Since it is supposed to be rainy this weekend, we decided to get an early start (or not since it's light until 11 PM) and drive north to Circle 163 miles one way. I got on the internet to find out what is at Circle.. There wasn't much information - mainly it talked about the last census and how many people live there, marital status, how far they commute to work etc. I did find information regarding Circle Hot Springs and that there is a restaurant, fuel and other things there.
We got up about 6:30 this morning - it was nice to sleep in that is for sure. I packed a little snack - since our intention was to eat at Circle Hot Springs we didn't need much but wanted to make sure we had something in the truck for an emergency - sun chips, jalapeno jerky, v8 juice, filled our water bottles and a couple of protein bars. I drove my truck because it gets better gas mileage than JW's beast. We left at 8:15 drove to Fox and topped off the tank.
Then we headed up the old Steese Highway north past the turn off to the mine. 60 miles from Fairbanks the pavement ended. My first thought is 100 miles of gravel road and it's rainy and it's nice and muddy this will take us forever. Before long, I got used to the muddy road and we were traveling 50-60 mph so wasn't too bad.
One thing I absolutely hate about Alaska is all the trees - I like to be able to see. Instead everytime there is a view point and I want to stop and take a pictures, I get a view like this:
When those willows leaf out, you won't see anything.
Soon we came to pavement, a speed limit sign and knew we had entered the town of Central and I use that noun town very loosely and only because there was a sign that said Central, AK. There was a museum - closed. There was a store/restaurant/saloon - closed. It was 35 miles south of Circle but the turn off to Circle Hot Springs was in Central and it was 8 miles east of there.
We decided to drive on up to Circle and if there was nothing there, we would drive on back and out to Circle Hot Springs for lunch.
18 miles north of Central the road got pretty bad - while the road had been gravel and very hard surface we now reached spots where the road had a lot of big soft spots in it. There were signs stating road work and watch for machinery and we could see where they had been putting in new culverts across the road. 11 miles from Circle, there was a track hoe blocking 2/3 of the road. Lots of ADoT trucks around so we approached slowly thinking we would not be going any further.
One of the men working approached us and said "we almost have the road blocked". He said we could go on through, watch for a dump truck that was turning around a little further on and there are lots of south spots ahead.
We drove on North. More trees - lots of them were black from a fire within the last couple of years. It was very boggy on both sides of the road. Literally nothing to see except for dead trees and bog. 5 miles from Circle the speed limit sign said 30 mph. We saw a little girl and her dog - the first human we had seen (other than the ADOT guys) for the past 60 miles.
A few houses and lots of junk - many people up here seems to keep everything they ever had - the tv show hoarders has nothing on most of these people. We passed the house of a musher - you can tell by all the little dog houses with 1 dog tied closely to each house. I cannot imagine feeding all those animals.
Finally we got into "town". To the right of the road was a little grocery store / gas station - in retrospect, I wish I had gotten a picture of the price of fuel. To the left of the road was a huge building - it had to be at least 30' x 60' square. Brand new - appeared never to have been used and then there was a sign:
We had reached the end of the road - the Yukon River. Going in this particular direction we had driven as far north as we could go. Nothing further to do here except to take a few pictures to doc that we had been there, turn the truck around and head south.
We drove back to where the track hoe was and this time we had to stop. We stopped for 20 minutes while they finished laying the culvert and burying enough of it so that we could drive across. I rolled down the window of the truck but when I saw a mosquito hovering a little close to the opening, I quickly put it back up.
While they worked, we ate our snack. When they finished we drove on back down to Central and turned east to go to Circle Hot Springs. Yep - we got there and there were all kinds of signs up saying closed - no trespassing. Back to the main road Alaska 6 and south again.
When we got back to the pavement, I thought I could get a picture of the ice in the river. So we stopped and I walked through the bog down to the edge of the water.
Even down by the edge, there were still trees in the water so hard to get a picture of the rough ice on the river.
So we drove about 1/4 mile further down the road and got a picture of a few huge chunks of ice in the river. These chunks are not floating, they are just like little ice islands in the river.
Back to town and home - 7 hours of driving and not a lot to see. Other than the ADOT vehicles, one we left the Steese Expressway to head north to circle, we saw exactly 6 other vehicles on the road in over 250 miles of driving (sure makes you feel a little isolated) The only wild animals we even saw were a hare - he was mostly white with just a few spots of brown and a moose way down in the river - too far for a picture. Now there's dinner to eat, the race to watch and before we know it another Saturday in Alaska will be gone.
One of the men working approached us and said "we almost have the road blocked". He said we could go on through, watch for a dump truck that was turning around a little further on and there are lots of south spots ahead.
We drove on North. More trees - lots of them were black from a fire within the last couple of years. It was very boggy on both sides of the road. Literally nothing to see except for dead trees and bog. 5 miles from Circle the speed limit sign said 30 mph. We saw a little girl and her dog - the first human we had seen (other than the ADOT guys) for the past 60 miles.
A few houses and lots of junk - many people up here seems to keep everything they ever had - the tv show hoarders has nothing on most of these people. We passed the house of a musher - you can tell by all the little dog houses with 1 dog tied closely to each house. I cannot imagine feeding all those animals.
Finally we got into "town". To the right of the road was a little grocery store / gas station - in retrospect, I wish I had gotten a picture of the price of fuel. To the left of the road was a huge building - it had to be at least 30' x 60' square. Brand new - appeared never to have been used and then there was a sign:
We drove back to where the track hoe was and this time we had to stop. We stopped for 20 minutes while they finished laying the culvert and burying enough of it so that we could drive across. I rolled down the window of the truck but when I saw a mosquito hovering a little close to the opening, I quickly put it back up.
While they worked, we ate our snack. When they finished we drove on back down to Central and turned east to go to Circle Hot Springs. Yep - we got there and there were all kinds of signs up saying closed - no trespassing. Back to the main road Alaska 6 and south again.
When we got back to the pavement, I thought I could get a picture of the ice in the river. So we stopped and I walked through the bog down to the edge of the water.
Even down by the edge, there were still trees in the water so hard to get a picture of the rough ice on the river.
Back to town and home - 7 hours of driving and not a lot to see. Other than the ADOT vehicles, one we left the Steese Expressway to head north to circle, we saw exactly 6 other vehicles on the road in over 250 miles of driving (sure makes you feel a little isolated) The only wild animals we even saw were a hare - he was mostly white with just a few spots of brown and a moose way down in the river - too far for a picture. Now there's dinner to eat, the race to watch and before we know it another Saturday in Alaska will be gone.
Thank you for not falling in the river to get a picture of the ice :)
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