Arctic Circle

Day 29: July 29, 2017: Arctic Circle, AK: (388 mile round trip)


Opa jumped out bed and pushed me to get ready as quickly as possible. Today was the day! We were going to cross the Arctic Circle today. 
He warned me that this would be the hardest I would drive on this trip. "You will need to be careful with your distance. Stay far enough back to not get lost in the dirt or the rocks, not far enough that I lose you on the headset. Be sure to wave at all of the truckers, they have the right of way, unless they wave us on." 
We had paved, gravel, dirt, and everything in between. The gravel wasn't even the small nice stuff that we are used to. Opa had a piece of gravel kick up and hit the windshield-it was the size of my fist! That left a nasty gouge in the windshield too. Opa coached me over the wooden bridge, and through some of the mud. We made it to the Campbase on the other side of the river and topped off the tanks with a gallon each, with gas over $7 per gallon. After 5 and a half hours, we saw the sign leading to the parking lot for the Arctic Circle Sign. We pulled in, ripped our helmets off, and went to the tent. The woman working in the tent told us that we were the only sidecars that she had seen this year. She took our pictures, gave me a certificate, and had a quick conversation with us. 
After a few minutes of walking around, we put our helmets back on and turned around to head back to camp in Fairbanks.
The 11 hour, 388 mile trip was totally worth it.












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