How would you outfit this custom LJ?

[jscherb]

Tomorrow morning (Friday) we set out up the Dalton Highway. It's about 80 paved miles from here to the start of the Dalton, and from there it's 175 unpaved miles to Coldfoot Camp, which is our first day's destination and where we'll spend the night. We're carrying 3 spares, plus a tire plug/patch kit, and 10 gallons of extra fuel. We don't expect to need the fuel, since you can fill up not long before the start of the Dalton, but flats are supposed to be fairly common so we'll see how we do with that.

The second day is Coldfoot to Deadhorse, which is 239 miles, we'll stay the night at Deadhorse. Shouldn't need the fuel for that leg of the journey also, we'll fill up at Deadhorse, but there's not too much reserve in the main tank if something goes wrong, so having the extra fuel is a good idea.

The third day we'll take the morning shuttle from Deadhorse to the Arctic Ocean (unattended tourist travel through the oil field is not permitted). After the shuttle returns us to the Jeep in Deadhorse, we'll do the 239 miles back to Coldfoot and stay the night there.

Fourth day is back to Fairbanks from Coldfoot.

Hopefully all goes as described above and we don't use all of our spares and tire repair options .

If I have internet access in Coldfoot and/or Deadhorse I'll post photos and some details of the trip, otherwise I'll post on Monday night when we return to Fairbanks.

 

[madZJ]

Welcome to Alaska! It's to bad you're not coming down to South Central AK I would love to meet and by you a beer. Perhaps one day I'll make it over to your neck of the woods.

 

[jscherb]

We drove about 250 miles today (Friday) north from Fairbanks; 75 to get to the Dalton Highway, and 175 on the Dalton. We made it to Coldfoot Camp without incident. Here's the start:

Today was mostly drizzling with occasional light rain, so the good news is that there was no dust to contend with from the dirt of the Dalton. It was mud instead; care was required driving on it - if you had to make a quick evasive maneuver to avoid a moose that surprised you as you rounded a turn, there's a real danger you'd slide off the road. Trucks on the road have been courteous, we pulled over and slowed down for oncoming trucks, and most of them did the same for us.

Here's a photo at Dalton mile 75, the Jeep is in the valley between the hills known here as the "roller coaster". The lens makes the hill look lower than it is, it really is a lot like a roller coaster.

The Arctic Circle is at mile 115. There's a pullout there with outhouses and some informational displays. We had our picnic lunch there, but because of the mosquitoes, we ate in the Jeep.

Coldfoot Camp is the only place for gas and lodging between the start of the Dalton and the end, so that's where we're staying. You might recognize the main building from Ice Road Truckers:

The "inn" at Coldfoot is a modular prefab building with 52 small rooms in it. Here's the Jeep parked at the front corner of the inn. The mud on the spare tire is over 1/8", the photo doesn't really do it justice. I had to wash the rear window at the Arctic Circle stop, the rear wiper just couldn't keep up. I can't even see out of the windows on either side of the barn door, it makes me realize how much they add to the rearward visibility of the Safari Cab .

Tomorrow we'll continue up the Dalton to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. It's 239 miles from here, pretty much all of which are unpaved.

 

[jscherb]

Today we drove from Coldfoot camp up to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. No complications today either.

There was lots of interesting scenery today, starting with this rainbow. Heather said I should stop and pick up the pot of gold at the end of it, but I didn't bring any gold panning supplies on the trip .

Next was Atigun Pass, the highest road pass in Alaska at about 4800 feet. It's always featured on Ice Road Truckers because of the difficulty, and I can understand why. Here's the approach, the road across the photo is is a 12% grade up to the summit, which is above the clouds.

It was snowing at the top of the pass.

The weather was clearer during the descent to the North Slope.

The tundra of the North Slope begins below Atigun Pass, and continues about 160 miles from there to the Arctic Ocean.

 

[jscherb]

At one point on the North Slope we were stopped by road construction. We had to wait for a pilot car to follow, unfortunately the pilot car was getting a flat changed. They actually needed to swap a tire on the rim, here's how they do it on the tundra:

First the crane truck the use to offload supplies lifts the front end of the pickup off the ground:

Then they break the bead of the tire off the rim with the hydraulic foot of the crane truck:

Tire irons then remove and replace the tire the old fashioned way. The crane truck has a compressor and air tools so it's easy to inflate and reinstall the wheel/tire on the truck.

Also notice the workers are wearing mosquito nets over their heads. There's a reason the mosquito is called the unofficial State Bird of Alaska .

 

[jscherb]

We spotted a wild herd of musk oxen just outside Deadhorse.

 

[SSF556]

Great stuff and be safe...

 

[jscherb]

Who wants to go for a swim?

Before you answer, this is another view from the same spot. Icebergs.

All I'll say is that the Arctic Ocean is very cold even in July, but at least the water was still liquid, unlike the icebergs in the background. YOLO!

 

[jscherb]

After joining the polar bear club, we departed Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse and headed back to Coldfoot, where we're spending the night. The Jeep continues to perform great, but we did have one "mechanical scare" about 50 miles south of Deadhorse - all of a sudden a loud screeching noise from the front end. My first thought was wheel bearing, but after listening to the sound at varying speeds I decided it probably was a stone caught between a front caliper and the stone guard, so I stopped and backed up about 100 feet. Problem solved, it was a stone and backing up disloged it.

It was snowing again at Atigun Pass, more like sleet today. Here's a view facing south off the pass.

One of the nice things about taking a capable vehicle on a trip like this is that if you find somewhere that looks like a nice place to go, you can just do it. Today in the Koyukuk River:

Tomorrow we leave Coldfoot and head back to Fairbanks.

 

[jscherb]

Some more wildlife today - an artic fox in his summer red, and caribou.

Still hoping to see a moose and a grizzly. Others we've talked to yesterday and today have seen both.

 

[Jim K in PA]

Great shots, Jeff. Thanks for sharing.

And you are correct on having ability to explore. You can drive the haul road in a minivan at the right time of year, providing the weather cooperates. But if things go pear shaped, or you want to venture off the beaten path, having a capable vehicle is more than a good choice.

Keep the pics coming.

 

[Haggis]

Diggin' the photos and the tale!

 

[jscherb]

Today we drove from Coldfoot back to Fairbanks, completing our almost 1000-mile round trip to from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean.

It was raining most of the day, so I didn't stop to take too many photos. Here's one of the Roller Coaster:

And this one of the sign at the beginning of the Dalton. We didn't get this photo on the way up because a truck was parked in front of the sign.

The very first thing we did when we got back to civilization is look for a coin-op car wash to get the Dalton crud off the Jeep. It literally came off in clumps, took me 5 cycles of the washer to get most of it off. Before and after:

One piece of equipment required for the Dalton is a good set of wipers with lots of washer fluid, including the rear. Here's the view out the back near the end of the Dalton. The windows on each side of the barn door are completely opaque with mud:

The outside view, the washer/wiper in the barn door of the Safari Cab works pretty well:

Even after the car wash the Jeep is far from clean, but at least we can get in and out without getting mud all over ourselves.

 

[jscherb]

We're leaving Fairbanks in the morning and starting back to the lower 48, back over the Alaska Highway. Here's the Google Maps version of the trip, we've done about 5300 miles so far, and about 4200 to get back home.

We'll get to the Chicago area by the weekend. I've got to stop at two of the companies that are working on bringing some of my designs to market, they're along the way, so with that, it'll be sometime next week before we get all the way home to upstate NY.

Since the return trip is pretty much the same as the trip up here, unless anything especially interesting happens, I probably won't post much more from this trip.


One note about the Dalton... all of the guidebooks I've read said that chipped/cracked windshields are almost a certainty, and flats are highly likely. We didn't have any windshield damage, but as a precaution against that every time a truck was approaching us I slowed almost to a stop and pulled over as far as was safe. The shoulders are very soft and steep, it wouldn't be hard to catch it wrong and roll over, so you've got to be careful not to pull over too far. I also followed other vehicles at a longer distance than usual to avoid stones that might be thrown back.

We also technically didn't have any flats. I told Heather as we were starting out that I thought the main risk for flats was random metal parts falling off trucks - bolts, etc. I say "technically", because after we got back to Fairbanks I gave the Jeep a good once-over to make sure everything was ok for our return trip starting tomorrow. I found a bolt in one of the rear tires. The head was in a groove level with the tread, and the shaft of the bolt punctured the tire. It looks like a 5/16 or so bolt. The tire is holding air just fine, and I considered just running on it tomorrow, but I decided to change it because I don't want it to start leaking at an inconvenient time, like during a rainstorm. The tire with the bolt in it will still serve as a spare since it's holding air just fine. The other good news about the tire with the bolt is that both rear tires were slated for replacement after this trip, so it's no loss.

 

[Ryan Matthes]

Awesome posts - I am doing this trip (mostly) in Summer of '16 as currently planned(ing) in my LJ. Did you do any camping along the way?