Towards the Arctic Circle, AK

​The pond with the four campers was fine. I’m surprised so many people found this little place out of nowhere. By the time I woke up this morning, I still wasn’t quite sure what my plans were today. I can either stay in Fairbanks and entertain visiting the botanical gardens, a few museums, or even head up to the Hot Springs. But I definitely needed to do laundry, so I found a laundromat and for a couple hours I dealt with that. It was in a strip mall next to a pretty busy highway not far from the University of Alaska. After a couple of hours of listening to the traffic, revving engines and general city noise, ugh, I definitely decided to head out of town. Right now the plan is to get to the Arctic Circle. It’s nearly a 5 hour drive from Fairbanks, so that’s what I set out to do. The road was windy and curvy and steep in spots and finally, and eventually…. it turned into dirt, but it wasn’t a washboard. It was actually pretty good, where I could clip at least 30 to 35 miles an hour. What I wasn’t prepared for was the really steep inclines, and declines in this muddy, dusty environment. But the Sylver Gypsy did great, and I didn’t have issues even though at times I felt like it could be an issue. I was aiming for the Yukon River and stopped at a visitor center that guided me towards the 5 Mile Campsite. A free campsite, with only seven spaces. But just before the bridge, I took a turn off the road into an open field area, so I decided to return to that spot for the night. This will be my first spot in an Alaskan green grassy field. Equally beautiful, and perhaps I’ll see some hungry grazing animals as well.














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