Trucking Dalton Highway

The trucks racing north- and southbound on the Dalton Hiway along the Alaska Pipeline are fast, especially the ones heading south, most of them are empty as they have unloaded all supplies in Deadhorse at Prudhoe Bay, one of the US' largest oilfields. It reminds me of the times I have spent behind the wheel driving trucks.   "...on foot on the pedal, the other in jail..." as a colleague of mine called it. Always overloaded, always fast. I am sure no difference for those guys. No cops in the bushes though, up here.

There is no other place on the continent where you can drive as far North as on Dalton Highway to Deadhorse.

Mosquito war!

The beer and the book is for me - everything else for the mosquitos and their thereafter short lasting lifes. - Bastards!

And yes, Olivier and Vera, I am finally reading it: "IN TO THE WILD"

A new cold war?

As this picture proves, a massiv fly has been discovered in the Arctic sea, offshore, north of the Alaskan and Sibirian borders. To whom does it belong, the USA? - Russia?

What are you staring at?

There was traveling in the far North before the blue truck got here...

No public coffee drinking?

Dempster Highway Camouflage

Dempster Highway is the road that brought me to Inuvik, the most northern point of Canada reachable by car (in summer, during winter there is an ice road that gets you to Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk). The road is dirt or gravel. While heading north over the arctic circle I had a lot of rain and as a result blended perfectly camouflaged into the territory. This was at my camp at Tombstone Park just before heading up towards crossing the first pass on the northbound trip on Dempster Highway.

The airfields marked on the map are with the exception of two just on the highway, share the road...

In Case of Fire...

Found it in the almost ghost town of Keno. Interesting detail, there is no phone to be found nowhere near by and there is no cell phone reception in Keno. 

In Case of Fire... run!

Solar-Power

The very long days up here in the North offer excellent conditions for my solar power station on top of the blue truck.

Mosquitos and...

...my preferred way of meeting them:

First Assembly of...

...the Boat

I got some questions how that works with that foldable boat. Here is how, first I assemble a frame, made of aluminum poles, much like a light-weight tent. 

While it is up-side down I skin it, at each end the frame as a tensioner that puts the necessary tension to the skin. When blowing up the six tubes, three in each side it gains the required stiffness.

After I have installed the seat, a deck that has two poles in it and a frame around the cockpit gets attached with Velcro along the side. Ready to go boating.

New Tires

The left hand rear tire kept losing air, so I installed the spare last night at Little Salmon Lake Campground just off Hwy 4. When I tried to repair the tire, my tool to push the little repair thing in broke. So now I drove back South to Whitehorse, Canadian Tire could get me 4 BF Goodrich's All Terrain, so I have them all replaced. This should keep me flat free through the Yukon and Alaska.

Actually tried to get them changed a couple of days ago in Grand Prarie, got there on a Saturday, was told the tires would be there Monday morning around 10am. So I camped on near by Bear Lake for two nights. As I got there on Monday I was told they would not arrive before Wednesday... Boah... So, I decided to let them sit on their order and move on and have them replaced later on somewhere. - Here I am.

It is very beautiful up here in the North. I have seen bears, mouse, elk and much more, most of all mosquitos, lots of them. The preferred way to meet them is to see them smashed at my windshield. 

Seafood keeps you in shape

Field Repairs

Did you notice on some previous pictures, I managed to dent my right hand rear bumper. That caused me to screem out some words that are unsuitable to be repeated on the blog... However I finally took the time and took it off and worked on it. Using my Hi-Lift jack and applying the weight of the truck to the bumper combined with some severe hammering on it took the dent out. Almost anyways 1.

The plastic back of the light was broken off and would not support the socket for the bulb anymore. With a hose clamp I managed to fix it and some silicon make it waterproof again. A new bulb and the thing works as some japanese engineers once thought it out. - Almost anyways 2.

This is how it looks now, almost o.k. again. Once dirt caught up with it the damage will not be noticeable anymore... - Almost anyways 3.

As I was recovery the blue truck in snow and mud, where I got stuck, regular blog readers know, I heard it bubble on the right hand rear tire as it was stuck in the snowy mud. So I had to repair that puncture the next day in the camp at Caribou Lake.

The fix of the puncture took just a couple of minutes, but to pump it up again to full levels, uff - that spared me from jogging, kayaking, bycicling or any form of sport that day. Fitness enough.

Another stone, hit twice before it flew off. With the last bull eye in my windshield, that was in Texas, I have bought a repair kit and just tried it. I thought if the guys at the windowshop can do it, why should I not give it a try. By now I have fixed four of them and it seems to work out o.k. Let's hope that's it for a while. Yesterday I was lucky while crossing a log truck on a gravel road I saw a big stone flying off and of course, boom landed on my windshield, I did push my flat hand against the windshield as the Australian's do to lower the tension on the windshield and to my own surprise it seem to have worked, the stone hit on the lower windshield and I heard it over the roof taking off. No damage done. The picture is before the repair.

Recovery

Up in the mountains near Caribou Lake I got stuck, the snow was actually not too bad but I hit a soft patch unterneath the melting snow full of soft mud. First I got my boards out and under the wheels but did not manage to get it out, so I unpacked my swiss made Habegger winch, with the help of some British Columbia Timber that stood strong I pulled it out. I was kind of pissed when it all happend, however as I was backing up and finally settled in my camp, after a hot shower and a cold beer, I was very happy with my equipment to have been able to handle it all on my own without depending on help of others or the luxury of another vehicle traveling with me.

Beautiful Kayaking on Whatshan Lake, BC

It was not just fantastically beautiful to camp at Whatshan Lake, it was also fantastic to explore the lake and its wild coast line with my kayak. I have advance from being a happy camper to being a happy camper & a happy kayaker.

The blue truck meets the big truck

This is the world largest truck, built in the late 60ies by GM, first served in mines in California, before it was moved (on a whole series of train cars) to BC where it served in coal mining until it was retired a couple of years ago.