"Alaska and the Artic Circle" a Alaska Travel Page by LadyXoc

Boy I have always wanted to go here. I sold other people's stuff on e-bay from January till July to earn this adventure. It was well worth it. I flew from Chicago Illinois to Anchorage and then on to Fairbanks. I found a ticket for about $840. My friend Heidi, school chum, is married to a bush pilot there. I stayed with her for two weeks having endless adventures.
First I flew for the first time in a three seater plane.

The salmon were running when I got there and since Heidi considers herself a 'hunter/gatherer' it was quick load the car nad off we went. We camped overnight at O'Brien Creek. Then up again at 4 am to get in line for the charter to take us to a fishing spot along the Copper River. Once there you tie in and start dipping. Heidi and her daughter caught 23 salmon total. Our spot was not the greatest so i untied and bouldered to another group of fisherman and saw they were doing better. When they left we scrambled over the cliffs with our gear to their spot. "Foggy Cove" Heidi did not get all the salmon she wanted that night so we stayed on the rocks all night. I had dragged my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and an emergency blanket. Not long after eating one of the salmon it started to rain. And then it became treacherous on the ricks. My job since I could not legally fish, was to cosh them on the head and string them (I know, what a woman!) At one point while stringing a fish my feet slipped and I fell. Luckily NOT into the icy river. We quit soon after and tried to sleep under my plastic emergency blanket. At 2 am, 37 degrees farenheit, we decided to build a fire. We used pages from my mystery novel and unwritten journal pages for starters. Everything was wet..no kindling. At 6 am the chater came back for us. wet, covered in fish blood and happily not eaten by bears. Turns out we were in a 'high bear traffic' area. sheesh

We drove 300 miles of the 414 mile long 'Haul Road'. From Wikipedia "The James W. Dalton Highway, usually Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11) is a 414-mile (666 km) road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Once called the North Slope Haul Road (a name by which it is still sometimes known), it was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974. The highway, which directly parallels the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are no towns; the few settlements are truck stops. The 240 miles (384 km) from Coldfoot to Deadhorse have no services for travelers at all. At the Yukon River Bridge there is a restaurant and a gas pump that is closed October thru May. The highway also comes to within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean. Beyond Deadhorse are private roads owned by oil companies, which are restricted to authorized vehicles only. There are, however, commercial tours that take people to the Arctic Ocean. All vehicles must take extreme precaution when driving on the road. Some of the worst spots on the highway are at mile 75 when the road becomes extremely steep"