256 miles again today. Deadhorse to Coldfoot.
Well….I did what i set out to do. I rode my motorcycle to Prudhoe Bay. Now its all south from here.
So it kind of bothers me that no one can decide what to call this place. Is it Prudhoe Bay or is it Deadhorse? Well, it turns out that the actual settlement is called Deadhorse….and its a settlement not a town. Prudhoe Bay is (spoiler alert) the name of the bay in the arctic ocean that the settlement of Deadhorse sits next to. I also learned why it’s called Deadhorse. One of the first things to be built up here was the airport and it required huge amounts of gravel that had to be hauled in. The company that did that hauling was Deadhorse Haulers. And their slogan was “We’ll haul anything, even a dead horse”. And so it just stuck I guess. Kind of weird.
This morning I took the shuttle up to the Arctic Ocean. It was really neat to go see but it was also kind of sad. The drive up to the ocean goes through the oil field so it’s all industrial equipment scaring this beautiful landscape and then at the ocean I was appalled at all the freaking garbage right on the shore. Oil barrels and metal and styrofoam and plastic all over the place. I tried to avoid the trash in my pictures as much as I could. It bummed me out a bit but I got my pictures and enjoyed it.
While we were all up at the ocean we took a picture with all the people that traveled there by motorcycle. There were 6 of us and I knew everyone except one guy I hadn’t seen before. Turns out he’s from Coeur dalene! We’ve just been missing each other every day the whole way up here. Go figure…..all the way at the Arctic Ocean and I meet someone from north idaho. I’ve met SO MANY people on bikes in the last 6 days or so that I’ve stopped trying to keep track. I can’t even believe how many bikes are up here right now. It’s very different from the last time.
All I can say about the rest of the day is WOW! My words and pictures can’t even begin to do this place justice. I think I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much on the way up because I was so worried about the road right in front of me and the unknown ahead and I was extremely tired. But after a good nights sleep and having already been up the road so I knew what to expect I was able to really enjoy it. There’s so much to see though that I honestly think this road would be even better in a car. Maybe someday.
The weather was cloudy and a tiny bit of rain which actually made for a great ride. The loose gravel and dirt from yesterday was a little firmed up and there was no dust. But there was none of the slimy mud I was worried about. The cloud cover made for beautiful pictures.
Heres todays video