"The road to hell...!" Prudhoe Bay - The Arctic Ocean

Setting off early (as usual) after a hearty plate of bacon, eggs, toast and coffee (as usual)the weather was fine, bright and sunny. It`s always nice to have a good start when you`ve got 243 miles of demanding riding ahead of you, particularly when you know that the last 85 miles are the worst.After an hour`s riding I could see the Atigun Pass looming in the distance. This is Alaska`s highest mountain pass (4,800 ft). It was shrouded in ominous dark clouds. That was the end of the nice bright sunny weather for the next 6 hrs! Climbing the pass it started to rain and got heavier as I descended the other side. From then on the conditions on the road began to deteriorate. In a days riding I experienced sun, rain, wind, dust, heavy mud, fog and a bitterly cold wind as I headed deeper into the Arctic Circle. Thank God for my heated jacket! Through one really bad patch of fog I came across another biker looming out of the mist. The first human contact for hours! I passed him and waved but he was clearly focused on just staying upright in the heavy mud. He later turned out to be my room mate at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel. About an hour from Prudhoe I stopped to put more petrol in the tank and it was bitterly cold. I`d seen nothing for hours apart from a couple of herds of Caribou crossing the road ahead of me and one lone Arctic Fox staring at me from the side of the road. What a God forsaken, desolate place this was. I was getting chilled to the bone even with my heated clothing. I pushed on to Prudhoe, desperate for some warmth. Eventually, out of the gloom, signs of civilisation gradually appeared. Prudhoe Bay is deceptively huge and sprawling. It stretches for miles around, so, frustratingly it took a while to orientate, find the one petrol pump and eventually find my "hotel" (more like a bunch of portacabins stuck together). Good job I`d booked ahead because there was precious little room anywhere. After showering, I was having a coffee in the canteen when the receptionist asked me if I wouldn`t mind someone sharing my room with another biker who couldn`t go on any more! In walked Austin from Chicago. He was the one I passed hours before in the fog and mud!Both of us weren`t relishing the return journey at all.Now we knew just how bad it could be, we were hoping for better weather in the morning. Sadly, we were to be disappointed!