More in the Arctic Circle, AK

​Well, I filled up for gas at the Yukon Camp near the river, and the lady at the gas station was nice enough to let me use the phone since there is no service in this area. Jim was relieved to hear from me. Like I always say, “no news is good news,” as I head out for another couple hours on the Dalton Highway. I also bought a big roll of duct tape, with plans to seal up whatever open space I can find. Yeah, the duct tape won’t be pretty, but it’s all about function, and my sanity at this point. As I headed out, in very good weather, I yet again encountered road berms, pretty good sized ones. I had to cross this berm, as for whatever reason, I wound up on the left side of the road, with a car coming straight at me, so I drive right over the berm hearing lots of scraping, resulting in lots of swearing. And there up ahead was the road grader coming straight for me. We both slow down, and I decided to just get over to the right edge as close as possible and park. Mind you all of the edges in this whole state are death-defying cliffs, and I was concerned about sinking down into this edge. The road grader guy was frantically waving me to get over, like déjà vu, in the Yukon. I just stood my ground and shook my head, and he came closer and closer until finally he passed by my left side with just a few inches to spare. He had the option of backing up and allowing me to go through a cleared path. But noooooo….I decided to not cross these berms and risk additional potential damage. Time will tell if I have damage and I’m just upset that they have this unacceptable way of doing this.


I stopped at Finger Mountain which seem to be more “arctic circle-like” with granite rocks, protruding. A volcanic site with really open space, with a trail! So I took Jo Jo out for a nice quick hike. I miss hiking and have done very little of it. And finally I made it to the Arctic Circle sign, which is generally just a parking lot and around the corner is the campground. It’s BLM land so there’s a five dollar fee, which is well worth towards maintaining these places. 

I felt guilty about my lack of doing any work, so I decided to go ahead and finish my wooden boards. I was able to sand and put one coat of paint on them, taking advantage of the picnic table at my site. Between the wind and bug spray, I managed, for the most part, to stay mosquito free. My neighbors, Leslie, and Mike from Fairbanks mentioned the black dragonflies of which there are many, who eat the mosquitoes. Suddenly, I love dragonflies even more than I thought I did! And I managed to seal up my back door area with the duct tape, and definitely noticed a decrease in mosquito activity. I am crossing my fingers that I located THE source of entry! 







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