We have crossed the Arctic Circle

From Sour Toes (seriously I will post about that tonight) to Cold Feet, we made a 10 hour roundtrip from Fairbanks into the Arctic Circle to have a beer at the saloon in Coldfoot, AK. You travel along the Dalton Highway (of Ice Road Trucker fame) which is a sometimes paved/potholed but mostly dirt/gravel road.

We stopped at the Arctic Circle line and traded picture-taking duties with a couple from Minnesota driving a truck and towing matching Triumph Scrambler bikes.

The road is traveled year-round by semi-trucks hauling goods and gas from Fairbanks to the North Slope. I was passed while driving the speed limit (50 mph) by a tanker truck. Later on I learned an important Dalton Highway lesson when I failed to pull over as far as possible and slow down for an oncoming truck that kicked a rock into our windshield. One inch higher and it would have cleared the Jeep; instead a 4" crack split two ways and eventually went all the way across.

Jeff drove the return leg which involved lots of rain and mud, and a near-miss on running out of gas (I put 19.6 gallons into the 20 gallon tank when we coasted into the first station back in civilization. Entirely my fault).

So now we are at the Silver Gulch brewery enjoying some drunk annoying loud ladies and IPAs with no hops (seriously, the far north has NO IDEA what they are doing with beer). My beer cheese soup is here, so I am gone.