Day 10 (Wednesday, June 15, 2016)

So you may ask, exactly how cold is the Arctic Ocean?  Well, it isn’t too bad.  J We can honestly answer that question now.  We stayed at the Deadhorse Camp and woke up early to pack up and get ready for our excursion.  We THOUGHT it was a boat excursion but it was a shuttle to the Ocean.  Access to the ocean is forbidden except for these tours.  It makes sense as it is full of ice, and there are oil rigs off shore.  We were on our shuttle with a family from Utah, husband, wife, daughters 4 and 8 and son almost 2 (very cute family, the daughters wanted to talk and share information—they converted a 15 passenger van to have a bed in the back and carried their stuff on top in tubs within a roof-top rack!); a father/son traveling together from North Carolina; four young men from a destination unknown and a male bicyclist from parts unknown.  We and the family of five were the brave ones who stepped into the water.  The dad actually completely submerged, Andrew and I went in up to our necks, and the mom and kids stepped in.  It was exhilarating!  WOW.  The ice was cold and slick, the muck or bottom was cold and slick.  You had to watch for the lower layers of ice that were under the water so as not to just slip in.  It really wasn’t that deep.  We hurriedly toweled off and got dressed.  We got an official certificate that is now our claim to fame.  J  Our driver shared some very interesting facts about the area, too many to list here so you’ll have to just catch up with us to hear more details.  He did say that the snow (I am almost sure he said last winter) was sooo deep that they literally covered up one of the camp’s first story and they just had to shut that camp down. The BIG companies up there are Exxon, BP, and Conoco.  Due to oil, they have construction companies, the stores, auto and rig repairs, etc. to support this huge operation. The population can boom up to 6000 when they are completely busy.  He worked a two week on/two week off and called Anchorage home. Irony:  his son used to work (perhaps might still but I think he said used to) for McLaughlin Detention Center, which is where Dad worked for a long time. 

We took off and headed to Coldfoot again.  Their food was amazing a few days ago so we opted to eat there again before driving to our final sleeping place-the Arctic Circle.  This will put us in Fairbanks fairly early so we can restock and then head to our next destination of our adventure:  Denali.  Coldfoot is only 1 ½ hour down the road from Artic Circle so it is a good break.  Andrew’s been driving these ever-changing roads:  very wet and muddy, and very sludge-like that really is hard to keep a straight line on especially when it is raining and making them even more wet, pot holes, gravel, and perfectly paved!  We saw herds of caribou, and several musk oxen, as well as unidentifiable birds on our journey here.  We had a semi that was insistent on keeping right up with us, just short of being in our truck bed!!  It was very nerve-racking!!  He finally pulled over and, lo and behold, he shows up at Coldfoot!  He must have pulled over to wait for another truck as two identical ones pulled in but we were only being CLOSELY followed by one.

It is amazing how the journey is different from this direction.  Lakes we didn’t see yesterday materialized before our eyes.  The Atigun Pass was soooo steep yesterday but today it was more gradual as we “stepped” into it—still so incredible and awe-inspiring and beautiful beyond description.  We drove slowly by as we may not see it again.  It was rainy for a lot of our journey so the mountains just sort of appeared out of nowhere due to cloud cover!  You couldn’t tell where they started or stopped with all of the clouds.  I feel that a day of warmth made a difference as well as there was more definitive green on some of those mountain faces, a stark contrast with some that are and will remain completely scraggy.  Flowers were just chomping at the bit to burst forth, bright, bright purple not quite out but you can tell it will be soon.

Questions of the day:  1) What is the story of the camper top that is just setting on side of the road?  It is just there, not truck, just the camper. Perhaps someone decided camping wasn’t for them.  Perhaps they lost it driving over a pot hole—don’t roll your eyes that this—they are some HUGE potholes!  2) What is the story of the guy pulling a cart.  Yesterday he was traveling, and walking alongside his dog pulling a lime-green nylon cart-looking device.  Today he is still walking and we THINK the dog was riding.  He didn’t make it too far but looked happy and waved. 

Personal goal perhaps, like our wanting to see and feel the Arctic Ocean. J
Time to head on and set up camp.  We will be cell service-less until we get to Fairbanks. We can buy an hour of Internet so we thought we’d take advantage.