The ride...finally!

Hey everyone,
We left Fairbanks Tuesday morning, spent a night in Coldfoot and arrived in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay on Wednesday 12th around 4pm where the temperature was about 32F. What can I tell you about the ride up there?...All I can say is that, I asked for adventure and I got it!

Fairbanks is located 566.9 miles from Prudhoe Bay. The only way to get there besides flying is to take the Dalton highway or also known as the"Haul Road" which is 70 miles north of Fairbanks. The Dalton highway is the main supply route for Prudhoe Bay oilfields. The road conditions are so bad that most rental car companies won't allow you to drive on it. Coldfoot is 327 miles from Fairbanks and is the last gas station until Prudhoe Bay.
So imagine, sitting in the back as a passenger for over 12 hours, squeezed between Chris and the extra gas tank he had stripped to the Buell, trying to film and take pictures at the same time!
Riding on the Dalton highway was quite an experience. We rode on pavement, gravel, mud, dirt, potholes, over and down mountains and valleys in some freezing cold temperatures...We shared the road with large tractor-trailers that usually left clouds of dust or mud behind them...and even though, we came close to crashing a couple of times riding 15miles/hr in slippery mud, we thought the scenery through the Arctic tundra to the farthest north point of Alaska was unbelievable!

Chris finally left Prudhoe Bay this morning on Thursday 13th about ninenish (Alaska time) to get back on the Dalton highway, headed South, but this time in the rain...I am not quite sure of the exact time since he had to get gas first and the dated receipt will be used as the official start time.
I just got off the phone with Chris and after being pulled over on the Dalton highway for speeding (who would have thought there was a speed limit where civilisation is non existent?), and a crash from the muddy road (thanks to 2 hunters and a trunk driver who helped get the bike out of the ditch), Chris made it to Fairbanks in 9 and1/2 hours.

Anyway, I flew back to Anchorage this evening and should be back in Atlanta on Saturday. I will try to update you guys as soon as I hear something new from Chris.

By the way, the GPS tracking device doesn't seem to be working. Larry Marquit is looking into it, but it doesn't look very promising...sorry guys :(