Had a 449 mile drive down the Alaska Highway to Muncho Lake, BC. It was raining in Whitehorse when I departed so the rainsuit was on. I left it on all the way but it never rained again!! Had a great breakfast at the Teslin restaurant and met a couple of riders from Seattle. Also, met several nice folks at roadside stops. Interesting, I would stop by myself and then a RV would stop and the folks would get out and ask where I was from and so on, then they would get back in their RV and take off. It was kinda fun! One couple from Saskatchewan mentioned they had just stopped at a roadside place and had the greatest slice of rhubarb pie they had ever tasted! Wow, I had to know where that place was. It was only about 10 more miles down the highway so I stopped and they were right!! They even had the rhubarb plants growing beside the restaurant. (Reference to today’s photos!) Met a couple from Switzerland at the restaurant. They had shipped their BMWs over to Anchorage and were riding to Calgary where they were to put their bikes in storage for a return trip in 2011 to ride on to the US! (That had to be expensive!) Did see another black bear and got some nice pictures as it walked right beside me. Stayed at the Northern Rockies Lodge again. A bicycle rider from Germany was in the room next to me. He was riding from Whitehorse to Calgary on a vacation trip by himself. He worked in a telecommunications business call center in Germany. Met another couple from North Carolina at the lodge. He was a retired lawyer. He and his wife had moved from Kentucky to Pine Knoll Shores, NC when he retired. This was their 50th wedding anniversary so they decided to drive together to Alaska. I didn’t ask, but they had to be at least 70 years old, based on their looks and the 50th anniversary!! I hope they make it! Anyway, another great day!
I am back in Whitehorse, Yukon today. I got up at 4 am Alaska time this morning and left the motel by 5 am, since I would "lose" an hour as soon as I crossed the Canada border. It was another chilly morning. Around 47 degrees, so the heated gear was on and it felt good! Made a gas stop and tire air check and headed the 100 miles to the border crossing. This time crossing in to Canada was quick and easy. Took all of about 30 seconds and the border guard waved me though! I guess they make a lot of safe assumptions on the US citizens crossing on the Alaska Highway. I stopped in Beaver Creek, Yukon to have breakfast from a neat little place run by an interesting Canadian guy. He made a very good bacon, egg & cheese sandwich. We talked for a while and I even bought something from him for my wife (hehe, Libby, that will make you curious!) Took a few more pics of the great scenery as it really does look different coming the other way!! Weather was nice and stayed in the upper 50’s. Made it to Whitehorse. The motel I stayed at before was already booked up so I ended up at a different one. Had a great dinner of fresh halibut!! 398 miles today.
Well, today marks the official start of my return trip to Virginia! I have ridden a total of 6,415 miles since I left on June7. I left early before breakfast at the lodge and stopped to gas up in the very little town of Fox, Alaska. Asked the gas store clerk where a good place for breakfast and she said go out to the end of the parking lot and a lady in a little log house cooks out there. Sure enough a lady who calls herself Granny was there. I got the homemade sausage gravy and biscuits. It was very good. The kind of gravy you can almost cut with a knife. She perks her coffee in a large "chuck-wagon" style peculator on her stove (I told her that the coffee was good, so she showed me the pot and how she made it. That was cool!) Several other guys came by on their way to work and ordered from her too. It was great and I got to meet and talk to several of the locals. One guy was orginally from North Carolina, near Wilmington. He came to Alaska several years ago to find work. He drives a big dump truck for the Fort Knox Gold Mine near the lodge I stayed at. I went on to visit the Fairbanks Harley Davidson shop and buy a tee shirt from the most northern Harley shop in the world! Saw and talked to a lot of riders there. Stopped, took a few pictures and had lunch in North Pole, Alaska. All the street lights are designed like candy canes. I had lunch at the Country Cafe in North Pole. This restaurant was visited by Guy Fieri a couple of years ago on a Christmas time special. They had picture of Guy in the restauarant. It was excellent and quite a lot of food for lunch. I think I included a pic of the lunch! ;>)
Headed on for Tok for the night. About 30 miles away from Tok it started raining and the temp dropped from 75 to 49!! I pulled over to put on the raingear at a wide spot and a guy on a bicycle was there too putting on his raingear. We started talking and he was also from North Carolina (Pilot Mountain)!! He was about my age and had retired last year. He decided he wanted to do something special for retirement so he just started training on bicycle riding last year after he retired. He then decided to ride a bicycle from Alaska to North Carolina!! So this was the start of his retirement trip. He had shipped his bicycle and had just flown to Fairbanks. Gees, made my little ole retirement motorcycle trip not seem that big of a deal (then I thought after I left him, hey, I rode all the way to Alaska and now I am riding all the way back!! Heck, he flew one way!! hehe!) Anyway, we suited up and parted. I doubt I will see him again. Wish I had asked if he had a web site/blog for his trip as I am sure it would be interesting! I did 251 miles for the day.
Headed on for Tok for the night. About 30 miles away from Tok it started raining and the temp dropped from 75 to 49!! I pulled over to put on the raingear at a wide spot and a guy on a bicycle was there too putting on his raingear. We started talking and he was also from North Carolina (Pilot Mountain)!! He was about my age and had retired last year. He decided he wanted to do something special for retirement so he just started training on bicycle riding last year after he retired. He then decided to ride a bicycle from Alaska to North Carolina!! So this was the start of his retirement trip. He had shipped his bicycle and had just flown to Fairbanks. Gees, made my little ole retirement motorcycle trip not seem that big of a deal (then I thought after I left him, hey, I rode all the way to Alaska and now I am riding all the way back!! Heck, he flew one way!! hehe!) Anyway, we suited up and parted. I doubt I will see him again. Wish I had asked if he had a web site/blog for his trip as I am sure it would be interesting! I did 251 miles for the day.
Well, this was the day for the famous Dalton Highway and the Arctic Circle. Wasn’t sure I was going to make it, BUT I DID!!!! This was the most challenging & grueling motorcycle ride I have ever done. It was 410 miles round trip and took me 11 hours. Glad I did it, but I don’t plan to ever do it again!!! It was over 100 miles of mud, dirt, gravel, rocks, ruts, humps, sways, you name it! The "paved" sections was real stretch to even call it paved! This and constantly watching in front and the mirrors for the huge trucks coming up behind you and toward you! (these trucks are not your normal eighteen wheelers either, that have at least 30 wheels!!!!) Hugh tanker trucks spraying water mixed with calcium chloride all over the road, which made a soupy, slimy mess up to 6 inches thick!! Get the picture? (You can see the pics of my motorcycle covered in all the mud!!) I got to the Arctic Circle and there was not a single person there! I had to set up my short tripod to take my pic. After that two guys from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks came by and took a better picture of me! Made it back to the gold mining lodge for another night. Had a great dinner of fresh Alaskan halibut!! I was very tired from the trip, actually exhausted!!
Got up at 4 am and was on the road by 5 am. Rode to the town of Seward, am Alaska seaport town. It was severely damaged in the great 1964 Alaska earthquake. There are tsunami warning sign all along the downtown area today! Visited Kenai Fjords National Park and walked up to the Exit Glacier. This was a one mile hike and was very scenic and refreshing for early in the morning. Had to watch close for bears as there were warning signs everywhere!! Found out that you need to play dead with a grizzly and fight back with a black bear, Good stuff to know up here!! The glacier was beautiful. Could have hiked up for another 3 miles to the ice field, but one mile was enough for me. Headed back to the Sunrise Inn for a great breakfast of Reindeer Scramble ( it was reindeer sausage in it!!). Started the ride back up to Fairbanks as the weather looked good to try the Dalton on Tuesday. Rode up the Parks Highway (interesting every road in Alaska has a name in addition to a number!). Came by Denali (Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet). The clouds cleared out enough that I could see the summit for about 5 minutes! A flag-lady at a road construction stop told me she had been there since April and today was the first time she could see the summit. It was impressive and the pictures of it does not do it justice!! Made it 607 miles back to Fairbanks and guess what today is the summer solstice and I stopped at 4 hotels and everything in Fairbanks was booked up!! The last one I stopped at the desk clerk said I think a lodge at Chatanika, Alaska which was about 20 miles outside of Fairbanks has a few rooms. So off I went and I did get a room. This was an experience as it was a true Alaska back country Lodge. It has been owned and managed by a couple, Ron and Shirley, since 1974. I posted some pics so you can see. Also had a common bathroom and showers in the hall. An old gold mining dredge was across the road. This thing was huge and was in operation into the 60’s. Very interesting and a lot of gold mining still going on in the area. Had dinner beside a local resident at the bar. He was a gold mine prospector. He told me about some of his past finds and current claims. Pretty cool! Stayed up to 12 am to see and get a picture of the famous midnight sun (and yes the sun was still shining on the hillside at midnight!!)
Did 442 miles today. Rode to Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska. Very scenic area with lots of snow covered mountains and glaciers. I learned a lot about glaciers too. Stopped at a lodge and had a homemade cinnamon bun on the way. The lady asked me if I wanted it warmed up with hot butter on it!! Duh, I gave a real quick answer!! Boy was that good with hot coffee. It was chilly the entire day with temps in the upper 50’s. Saw a moose cow with her calf in a pond next to the road. Beautiful ride coming out of Anchorage around the inlet to the peninsula. Everything is BIG in Alaska. It was about 50 miles just around the inlet!!! Even had a train along the way! I stopped in the town of Cooper Landing and got the last room at the Sunrise Inn. A really neat place with great food, of course!! For whatever reason I could not get my netbook to connect to their wireless internet. They had a 10 digit hex passcode!! My old handheld palm connected just fine. Go figure!
What a day!! WOW!! I SAW A GRIZZLY BEAR!!! Ran right across the road in front of me this morning. That was a major highlight of this trip. I wanted to see a grizzly but had doubts that I would. This was a BIG one too. I had been back on the Alaska Highway for only about 20 miles when I saw him. Rest of the day was just beautiful scenery, meeting lots of nice people and riding my motorcycle in the most extreme diverse road conditions I have ever been on!! Did 394 hard miles today. The "frost heaves" in the Yukon were something. The road may drop down a foot and you wouldn’t see it until you were right there. Makes you come off your seat at times. The ultra handled them as well as could be expected!! Then all the diverse construction (miles and miles of it!) – dusty dirt, muddy dirt, loose thick gravel, rock chips, ruts, etc.! Ran onto the guy from West Virginia a couple more times and we even found ourselves at this same motel in Tok, Alaska this evening, so we had dinner together at the famous Fast Eddies here in Tok. Nice to have had the company. He is going to Anchorage and flying to Barrows, AK on Tues for four days to take pictures of the wildlife there. I will be on the Fairbanks tomorrow. Plan to still ride the Dalton to the Arctic Circle. May do it tomorrow afternoon/evening. Looks to take at least 7 hours for the round trip. At least I don’t have to worry about it getting dark on me!!! For here in Tok, sunset is at 11:48pm and sunrise is 3:18am!! The sun is now up 24 hours a day at the arctic circle north!!
Completed another 451 miles of the Alaska Highway and made it to the Yukon! I am at Whitehorse, YT tonight. Stopped at Coal River this morning and had coffee and a delicious homemade cinnamon bun! Caught up with a guy from Montreal at a construction zone. His name was Gil and he was on a BMW heading up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik and then up the Dalton to Prudhoe! He had a Zumo GPS and a SPOT GPS messenger like mine. We met up again at a gas stop and then at the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake. The sign post forest was very interesting. At least thousands of signs there, This was started by a US soldier back in 1943 when the Alaska Highway was being built. Had to stop for buffalo in the road for about 15 minutes. The Yukon is beautiful. Very vast and great views of the mountains. Met up with a guy from Utah with his motorcycle dog at a gas station. He was heading to Fairbanks. The dog was something with the goggles and helmet!! Went by Yukon Harley Davidson ad got an oil change (I have ridden over 4,700 miles since I left on June 7). They took me right in at 5:30 and had it done in 20 minutes. They were closing at 6pm! I had to buy a Yukon Harley T shirt! Met a guy riding to Anchorage here at the motel from Buckhannon, WV. That is near my hometown! Did my landry this evening too. Sunset is 11:30pm and sunrise is at 4:30am!! Will be in Alaska tomorrow!!!
Well, I made it up 456 miles of the Alaska Highway today. What a ride!! Saw 4 black bears, 4 wolves, several deer and a bunch of sheep. Did 187 miles between gas stations too. Glad I had my spare tanks. Didn’t use them yet, but made me a lot more comfortable! Experienced the gravel patches and frost upheavals on the road. Had about a 45 minute wait on road construction coming thru the Rockies. The nice flaglady let me move to the front of the line. The dust was really bad! I had an "ice road trucker" behind me and he stayed up with me for the most part (I left him on a long up hill later!!) I am at The Northern Rockies Lodge tonight on Muncho Lake. It is a beautiful place.Sunset is around 10:30 pm tonight and sunrise is around 4am in the morning. That is really cool. Hope to get at least 500 miles on up the Highway tomorrow. Will be in the Yukon!
Travelled 533 miles today from Lloydminster, Alberta to Dawson Creek, British Columbia. I have now done 3,655 miles since last Monday. I MADE IT to the zero milepost of the Alaskan Highway. Had nice weather today. A little cool this morning and around 70 later. Clear to scattered clouds. NO RAIN!! Edmonton is a large city. Passed through around 10 am with no traffic problems. Stopped several times to get gas (I am now in the area where I stop and get gas every time I see a gas station!!) I did pull in and leave a couple since they only sold regular too. Talked to a trucker from Whitecourt, Alberta at a truck stop for about 30 minutes since he was picking up his new first Harley tomorrow (a 2010 Ultra Limited in red/black). He was really excited and wanted to talked about all the things I have added to mine. I have already gone by and taken all the customary pictures here of the Alaska Highway signs. A couple from Nebraska pulled in after me that are on their way to Alaska too. Will be interesting if I see them again over the next 1,400 miles of the journey. Since the sun comes up around 3:30 am tomorrow here I am going to try and get an early start to get about 500 miles done.
Jim's space 