cabins, restored Fort Egbert, a grass airstrip right in town, and a fairly new 20ā€™ish room hotel that looks completely out of place.

The local church.
Town offices.
The town water supply…and you thought it was the gas station.
The sign says it all…notice the telephone booth?
The airstrip. The town office and church are at the far end.
The town of Eagle is on the Yukon River which we have crossed on a ferry, followed, swam in, crossed over a bridge, been our co stant companion for several weeks now…and absolutely loved.

We purchased our most expensive bag of chips, yetā€¦$11. We needed the salt in the hot weatherā€¦that’s our rationalization.

And you thought we were exaggerating!

All in all, we loved Eagle. It is a very small town at the end of a dirt road that isn’t plowed in the winter (it becomes a snowmobile super highway) where people are eeking out a living, very much like Tuktoyaktuk in the Yukon.

I almost forgot! We saw a herd of caribou on our way into Eagle. It was what is know as the Forty Mile herd. Very cool!