I had a customer drive a vehicle up to Prudhoe and leave it there, so I decided to make the best of it and fly up and drive it back down. My dad has never driven the full road despite working in the oil and gas industry since the 70's. He's now in his late 70's so I decided to bring him along for the adventure. I had been told that two of our slope employees have taken 'bou since the season opened in early July, so I was tossing around the idea of bringing my bow. I figured if I didn't bring it, I'd have a herd of 10,000 caribou cross the highway in front of me. So ultimately, I ended up packing my gear. It wouldn't cost anything extra as far as baggage, since we're Alaska Airline members, so why the heck not! Freshly printed tags in hand, we packed our bags and got some sleep on Sunday night.
We took the Monday morning fight up to SCC and landed at around 7:15. When we landed, I dropped off one of our guys at our shop, said hi to some people, then hit the general store. The ONE thing I forgot was a tire plug kit. I always carry one, but I left it in my Argo back home. I did, however, bring my electric pump. We lucked out and got the LAST kit they had at the general store in Prudhoe. The tire kit, some energy drinks, and a few snacks later, and we hit the road. About a mile from the start of the Dalton, I told my dad "Time to find some Caribou!" and the literal second I finished saying it, what do you know...a small herd about 10 feet off the road. We got a good laugh at that. Unfortunately, about a mile away from legal hunting grounds.
We stopped for a few photos then got excited that there may be more close by. It was a good sign, right? Wrong! We were only doing a straight drive from Prudhoe to Anchorage for work, so we didn't have any extra time to actually hunt. It was more of an opportunist hunt. If we saw something on the road, we'd go for it, but not doing anything extra. So we drove....and drove...and drove. We saw nothing. We hit pump station 2, which is where I usually call home when I'm up there hunting and decided to pull over to just glass for a minute. Nope. The second we opened our doors, the wrath of the tundra mosquito hit us like a freight train. Bad idea.
BRING YOUR BUG NETS! We continued on and had changed up our plans from shooting animals with arrows to shooting them with lenses. We were now on the hunt for Musk Ox. Like usual, we found some around PS3. We checked them out for a few minutes, then hit the road because the bugs were still very bad. We got stopped in some construction shortly after for about half an hour and another small herd came walking by, so we got some more views.
We continued on and it was pretty quiet after that. The weather from Prudhoe to Atigun was rainy, overcast, foggy, etc. Once we got to around the Galbraith area, the clouds started breaking up and disappearing. The pass was beautiful. Nice and dry, no traffic, etc. A tad wash boardy on the way up, but if you go slow, you won't bounce around or break loose. It was time to cruse. The whole highway was pretty quiet, There were a handful of trucks, a few motorcycles, and I saw about 10 of my vehicles on the highway. We were about an hour north of Coldfoot. It hit nearly 85 degrees out, it was a swell time! We were already planning on what to order for lunch when we got to Coldfoot. Out of nowhere, our tire light went on. I pulled over quickly and heard a loud hissing. Great. I was really looking forward to my french dip! Remember that patch kit I bought in Prudhoe? This is exactly why. There was nothing in the tire, so it must have been a sharp rock. The whole was decently large, so I was a tad nervous. I didn't want to use my spare this early. I tried plugging it up then pumped the tire back up. It worked...kind of. We were losing about 1 pound of pressure every 3 minutes or so. Not a big deal, I just pumped it up again every few miles. The only problem was that my pump was starting to die now. I had it charging while we were driving, but it just couldn't keep up and charge fast enough. It was getting down to the wire. When we finally rolled into Coldfoot, the pump was dying and the tire was almost dangerously flat. We finally made it. The awesome folks in Coldfoot fixed the tire up while we finally had our lunch. Fueled up, tire repaired, and happy stomachs, we continued on. Of course, we had to get our photo ops at the Arctic Circle sign and the top of the world. It was such a gorgeous day. We really gave that Jeep's air conditioning a workout!
Further down the road, we saw the rump of a black bear scurry into the woods. It was a forested area, so we couldn't see very well, so we pulled up to where we had seen it. There was a pile of scat on the side of the road. We looked at it and it didn't look very much like bear. I got curious, so I tossed my drone out. I was looking everywhere, but didn't see anything, which had me puzzled. We were only about 1 minute behind the bear, so he couldn't have gotten far, and it wasn't thick brush. Finally as I was bringing the drone back, I noticed something move. It was not a bear, it was a pitch black wolf! The only pure black wolf I've ever seen, and the thing was huge! I snapped a couple pictures of it and left it alone. It was super cool to see!
After the wolf, we were about another hour down the road. wouldn't you know it....I heard another HISSSSS noise and the tire light popped back on...Wonderful. Same exact tire. I thought that maybe the patch had somehow come off from Coldfoot. It was nearly 85 degrees, super dusty road, sun beating down on us, and it was about 8:30pm. I pulled to the bottom of the hill I was on so I was on flat ground, got out and looked. It was not the patch, but a giant rock in the tire. It took me nearly 15 minutes to dig the thing out. I ended up sticking two plugs in this hole, but it still wasn't holding. We were a couple hours from Fairbanks still, so we decided to put the spare on and hope we didn't get any more holes. That was brutal in the Arctic heat. We had some DOT guys stop to check on us and help us out, which was awesome.
About 15 miles after changing the spare, we finally hit the start (Or end in our case) of the Dalton! What a relief. Now it was just a mad dash to get to our hotel for the night. Finally at 12:30am, we pulled up to the hotel. What a great adventure with dad! I can't wait to go back up again in a couple months to spend some more time actually hunting! I'm definitely not going to forget my tire kit next time! And need to bring more plugs. The road in generally was a LOT better than a few months ago. It was terrible this spring. The worst I've seen in years. The road crews have been busy this summer getting ready for the masses this fall!
We took the Monday morning fight up to SCC and landed at around 7:15. When we landed, I dropped off one of our guys at our shop, said hi to some people, then hit the general store. The ONE thing I forgot was a tire plug kit. I always carry one, but I left it in my Argo back home. I did, however, bring my electric pump. We lucked out and got the LAST kit they had at the general store in Prudhoe. The tire kit, some energy drinks, and a few snacks later, and we hit the road. About a mile from the start of the Dalton, I told my dad "Time to find some Caribou!" and the literal second I finished saying it, what do you know...a small herd about 10 feet off the road. We got a good laugh at that. Unfortunately, about a mile away from legal hunting grounds.
We stopped for a few photos then got excited that there may be more close by. It was a good sign, right? Wrong! We were only doing a straight drive from Prudhoe to Anchorage for work, so we didn't have any extra time to actually hunt. It was more of an opportunist hunt. If we saw something on the road, we'd go for it, but not doing anything extra. So we drove....and drove...and drove. We saw nothing. We hit pump station 2, which is where I usually call home when I'm up there hunting and decided to pull over to just glass for a minute. Nope. The second we opened our doors, the wrath of the tundra mosquito hit us like a freight train. Bad idea.
BRING YOUR BUG NETS! We continued on and had changed up our plans from shooting animals with arrows to shooting them with lenses. We were now on the hunt for Musk Ox. Like usual, we found some around PS3. We checked them out for a few minutes, then hit the road because the bugs were still very bad. We got stopped in some construction shortly after for about half an hour and another small herd came walking by, so we got some more views.We continued on and it was pretty quiet after that. The weather from Prudhoe to Atigun was rainy, overcast, foggy, etc. Once we got to around the Galbraith area, the clouds started breaking up and disappearing. The pass was beautiful. Nice and dry, no traffic, etc. A tad wash boardy on the way up, but if you go slow, you won't bounce around or break loose. It was time to cruse. The whole highway was pretty quiet, There were a handful of trucks, a few motorcycles, and I saw about 10 of my vehicles on the highway. We were about an hour north of Coldfoot. It hit nearly 85 degrees out, it was a swell time! We were already planning on what to order for lunch when we got to Coldfoot. Out of nowhere, our tire light went on. I pulled over quickly and heard a loud hissing. Great. I was really looking forward to my french dip! Remember that patch kit I bought in Prudhoe? This is exactly why. There was nothing in the tire, so it must have been a sharp rock. The whole was decently large, so I was a tad nervous. I didn't want to use my spare this early. I tried plugging it up then pumped the tire back up. It worked...kind of. We were losing about 1 pound of pressure every 3 minutes or so. Not a big deal, I just pumped it up again every few miles. The only problem was that my pump was starting to die now. I had it charging while we were driving, but it just couldn't keep up and charge fast enough. It was getting down to the wire. When we finally rolled into Coldfoot, the pump was dying and the tire was almost dangerously flat. We finally made it. The awesome folks in Coldfoot fixed the tire up while we finally had our lunch. Fueled up, tire repaired, and happy stomachs, we continued on. Of course, we had to get our photo ops at the Arctic Circle sign and the top of the world. It was such a gorgeous day. We really gave that Jeep's air conditioning a workout!
Further down the road, we saw the rump of a black bear scurry into the woods. It was a forested area, so we couldn't see very well, so we pulled up to where we had seen it. There was a pile of scat on the side of the road. We looked at it and it didn't look very much like bear. I got curious, so I tossed my drone out. I was looking everywhere, but didn't see anything, which had me puzzled. We were only about 1 minute behind the bear, so he couldn't have gotten far, and it wasn't thick brush. Finally as I was bringing the drone back, I noticed something move. It was not a bear, it was a pitch black wolf! The only pure black wolf I've ever seen, and the thing was huge! I snapped a couple pictures of it and left it alone. It was super cool to see!
After the wolf, we were about another hour down the road. wouldn't you know it....I heard another HISSSSS noise and the tire light popped back on...Wonderful. Same exact tire. I thought that maybe the patch had somehow come off from Coldfoot. It was nearly 85 degrees, super dusty road, sun beating down on us, and it was about 8:30pm. I pulled to the bottom of the hill I was on so I was on flat ground, got out and looked. It was not the patch, but a giant rock in the tire. It took me nearly 15 minutes to dig the thing out. I ended up sticking two plugs in this hole, but it still wasn't holding. We were a couple hours from Fairbanks still, so we decided to put the spare on and hope we didn't get any more holes. That was brutal in the Arctic heat. We had some DOT guys stop to check on us and help us out, which was awesome.
About 15 miles after changing the spare, we finally hit the start (Or end in our case) of the Dalton! What a relief. Now it was just a mad dash to get to our hotel for the night. Finally at 12:30am, we pulled up to the hotel. What a great adventure with dad! I can't wait to go back up again in a couple months to spend some more time actually hunting! I'm definitely not going to forget my tire kit next time! And need to bring more plugs. The road in generally was a LOT better than a few months ago. It was terrible this spring. The worst I've seen in years. The road crews have been busy this summer getting ready for the masses this fall!
Tire Inflator
