3rd-6th August Set off from Anne's house, 10 people in two cars, and headed north. I traveled with Anne and her two children, Corbin 4 and Harlow 14 months. The cars were crammed with cool boxes full of camping stoves, utensils and an assortment of bear defences ranging from bells through pepper spray to a tazer. We drove for about an hour before stopping at a giant roadside stall of fireworks. There are a whole series of these at this point as it is just outside the city jurisdiction where it is illegal to sell or let off fireworks. There were a couple of old split screen VW Combis, a double decker bus with a scoreboard dated 1776 and the score USA 1: UK 0. Having resisted the temptation to buy giant rockets and multiple mortar launchers (Mike couldn't and bought a whole load of pyrotechnics), we continued on to Byers creek camping ground at mile 144 and set up camp with two large tents and my little one, with a large tarp set up over the camp table next to the fire circle
Wolverine creek (67.61265N, 152.26408W) from my tent at midnight on the 9th Aug. This is day two of our river float down the John river. Fairbanks to Bettles. Sat 7th Aug After meeting up with Tim and Michelle in Fairbanks on Saturday we drove North in convoy along the Dalton Highway which will be familiar to those who watch 'Ice road truckers'!! The majority of the road is gravel and snakes it's way north through rolling hills of stunted Sitka spruce and tundra. The road stays mostly on the ridge lines, occasionally dropping down to the water courses where the road is usually heavily patched and bumpy as t it sinks in the boggy ground. The alaskan oil pipeline snakes alongside, usually within a mile of the road raised up off the ground on pillars each with radiator vanes on top to stop heat being transferred down and melting the permafrost. We crossed the mighty Yukon river on a long sloping bridge surfaced with timber and filled the cars with fuel at a pump that had
Tues 2nd August 2011 (63.746N 150.1196W) The 1st of August was mostly a day for shopping and stocking up ahead of our trip to Denali and on to the Gates of the Arctic National Park. The Kenyan Thomas's and I love REI... But it is dangerous kind of attraction! REI is an outdoor equipment store on a vast scale. Everything you have ever dreamed of for your biking, hiking, camping and climbing needs and loads of stuff I didn't know existed but instantly know I ought to have! I was very restrained bearing in mind that I am limiting my luggage to 15kg, so only bought some gas for my stove, a gps and a replacement for the hat I left in Glacier Bay. When I say hat, I mean a Seattle Sombrero which is wide brimmed, breathable, and waterproof. I gather that Seattle is much like any of the north west coast of N America in that it rains a lot... I am writing this from inside my tent at 22:45 and it has been raining since I woke up this morning in Anchorage! Back to yesterday. After satis
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