Toolik Lake is an Arctic lake located on the north slope tundra plains of Alaska (68° 38′ N, 149° 36′ W). It is also home to the University of Alaska’s Arctic Research Field Station. During my research for this trip I became intrigued by the area and decided to visit. It is not an easy…
Atigun Pass is the most dangerous part of what has been called the most dangerous highway. Atigun Pass (68° 7′ N, 149° 28′ W), is a high mountain pass across the Brooks Range and It’s where the Dalton Highway crosses the Continental Divide. This road is featured prominently in Ice Road Truckers as one of the most dangerous passes…
Coldfoot Camp North of the Arctic Circle sits Coldfoot Camp, a glorified truck stop half way up the Dalton, a six hour drive or so from Fairbanks. It’s not much, but what it is, is a welcome respite from the road. I stayed here one night in spartan surroundings and then two more nights in…
As I was heading up the Dalton Highway (The haul Road) It only seemed right to start this leg of the journey at Carlile Transportation, the trucking company from Ice Road Truckers. Fairbanks to Coldfoot Starting off early Sunday morning, Carlile was closed, so I didn’t get to meet any one there. Once I took…
After my first deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1980, I wanted to get as far away from the ocean as possible. I spent 10 months deployed and most of that time at sea. Including 71 days without a port visit. So I headed to the Mojave desert. and came upon a giant crater. Amboy…
With a full-time population of about 30 people, I have been in Starbucks more crowded than The Forks, ME. (google maps). People come here for the Kennebec River, for fishing, rafting and ford moose. I came to this corner of northern Maine on the Kennebec River to catch some native brook trout and landlocked salmon…
This is the third in a series (see posts East Berlin and Bulgaria). In 1993, my pregnant wife and I were Caught smuggling Kilim rugs and a tea set at border crossing between Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. We spent a day in Cuidad del Este in Paraguay and crossed the…
Masirah Isand, Oman, not so much a tourist destination as a landing strip on a desert island in the Arabian Sea for C130s delivering supplies to the US Navy. I have been on this island and anchored off shore too many times to count. The USS Niagara Falls would make runs from Diego Garcia BIOT,…
Strictly speaking it’s a top secret military base and an alleged black-ops CIA location in the middle of the Indian Ocean and closed to travelers. I have been to Diego Garcia at least a dozen times while in the Navy, and the last time I was there was 1983. It’s beauty is unmatched by any…
Leaving Rapid City (see post) for a fall fishing trip in Wyoming, I purposely drove through this isolated northwestern corner of Nebraska to experience one of the largest intact grasslands in the upper midwest. Here you’ll find the expansive landscape of native Grasslands with forested streambeds and steep, worn, formations created by water and wind…
