Jun
22
2009
by Mr Cubes
Five Mile to Hess Creek (37.1 miles)
Total Miles: 418.1
I've found that a steep hill at the wrong time can ruin the entire day. First thing in the morning is always going to be the wrong time. The first couple of miles from the campsite down to the Yukon were okay, with impressive views of the river, though it did look as if the huge bridge over it was going uphill...but surely that was an optical illusion. Bridges are flat, right?
At the Yukon River site there is an information kiosk with a young couple who I think were fairly new to the job, didn't seem to know a great deal about the road - though he gave me a lot of interesting information about the building of the pipeline itself. I'll save that for another article. I asked if he knew of a place called Joy - the souvenir shop I had been offered free camping at - but no, he wasn't aware such a place existed. I stayed to show some interest and took a photo of the pipeline itself, it is impressive close up, even after being a constant companion for six days. Then it was onto the bridge. And it is uphill...and then the road just keeps on going uphill. For eight steep miles. So that was my day ruined! It was a rare hot day too and water and food were now in short supply. I suddenly realised that without knowing how far Joy was, it would be stupid to just struggle on all day. Instead I'll just go as far as I can, and when I'm done...I'll stop.
After another steep five mile hill I was done. I enjoyed the long winding downhill and then when I got to the bottom - at Hess Creek - I decided it would be a good chance to get water sorted, refuel, have a good night's sleep away from all the industrial machinery at Five Mile and get truly into nature. Nature in this case, meant mosquitoes. Billions of them. And that's when the absence of an outhouse is really noticeable. Didn't think of applying DEET before dropping my trousers - must have lost almost a pint of blood, right from where I have to sit all day long too! Still, it was a beautiful place to pitch my tent and such a difference from the 'campground' of the previous night. This was much more how I had expected every night to be. I was in bed by 8pm and with only 30 or so miles left of the Dalton Highway I was well ahead of schedule. Hopefully tomorrow will be downhill...