DJ Petersen Stories: Haul Road Truckin'!

A week or so ago my dad, Dallan, Grandpa and I went on a hunting trip for Caribou up the Dalton Highway (AKA The Haul Road). It was about 12-15 hours on the way to our hunting spot. The road after Fairbanks was SO scary! It was really narrow on long stretches and a ton of semi-truck drivers drive that road 3-4 times a week! It's crazy! The scenery was indescribable though. The mountain ranges and the fall colors, Attigan's pass through the Brooks Range, and then the seemingly never ending tundra. It was definitely an awesome drive besides the long hours sitting in the car. On the way up we stopped at the Arctic Circle sign and took some touristy pictures because Dallan and I have never been before! It was crossed off our bucketlist. We ended up camping off the side of the road near coldfoot because it was dark and midnight and my dad wanted us to see Atigun's pass in the daylight. I woke up around 6:30 AM and noticed the sky was super red. So I looked over to the sunrise and it was the prettiest I've ever seen (granted, I rarely see sunrises... I'm not an early bird usually. After we cleaned up camp, we started our 3ish hour drive to our hunting spot. When we got to Atigun's pass it is definitely a must see BUT ONLY IN THE SUMMER! The pass is super narrow and I can't imagine driving up and down that pass in the winter with a couple inches of ice on the road AND snow. WAY too scary. I can't believe truckers do that with all their loads! Anyways, the pass reminded me of Mordor in Lord of the Rings! There is no vegetation just dark rock. After you get through the pass, you get to nothing but small rolling hills and mounds of swampy tundra and the pipeline. We eventually see some Caribou crossing the road so we pull over get our gear on, left grandpa at the car and started our 5 mile trek out to where we could hunt.

We had a stalk on a few different caribou and when our hope was getting down a bull and a cow came right towards us! My dad and Dallan took shots on both and killed them both! It was so awesome to watch and to catch it on film! I'll skip the gory parts while my dad harvested the caribou... The trek back was by far the hardest.. with over 100 pounds of caribou meat and heads on the sled it took a lot longer hiking out then we did hiking in. I felt so bad because I couldn't really help that much. But my dad and Dallan are definitely the heroes of the hunt. Those poor guys were so exhausted when they got back. I felt so bad.

We went up to Deadhorse after to eat because we were all starving. we camped out at I stayed up a little longer to watch the Northern Lights that were in sky. We woke the next morning and noticed one of the tires was super low. So we went to a tire shop place and this super nice guy there fixed the tire for free! What a guy! My respect for people working in Deadhorse is off the charts! We ended up making him take 15 bucks for his birthday which happened to be the next day. Deadhorse is definitely and interesting place. Nothing but truckers and oil workers up there. The amount of Testosterone up there made me very out of place. I'm seriously amazed at all the sacrifices oil workers and truckers make! Time away from family just to make a living. It is really admirable. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do these jobs and I'm so thankful for them! After our tire escapade we headed home with another flat tire a couple hours out side of Fairbanks... it was quite the trip. After we passed Fairbanks we hit a fox! So naturally we took it home and cut the tail off for a souvenir. We ended up not getting home until 5:30 in the morning with all the tire delays but it was a trip to remember that's for sure.

Sorry for the lengthy post... This is my journal afterall =) enough reading... Enjoy the pictures and video (viewers discretion is advised..)!

Can't get over that view!