At noon, our motorcycle tour group started our 240 ride south from Deadhorse to Coldfoot. .
Above: Arctic Fox on the haul road ten miles south of Deadhorse. I was riding behind Val, and Colin and Shirley (scoll for pics). They were good spotters and stopped for this fox.
Above: Caribou on the tundra off the Haul Road, 30 miles south of Deadhorse. The north slope caribou herd numbers about 30,000. Here are some of the outliers. Franklin Butte is in the background.
Above: Rental car off the Haul Road, 50 miles south of Deadhorse. Seeing this car on the tundra, I did a double take. How did it get there?
At the top of the rise on the road ahead, I observed a man standing. I rode up to him. He was dressed like every Lancia driver I've ever seen at a rest stop while motorcycling on the Autostrade de Fiore, running from Nice to Genoa: expensive loafers, two button open collar white shirt with gold chain around the neck, tailored, pleated tan pants, and a very expensive, light-tan jacket.
On seeing me ride up, the man smiled, and shook his head. I asked what happened, and perhaps because his lack of English knowledge - or, did he not want to admit he fell asleep while driving? - he just shrugged. Then, he asked me (he did speak some English!) if there were trucks coming. I said, there surely would be some trucks coming shortly... a given on the Haul Road. He then said that he thought one of them could pull him back on the road. That was about all I got out of him. I asked again if he was OK. He said he was. He looked OK. There were trucks, with radio transmission capability behind me. There wasn't much I could do but ride on.
I rode back to take the above image. I didn't observe any dents in the body of the car, which would certainly be observable if the car had rolled. Nor, could I discern any tracks through the tundra from the Haul Road to where the car was resting. Considering how far the car was from the road, this situation was a real mystery.
I waved at the man as I rode past him again, but he didn't respond. He might not have been happy with me taking a picture of his misfortune. But, hey... this is remote, hostile territory. There are no services. Its kind of dumb driving a rented car alone on this road in your tailored clothing and Bruno Magli loafers. No... his is an incident to be recorded and disseminated to anyone considering a drive on the Haul Road. It ain't your normal Sunday drive.
One thing is certain, someone is up for a really big towing charge.
Above: Tom rides the Haul Road, pipeline on the left, into the Brooks Range. I look at this image, good as it is, and it still doesn't do justice to the stunning scenery. Without the pipeline and the haul road, no one would see the vista being observed here.
The road is wet... and though the rain threatens, the road wetness comes from a water truck working with a couple of graders. This segment of wet road was probably 20 miles long... and slick. My speed over this segment was around 35 mph. I'm glad we didn't experience rain in quantities on the Haul Road.
Before this image was taken, and before the wet road, I pulled up beside Pat, one of our riders stopped along the side of the Haul Road, riding a BMW 650 GS. She looked concerned... her "out of fuel" lamp was flashing off and on. There should be no real concern about this as Jethro was behind us...(twenty... forty minutes ?) with a supply of fuel. I suggested she start up again... it might just be a malfunction, since I assumed all of the tour participant bikes had been refueled in Deadhorse (a wrong presumption?). I said I'd ride behind and keep her company if her bike stopped. She agreed, thanked me, and rode on towards the designated fuel spot at Atigun Pass, to which point I followed her all the way, though she gained on me on the wet surface.
Above: Atigun Pass, Brooks Range Tanker and bikes on the haul road. A 26 wheeler, one trailer ... a big truck. There were many "oversized" vehicles on the Haul Road.
Its an oddity of the north slope that the oil drilled there must be refined in the lower 48 (not 55) and then shipped back up to Alaska to be consumed as gasoline. The molecules of petroleum in the pictured truck are, in a sense, coming back home.
Above: Jay, at Atigun pass. Brooks Range peaks, looking northwest, in the background.
Jay, originally from Massachusetts, is a sales executive for a medical supply company in South Florida. He and his wife have a nine year old daughter. He and some friends have started a factoring company with offices throughout the United States.
Above: Tour leader, Nicole, riding by Sukapak Mountain, Brooks Range, about 20 miles north of Coldfoot on the Haul Road. From Atigun pass, the Haul Road descends north through a glacial cut valley, paralleling the Koyukuk river, on a sixty mph graded road. On the rider's left were six or eight peaks similar to the one shown in this image. The Brooks Range. Who knew that this spectacular scenery was here? Only a mile to Nicole's right is Gates of the Arctic National Park, where there are no roads and no park services... and where the scenery is likely even better. Alaska. You can't look in any direction without being wow-ed.
Above: At a construction road block. Riding tandem on a BMW R1200 GS are Colin and Shirley, from Dorset, UK. Colin, a near life long motorcycle rider, and Shirley motorcycle all over the world. They rode most recently in Morocco.
From London, Colin ran the private client business at British brokerage firm, Vikers Dacosta, until it was acquired by Citigroup in the late '80's. I remembered that acquisition, though it was not part of "my world," when employed at Citicorp at the time. I chided Colin that we worked for the same company, but, Colin said, "not for long." He left Vikers/Citicorp immediately after the acquisition and has been retired, riding motorcycles around the world with Shirley, ever since. Looks like he made the right move to retire when he did!
At right, in yellow/green, Val. Val is from Perth, Australia and is on a four month trek. She (and Colin and Shirley) started her motorcycle ride in Portland, OR, joining Rob and Nicole as they moved their summer Motoquest Tours office from Oregon to Anchorage. After our near two week ride to Prudhoe Bay and back to Anchorage, Val has booked a cruise back to Seattle through the inside passage, after which, she will visit friends in the eastern United States, and then travel to the UK to visit relatives in Dorset... coincidentally, the home grounds of Colin and Shirley.
Note from Val's feedback to the "Addendum" section of today's log, a web site www.travellingval.blogspot.com which chronicles her trip.
I know well, from having lived five years in Oz, how the Ozes like to travel. Val is pretty much the norm for those folks... in addition to being a real nice member of our tour group.
Standing side view, Jay (scroll up to prior pic). Riding behind in lime green and silver helmet, Brian (featured later in more detail with along with a better pic).
