Description: Cycling the Dalton Highway from the Arctic Ocean to Fairbanks, Alaska, we had to pack all our food (consisting of beef jerky, GORP, and dehydrated Mountain House meals) and camped primitively for 9 days. The road´s sole purpose is to bring supplies to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay and is supposedly going to be removed after the oil is gone. Because of this, it is all gravel with steep grades and no services except for one truck stop 260 miles north of Fairbanks.
Because of this, we were able to pitch a tent wherever we wanted to. With the midnight sun on our side, we would usually cycle until we found a place that looked cool. It was tundra until we crossed the Brooks Range, then it turned to the more typical northern woods feel. Sleeping on tundra could easily be accomplished without a ground pad, but the mosqitoes can get brutal. Absolutely amazing scenery from start to finish. There is one campground located right on the Arctic Circle, but we just rode right in and didn´t have to pay. We hadn´t planned it, but we were on the Circle at the summer soltice, so we got to see the sun barely brush the horizon and start rising again. I´ve lived in Alaska my whole life and I´m used to having long summer days, but seeing that was something else...
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