Day 1 Tuesday 14 July - Anchorage to Fairbanks - 654km

Thought I would call this entry day 1 considering it's the first real day in the saddle.

It feels good to be finally on my way and the scenery is stunning (almost on par with Tas)! The highway itself was fairly boring but it was like riding through the Walls of Jerusalem albeit a 100 miles longer.

Almost ran out of fuel, had to back track almost 80km to fill up. Lucky I did, the point I turned around didn't have fuel for another 140km further on. Will have to study the map closer.

Most of the day's journey was riding through smoke haze so the chance to view the scenery was zero.

Crossed paths with some other travels today who were heading back from my next target, Fairbanks to Deadhorse / Prudoe bay. They gave me some handy hints on tackling this dangerous bit of road. Infact all it did was confirm that this stretch is going to be difficult. In a nut shell, the Dalton Highway follows an oil pipeline stretching 500 miles of dirt road each way. 24 hours a day big rigs use this highway to haul machinery to the oil fields. I think this one of the areas they filmed 'Ice Road Truckers' in the winter.

The plan is to make Wiseman which is half way. Thinking about camping to make the run a bit cheaper. Alaska is a beautiful state but man is it expensive. Accommodation at Deadhorse, which is only workers quarters, is 200US a night!!

Thanks again for comments. I'm trying to get some video footage (not the footage you're thinking of) on the web site. Will have to keep working at it.

Cheers

Greg