Bear Drill in a Town Called Chicken.

We were all cozy in our sleeping bags and had just drifted off to sleep when we heard a sudden “THUMP” and loud huffing mere meters from our tent. 

And in an instant we were wide awake, and thinking the same thing:

BEAR!!!

The thumping and huffing was EXACTLY what Nevil told us bears do when they’re about to charge.

CHARGING BEAR!!!

To Roel’s credit, he barely fumbled the bear banger and had it sticking out of the tent within moments, ready to discharge. Fortunately, he stuck his head out of the tent to actually see what was there and instead of a bear, he was shocked and relieved to see that our moose friend had returned. She ambled off and we eventually fell back asleep. 

Amusing Outhouse

We wandered around Chicken the next morning, taking a few touristy snaps and laughing at some of the local jokes. For such a small place, they certainly have created an image and have made it work. 

'Downtown' Chicken

Mushing Chickens

We rode out of Chicken and headed in the direction of Fairbanks, keen to tackle the next chapter in our adventure: The Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay, the most Northern Point of North America that can be reached by road.

However, mother nature had other plans as she proceeded to dump a record amount of rain over the region, causing flood warnings to pop up on every local weather site. Fortunately for us, we had a nice place to ride out the storm (i.e. not ride at all) and got to help our new friends Ramey and Karin with their amazing forested property/retreat.

AND, Christmas came early for me: Lee at Racer Gloves USA gauged my size in the weatherproof Racer Queen’s gloves based off of my Racer Short Sport glove that I’ve been loving for the past 6 months, and he had shipped a pair of the Queen’s ahead of us to Fairbanks. Up until this point, I’d been riding in cold weather in an ill-fitting pair of men’s winter gloves and was not at all keen on riding to Prudhoe Bay with minimal tactile grip. I ripped open the Priority Mail package and held my breath as I slipped the gloves on: PERFECT fit… and oh so comfortable with their fleecy lining. Mmmmmmmm.

Not-so-nice weather.  But, oh-so-nice Racer gloves :)

So, we spent time with our new friends, made use of having an oven (read: nachos and chocolate chip cookie baking :) ) and caught up on some blogging as we watched the rain come down.