By Bob Van Leer

  (COLDFOOT, ALASKA, Thursday, July 31, 1997) - The Dalton Highway, referred to around here as "the haul road", from Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks is drivable, but you don't want to take your compact car.

  We left Prudhoe Bay this morning for the first leg of the trip to Fairbanks, 244 miles to Coldfoot.

  It was foggy as we left, apparently a normal state of affairs. As we left I noted a sign at our hotel, "Warning-bears sighted in the area, use caution when outside".

   Again we noticed the cleanliness of this big oil camp. Some vehicles have drip pans under them, for all oil spills have to be cleaned up, even from a leaky motor.

  Alaskans need to be good to oil, for it has been good to them. Oil supports Alaska. There is no sales tax and no income tax. As a matter of fact, Alaska has a $20 billion reserve fund and citizens here longer than a year receive a dividend from the state from part of the earnings of the fund, rather than have to pay a tax. Las year's dividend was $1300 per person.

  While oil brings in the money, commercial fishermen seem to make the most noise. Every issue of the Anchorage and Fairbanks newspapers contain one or more stories about complaints of fishermen.

  We proceed south by bus across, first, 60 miles of slightly rising tundra sprinkled with small, shallow lakes. These perch on top of the permafrost which starts a couple of feet below the surface this time of year and is 2000 feet thick. Water can't soak in, so it puddles on top.

  There is a condition here called "Arctic mirage" and distant terrain features seem to float suspended in the air. They come back to earth as you get closer.

  The highway parallels the pipeline, but is not always just alongside it. The pipeline, where above ground, is suspended five feet over the terrain to allow wildlife passage underneath.

  Of the 500 miles of pipeline, 350 are below ground to avoid landslides or other problems. A fiber optic cable is being laid along the pipeline.

OPEN TO PUBLIC

  The Dalton Highway was opened to public travel in 1995. Prior to that a permit was needed.

  It is a two-lane gravel road (barely two-lane, slow to pass) in better shape than the forest roads in Curry County. If I were driving it, I'd want a heavy duty rig such as a pickup (preferably a four-wheel drive) and would take a few additional spares, such as an extra tire and fan belts.

  The road is patrolled by state of Alaska police and road crews, so you won't be abandoned if you have trouble. Services are few and far between. There are none between Prudhoe Bay and Coldfoot.

  We started in the company of 1200 other vacationers when we left Vancouver on the cruise ship. A lot dropped off at the end of the cruise. Many more quit at the end of the train ride. For this leg of the tour we are down to 31 persons.

  Accommodations in the Arctic are not four star hotels, but they are adequate. The two we have stayed in and others we have seen are all built of mobile home modules stacked together. They are missing things like phones and TV sets, but all have showers.

  Food is adequate, but not cheap. Our last two dinners were buffets, really more like cafeterias, and each cost $18.00.

CHANGE AT PASS

  A dividing point in terrain is Atigun Pass through the Brooks Range of mountains. North of the pass is tundra and south starts "taiga", a Russian word meaning "small sticks". Trees are mostly black spruce and not very tall or big, but can be old. At Denali Park, also taiga, we were pointed out a 30 foot tall spruce that was less than a foot in diameter and, by ring count, was 740 years old.

  Leaving Prudhoe Bay we saw a few caribou and later saw dozens of Dall sheep. Some were on cliffs so high the sheep were only white spots. Others were in the middle of the road in the pass.

  We got our introduction to the hazards of the highway when two rear duals on our bus blew out. We had one spare and were able to limp to Coldfoot.

CROSS ARCTIC CIRCLE

  Tomorrow we will cross the Arctic Circle and leave the land of the midnight sun and head back to Fairbanks. Last night at Prudhoe Bay the sun set about midnight and it never got dark before the sun started rising again.

  The Arctic Circle is the furthest south line where the sun never sets one day of the year and six months later never rises.