The Yukon, Coldfoot, Ice Road Truckers and the Northern Lights

Today we headed into the Arctic circle.

The day started when we were picked up by Ed from the tourism team and taken to breakfast at “The Bakery”. Imagine all the American novels you have read where the hero goes to the diner for

breakfast with bottomless coffee and huge range of traditional breakfasts. This was it. I had a country eggs bene which was based on biscuits and gravy and to be fair was excellent.

Ed then dropped us at the tour company in Fairbanks where we headed off to our destination of Coldfoot with John our driver. This trip starts on the Glen Highway and then shifts onto the Dalton Highway which is the road featured in the Ice Road Truckers TV show. John was an excellent guide and we learnt a heap around wildlife, the trees, the local geography and when we reached it, the Alaskan oil pipeline.

The road was built as the haul road for the pipeline which was basically completed during the mid 70’s. As you can imagine both the politics around getting it built and the sheer difficulty of building this thing in this environment was a major. It is a very impressive structure, 800 miles long, with half of it having to be built above ground because of the permafrost issues.

We worked our way up to the Yukon River for lunch. The river is massive and at this time of year totally frozen. Kinda weird walking around on the middle of a major river on a sea of ice. The camp at the river was brilliantly set up and we met a couple of locals who were to say the least, interesting. There were also some great photos of the damage done to the restaurant where bears had hibernated inside and then got grumpy when woken.

From there we worked our way up to Finger Mountain. Pretty much just us and trucks on the road. There is no doubt these guys are hugely talented to be able to handle these trucks in the conditions they find. Finger mountain was on the top of a ridge and it was really blowing and bitter. Didn’t spend too much time outside on this stop.

The road has a heap of local names and everybody is talking on the CB to keep up with what is happening. Interesting way to pass where the truck just calls up the person in front and tells them to get out of the way. My favourite was Beaver Slide which it turns out is well named. Talked to a trucker in Coldfoot who had gone down Beaver Slide sideways in an 18 wheeler rig!

Late in the afternoon we reached the Arctic Circle. Basically a sign and a car park with all the tourists being reorganised. We swapped rides to another John and 7 of us went onto Coldfoot. Coldfoot is ½ way up the road and has some basic accomodation and a diner along with support services (fuel, transport services etc). We arrived about 8pm and settled in. Think basic workman hut/school camp and that’s where we were. The people are fantastic, sled dog team out the back, diner is the centre of the operation and massive trucks continually rolling in coming and going to the oil fields up north.

Once settled we then headed for dinner. Food basic, good and sometimes random. If something runs out, you’re a long way from fresh supplies so often what got ordered comes out slightly changed.

Our first trip was to chase some Auroras. Coldfoot is right in the middle of Aurora country and we headed off about 11-30 pm up the road to Wiseman. Wiseman so called because this is where the gold miners went after the gold ran out in Coldfoot and they made good money there. We arrived at a small hut which was preserved the way the owner had it when he died 20 years ago. Fascinating history. We also met Jack who was a real gem. Jack is a trapper based in Wiseman who has a passion for Alaska, Auroras and the way of life here. He was fantastic entertainment. He helped us all sort our cameras and the Aurora hunt was underway. Not really a hunt. About 12-30 the sky exploded. It was an unbelievable sight of colour, energy and wonder. Puts a lot of stuff in perspective.

Eventually we finished up about 3 am. Tired when we arrived back in camp but worth every once of effort to get here. This is a pretty special place.