The Arctic Circle - June 3rd

We had planned on going all the way on the Dalton Road to Prudhoe Bay but the weather didn't look predictable enough to try it so we decided to ride the road up to the Arctic Circle instead.  It is 200 miles North of Fairbanks as opposed to Prudhoe Bay which is 500 miles North.  It was such a beautiful day by the time we got to the Artic Circle we wished that we had brought everything we needed to do the entire trip. Had we gone I am pretty sure we would have regretted the decision as overnight a rain front blew in - rain isn't a giant problen except the great hard packed dirt road that we rode is actually coated with Sodium Cloride to keep the dust down -- when wet it turns to liquid ball bearings.  You can see in the one picture the amount of dust the semi's stir up when we would meet them.  The river in the picture is theYukon and the bridge over theYukon is a 7% grade - I believe.  We were along the pipeline most of the way.  You can see in one of the pictures how the vegitation is thinning out the farther North we go.  It was a good day.