Fairbanks, AK

I made it to Fairbanks today, and have a long way to go. From here to the town of Coldfoot is 254 miles, and from Coldfoot to Deadhorse is 241 miles. And these miles will be ridden on the North Slope Haul Road, also known as the Dalton Highway. It's mostly dirt, and in the winter has been on the show Ice Road Truckers. My motorcycle is not particularly suited to this road, but I know FJRs have made it up this road before, so I'm definitely going to try. Weather will probably be the determining factor--if it's sunny I'll probably make it, but if it's raining I probably won't. It's sunny now in Fairbanks at 9:49 pm, but the weather in AK is too dynamic to predict what it will be like along the haul road, so I'm just going to go forward as if it will be sunny.

Tonight I'm staying in a dorm room at the University of Alaska. No! That's not why! It's because they rent rooms out during the summer, and they are particularly motorcycle friendly, and very inexpensive--my room is only like $57 and there's wifi and free laundry. It's kind of weird being in a dorm again, but news about this place has spread to all the motorcycle forums so it's become an ad hoc meeting place for bikers riding the Dalton. I met Joe and Fred who had just finished the ride and they gave me a lot of valuable information about conditions and camping and such, and how to handle all the big rigs that regularly use the road. Basically, you pull over and let them pass. They said there's a tour you can do in Deadhorse of the oil fields and the Arctic Ocean. In fact it's the only way you can see the Arctic Ocean because they won't let anyone out there for security reasons, or so I'm told.

I need to clear something up about my destinations in Alaska. Palmer is where my Sportsmobile is, on my friends Don's property. Don and his wife Tina own Mica Guides, which is about an hour north of Palmer in Glacier View. Glacier View is where most of the action is, and where I camped out last night. Here's a picture of the operation--he also just opened the espresso stand:

The white blob behind the trees in the picture is the Matanuska Glacier, where all the ice climbing happens and where I spent the summer taking pictures in 2010.