The Arctic Circle

For labor day, Andy and I went up to the Arctic Circle! I assumed the Arctic circle was significantly farther north than Fairbanks, but it was actually only a few hours away. We left really early on Saturday, September 1 (about 6am), and were on the Dalton Highway by 7am. The Dalton Highway is really interesting. It’s a 414 Mile road beginning at the Elliot Highway in Fairbanks and ending at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean. It was built in 1974 for the sole purpose of supporting the Alaska pipeline. It is the most isolated road in the United States with only 3 towns along the route.

Due to the fact that the Dalton Highway was built primarily to support the Alaska pipeline, the highway runs parallel to the Alaska Pipeline the entire way north.

We camped at Marion Creek campground, about 3-5 miles north of Coldfoot (the Northern-most truck stop in the world!). It was a beautiful campsite and really clean! A lot of campsites are so run down and ill-maintained. We had a nice spot that had plenty of privacy but was still close to garbage cans, bear containers, and bathrooms. Around our area in Fairbanks we’ve had a large number of bear attacks lately. A local popular hiking area called Granite Tours was recently shut down after three fatal bear attacks in the span of one week. A bear also killed a hiker in Denali National Park about a week ago. As a result, I was terrified of bears during the whole trip. Even though Andy brought his gun I was still so worried I was going to get eaten.

We had a lot of rain the first night and it made it really hard to start a fire. We tried every method we could think of. We tried gasoline, lighter fluid, and even rum! None of it worked. The second night, the kindling dried up and we discovered that spruce branches catch fire really quickly. We were able to start a fire the second night but got driven into the tent by bugs!

Andy recently purchased an “inferno” sleeping bag for his Mt. McKinley climb (he hopes to climb it in Summer of 2015). The sleeping bag is designed for -40 degree weather. He had trouble sleeping this weekend because it was so hot inside his sleeping bag. But I do love how cute he looks in it.

On Sunday we attempted to climb Mt. Sukakpak. Unbeknownst to me, there were no trails, and the trek up to the mountain was really challenging. It was straight uphill through brush and rocks, and on the way back I ended up sludging through a moose swamp up to my knees. It was really wet and boggy and kind of gross. At one point I started crying because I was so frustrated! We made it up the ridge-line but turned around before we got to the top because of ominous looking weather. Andy, in his true style, refuses to give up; he purchased a topo map at the local visitor center to better map out another route. I told him he’d have to find another Mt. Sukakpak pal because I refused to swim through moose swamp again.