Motorcycle Trip To Alaska!
Welcome….This is a quick read on an Alaskan Motorcycle trip Bob Hadden and I took
during the summer of 2006
Enjoy!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
The Bike….
The motorcycle that I’ll be using for this trip is a 2004 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom. This bike was purchased used from a
Doctor down in Memphis Tenn. I bought it while on a cross country trip that I was taking with my youngest son
Seth in 2004. After paying for the bike, I rode it to my friend’s house in southern Missouri and continued on to
California via Rt66 with my son. Upon returning home, I then flew to Missouri and spent two weeks riding the V
Strom back home. That was a great trip through Kentucky, Tennessee, W.Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and due
north. But that’s another story….
The V Strom was chosen for many reasons. It’s relatively inexpensive, gets great gas mileage (60 mpg), is as
reliable as tomorrow, easy to work on and being an “Adventure Bike”, it can be used on highways and on
unimproved dirt roads which we will encounter in Canada and Alaska.
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The modifications I’ve made to the motorcycle are as follows:
I’ve added 42 Liter GIVI side painers with a Pelican Case top box. This luggage will carry all my camping gear,
photo equipment, fishing gear and anything else I can cram into them. Tied on top of the rear seat will be an Ortlib
100% waterproof duffel bag with my sleeping bag, clothing and toiletries. A large tank bag will be used to store
items I might need to be readily accessible.
Electronics that I’ve added are:
Audiovox Electronic Cruise Control
Sirius Radio receiver
Passport 8500 Radar Detector
Garmin 2720 GPS unit
Amplirider Headphone Amplifier
Signal Dynamics Headlight Modulator
MRA Vario wind screen
Gel Padded seat
Auxilary fuse box, power ports, lighter socket in the tank bag, and heated clothing outlet.
All of these modifications and more can be seen in my photo album
http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/motorcycle/v-strom/
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Sunday, June 11, 2006
Getting Ready…
Did a bunch of work on the bike yesterday. Rained all day so it was a great way to spend the day. Changed spark
plugs, replaced the front brake pads with a set of EBC Sintered pads. Why not have race bike pads on a bike that
barely clears 100 mph…
I added more storage to the bike. That exhaust can on the left side is really not a second muffler. It’s a storage
compartment, The cap twists off and a bunch of tools reside inside. I also added a small Pelican waterproof case to
the rear fender and relocated the license plate and light to the box. I have a small air compressor and tire repair
stuff in there.
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You can also see the auxiliary fuel cans I’ve mounted under the painers. I machined a couple of brackets and used
marine grade stainless steel hose clamps to keep them in place. I had these mounted on my past touring bike and
they came in handy a time or two. I’ll also be using them for fuel for the cook stove.
This picture shows what I’ll be looking at for five weeks!
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From top to bottom….The little square thingy is the antenna for the Sirius satellite radio. Next down is a Garmin
2720 GPS unit. Under that (hard to see) is a Passport 8500 Radar Detector. Next, just below the gages is an
electronic thermometer. It reads temperature just above the front fender and in the cockpit. At times the air
temperature can be 80 degrees but sitting in traffic the cockpit temperature can climb to well over 100.
Down from there is the Sirius radio receiver which resides in a waterproof Pelican case. In the same case, next to
the receiver is an “Amplirider” headphone amplifier. This along with a set of Koss Earbuds allows me to listen to
Sat Radio and have the radar detector or the GPS unit break in whenever they have something to say. Pretty neat!
A few more things to do and the bike will be ready.
Shake Down Cruise…..
This weekend I loaded the bike up with everything I will be taking to Alaska and went on a 450 mile “ride” up
through New Hampshire to test out the equipment and to see how the bike responded to carrying that load. The
bike and the gear worked flawlessly! We’re ready…..
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The folks that were riding with me told me they were having a hard time seeing my rear directional lights. So upon
arriving home I swapped them out for another set I had lying around that came off one of my other bikes. These
lights are about 50% larger and much brighter. It’s interesting to note that my friends were almost always behind
me so they had lots of time to look at my “rear” directional lights…:-)
I made up a check list of items I’m taking with me. If I don’t write it down, you can bet dollars to donuts I’d forget
it!
Alaska Trip Packing List:
CLOTHING:
6 Wicking T Shirts
2 Pairs Jeans
6 pair wicking undershorts
12 pair wicking socks
1 polar fleece sweater
1 long johns
1 Hat
1 Bug Net Hat
Camp Shoes
Bathing Suit
Electric Jacket
Jacket Cord
CAMPING:
Tent
Ground Cloth
Sleep Pad
Sleeping Bag
Collapsible pillow
Towel
Wash Cloth
Toilet Bag
Unscented Soap
Unscented deodorant
Unscented toothpaste
Razor
Toothbrush
Hair brush
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Flashlight
Headlight
Stove
Coffee Cup
Bowl
Cook Pan
Utensils
Portable Radio
Tarp
Collapsible Cooler (optional)
MOTORCYCLE SUPPLIES:
Tire Repair Kit
Tire Irons
Compressor
Tool Kit
First Aid Kit
Motorcycle Cover
Wire
Various Nuts and Bolts
Wire Ties
Duct Tape
Multi Tool
Face Shield cleaner
Rags
Security Cable
Gas Cans
Rope (25’)
RIDING GEAR:
Three season Jacket
Air Pants
Over Pants Rain Pants
Riding Boots
Air Gloves
Three Season Gloves
Helmet
Extra Face Shield (optional)
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PERSONAL GEAR:
Extra Eye Glasses
Sun Glasses
Ear Plugs
Canada Insurance Certificate
Registration
Drivers License
Medical Cards (Med Jet & BCBS)
Various Credit Cards
AAA Card
Point and shoot camera
Nikon D70 SLR / Lens
Movie Camera
Fishing gear (two sets)
Cell Phone
Cell Phone Cord
Lap Top
Lap Top Cord
Battery charger (AA Rechargeable)
Maps
Alaska Books
Toilet Paper
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Here’s something interesting…..
Here’s a couple of guys that have just completed the exact same trip Bob and I are embarking on, with the same
motorcycles we will be taking……….After you look at his travel log you will see what kind of adventure we are
getting ourselves in for!
Check out his travel-log here…
http://homepage.mac.com/gelande/alaska.html
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Monday, June 19, 2006
Let’s meet Bob Ain’t Stoppin’….
I asked my riding buddy to send me a couple of pictures of his bike “fully loaded” for the trip……and here’s what
he sent me………
If you knew Bob you’d know how out of character this really is……….that’s why it cracked me up.
Bob’ is a great guy…….He’s a scientist, a husband, father and business owner. Can speak informed on just about
any subject and is extremely good company. One heck of a motorcycle rider….and as his nick name implied…”He
ain’t stopp’in!”
Here’s what he sent me for a Bio…
“I’m Bob Hadden, aka Bob Ain’t Stoppin’. That name was given to me by a very dear friend, and I treasure it, but
I’m not any sort of an iron butt. Like to ride, though, and stoppin’ ain’t part of the picture.
My only qualification for this journey is that Roy needs someone to help pick the bike up if he falls over. So do I,
and we’re going to make a good team. I’ll be following Roy all over the place and take a pile of pictures. Don’t
know if many will make it to the Blog, but we’ll make sure to post the good stuff right here first!
I’m from Hinsdale, MA in the western part of the state, so the start of our trip will be from my house. The first leg
is via GMC express to Montana. We want to start the riding right in the good stuff, so Montana is our starting point
on the bikes. Right by Glacier National Park.
I’ll be riding a 2005 BMW R1200GS. It’s quite stock. All the fun stuff is on Roy’s bike. I ride for the ‘get away from
it all’ aspect, so no radio, radar, gps etc. for me. There are a couple of things though. A Bill Mayer saddle raises the
comfort level slightly over stock, there’s a bicycle computer for digital speedo and trip meter”
So, that is a picture of Bob’s bike with his son’s girlfriend Naomi, (a professional cheerleader) making it look that
much better………………!
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
My mistake!
Well, when Bob sent me his little blurb about his bike, I though that lovely young lady was some kind of movie
star, who just happened to be lounging on a BMW R1200GS, just like Bob’s. It turns out she is Bob’s son’s girlfriend
Naomi. Both Bob’s son and Naomi are professional cheerleaders. How else do you think you stay in that shape!
Saturday, June 24, 2006
My Grandson’s “Ride”
I have a 1.5 year old grandson, Reece (One of my Daughter Claudia’s two kids and my son Ryan has two
more….Damn that makes me feel old just writing that!)……Anyhow…..Reece is a complete motorcycle NUT! He will
come out into the garage with me and sit on one of the bikes for hours if I let him. The other day I was over my
son Ryan’s house and I was watching the AMA Superbike races on Speed Channel, Reece stood at complete
attention in front of the TV and watched just about the entire race! This is a kid that shows no interest in TV. He
rarely watches “Barney” or “Tommy Train” or other kids programs….But when ever a motorcycle is on TV…There
he is, totally enthralled……..The other day I saw this little red motorcycle at the store and just had to buy it for
him. You should have seen his face when I brought it into the house!
Having your Kids (and now grandkids) ride is always a dilemma for me. Although there is almost nothing on this
planet I would rather do than ride a motorcycle, I fear for my kids that ride. My daughter Angela was the first one
to take riding seriously. She attended the Motorcycle Safety Foundation training and got her license, progressed up
through three bikes, did a bunch of riding and toured one or twice with me. She always wore the gear and was (is)
one of the best motorcycle riders I ever had the pleasure of riding with. Although currently she doesn’t have a bike,
I was always concerned for her safety when she was riding.
Ryan rode for a bit. At one point he had a Ducati 996 “death machine” and as much as I tried to get him to wear
the gear, he is a confirmed “squid”……..What can you do………Al least he wears a helmet…….and recently he has
been know to wear a Joe Rocket jacket……
My son-in-law Mike has come a long way in his riding. He started out on a Honda 600Fi “crotch rocket”, but found
that bike very uncomfortable and decided to adopt the Harley lifestyle. Thank God that only lasted about a year.
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Beanie helmet, sleeveless shirts, sneakers……a recipe for disaster! Now that Mike and my Daughter have two
children, he’s approaching his riding in a whole new way…Sold the Harley and bought a Honda VFR 800 Sport
Touring motorcycle. Fantastic bike! He’s outfitted it for serious touring and bought all the gear….Boots, full helmet,
fully armored pants and jacket………..His riding skills have improved measurable, but most of that might have been
that Harley……..We took our first long camping tour last weekend and I think I can say Mike had a good time……It
was so much fun riding with him up on some great curvy roads we found in New Hampshire, and camping out at
night…..He was a bit sore after 450 miles, but he’ll get used to it. I told him long distance riding uses muscles you
don’t usually use, it takes a while to work them in…………..I can wait to get back from the trip and do some
touring with him……if he can get a pass from my daughter 🙂
THIS IS KILLING ME!!!!!!
So here it is, Saturday….Five days before we leave on our “Epic Journey”………I just can’t take the waiting! I
sometimes think the best part of these tours I take is the preparation. I love selecting gear, working on the bike,
figuring out the packing, the maps, the mileage calculations, etc, etc…. But you have to remember, I did this all
last year………….And two weeks before we were to leave……….BANG!, I’m on the ground. When that accident
happened all I could think of as I was flying through the air was ‘Oh Sh-t, this is going to screw up the
trip!”….We’ll that was actually the second thing….The first thing was “This is gonna leave a mark!”……..In any
event, that cancelled that trip…………..I told Bob to go on without me, but he said “No Way!”….We planned this
trip together and we’ll do it together…….period!” That’s a good friend…..
Folks ask if the accident had any effect on my riding. Was I nervous about getting back in the saddle? As strange
as it might sound, I never had the least bit of trepidation (is that the right use of that word?)….Although
sometimes I close my eyes when I go through the intersection where it happened..:-)
But I can tell you that I haven’t ridden a motorcycle in a week…………I was going to take it to work the other day,
but at the last moment I decided not to jinks it…and took the car. What can I say…..I’m superstitious!
Today I’ll change the oil in the bike and that will be the final preparation………We’ll be good to go on
Wednesday……
PACKING…….
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Pack – Unpack – Pack – Unpack – Pack……………That’s what I did for a couple hours this afternoon……….And I still
don’t have it where it “feels right”……But I’m getting close! I was able to pare down some clothing so I could use
my medium size RED Orlib bag instead of the Jumbo size yellow one. This allows me to access the locks on the
tops of the side painers easily. And it created just a little bit of space over on the right side for the auxilary fuel can
that will be needed on the Haul Road up to the Artic.
I also rearranged the Pelican case on the rear rack so I can access all my photo gear very easily. Off the bike, open
case, grab camera, take a picture, put camera back, close case, get away from the bear I just took a picture of all
in about 20 seconds!
Bob’s been packing too!
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I just got an email from Bob…………He’s been playing the “packing game” also………
Here’s his email to me..
“Roy, Here is the first dry run on the packing.
Tank bag: camera, bug juice, knife, rope, shield cleaning stuff, small sundries Left bag: tools, gloves, rags, spare
parts, fly rod (on top) Right bag: clothing, poncho, roll of tp Top full opening duffel: tent, sleeping bag, kermit
chair, pillow, thermarest Top end opening duffel: second jacket, electric vest. This bag is just to keep these items
clean, and also to serve as auxiliary storage in case I splurge on some antlers or bear claws etc.
What do you think? Note that the gas can will go under the rear duffel and will serve to locate the bag a bit better.
May need to alter the strapping method a bit.”
Sunday, June 25, 2006
What’s in that Pelican Case?
Folks are asking what I’m taking for photographic equipment and how I’m transporting it……I mounted a 100%
waterproof, extremely heavy duty Pelican case to the rear luggage rack with a Touratech quick detach mount
system…….It’s the balls!
In this case I have a Nikon D70 Digital SLR, a second telephoto lens, A Sony Digital Video camera, a bunch of
battery chargers that run off 12V to charge batteries for both cameras and flashlights, 16 rechargeable AA
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batteries, various cords to download from the cameras and a couple of CDs to download the programs for the
cameras if need be…………All very safe in the Pelican Case….
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Are We There Yet!!!
Here it is, the night before we leave……….I can’t stand it. I have tons of work to do at Tweeter, yet I can’t wait to
get on the road. I love road trips! Nothing like seeing new things, eating in new places and just being out on the
road. I missed my calling. I should buy a big rig and long haul for a living!
Everything is packed…” A place for everything, and everything in it’s place”…..The bike is ready, and as soon as I
finish my budgets at work and take in one more meeting tomorrow, we’re on the road. I’m going to spend the
night at Bob’s house in Western Mass and get a good start early Thursday AM………..
Something that I hadn’t really thought about, is that we will be traveling up through Canada during the 4th of July
holiday…….Now I know it isn’t a holiday in Canada, but I hope we don’t have a difficult time getting camping sites
during this coming week……We’ll see.
So that’s it…wish us luck. The next report will come from the road!
Friday, June 30, 2006
FINALLY!
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I am writing this from a motel room in beautiful Miles City Montana. Let me tell you about the trip thus far. We left
Bob’s house at about 7AM on Thursday, June 29……Bob lives in Western Massachusetts so it seemed like a good
idea to head out through upstate New York to Pa and on out west. Sounds easy, except for some major flooding in
and around Binghamton NY. Route 88 and Rt 90 (NY State Throughway) were shut down. It took us most of three
hours to figure a way west as all the secondary roads were also closed……..Once we accomplished that we hit a
major traffic jam on the border of NY and PA. An accident that took the life of a fellow driving a new Hummer
required Med Flight and created a thirty mile back up and a wait of over an hour. At this point we are over four
hours behind schedule so we decided to drive straight through the night, taking four hour turns behind the wheel
while the other one slept. We hit more major traffic in Chicago at 1:30 AM and lost another hour. We have spent
36 hours straight in the truck! And we have another ten to twelve tomorrow to get to my friends house in Polson
MT………But we are having a ball. This afternoon we took back roads through Wyoming and Montana to look for
animals……….saw tons of Antelope, and a few mule deer.
The plan is to be on the bikes and on the road first thing Monday
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WE’RE OFF!!!!!!!!
(Bob is writing the BLOG today)
Dateline 1 July. We started the day in Miles City, MT, leaving at 0545. Immediately on the interstate, we spend the
day (some 550) miles crossing the state to Polson where we are leaving the truck and beginning the riding
experience. I-90 follows the pioneer route across the plains. We past Custer’s’ last stand, but don’t stop. That’s
another trip.
On arrival at the house, it takes only an hour or so to unpack the bikes. A trip to town for supper, and we’re back
to do final packing. Roy brought too much stuff, and creates a box to leave behind. Meanwhile, I’m looking at my
camping gear bag and saying it looks too small. A ‘proof of life’ opening of the bag shows sleeping bag, Thermarest
pad, pillow, and Kermit chair. Oops! No tent. That’s back on the dining room table at home. So our schedule is
changed to allow a stop in Kalispell, where there are three sporting goods stores. Anyone want to buy one of my
four tents?
Yes, Roy does have a lot of stuff on the bike. But it’s fun stuff for sure. Need a spotting scope to see that chipmunk
300 yards away? No problem! We have no internet access here, so Roy will post this later and attach a couple of
pics. Probably the first sighting of the mountains from I-90, the view of the mountains with a barn is from right
down the street here in Polson (What a place!). And then a shot of the bikes packed and ready to go. We haven’t
even started the good stuff yet, and already we’ve seen some beautiful country.
Tomorrow the adventure begins. Glacier Park and maybe crossing into Canada on our first day. We’re off!
On the road……..Really!
Up bright and early Sunday AM on a search mission for a tent for Bob……Kinda adds to the adventure…..
We headed on out to Kalispell, absolutely an amazing ride on the western edge of Flathead lake. A huge thunder storm was having it’s way with the lake, but we avoided even a drop of water as we rode around it rather than through it. This is one of the nice things about touring in the west. The sky is so wide open you can see weather approaching and just ride around it!
Once in Kalispell we had breakfast as we waited for the stores to open. And talk about stores! It has been three years since I’ve been in Kalispell and I can’t believe the construction. Mall, shopping centers, housing……simply amazing……
We ultimately found a great sporting goods store and the perfect tent for Bob. But it was the last one and he needed to take the floor model………..Had I known this I would have negotiated in Bob’s behalf and got him a deal..:)
So now we are really on our way……An hour ride and we are in Glacier National Park, in just about perfect
sightseeing weather….”Going To The Sun Road” is what they call the ride through this
part. And entering the park West to East as we did this morning was just that!…WOW!……We weren’t two miles into the park and I thought Bob was going to have sensory overload. I bet he shot twenty pictures in the first five miles! This is my third drive through the park but I’m here to tell you it is still something to see.
I kept cautioning Bob that we would be going through the Canadian Rockies and although Glacier is great, it’s chicken feed compared to Banff and Jasper , Alberta……….He’ll soon find out!
After the ride through Glacier we crossed over the Can/American border into Alberta…….We hit a really neat hail storm that lasted about 1/4 mile……..I’m glad I wear a full face helmet! I can’t imagine what the Harley crowd does in a situation like that……….Next stop Waterton Lakes National Park to find a campsite and settle down for the night……………..
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Monday, July 03, 2006
Believe it or not I’m sitting in back of some kind of investment agency in Creston BC writing this. In my limited amount of time as a traveling “Blogger”, I’ve found these financial institutions to have all kind of WiFi stuff floating around. So I pull in behind, make myself comfortable next to the dumpster and log on……….works great! And it’s free………
We left Waterton at sun up this morning……………It’s hard to imagine, but Bob actually gets up before me! We had all our gear packed and on the bikes in under 20 minutes. This will improve as the trip progresses. (Side bar…a woman sticks her head out of the door where I’m sitting, typing on a laptop, in full motorcycle get up. She asks if “I fixed it?”….I said “I’m working on it!”..She left and said thanks………..)
The ride from Waterton to Creston was uneventful. Save for taking a picture of “The Worlds Biggest Truck”…………..But the roads are great! ……The traffic VERY light and I couldn’t be having a better time!
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
“You call THIS a highway!!!”
July 4th, 5am…Weather
–
PERFECT!
Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Awoke early, and headed out. A fellow we met over the internet suggested a route to take from Waterton Park over to Lake Louise in Banff. Part of this route is BC Route 31. On a map it looked like any other road in BC……….BUT…..
Everything started out all right, great road, good pavement……life is good. Then all at once the pavement just stops and we are riding on marbles size gravel! But wait, it gets better. This gravel gives way to what I would call an improved “two track”…and it lasts for about 50 miles! Actually it was great fun and excellent preparation for the Haul Road in Alaska
Today also was a ferry day…..We needed to cross two lakes and up here the BC government runs free ferry services in many locations. We met a trio of rides from Alberta that were touring around Canada and I told them I would put them in the BLOG…….So here goes guys, your fifteen minutes of fame! Actually they were really nice folks, like everyone we run into up here
Last night at dinner, which was fantastic by the way, we met two retired Canadian government types. They have been on the road for weeks. Touring the American southwest and parts of Canada. They sat with us at dinner and then presented Bob and I with the neatest hat pin you ever saw. Seems one of the fellows was employed with the Canadian government in Indian Affairs and the pin symbolizes the cooperation between the tribes……….
Other than the dirt Highway 31, the roads up here in BC and Alberta are amazing. No frost heaves, no pot holes, almost race track quality……….And they have heavier trucks using them and just as bad weather as we get back home…What’s up with this?
Well, got to go pack up and hit the road……Next stop…Lake Louise and the Columbia Ice Fields on the way to
Jasper, Alberta…………
Thursday, July 06, 2006
ON THE ROAD……….
FANTASTIC…………….
The trip so far in one word
This post will go back two days as I haven’t had time to update the BLOG in that length of time.
The night before last we spent in Revelstock BC. A neat little town in the Canadian Rockies. And then it was off to Lake Louise, Alberta. Some folks have called Lake Louise the most beautiful spot on earth. I would agree, but way too many tourists for me……….
I treated Bob to breakfast at the fancy dining room in the Lake Louise hotel. When we asked for a table, we were asked to “sit over there and wait”………..I can’t understand why! Two guys, dressed in black motorcycle clothing, unshaven, and covered in bugs want to sit with the upper crust and we are asked to wait…..jeeze…..But finally they gave us a table by the window and we had a great breakfast……..
From Lake Louise we traveled the Ice Field Parkway up to Jasper, Alberta………Let me tell you. This is a MUST DO trip. I’ve been a bunch of places and nothing compares to the sites on this road as it snakes its way between mountains, glaciers and the deepest green/blue lakes you ever saw. I took no pictures as the last time I was through here I shot a bunch and they just do not do it justice. It’s one of those places you need to experience to
“get it”……..
Jasper is where we spent the night. As I was checking into the campsite, the gal asked if we were using tents….when I suggested we were, she informed me that there was “elevated bear activity” in the
campground…and added “Good Luck!”. As we went to set up our tents I pointed out to Bob a nice pile of bear poop right where our campsite was………..Darn, I love adventure!
After setting up our tents we went into town for dinner. I love Jasper! A very hip, slightly 1960s throwback hippy kind of place. As we were leaving a bull elk decided to stroll right down main street. Stopping to nibble on the grass on the sidewalk. Bob was within 30 feet of him on his bike and the Elk paid him no mind………..Wildlife everywhere around Jasper.
We left Jasper at 5am and headed for Dawson Creek, which is “Mile 0” on the Alaskan Highway. About twenty miles outside of Jasper I had what will most likely be the highlight of my trip. On the side of the road were two grey Wolves. A male and a female. I got within 20 feet of them and they didn’t seem concerned in the least.
Unfortunately the only picture I got was very poor as the sun was directly behind them. But who cares……..seeing wolves in the wild is an amazing treat! and to get “within their space”…………well it just don’t get any better!
Halfway to Dawson Creek we stopped for breakfast……………this is the routine. Wake at 4AM, on the bike by 4:30……….Ride for a few hours to see wildlife, eat…repeat.
While having breakfast we heard about forest fires in the area where we were headed and possible road closures.
We’ll find out more about this as we head up the ALCAN.
We got to Dawson Creek and met up with some folks whom I’ve talked to on the internet on the Suzuki V Strom forum. Great folks! We all had dinner together, great conversation, and then Bob and I snuck into their campsite for the night.
Dawson Creek is like a dream for me. I’ve wanted to do this Alaskan Highway since I was a kid. To stand in front of that “Mile 0” market was surreal……..can’t explain it……….guess I’m just weird! To travel over 1500 miles by bike and 2700 miles by truck to be here is well worth it.
But the journey is just beginning! By tonight we will be in Fort Nelson………and then on to the Yukon!
Friday, July 07, 2006
We’re in Whitehorse!
Thursday, June 6th….. Awoke at 3:30, answered some emails, but didn’t have time to write in the BLOG. We wanted to get on the road early to see if we could add to the “animal count”…Nothing to report except very heavy fog and a bit of smoke at times. We couldn’t see 200 feet in front of us, never mind seeing animals. I can’t even tell you if we rode through nice countryside or not. A very uneventful ride. But we did make it to Fort Nelson, and still had “riding light” so we decided to press on. We looked on the map and found a place called Liard Hot Springs, just before Watson Lake ……..Sounds like a plan! We pulled into the Liard Hot Springs Campground and were told there were only four sites left. Everything was sold out! We’ve found that you need to get up early, put in your400-500 mile day and find a place to sleep by no later than 4pm. Otherwise you are pitching tent on the side of the road….with the bears.
When we get to the campground I like to ride around an put my tent where other folks are tenting….I figure the odds that they have something in their tent that the bear will like better than what I have is very good…..And if that doesn’t work, putting a little honey on their tent guarantees the bears will leave us alone….:
This “light out till midnight” thing takes a bit of getting used to. I took a pair of sox and cut them into a sleeping mask so I could fall asleep! But after a nice long soak in that mineral laden hot spring I slept like a baby……..until it started to pour!
I also reminded Bob that two years ago, on the same little walking bridge that we crossed to get to the Hot Springs, a bear had it’s way with a few tourists and two of them ended their lives right
there………”Sleep tight!”
Friday, July 7th….We woke at 5:30 to rain. First real rain of the trip. Packed our stuff in record time and planned to leave. But we couldn’t get out of the campsite. They lock the gates at 10pm and don’t unlock them until 7am….We tried to find another way out and went through the park rangers yard. He must have heard us and came out and unlocked the gates…..Away we go!
We don’t get thirty feet outside the park gates and we see our first bear. A black bear is ambling across the road, coming right from the campground we had just left
…..
Two Bears, Two Bison and Two Moose……….sounds like the “Hungry Hunter” selection for breakfast at Denny’s……But this is what we saw on the side of the road in the first two hours….in a blinding rain storm! I had to stop and reset my gear. I was using a tinted face shield, but with the rain I couldn’t see where I was going……I found a closed motel that had a bit of an overhand and pulled in to make the adjustment…….much better!
The Yukon lies ahead!
We made it to Watson Lake, Yukon Territories for breakfast and a visit to the world famous Alaskan Highway Sign Forest.
The rain has stopped, but it’s still cold..in the 50s.
Seems back during World War II, a homesick GI put a sign with his home town’s name painted on it in a tree.
Other GIs followed suit and it hasn’t stopped with GIs. The sign forest now has over 50,000 signs from everywhere
in the world. It’s great fun walking around and seeing what folks posted.
From there it was a long ride over to Teslin YT for fuel and to have a look at some amazing taxidermy at a wildlife
museum
and some “iron” at the transportation museum
A quick three hours later we’re in Whitehorse. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon, and with a population of
23,000 folks, it has two thirds of the population of the entire Yukon. So if my math is correct…there are only
34,000 folks living in the whole YT….Lots of land for so few folks…….
Tonight we are not camping. We splurged on a motel room. A nice shower and a good bed after a very long day in
the saddle will feel great. Tomorrow we hit the “Klondike Loop” to Dawson City and the “Top of the World
Highway” to Chicken Alaska!
With that Trip Report out of the way….Let’s talk about this entire trip in general….
So far we’ve traveled 2348 miles in six days (229, 421, 319, 492, 477, 410) and the riding and the roads are
fantastic…..In the whole 2300 miles the traffic has been so light, we estimate we’ve passed 50 vehicles…..and only
one guy in a suped up Camaro has passed us..:
–
) The Alaskan Highway is a great road….but it can go for hundreds
of miles with zero scenery. I couldn’t imagine doing this trip in a car or a
motor home
…..Being on the bikes turns it
into a quest…..and the camping adds a sense of adventure. You will have hours of the same view, and then break
out into an area that will just take your breath away…then back to trees, trees, and more trees…….Now that we’ve
hit the Klondike area, the history part of the trip is unfolding. We just visited a great museum about the Klondike
gold rush and the building of the Alaskan
Highway
…..Amazing what those folks went through to stake a claim for some gold and the Army guys that built this whole
road in under 9 months to help the country defend itself from Japanese
invasion
.
I’m surprised we are not seeing more wildlife…..
I would guess that half of the motels and
restaurants
in the little towns we are going through are boarded up. I
would guess this road had it’s hey day in the 80s. And considering that every other vehicle we do see is some type
of
motor home
or travel trailer, there just isn’t the need for motels or
restaurants
…..It’s kind of sad…
There are LOTS of bikes on the road. The number one brand is a toss up between Harley Davidson and Honda
Goldwing, number two would be BMW, and believe it or not I believe number three would be Suzuki V
–
Strom….everyone that ever got sold in the states must be up here! A few sport bikes here and there, but very few
other makes and models than the four I’ve listed. All the bike folks are VERY friendly….Even the Harley guys
wave!!!!At every gas stop there is lots of “bike talk”….
Road conditions have been excellent. The horror stories you hear about construction sites, pace cars, gravel, etc
has not existed thus far. We’ve hit one area of construction that lasted about a 1/2 mile….and we had to ride
through some gravel…no big deal. I believe if we were a month earlier it would be a different story…
The
mosquitoes
ARE as bad as folks said they would be…….If you don’t
douse
yourself in DEET, you are dead
meat!
The gear Bob and I chose for the trip is working better than expected. The Tecnic Spyder jacket that I bought just
for this trip is perfect. It’s a two piece jacket that has an outer rain shield over an air mesh jacket with lots of
armor. It has worked great in
95 degrees, 47 degrees and pouring rain……..couldn’t be more pleased. I start out in
the cool AM with th
e over jacket in place, remove
it once the sun is up and stuff it in the saddle bag. Takes about
30 seconds.
I didn’t bring my Gerrbing electic liner…error. I’m using a polar
fleece
liner in the morning and it’s just a bit too hot
once the sun gets overhead. And a little too cool once I remove it. Bob and I just went to an outfitter supply store
and I bought a medium weight poly longsleeve undershirt that should be just the ticket.
Bikes are running great….no issues to speak of. The DL
–
650 V
–
Strom is a great bike…….very smooth, comfortable,
excellent gas
mileage
and range……
That’s it for now…….More in a day or two…….
Saturday July 8,2006
Where’s Bob!
This is going to start to sound like bragging! But, man…..this is
too
much fun!
I need a serious supply of “Grin
Remover” !
July 8th…Today we left for the “Klondike Loop”…This is a side trip that takes us off the Alaskan Highway and up
“
over the top
”
to Dawson City, Yukon Territories (YT)
The trip up to Dawson City is just a bit over 300 miles. Out here, this is like going around the block back home. All
the distances are in “hunerd miles”……Big Country!
The road to Dawson City was in great shape except for a few areas of construction where they spread ball bearings
all over the road and then cover them with baby sh
–
t, just to make it interesting for motorcyclists….Actually, I’m
25
?
making it out to be worse than what it was. The two bikes, both shod with Tourance tires did great. We could keep
our speeds at around 45 mph……but don’t lose your concentration for a second………it could hurt!
To make matters a bit more interesting, it started to rain for about 20 minutes….and then just as quickly, cleared
up.
We met this really neat German couple with two wee children who have been traveling around the world for four
years in this really neat four wheel drive “Paris
–
Dakar” type motorhome. Great folks!
They told us they spent the previous four years on a motorcycle before the kids were born……Amazing!
I stopped to take a picture of two bald eagles fishing in a lake by the side of the road and Bob continued on ahead
of me and decided to take a ride down a
dirt
two track. He thought he would be back on the main road to intercept
me, but I caught up with and passed his side road before he exited. That’s the last we saw of each other till this
morning! Bob was MIA……
I got to Dawson City a few hours later and expected to see Bob’s bike parked at the entrance to the town. This is
how we deal with this situation. Although we mostly ride together, at time we want to ride our own ride and we
get separated. But since there is only one road, it’s pretty hard to get separated, even though we might be
hundreds of miles apart…Big Country (did I say that already?)
But Bob’s bike was not anywhere to be seen. I rode around the town, but no Bob…..I parked my bike on the side
of the road and waited…nothing.
I decided I would get a hotel room this evening as it was Saturday night and Dawson City has a great night life on
the weekends. I went to the “Downtown Hotel” which is owned and operated by Dick, who is a fellow BMW
motorcycle owner (R1150GS).
I got a great room with two beds figuring Bob would show up at any time. I parked my bike right outside the hotel
door and went to take a nap……..I awoke at around 7pm, called Bob’s wife, Kathy, to see if Bob had called in…He
hadn’t….Kathy wasn’t concerned (she did mention something about the life insurance being paid up) But she was
upset that he
hadn’t seen
Dawson City as Kathy thought it was the best part of Alaska when she visited last
summer…
….I wasn’t worried, but a little concerned. I figured he had proceeded across the river (via ferry) and was camping
on the other side. I had no reason to believe he would have gotten off the main road, and since I was “positive” I
was behind him, and I didn’t see a crashed R1200GS anywhere on the side of the road, I figured he was OK……..
This morning my phone in the hotel room rings and it’s Bob……He’s in the lobby. As I had thought he went across
the river and took a campsite…….Too bad, because the hot tub in the hotel was great!
Next installment I’ll tell you how Bob got within 15’ of a real live Grizzly bear…..I kid you not!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
“Oh My God! What views!”
Bob is writing the BLOG this evening…….
Sunday
–
July 9th. I awake at about 0430 as is usual for this trip. Apparently
it never got dark last night. Read in
the tent until about 1030 without using the flash light. Pretty cool. Oh! Did I tell you Roy got lost yesterday? We
pulled off the road to look at Fox Lake. Got a couple of pics and we both started to pull out. Me in front. But Roy
has this problem of overactive eye syndrome. He sees everything! So he stops to see these eagles flying in for a
fishing session as I pull away. No biggie. He looks for animals and I do my thing looking for lakes and stuff like
that. Ever wonder what’s down that road that turns off your route? Well there are lots of those dirt roads turning
off up here. I pick one that looks like it goes down to a lake off to the left. The track isn’t dry yet from the last rain,
and it’s a slippery ride, but I make it. At the pond is a camp site, fire pit, and a great view. Talk about all alone!
Back up the trail in good shape and on to Stewart Crossing, where I wait for Roy for 40 minutes. Man, he must
have found something really good to be this late! The destination is Dawson City, so he’ll just have to catch up as
best he can. I get to Dawson and wait for 100 minutes at the welcome sign. No Roy. In to town, I park the bike on
the main drag in front of Sourdough Joe’s and have some supper. As the food arrives, I see the German guys drive
up in their Iveco huge machine. A quick run over to them and I learn that they didn’t see Roy or any accident on
the way up. We learn later that Roy was about 50 feet away at this instant, reading a book on the board walk.
Guess he didn’t hear me cruise the main drag about 4 times! Oh! He parked his bike on 2nd Ave. Not to worry, I
found him in the morning and he’s fine. It’s not a case of being lost, merely a bit confused
.
After a breakfast at the hotel this morning, we head out to see Dredge #4. Check out the picture. The thing is
huge. It was used to dig out the river bottom and pan for gold. The thing that amazes me is how they got these
things up some very small creeks. This #4 is about 2 miles from the main river, and is about the size of two
houses. Back to down town, we see the old buildings and such. Most everything is closed because it’s Sunday
morning. So we head for Chicken. This involves going across the river by ferry, and then along the ‘Top of the
?World Highway’, or route 9 on the map. Much construction and gravel, but it’s very well done and we move right
along. One way to explain is that we pass everything we see, without exception. Well, except the bear. I’m in front
(this really doesn’t happen all that often), and at the side of the road is this brown bear . . . WHAT!!! . . . That’s a
Grizzly! Stop Quick! Roy says it crossed the road, but as usual I didn’t see that. What a sight, and as close as a car
parked at the side of the road. I come to a stop about 5 feet past him and Roy pulls up behind. Since I can’t turn
around enough with the camera, I do a quick ‘U’ turn and pull back up for a shot. Meanwhile, Mr. Bear is thinking
it’s time to leave. My shot turns out to be a tree trunk as the bear is in the bush by the time the camera is ready.
Sorry you don’t get to see him this time. Will try again, just for the club! The Top of the World Highway is simply
one of the greatest rides you can imagine. We had about the perfect weather with unlimited visibility to the
horizon. The bluest sky I’ve ever seen. And drop offs at the road edge to take your breath away.
OK
–
So we cross the border and arrive at Chicken for lunch.
Finally in Alaska! Three buildings, a burger, and that’s about it for Chicken. No telephones, but they did have WiFi
On to Tok via routes 5 (Taylor Highway) and 2. We’re here camping for the night. Today’s miles are 220, of which about 100 plus was dirt. Great day, stay tuned!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Where are we now….?
Well it’s been a few days since we have been able to update the BLOG. Bob and I have been in the Arctic Circle for
cripes sakes! Not alot of internet access up there!
So….we left off where we were heading to Tok Alaska…..Uneventful ride, except that we are on one of the most
fantastic roads I’ve ever been on. The “Top of the World Highway” is a dirt road that unlike most roads through
mountains, doesn’t travel around the bases of the mountains, it goes right over the top!
This “highway” is only open a few months a year. The winters are just too brutal to keep it open…..and dangerous,
as there are no guard rails and in some places it is hundreds of feet off drop off if you miss a turn….Not fun! We
had perfect weather…but I wouldn’t want to do this road in the rain. Up here they spread some kind of calcium
mixture on the roads to keep the dust down. This works well when things are dry, but God help you if you are on
the road during rain. This mixture turns to a grease and 20 mph is pushing it on two wheels……..
We get to Tok, about 500 miles from Dawson City, and see a sign for a campground that is advertising “Free
Showgirls”…….The Sourdough Campground and RV Park. Sounds like a plan! We head on over and instead of Free
Showgirls, the local
high school
kids fooled with the letters and it should have read “Free
Showers”….Whatever…The showers were great and they were free!
We met a nice couple from Arizona and invited them to join us at a local food feast called the “Salmon Bake”…This
place is world known for a great
wood fired
salmon steak and all the fixings……nothing like it! Great meal………We
stopped and picked up a six pack on the way back to the campsite and sat outside talking for a few hours before we turned in for the night.
July 10
This is the big day! The whole reason this trip existed for us was to get to the Arctic Circle……I’ve been close on a
few big game hunting trips, but no cigar. Today we will ride 458 miles from Tok to Coldfoot….75 miles of which will
be dirt, mud and ROCKS!
Between Tok and Fairbanks is Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaskan Highway.
We stopped, took pictures and received our certificates for completing the Alaskan Highway……..
We stopped in Fairbanks to get road conditions for the Dalton Highway, also known as the “Haul Road”. This road was built to supply the building of the Alaska Pipeline and to resupply Prudhoe Bay. Until a few years ago it was not open to the public. I’m here to tell you…this is one tough road!
The paved sections are like some roads in Bagdad…Huge potholes, uneven surfaces and just a real good
time……Now throw in sections where they simply come along, tear out the roadbed and lay down about 4″ of 1/2″
size gravel and it really gets your interest! Luckily we had dry weather..I can’t imagine this road in the rain…..But
the washboard effect was taking
its
toll on my wrist……Construction zones are another interesting part of the
roads up here. You’ll be driving along and see a sign saying “Road Construction Ahead”…There will be a flag
person stopping you.
Motorcycles go to the head of the line…a “Pilot” car shows up and you all get into a single file line and follow the
pilot car…which goes so slow you can barely keep the bike upright! And they take you through a war zone! Some
times in mud 6″ deep, or a boulder field with rocks the size of apples…..always and interesting event! We made it
to the Arctic Circle and Bob needed to convince me to not turn back and do the next 60 miles to Coldfoot where we
had a “room” (and I use the term loosely) for the night. It was six of one, half a dozen of the other…..60 miles
forward or 60 miles back. We were under the impression that the remainder of the road to Coldfoot was in much
better repair…NOT!
But we went on and I made it without too much issue, but my wrist was smarting pretty good. This is unfortunate
because for the whole 3000 miles we had traveled thus far, it didn’t give me a moment of complaint. But then
again, I wasn’t riding 120 plus miles on washboard……..But I’m glad we made it to Coldfoot. It was a great
experience and it gave me time to rest my wrist for the return trip. Coldfoot was a blast! Lots of motorcycles, lots
of stories, a few broken motorcycles, a few sad stories….
fortunately
while we were there, although bikes were “put
down”, no one was injured.
You might ask why we were taking a room in the Coldfoot Inn rather than camping….Although a concern has been
bears throughout this trip, it turns out that bears are a piece of cake…..WOLVES are the big issue!
All kinds of stories of wolves trying to get onto tents while occupied and then the story about a gal at the Artic
Circle rest area being attacked (which was front page news back in Anchorage and on all the TV stations) and a
motorcyclist being chased by wolves is all I needed to put real lumber between me and the elements while in the
34
?
Arctic! Check out the photograph of the sign that was posted at the Artic Circle pull out…….
So we make it to Coldfoot (By the way, it’s called Coldfoot because folks heading for the Artic would get cold feet
at this point and head back)….
And get a room at the Slate Creek Inn
….But I couldn’t go to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay………I figured I had about 6000 miles to go on this trip and if I
screwed up my wrist bad, I’d be in real trouble…..But “Bob Ain’t Stoppin” decided to do the Deadhorse run
solo…IN ONE DAY!!! 243 miles each way…through the Brooks Mountain Range and untold miles of Tundra!!! I’ll let
him fill you in on the details…….
Bob returned from Deadhorse………and you want to talk about a “Deadhorse!” …Man, was he beat! But he was a
hero! The rest of the bikers and truck drivers at the Coldfoot Inn gave him a standing ovation when he pulled it for
doing that run in one day..Solo!
We spent that second night at the Inn and then headed for Denali Park early on Thursday, July 13…..This would
take us by Mt McKinley (Which the natives still call Denali “The Great One”). But our chances of seeing the
20,000+ foot mountain were nil as it was pouring rain! The guide books tell us you have about a 20% chance of
seeing Denali because the mountain makes its own weather and is usually shielded in clouds. So we decided to just
high tail it to Anchorage and leave “The Great One” for another visit…….BUT…as we are riding along I see a break
35
?
in the clouds, and something told me to pull off the highway and look back…we did , BOOM! There is was!
Talk about luck! In a driving rain storm….we beat the odds and saw Denali!
On to Anchorage
and Alaskan Leathers so Bob can change his engine oil………More to come!
“Ain’t Does the Dalton to Prudhoe Bay”…SOLO!
Dateline: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 . . . Or ‘Ain’t Does Dalton . . . Both Ways’
It’s Friday as I write this, but it was Tuesday morning at 0530 when I started the adventure. As Roy explained, he
was out for the count with the sore wrist. I didn’t try to talk him into completing this part of the ride. Too much at
stake for him, personally, with the wrist. He had to make this decision on his own. The official breakfast time at
Coldfoot is 0700. So I planned to have a candy bar breakfast and head out. But walking into the dining area, I
36
?
found people eating, and the full buffet in operation. Turns out they open early for the truckers and pipe line
workers. This $6.50 buffet puts any YB breakfast to shame! All we are used to plus several fruits, cereals (hot and
cold), breads, and so on. All to the highest standard. Simply amazing considering where we were. After eating, I’m
on the road at 0630. Out of the driveway, there is a sign ‘243 miles to Deadhorse’. Also another saying next
services 243 miles. You’re on your own with this trip. The weather is good, with temps around 55 degrees. At mile
28 the road is undulating up and down slightly. At a crest I see a bicyclist about a half mile ahead. That dude is
crazy! At the next rise, he’s gone. One more rise and I get the rest of the story. It’s a grizzly at the side of the
road. Much bigger than the other day. You may know that bears have good hearing and smell, but not such great
vision. Well, this guy hears a Beemer Boxer closing fast, and he knows he’s got a problem. I pull up about 75 feet
short and he stands up, looks me in the eye, and heads for the bushes. Don’t mess with a YB if you don’t have
backup! As usual, I didn’t get the camera out fast enough. The whole thing lasted about 5 seconds. Another 10
miles and a jack rabbit crosses the road. These guys, and the million or so Richardson ground squirrels, are all the
wild life I will see today. Looking ahead, I can see the mountains of the Brooks Range ahead. And there is rain up
there. Roy and I had made the agreement that if it was raining, we would not do this ride. So I’m a bit nervous,
but the rain stays just to the east and I keep on. Up over Atigun pass is very steep, with big peaks rising right
beside the road. Stunning views. I take just a couple of pictures, planning to take more on the way back w
hen the
light might be better.
After Atigun, the land flattens out into tundra, and goes on forever. We are following the pipeline, and there are
pumping stations every few miles, but that’s about it. I get to Prudhoe at 1130 hours. It’s cold and quite windy. A
visit to the ‘hotel’ finds that the next tour to the Arctic Ocean isn’t until 3:30pm. Not good. That would put me way
past bed time getting back to Coldfoot. So I skip the tour (the only way to actually get to the real ocean), and dip
my toe in the lake at the end of the public road. Th
e ride back starts at 2:30pm.
A note about the road conditions. Roy explained a bit about the road, but that’s not the whole story. The road base
is hard packed gravel with a high clay content. It really works quite well. But rain mixes with the clay to make
slippery conditions for two wheeled vehicles. When they regrade the road, they mix up new gravel, and add
calcium chloride to the mix, which ends up like concrete when water is added. They grade this out with large
blades and water it down from tanker trucks. During this operation, we have to pass by, going through this slurry
on the bike. It’s really touch and go, and a bunch of guys go down. I go through several miles of this in first gear
and feel lucky to stay upright. That’s the construction zones. On either side of that are sections with hard pack,
hard pack with rocks sticking out, hard pack with one layer of pea stone that works like marbles for us bikers, or
thicker pea stone that you worry about sinking in to. So you have to figure out the road conditions on a second by
second basis. All day. Plus, you want to look at the views, and I have to do Roy’s job of scouting for animals too.
So, as I’m riding back along the tundra, there is no wild life, and the mountains are coming into view again. This
time there are some serious clouds up there. I know I’m going to get wet. Going into the hills, the rain starts. And
it’s heavy. Fortunately, there is no construction here, so the road does not get muddy. But I’m down to about 20
mph dealing with the rocks, visibility, ruts and so on. Let’s see, 140 miles to go, at 20 mph . . . This could be a
problem! Going over the pass again, I can’t do pictures. Can barely turn my head, and neck and shoulder muscles
are tightening up from the strain of concentrating for so long. Fortunately, as I exit the pass, the rain lets up, and I
can get back up to 45 mph in spots. Every mile, I recalculate arrival time. Looks like anything from 9:30 to 11:00
should do it. Turns out the time is 10:00pm when I roll in. We all have a beer and I get a grilled ham and cheese
for supper. Turn in is at 11
:00pm. Still fully light out.
What a great ride. Total miles were 482, of which 430 was dirt. (There is a 30 mile paved section). I was 303 miles
north of the Arctic Circle!
ON TO DENALI
Now on to Wednesday, July 12th. We are up at our usual 0530, get breakfast, and head south towards Fairbanks.
We have the lower section of the Dalton to do again.
All along the Haul Road the Alaska Pipeline is your constant
companion.
Conditions are much better
going down
than on the way up and we make good progress. At Fairbanks, we call the
BMW guy to see if I can change my oil. No dice, he’s busy and won’t let me work on the bike myself. So we
continue on to the Denali area and camp at a really poor site for the night. Waking up the next morning, (now
Thursday July 13th) we find steady rain. No reason to stick around, so we are off to Anchorage. Roy already told
you about seeing Denali Mountain through the clouds. Really cool. Continuing south, the weather is getting better
every mile. We arrive at Anchorage to warm temps and full sun. First stop is Alaska Leathers for a sheep skin seat
pad for the GS. These are great people!
I tell them about my need for an oil change and pressure wash for my bike. Do th
e oil in their driveway, no
problems. They have everything all set up for the traveler. The pre
ssure wash is two blocks away.
Meanwhile, Roy is showing his farkels to every biker that comes to the store. He has a great time, and has yet to
be out farkeled on this trip! He also confirms that every motel is booked solid. So Barb (AK Leather’s owner and a
real cool gal) says ‘Why don’t you camp for free at the Harley dealer?’
Sure enough, they have a grass area set aside for travelers, regardless of the bike they ride. Yo
u get the
combination to a dedicated bath and shower room too! I can’t help but wonder what reception a HD rider would
get at the BMW dealer when he asked for the same courtesy.
We wake up Friday morning, after a great sleep and head over to Gwennie’s, a restaurant dating form the gold
rush days.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Valdez………….RAIN!!
Well, all this great weather had to come to an end…….We left Anchorage for Valdez over the Glenn
Highway………Amazing sights, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. It rained on an off for the total 303 miles.
Temperatures up at
Thompson pass were down to the 3
0s. We got up close and personal with the Worthington
Glacier. This bad boy comes right down to the road. Although it has receded quite a bit in the last few years, it’s
still very impressive. From there it was on to the Valdez glacier. Not as impressive, but better than any glaciers we
have in New England
…..
Saw this truck that took a wrong turn……most likely rubber necking and missed the turn….
No one was around the crash so I’m guessing they were taken to the
hospital before we got there.
Tonight we are staying at the Best Western in Valdez and on Saturday we are taking a tour boat out to the
Columbia Glacier to see calving icebergs and hopefully a few whales……..
Monday, July 17, 2006
Valdez to Haines Junction………
Dateline Monday July 17, 2006.
Bob Ain’t Stoppin’ your reporter.
Well, we took a boat tour out of Valdez on Saturday to see the Columbia glacier as it dumps major ice into the
ocean. Weather was light rain most of the day, and the clouds were hanging just a few feet off the ground. We did
get to see bald eagles, sea lions, and sea otters, but the big whales and bears were all avoiding the bad weather.
Actually, most of the bears have gone up river now following the salmon for a free meal. At the glacier, we saw
massive ice flow leaving the moraine deposits at the foot of the glacier, but we couldn’t get through to the glacier
itself because of poor visibility and too much ice in the water. Will try to p
ut up some pics of this later.
On Sunday, we left Valdez in almost rain conditions, and headed over the Thompson pass (Richardson Highway
).
At the top of the pass, we crossed into thinning clouds and sunshine. Coming down off the pass, we had our first
good weather in a few days and turned up the Tok cutoff towards Tok. This road takes the prize for the most
under construction path of our trip so far. Miles of construction going from loose gravel as we’ve seen before and
then into orange sized smooth stones with no hard track to follow. Very difficult going. We saw one white car that
had left the road and rolled several times. A few minutes later the police and ambulances went by in response. At
one point we were following a pilot quide car through an active w
ork area when we came upon a big
gravel ditch
with several options for tracks to follow on the bike. I quick
ly
picked one, and Roy behind me picked another. I
42
?
lucked out. But Roy got to the point that the rut was deeper than the ground clearance on the bike so he simply
stood up and got off. Help came from the cars in line and got him
out before I could even stop.
Through Tok, we then headed for the Canadian border and crossed into the Yukon. I hope Roy can post a picture
of the ‘Hostel’ we stayed in last night. The bedding was SO bad we both slept in our sleeping bags……… Pretty
funny! Now Monday, and we are at Haines Junction, about to turn south for Haines, AK. This ‘Haines Road’ should
offer bears feeding, and eagle sightings as we work our way south to Haines. As I write this, Roy is yakking on the
phone doing executive stuff that we are not allowed to understand. Me, I’m on vacation. See you in a coupla
weeks!
Oh! One final item. Time for an animal count. So far we’ve:
–
Grinned down 2 Grizzlies
–
Done doughnuts around 5 or 6 deer
–
Been entertained by about 26 Elk
–
Soared by about 6 bald eagles
–
Morphed next to 4 or 5 Moose
–
Regarded countless Richardson Ground Squirrels
–
Jacked repeated Rabbits
–
Prairie dogs. Oh my, perhaps a zillion.
Very Truly Yours,
Ain’t
WAITING!
Here I am. 7:15 AM on July 19th and I’m sitting next to the Canadian Customs office, in the grass, with my lap
–
top
43
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plugged into an outlet on the side of the building, writing this in MS Word because I can’t log on…….Why am I
doing this you ask?……Because freak’n Canadian customs on the Haines Road doesn’t open until 8am!!!!! We got
up early to make some time today, as we need to cover about 600 miles……….and here we are waiting for over an
hour for customs to open. We have an option. The motorcycles WILL fit through the opening in the locked gate,
but I think I feel a machine gun trained on us just waiting for us to “make a break”…..So not to cause an
inte
rnational incident, we wait…..
…I believe we left off with us making it to Haines Alaska. We spent two nights in a coastal Grizzly Bear (the biggest
kind) infected campsite. I have never seen so much bear poop! All over the road in front of the campground, and
even IN the campground. This is the place where once we had set up out tents and got settled in, the campground
owner informed us that there was a Grizz in the campground the night before……nice touch!
The first night wasn’t too bad. There were two groups of other folks in tents that had been fishing, so we figured
they would draw the bears away from us if they showed up again. But last night, they had all left and WE were the
bait……….Got to go…Customs agent just showed up………I’ll get back to this later.
I’m back…..seems they just came out of their house to walk the dog…….
So anyways….didn’t sleep all that good last night. It didn’t help that I was reading a tour guide about the area we
are in just before I went to sleep that said about 2 miles up the road was one of the largest concentrations of
Coastal Grizz in the world!
Yesterday was the first day we did not ride…..we took a fast ferry over to Skagway so we could ride the White Pass
narrow guage railroad train up into the mountains, just like the gold rush folks did 100 years ago.
This whole Gold Rush thing is extremely interesting. To see how hard they worked to get into the interior of the
Yukon, and out of an estimated 100,000 men that attempted, only 30-40,000 made it to Dawson City, and of those only a few hundred actually struck gold and a handful became rich.
Skagway is a really neat town. But there were four huge cruise ships in port at the time we were there. Way too
many people for a little 1890s town like this…
…..we took an earlier ferry back to Haines……Went looking for more bears. Didn’t see any because they were most
likely all sitting in MY TENT!
Did see a bunch of Bald Eagles….
Looks like the Customs Agent just showed up……or is this a Canadian Mountain……..Without a doubt, this is the
fattest customs agent I ever saw! He’d make a great snack for one of those costal Grizzlies……….sorry….
Once we get through Customs, were heading over to a little town called “Copper” on the Copper River. The Copper
River is world renown as the numero uno river for Alaska King Salmon……….We are going to attempt to remove a
few with hook and rod…..More later.
HEADING SOUTH ?………
Well, we’re on our way back to Haines Junction. Lots of highways in Alaska “Dead End” at the various oceans. So
you need to backtrack to get somewhere else. In this case the “Haines Highway” goes back up through Alaska,
through British Columbia and through the Yukon to hook back up with the Alaskan Highway. From there we will
run across the Alaskan Highway , through Whitehorse (Capital of the Yukon) and over to one of the most
anticipated roads of the entire trip……The Cassiar Highway. By the way, this little “jaunt” to get to the Cassiar is
about 603 MILES!!!
On our way back to Haines Junction we decided to try our hand at some salmon fishing. We stopped in a little
town called “Copper” and ate at a turn of the century roadhouse and had a wonderful breakfast. Maybe the best of
the trip so far. It was fun eavesdropping on all the conversations going on around us from the locals. Talk about
bears, wolves, sled dogs, gardens, hunting, fishing……same kind of stuff folks talk about in Boston….
Before we left I struck up a conversation with a few of the folks about the fishing. I asked, wheres a good place to
catch a salmon (what a freak’n tourist!)
The answer was…”Where ever
it’s wet…”. They suggested an outfitter just down the road over a bridge. Bob and I
rode over there, rented a couple of rods with salmon flies and tried our luck. You have to picture this…..a couple of
yahoos standing on the side of the stream in full motorcycle gear, trying to catch a salmon. As it turns out, I
hooked one, but lost it at the bank………and at one point, while standing on said bank, it collapsed sending me
about 3 feet down the bank into the rushing waters! My boots and pants got soaked and in trying to stop my fall to
certain death, I wrenched my back….This will be with me for a few days I’m sure….. Bob had no luck and lost one
of his flies.
Just like EVERY time I go fishing, we heard from the locals…”You should have been here last week….next week
will be better!”
Enough of this…….let’s ride!
The Cassiar is reported to be one of the most beautiful rides in the world! Mountains, Glaciers, forests, bluffs, and
lots of animals. Over its 344 miles, it consists of chip seal, hard packed gravel and plain dirt. It is roughly 28 feet
wide and doesn’t have a center stripe, guard rails, few gas stations or other services. FANTASTIC!!
We made amazing time on the Haines Highway……..That little V
–
Strom 650cc Twin beat it’s brains out moving me
46
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and all the luggage at many times triple digit speeds. But the road is just about perfect with huge expanses of
tundra on each side so you can see critters running up to the road from miles away, and there was zero traffic on
the road. In over 200 miles we saw no other vehicles, none, nada, zip! Sometimes there is just absolutely nothing
better than being on a motorcycle……….As we crossed over the mountains we left the clouds behind and the sun
came out and all was right with the world………
We headed over to the beginning of the Cassiar and decided to go to Jade City to spend the night. This part of BC
is known worldwide for the high quality of Jade that is mined here. Bob and I bought some gifts for the ladies in
our lives (Man, I got a lot of ladies in my life now, what with a wonderful wife, two daughters, three daughter in
–
laws and two grand daughters………This is gonna leave a mark!)
Once in Jade city we inquired about camping accommodations and the owner of the Jade store told us to just set
up our tents out back and use the bathrooms to wash up in. Pretty nice offer, but we needed showers and
something to eat and there was no food available in Jade City. I saw a sign on the road advertising “Moose
Meadows” campground so I went back to read the sign……It said “Showers” and a “Camp Store”……Even if this
meant a dinner of Snickers Bars and Coke, It’s better than eating rocks! So off we go to Moose
Meadows…………What a pleasant surprise! The place is a dream…..Instead of camping we took a renovated
trappers log cabin right on the water (Moose Lake) for only $40. The store had Dinty Moore Beef Stew and some
kind of Bag Rice thing……..The cabin had pots and pans and a propane stove………Bob whipped us up an amazing
meal and we ate it looking out over the lake as two mother moose and two calves were feeding in the water and a
beaver swam by. Right out of freakin Norman Rockwell……..I kid you not! I guarantee I’ll return to Moose Meadows
at some point and spend a week here. The fishing is supposed to be fantastic………….
Well , it’s off to bed………It was a long day with lots of riding………
Somebody pinch me
Friday, July 21, 2006
THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!!!!!
We left Moose Meadows and headed down the Cassiar……..About 300 miles of dirt and chip seal road. First the
good news…The views are simply amazing. Take your breath away kind of stuff. We saw two bears right off the
bat. One of them was the most beautiful bear I’d ever seen. Although it was a Black Bear, it had a dark brown
head and front legs with the rest of the body covered with Cinnamon colored grizzly type fur…..Beautiful!
We saw no less than five moose, and a few deer. Wildlife everywhere……
About 25 miles into the trip, we are stopped for road construction. At times the wait can be up to a half hour so we
usually demount and chat with other folks in the line. When they see the Massachusetts license plates they freak
out………”Hey Maude, these guys are from Massachusetts!!!”…” and on MOTORCYCLES”…..And sometimes we
hear…..”Why do you people up there elect folks like Ted Kennedy…” (But I digress..) And of course my “accent ”
ALWAYS comes up for a bit of ribbing…..
While we are standing around talking, I glance at my rear tire……
…and my heart falls into my groin! I can see threads showing through the worn rubber on the tire!!! We just
checked our tires yesterday and although they were worn, we both felt we could easily make it the 2000 miles back
to Montana. We both started with brand new Metzler Tourance tires……But I put about 1000 miles on mine before
we left on a trip up to New Hampshire……..Bad move!
So here I am
with
a time bomb on the rear wheel of my bike and over 400 miles to go to get to anything on a map
that even looks like a city, never mind having a motorcycle dealership and the chance that they have a tire that will
fit my bike………This BLOWS!
So I let 10 pounds of air out of the tire so the tire will ride on the edges rather than the center and we ride
on………I check the wear patch every 100 miles and it is growing at an alarming rate………So I keep it under 50
mph and muscle on……sphincter tighter than a Bull
Frogs’
………At one point I’m convinced I’m not going to make
it. I see a Helicopter warming up to take some miners out to the mines and I actually thought about hiring it to
take me to town to get a tire……..But on we went…I played a little game…..I had 300 miles to go at one point so I
cut it up into 50 mile blocks…….after each 50 miles I said….”one more fifty”…..And after 422 miles, we made it to
the only motorcycle shop for hundreds of miles around……A HA
RLEY dealership……..really great!
What’s the odds that they will have a tire for a Suzuki V
–
Strom……..As it turns out they had a sport type tire that
would fit. This bike uses a semi knobby type, off road tire. But since our dirt riding was done, and
beggars
can’t be
choosers, I bought the tire and had it mounted.
They charged me $264 for a tire that I can buy back home for $92……And I had to remove the wheel myself….I
don’t think they were comfortable working on something other than HD…No big deal, in ten minutes I had it off
49
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and their tech was mounting up the new skin
..I asked them if there was another motorcycle dealer in the area that might have the same tire I was
replacing…..They said “no”…..They were the only dealer around. So tire mounted, price paid…off we go. About a
¼ mile down the road we ride by a HONDA DEALERSHIP ……….. It’s a good thing Canada won’t allow me to carry
a handgun!!!! Sons of bitches!!!!
But what the heck…..I’m on vacation! The weather is fantastic……The bike is like a new bike with the new rubber
(much more sporty………really leans into the corners now)………..Hey Bob…..I’ll see ya down the road…
I treated us to a reasonable motel tonight. Actually, it was a dump…But for $35 what do you want….The Ritz! As
far as I could tell, the sheets were clean………
We ate at the A&W RootBeer restaurant……..really good! Bob went to bed early and I put my pants back on and
walked back over to the A&W and had a Root Beer float! Hey, after a day like this …I deserve it……….No?
Ride
–
Ride
–
Ride
Today is Friday and the GPS is telling us we have about 800 miles to go to get back to my friend’s Tom and Carol’s
house in Montana. We decided to ride hard to get as much of this done today. The plan is to make it to Kamloops
BC and then ride on Saturday through the rest of BC and through Washington State, Idaho and into Montana.
On the way we stopped at a couple of museums. Fraser Lake and Quesnel. The stop at Fraser lake was take
picture of “The World’s Largest Fly Rod”!…But it wasn’t there. It was in Houston…100 miles back! Darn, this would
have been the highlight of the trip…….
Nothing else really eventful to report. Great roads in BC with spectacular scenery. We made it to Kamloops around
dark and found a great motel right on the river….The “real” bed felt good this evening…..
Monday, July 24, 2006
Oh, Oh…”This is going to leave a mark!”
Well…….It WAS a great trip. We got up early on Saturday morning and prepared for a 400 mile day, across the US
/ Canada border, across the top of Washington State and through Idaho, into Montana. After we crossed the
border I called Tom and Carol to inform them that we would be showing up on their door step a few days early. It
was brutally hot! I stopped to change my face shield out to a tinted one and used the restroom at the US Customs
50
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office to soak my shirt and pants so I’d be cool for at least a few minutes on the bike. The temperature was
hovering around 100 degrees and it hit 102 as we crossed the Columbia River bridge…….
Off we go……..
The roads were great and we hooked up on some roads that rose 3
–
4000 feet. A bit cooler at altitude, but still hot.
As we came down the backside of a mountain, the road surface was recently chip sealed and they had just sprayed
the surface with tar. It was shining in the sunlight like fresh oil, and it felt like it under the tires. Every 1/2 mile or
so there was a sign saying “Motorcycles Use Extreme Caution”
I was in the lead and Bob was about a 1/4 mile behind me. We were just about to cross over to the Idaho border
and we were using “Extreme Caution”.
Ahead of me was a little blue Ford Ranger pickup truck. We were traveling no more than 40 MPH. At one point the
road straightened out and the pickup pulled over to the right, putting its two right wheels into the gravel on the
side of the road. I thought it was pulling over to let me pass, so I pulled out to pass.
The next thing I see is the pickup make an abrupt left hand turn directly into my path……….I had zero time to
react and impacted the pickup directly into the side of the rear fender….
…..
Tell me this is a bad dream and this isn’t really happening! The woman driving the pickup says she was making
a U
–
Turn to go back
to a yard sale she just passed!
I nailed the brakes and immediately went down and slammed into the truck.
The rear fenders of these Ranger
Pickups are made of Fiberglass, The fender shattered upon impact.
Amazingly I wasn’t hurt. Not a scratch except for the bike landing on my foot and bruising my instep. The bike is
totaled…….Forks bent in, fairing destroyed, saddle bags all cracked……..
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As Bob comes upon the scene he can’t believe I’m sitting there shaking my head. He jumps off his bike and runs
over to see if I’m OK. I’m fine I tell him. I get up and walk over to the bike laying in the middle of the street to get
it out of the way of oncoming traffic. Bob the woman and her boy friend are very concerned about me, but I’m
perfectly OK…….We lift the bike up and move it out of the way, call the police and then I call Tom and Carol to see
if they can get my truck and trailer and come get us.
We are 300 miles from the end of a 7500+ mile motorcycle trip. And up till now it was a PERFECT trip……
Tom and Carol say they will be right there…..in about 4 hours. A few miles up the road is a gas station with a small
cafe. I ask the cop if he can give me a ride there to wait for my friends, as it’s 100 degrees where we are on the
side of the road. We load all our gear into the gals pickup and I get into the back of the patrol car…….which by the
way is a first time experience for me! That is one nasty feeling! Our gear is brought to the gas station and Bob and
I wait for Tom and Carol. 3.5 hours later, they show up, we go get the bike loaded up, put Bob’s bike in the trailer
with mine and head back to Montana.
We stopped in Sandpoint Idaho for a fantastic Italian dinner and got to Tom and Carol’s house by 2:30am……..
What a freakin day!!!!!!!!!!
As Bob said, if we were going to have a crash on this trip…..this was a “perf
As Bob said, if we were going to have a crash on this trip…..this was a “perfect” way to do it……The trip was over,
no one got hurt, and we were close enough for a r
elatively easy rescue………
So Tomorrow (After I go to church and say a TON of prayers!!) Tom is going to take us up to the National Bison
Range and to do some other sight seeing……And then Monday AM we are back on the road heading home………..
Just a quick word of thanks to all of you that sent emails, and left comments on this Blog……It was a great
part of
the total experience!
At this point if you want to leave a comment, please leave it on my email address..
rvb100@comcast.net
Loads of pictures are in my photo album:
http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/travel/alaska-2006/