Just
Go!
John and Bob planned one last adventure together. Bob is heading back to West Virginia and they wanted to spend some time together doing the "guy thing". They set out for a rugged road trip from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle. It took about 11 hours to complete and was 400 miles round trip.
Most of the journey is on the Dalton Highway, also known at the Haul Highway. This mostly gravel road is used by truckers traveling back and forth carrying supplies to the oil fields in Prudhow Bay. The trucks have the right away and rocks can fly and tires can puncture.
John and Bob had frequent views of the pipeline and some very beautiful rugged scenery.
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| Finger Mountain points towards Fairbanks used for navigation by pilots |
They returned safely except for one very dirty truck. This person was not so fortunate. No one was there when they saw the very expensive motorhome on the side of the road. It's not going to be pretty getting it out of there.
They made it to the sign and Visitor Center. John said working there must be very lonely. They got a nice certificate and pin to commerate the day.
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| Bob |
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| John |
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| No flowers on the fireweed. |
No flowers were seen on the ever present Fireweed. The locals use this as a predictor of winter. Once the flowers are gone there are only six more weeks until winter.
I'm so glad they had this time together. John and Bob are great friends who met originally at J.N. Ding Darling NWR. They are not sure when their paths will cross again and this time together was very special. 
That is a great road trip! I made it to the artic circle in the early 70's via a ship. It looks like they had a lot more fun:))
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