Saturday, 30 May 2015

Ice Road Truckers

The Arctic Circle is around 200 miles north of Fairbanks. For some reason, we decided that we needed to go there. The road is bumpy and slow. Much of the time, we were limited to about 25 miles per hour. Do the maths.
This guy was in for a whole lot more pain than us. The next day on the way back, we saw him a bit further along.
 After about 3 1/2 hours of vibrations, we crossed the very impressive Yukon river. I was expecting a much smaller trickle. It was moving pretty quick for a large river.
 After stopping due to the road getting slippery and wet from rain, and us being a bit worn out, we stopped for about 9 hours to attempt sleeping. The next morning, we continued.
 You can see the Trans-Alaskan pipeline still doing it's thing the whole way. The landscape was the same for most of the way except that the pine trees gradually changed to the other ones. Near the end, it finally became more barren.
 Finally, we got there. The expected crowds were absent and we enjoyed a quick lunch.
 On the way back, we stopped at Finger Mountain for a brief but chilly stroll in the hills. We underestimated the requirement for beanies and gloves.
 A quick bit of training on dealing with a granite corner. We avoided using Hamish's techniques due to the jacket being new.

"Top of the World Ma." Well, near enough.

1 comment:

  1. Incredible to think that you've stood inside the Arctic Circle. What an amazing thing to do! Mind you, it sounds like it was an adventure to get there (which makes it all the sweeter!). Olivia, you can even say you've been rock climbing in the Arctic! You were indeed on the top of the world. It sounds very rugged. Daddy can do a 'rugged' voice for you. Don't forget that the Arctic is water surrounded by land (and has bears) and the Antarctic is land surrounded by water (and has penguins). Professor Bradley's lesson of the day! Fabulous photos Mummy! Love the shot of Olivia running back down the hill. And the rock climbing action shot! Daddy looks in full 'safety and support' mode. Thank you so much for the blog. Love seeing where you are and what you've done!!!

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