Ok, weather isn’t perfect for it but we are heading further North.   Everyone tells us we have to at least cross Atigun Pass and get out into the open tundra to get a real feel for the Arctic north.  Clouds shroud most of the peaks ahead of us but we push on encouraged by the occasional glimpse of rugged mountain tops bathed in splashes of sunshine.  Despite the rain, we manage to pick out some Dall Sheep high on the mountainsides.  Once we cross the pass, clouds thin and eventually we run into to clear dry weather.  It is beautiful and so different.  Boreal forest has given way to rolling tundra.  Tiny blossoms brighten the low growing shrubs and mosses.  I remain on bear and caribou watch but no luck so far.

New birds: the long tailed Jaeger, Lapland longspur and red necked phalentrope.

Oh, the road!  The first 40 miles or so were “the best miles of the Dalton” according to the folks at the visitor center. Kent would agree I think.  That section was pretty good.  Then back to gravel.  Keep in mind it has been raining here for the past 4 days or more.  Potholes are filled with water and we slosh through a couple inches of soupy mud as we roll along.  Yuck, you ought to see the motorhome!  But that was nothing compared to the section near the end of our 120 mile day.  A 15 mile section is under re-construction with one end being nearly done and in pretty good shape but the other end was just dumped and barely compacted stone. Kent mumbled something about thinking he ought to get paid for rolling it for them.  The biggest challenge was that we had to keep pace with a pilot car and that driver must have been a local.