The long trip back

There have been few times in  my life when I was saved from a potentially bad situation.  This was one of them.  The hire company had me sign an agreement about use of their car.  One item was not to drive if a warning light comes on.  Well about 3 miles out of Deadhorse that very thing happened.  Only 500  miles or so back to Fairbanks.  There was no owners manual and I didn't recognise the symbol so I checked all the fluids and belts.  Everything looked ok and the car was running well so I figured as the light was orange not red and wasn't flashing I would risk it.  Got to my accommodation at Wiseman and mentioned it to my host.  He put his son on the job and as it happens, in a town of 13 people hundreds of miles from anywhere, they have an error code reader for a Ford.  He plugged it in, determined the code was fuel breather related and not serious. "Do you want me to erase the error".  Um...yep.  So I completed the rest of the trip with no problems and didn't have to explain to the rental company why I drove with an error light on.  Happy days!!

A gratuitous highway and tundra pic

Stockpile of Calcium Carbonate they use on the road.  Makes a nice hard crust on the car (which is why another rule was not to write your name in the mud....I told them I was 56 not 12)

Pic from some way up Atigun Pass back towards Deadhorse

The road and the pipeline on one of the asphalt sections

A couple of nice scenes on the way back (now it wasn't raining!) including the Chandalar Shelf and the area near Wiseman.

Now there had been no bear sightings to this point (apparently because the berries are not yet ripe so they are not out and about) but just before Wiseman I saw a grizzly swimming across a lake.  I waited on the road roughly where I thought he might emerge from the surrounding bush but nothing happened.  This pic is all I have.

Made it to Fairbanks and handed back the car with no problems.

Off to Tok (pronounced toke as in smoke) tomorrow prior to attempting the Taylor Highway / Top of the World Highway.  Google has the Taylor highway at 9 hours driving so will have to leave early from Tok.