The Arctic Circle... at last!

We reached the Arctic Circle at approximately 11:23 Alaskan Time today. The bikes showed a total of 4,008 miles since we left Oklahoma nine days ago. Overall the Dalton Highway was both better and worse than I anticipated. There were several good stretches of surfaced roadway which I hadn't expected, but were also areas where the roadway was being worked and the dirt surfaced had been heavily watered down. I didn't expect the BMW to handle so erratically in the mud, but putting a high performance street bike in the dirt was probably never in the design criteria. The good news is I managed to stay upright through the bogs, though I did just about "lose it" in a couple of spots and managed to get enough sideways at one point to absolutely cover Christopher and the Drifter in mud.

Tomorrow we will spend the day replacing tires, oil, and filters, doing a little laundry, and worshipping with a local congregation. I have many blessings to count at this point: safe travels, Nita, Christopher, a few friends who made it a point to fly up and make the final leg with us, and a few friends who stayed home but planned and/or prayed. Thank you all!


The start of the Dalton Highway... Ice Road Bikers?


110 miles from the Arctic Circle, 50 miles from the Yukon River.


Finger Mountain, a few miles south of the Arctic Circle.


The entire crew at the Arctic Circle. Left to right: Scott Haney, Biju Kurian, Robert Wood (all from the Oklahoma City area), FC Wood (Houston), Christopher Wood (McLean, VA).


The crew with their bikes: Woody, Christopher, Scott, FC, Biju.


Christopher scouts out the terrain...


We carried an Iridium satellite phone so the guys could call home for their arrival at the Arctic Circle. No cell phone service here. Great fun!

One picture I missed today: as we turned onto the Johansen Expressway in Fairbanks, we almost immediately passed a very large beaver in the left lane... Beaver?! He seemed a little put off that we were in his space. You just don't see too many beavers on expressways in Oklahoma.