Tuesday 21 July 2009,

I got up nice and early, as after all the delays I was eager to get going, and the half hour ride down to to the Northern Alaska Tour Company got me there for 05.30. There was a full bus of ten passengers, and I was the only cyclist going north. The other people on the bus were a real mix - There was a student heading for a research station, four hikers, and a headteacher heading back to her school in the middle of nowhere amongst them. On the way up to Deadhorse, I made mental notes of where were good places to camp or get water. I also saw an arctic fox, carribou and a bear. Most of the other people were dropped off before Deadhorse, and I finally arrived at sometime after 23.00. At over $200 a night, the 'hotels' were way above my budget, and so ignoring the notice which said 'be careful of the bear', with its current picture, I went around the back of a warehouse behind the Carribou Inn and set my tent up in the shelter it provided from the wind.