Aug 31, 2009 - To the Arctic Ocean

We meet Ralf Dobrovolny, owner and operater of the 1st Alaska Outdoor School . He'll be our guide for our 3-day journey to Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea. Ralf is a fascinating guy, with tons of experience in the Alaskan bush....hunter, guide, naturalist, survival training expert...he does it all, a true Alaskan.



   Travelling north on the "Haul Road" ( a.k.a. the Dalton Highway, the gravel road which travels from Fairbanks north across the Brooks Range to the town of Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay ), Ralf shares with us his extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna, geology, and history of Alaska. We learn all about the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which the Haul Road parallels for much of it's length. Spruce forests slowly give way to lichens and low brush, as we approached the "foothills" of the Brooks Range...the autumn colors of the alpine tundra are incredible.   

Crossing the "Mighty Yukon" River; Entering the Arctic Circle, where, with much pomp and ceremony, Ralf presents each of us with a "Cross The Circle Certificate". We lunch in Coldfoot, originally built as a construction camp for the workers who built the Haul Road, then continue on to our stopover for the first night, the gold rush mining town of Wiseman, located in a spectacular setting in the valley of the Koyukuk River.  Overnight in a cozy log cabin at the Arctic Getaway, an historic B&B run by a lovely German couple 

Next morning, continuing northward, making our way up to Attigun Pass.  Road conditions are pretty dicey over the pass, with wind, snow and near white-out conditions.  We spot several small groups of muskox as we travel the wide, open valley that leads up and over the pass and out onto the North Slope of the Brooks range. 

On the north side of the range, we pass many small groups of caribou grazing in the arctic tundra.

At Deadhorse, we tour the oilfields and "Contracter's Row" - all the worlds major oil producers represented here, including BP, Shell, Exxon Mobile, and Haliburton. Oil and gas pipes run everywhere,  mobile oil drilling rigs dot the skyline, and tons of heavy equipment.  All the semi-permanent structures are built on floating pilons, due to permafrost, and the mobile dormitories for the oil rigger's are transported on rails to the drilling sites.  Unique tundra vehicles called Rolligons use low-pressure rubber rollers built specifically to navigate over the arctic tundra, and are capable of carrying up to 30-ton loads without disturbing the delicate spongy muskeg. 

  A short busride from Deadhorse to the shores of Prudhoe Bay and the Beaufort Sea.  Jeanne dips a toe in ( One must, mustn't one? ), while several young fellows strip down to their undershorts and go for The Full Monty - a baptism in the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean.  In late afternoon, looking south, the sawtooth ridge of the Brooks Range, it's peaks dipped in pink and fiery orange, expands practically from horizon to horizon.

  Morning in Wiseman, Ralf guides us on a walk along the Koyukuk; Weather slowly lifting as we drop out of the Brooks range and descend to the Yukon Crossing, where we eat lunch in another one of the old haul road construction camps, now a "budget" hotel for travellers on the Dalton Highway;  A walk down to the Mighty Yukon in afternoon. Ralf says that in dead of winter, when the river freezes up, it becomes a super-highway of snowmachines and mushers.  Stop at Finger Mountain, a landmark used by bushpilots,  a conspicuous rock formation, a granite slab of rock (  known in geology-speak as a tor ), standing upright on the the crest of the hill, it is shaped like an finger extended...and it actually "points" aviators south towards Fairbanks...