Chuck:
Last evening, at the Cold Spot Café, after I finished the journal, 5 bikers arrived. They are south-bound and are packing their camping gear. Two are from Dallas, one from Iowa and one from Wisconsin and I forget the home of the fifth biker. We compared Dalton Highway miseries, they’ve had some tough going. We all agreed, the “seven miles of mud” was unbelievable. This diverse group of bikers all met on a RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). We have all done lots of the same events and trails.
OK, now on the road again, more ups and downs. The road surface varies from smooth asphalt pavement to very rough paving to loose gravel. The gravel is treacherous, especially down hills. It is slow going uphill because of the extra effort on gravel and slow going downhill for safety. During a break at a wide spot in the road, a security vehicle stopped to talk with me. Rich Ermi got some info from me and gave me a pass to ride directly on the service road which usually is a few feet from the pipe-line, it is a rougher road so I would only use it to avoid something like the “seven miles of mud”. About mid-afternoon, we crossed the Arctic Circle. 
This has been one of our goals and may be where we terminate the bike trip, which is fine with me. Right now, the riding is good and it is a nice day, I will bike on and we will discuss it later. We get a few pictures and just as we were leaving we met Kip and his son, Jake. They are on their way to Deadhorse on motorcycles. Kip and his wife live in Estero, Florida, just 10 miles north of us. They are visiting their son who is an Army pilot stationed at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks. I knocked out a few more miles, then the B-Team whisk me away to Coldfoot. This is a very small community that is an important way station for truckers going to Prudhoe. We had dinner in the Frozen Foot Saloon (the farthest north bar in the country). This road seems to bring folks together; two different couples had seen me trudging along the Dalton and asked about our trip, then we saw Kip & Jake. We had dinner and some “Silver Gulch” beer (the farthest north brewery in the world; they say?) with them. We have a lot in common. Betty made arrangements for us to spend the night in the “Ice Palace”, another spartan stopover for work crews.
Betty: Spartan, but better than a tent 🙂
The Ice Palace
The Frozen Foot Saloon