A tough call leads to Redemption on the Dalton Highway [S5E27] Alaska Adventure Series

Welcome to the Lifestyle Overland Channel, where our family of three shares our explorations of North America and beyond. If you're new here, I'm Kevin, this is my wife Sarah and daughter Caroline. In this episode, we pick up where we left off in Episode 26 of Season 5, deep in the Alaskan bush, camped alongside a very overgrown and forgotten trail. We had arrived here after an exhausting but beautiful 13 hours of backcountry travel. It wasn't supposed to go that way. This trail was supposed to be a quick alternate route back to the Sties Highway, if the map was any indication of its condition. But like so many seldom used routes in Alaska, it was quickly being swallowed again by the meandering river and fast growing trees. After a couple of miles, we soon found ourselves crawling along and doing our best to find the next few yards of trail. Curiosity had truly gotten the better of us and we probably pushed things further than we should have. This is a classic example of what I don't like to do. It's one of those trails that you think just a little bit further, just a little bit further around the bend. It's getting a little, nope, it's getting worse. And it's getting dark enough that I don't want to make a stupid mistake. I don't want to high center us in one of these river crossings. So I'm just going to play it safe, get some sleep, throw some fresh eyes on it in the morning, probably send the drone up first thing, scout ahead. We know we can go that way. I don't know if we can go that way. This is, this is not my favorite position to be in right now. Between a rock and a hard trail. But after collapsing into the tent and getting a good night's rest, it was time to put fresh eyes on the situation and see what our options were. As I climbed down the ladder, some motion upriver caught my eye and I found that we shared this spot with a mother caribou and calf as they sipped their morning water before browsing their way over the next ridgeline. That's so cool. I also found evidence of a couple of wolves who have traveled through here sometime in the past few days. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Put your hand down beside one of them. That's almost as big as my hand. Now for the big question. Press on or retrace our steps? And for this, we called on our eye in the sky. While our drone is best known for getting epic landscapes and travel footage, it's also an indispensable scouting tool in situations like this. The trail that we've been following was continuing to narrow and at times completely disappear as the river shifted to follow its tracks. I know scale is tough to tell from the air, but these trails were getting tight even for an ATV. And the Alaska Overlander rental policy was clear. We weren't supposed to be adding scratches or trail damage. This trail was clearly about to rearrange the vinyl graphics and leave its autograph in the paint on the sections ahead. Not to mention its touring setup meant that we didn't have a winch to extract ourselves if things got truly gnarly. But I could certainly see some light at the end of the tunnel with just enough hints of an established roadway working its way along the hillside just about a mile and a half ahead. And so with our tails between our legs, we decided to turn around with promises to return one day in our own rig armed with chainsaws, pruning shears, and maybe a couple more support rigs to see this historical route return to its former glory and linked up with the highway. Hey, if you live in Alaska and you're looking for a new trail to explore, I highly recommend you put a group of friends together to help keep this gorgeous route alive and passable for generations to come. As it currently stands, I don't think it's going to be around much longer. After reining in our curiosity, kissing our damage deposit goodbye, and backtracking just a bit, we were rewarded with a fleeting glimpse of a young black bear before turning west and making our way to the next route on our list. This time, something a bit more accessible and iconic. Alright folks, well, busy couple days. Those trails were incredible. I'll give it that. But it was a lot of work. We got tighter and tighter and tighter, and we had to pull out. We had to pull out because we didn't know what was ahead. We didn't have proper gear for cutting trees. It would have been great to have another rig with us as well, so we played it safe and just enjoyed what we could get to without scratching up Craig's Beautiful Rig too much. Now, in case you're wondering, these are built to be more of a touring setup. There's plenty to see in Alaska without getting as crazy as what we did, so keep that in mind when you do rent one of these. It doesn't mean you can just bounce off into the wilderness and scratch it all to pieces like we did. So sorry, Craig, for that one. But anyhow, I think there's a lot of potential up there that's going to mean another trip back to Alaska. Doggone it. Oh well. But now, without even catching a breath, we made a right-hand turn and we are headed north on the Dalton Highway. Yee-haw. Yee-haw. You think the Duke boys built this here road? Hold on, Flash. We're in hot pursuit. Welcome to the Dalton Highway. This is our second trip along one of the more famous roads in the North Country. And while we had planned to mostly explore out-of-the-way places on this trip, you simply don't come this far north without completing its length to Dead Horse. While our last drive along this road in 2018 was mostly shrouded in low clouds, fog, and constant rain, this time we were seeing the land in all its glory, coated in rays of golden sunshine. Again. Again. Again. Round two. Round two. Four years later. Here we go. Let's do it. No matter where we travel, we're always keeping a lookout for any wildlife encounters, and our travels here in Alaska had already captured the beautiful links which we thought couldn't be touched until we saw some movement ahead on the side of the road. What we first thought to be a fox to our amazement turned out to actually be a beautiful wolf pup, soaking up the last bit of warmth from the sunshine. At first we thought this poor guy was orphaned, but after carefully listening to our surroundings, we could hear more pups just off the edge of the road playing in the underbrush, yipping and wrestling at the mouth of their den. This was a brave pup though, and she wasn't shy about sharing this moment with us. This little girl was a smart one too, and knew at the sound of tires on the dirt, it was time to bail off to safety while the big trucks passed. We sat and watched this little lady until she finally wandered off into the bush, away from home. It seems that curiosity also runs strong in her blood too. What did we just see? Elephant? Oh. I can't believe it. I was convinced it was a fox for quite a while. Yeah, we just pulled up. All right, well, this camp was a little less eventful in finding. Actually, it was more eventful. It was better, I should say. A lot easier. Wolf pup on the way to camp. You can't beat that. And, you know, halfway decent views. I mean, come on. This is a new spot for us. This is awesome. What's for dinner tonight? You and Caroline are gonna share lasagna, and then I'm gonna have beef with quinoa. Beef with quinoa. And then I'm gonna heat up some green beans, because I just feel like we need Has this not been, like, the perfect fast and furious way to get some food in you? Yeah, it really has. It has been so nice, especially considering I'm just done with the cold. Just having done so much winter camping last year, and then not really getting a nice warm weather camping yet, to be honest. It's true, yeah. I'm just done with the cold, so at the end of the day, I just want to eat something hot and then climb up in the tent and rest. We've learned from years of overland travel that ups and downs will simply come. Some days will be smooth, while others will make you question almost everything. It's how you adapt and overcome the less than ideal situations that expand your skills, mindset, and experience. Sometimes that means turning around, and sometimes it means pressing forward. Knowing the difference can have huge implications. In remote Alaska, the risks are high for a single rig with only basic gear on a forgotten trail, and so it's best to live to explore another day. More often than not, you'll find something even more exciting on the next trail, and in our case today, that's exactly what happened. Dinner's served. How's your, uh... It's pretty good. Pretty good? Yeah. I hope I can find the beef. Where's the beef? We've only begun our drive along the 414 mile long Dalton Highway, so if you like riding along, be sure and subscribe, and turn on the notifications for when the next adventure goes live. We'd love for you to ride along, and if you really love what we do, then please consider supporting our channel. Just head to lso.link forward slash support, and sign up to keep the adventure fueled and rolling. You'll also get lots of bonus content and GPS data, and thanks for your support. That'll go a long way in helping you plan your next adventure. Until next time, remember to stay curious, and leave it better than you found it.