29th May

It rained during the night, but the ground was dry enough when I got up at 8.30. Breakfast, tea and coffee were done as usual. Took pic of Murray by the northernmost spruce and then drove on 22 miles, past the wide, braided and rushing river until I had passed the road guys grading the surface and stopped to brew up, and picked a selection of the wild flowers.

At the foot of Sukakpak Mountain we are back into spruce country; lovely sunshine and trees up to 20’ tall. After the break I drove on 21 more miles to the turnoff to a track through the forest. At the end of this was a stack of firewood and a tent frame made of spruce boughs. Just north was a small lake with a pair of Slovenian Grebes and a Merganser type duck. Picked a few different wild flowers – more varieties even 20 miles south and I jangled through the woods for a while with my bear bells on until Murray turned up and I cooked the noodles.

Drove the last 21 miles to Coldfoot in glorious sunshine at 25mph, with the windows open listening to the birdsong in the trees, now including a good mix of scrawny aspens with their pale quaking leaves. Here I sit, on the veranda of the Coldfoot truck stop, fresh pack of smokes, sun shining and waiting for Murray. The post office looks to be open, so if I can find a card I may send one. Hope to visit the rangers’ centre over the road tomorrow, and perhaps get the names of the birds and flowers I have seen. Either way, a shower is $10 so I will have one of those!
Later
Murray arrived at 6pm so we had coffee and then the buffet, tanked up and moved the car to the RV parking area and then a shower…… excellent. Came back to the café bit and are having some of the local brew; from Silver Gulch Brewery; "America’s most Northerly", brewed especially for here called Coldfoot Pilsner. Had a chat with a group of guys contracted to the Alyeska Oil Pipeline… gave the, by now, familiar bear warnings, and said there is often a lot of bear activity by Pump Station 5; let’s hope so (he said from the safety of his SUV).

Tomorrow’s plan is to get as far as the Arctic Circle lay-by and camp there; not only is there a campsite, but also burn barrels…. So I’ll pick up firewood on the way. Murray currently on phone to Radio Solent. Beer going down very well.

Mountain Avens

Bear jingling

Cold beer in Coldfoot.