Motorcycle Alabama

Seward's Folly 
The Last Frontier
Land of the Midnight Sun

you know.....  Alaska!

You can do like some have done recently and ride all the way there and back.

OR..... you can do like I just did: Fly to Anchorage, meet Mill (who flew in from Boise), pick up rental bikes at Motoquest then ride a week and reverse the process, dropping off the bikes and flying back home.

I plan to do a ride report. Work is kinda busy so it might take some time, coming piece-meal as I get the time and mental inclination to share pics and put thoughts to words.

So for now, here's this. More to come later......

Somewhere along the Denali Highway about 50 miles east of Cantwell, Alaska.


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I'm starting to think this site is AlaskanRides - Bama Chapter.

And I'm looking forward to the report!

I thought it was 2 cents an acre or is the nickle your contribution?  :P

Quote from: Mulley on August 08, 2016, 06:41:16 PM
I thought it was 2 cents an acre or is the nickle your contribution?  :P

I stand corrected and will edit the title of this ride report.
Hopefully this hitch in the initial get-along is not going to be indicative of the quality of material to come.

The sign at the top of the display rack at the store in the Atlanta airport read "2 for $20!".  I took one off the rack and held it in my hand and squeezed it. It was soft and felt like it might be a good investment.

Delta Airlines Flight 2469 
Boeing 767-300
Nonstop service from Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport to Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport
Scheduled flight time: 7:49

I didn't have one of those round neck support pillow things but as I stood there with it in my hand, and considered 7 1/2 hours on an airplane, I thought it might be a decent investment. Falling asleep in an airplane is like falling asleep in church or in a business meeting. Your head seems to gain about 20 pounds and will stretch your neck out to the point where it feels like you might poke yourself in the belly button with your nose.

I took one of the neck support things to the lady at the register.

"The sign says '$20 for two. How much for one?' "
She answered and it was something a little above $17 (including tax).

"So $20 for two or $17 for one?"
"Yes sir."

"But I don't need two. I only have one neck."
"You can get a blanket as the second item."

I didn't need a blanket either but I would play along with their slick pricing scheme and buy two items. I got one neck support for my one neck and a blanket that I didn't really need. I stuffed the neck support into my backpack and opened the helmet bag and jammed the blanket into my helmet.

With an hour or so before time to board I sat down at the gate and opened my Diet Coke, took a sip and then just sat there to wait.

I don't remember exactly when I came to want to ride in Alaska. I think it was about 6 or 7 years ago. Something about the prospect just stuck in my mind and it became a bucket list item. And then, about 5 years ago, a friend I went to high school with, who had moved to Alaska, married and had kids, came home to visit. A group of us (old high school friends) got together one night for dinner and I mentioned to her that one day I planned to ride in Alaska. I think she sensed that I was serious and extended an invite to visit her and her family in Delta Junction.

Not much more was said or done about the matter until about 6 months ago.

I had mentioned to Mill last September while I was riding with him in Idaho, that Alaska was a good prospect for me in 2016. He had expressed interest and if not a hard commitment, certainly showed a willingness to entertain the notion.

I think it must have been sometime in early or mid April that I did a little research and almost on the spur of the moment, I picked up my cell phone and called Mill.

I don't remember the exact words spoken but it essentially amounted to:
"Hey man, let's go ride in Alaska later this year. You wanna go?"
"Yeah. Sounds good to me."

It really was about that simple.

* I did a bit more research, sent some e-mails, made a few phone calls and things started to get firmed up. Soon enough the arrangements were getting inked.
* Rentals were arranged with Motoquest (http://www.motoquest.com/).
* Mill and I did a 3-way phone call with Brenden at Motoquest and he made suggestions on where to invest our 7 days riding.
* I ordered 'The Adventurous Motorcyclist's Guide To Alaska'   and found it to be a great reference ( http://adventuremotorcycle.com/media/media-adventurous-motorcyclists-guide-to-alaska-new)
* Mill and I would meet in Anchorage on Friday July 29th.
* We'd pick up the bikes Saturday morning July 30th.
* Ride through Friday afternoon August 5th when we would return the bikes.
* Between the two of us we had lodging arrangements made before we left for Anchorage.
* I spent 4 or 5 hours with Google maps and Garmin Basecamp and had tracks laid out in full for every day. Right down to the point of turning into the parking lot at the end of each day.


And that is how it all happened. That is how I found myself sitting in the Atlanta airport with a new $20 neck support/blanket combo, a $2.70 Diet Coke, my backpack and my helmet bag.

Before too much longer it was boarding time. I made my way to my aisle seat, put my backpack and helmet bag in the overhead storage bin (retaining my neck support thing but leaving the blanket stuffed inside the helmet) and sat down.
I watched a movie and listened to songs on my ipod. I read some in the Motorcyclist's Guide Book. The flight was during the day so they served soft drinks and peanuts/cookies every few hours. I put that neck doughnut thing around my neck several times.

I think I slept maybe 40 minutes. Probably more like 35 or 36. Possibly 37, but I'll be generous and call it 40.

I figured if I split the investment cost equally between the neck doughnut and the blanket I didn't need, it would be $10 for the doughnut: $5 there and $5 back. So I had paid $5 for 40 minutes of keeping my nose from trying to poke itself  into my belly button. I couldn't decide if that was a good investment or not.

Maybe it was about that time when I felt the nose of the 767 pitch slightly downward and soon the flight attendant announced initial approach into Anchorage.

After landing I got my suitcase and sat down at an airport restaurant to eat dinner. Mill was about 3 hours behind me (which turned out to be 4 hours due to a flight change).
I was hungry.
It was my vacation.
I would be on a motorcycle at that same time the next day, riding in Alaska.
Whether or not the neck doughnut had been a good investment didn't matter.
I was about to pay airport prices for a pretty decent dinner in an airport restaurant.

The food was good. The waiter was a super nice fella.

I looked down at the neck doughnut thing snapped around one of the straps on my backpack.
I decided it had been a good investment.
And so had dinner.
And so had been every dollar I had spent so far to get me to Anchorage.

Tomorrow morning, I'd be riding in Alaska.

Yee-Ha! another great story in the making!

Quote from: Guidedawg on August 08, 2016, 02:28:32 PM
I'm starting to think this site is AlaskanRides - Bama Chapter.

Geez, the jealousy sure is getting thick around here 8)

Even with me. I'm jealous of the roads Brian and Jared rode that I didn't.  How weird is that?

Been to Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Anchorage, and Unilaska for work but after reading this and the Bama Bums rides to Alaska I have determined on my next trip for work up there I will take a couple of extra days and ride the roads.

Mill had arranged accommodations for our first night in Anchorage and for our last night. Both would be at the same place. He had gone through Airbnb. We stayed with a couple in their house about 15 mins from the airport. It was a nice place and the folks were super cool.

We had the downstairs to ourselves. Each with our own bedroom, a bathroom, a small sitting area, a coffee maker and little bag of homemade cookies to welcome us. It was a fine "Welcome to Alaska" experience.

There is a reason Alaska is called "The Land of the Midnight Sun". I think it was about 11:00 o'clock when we went to bed and it was still daylight outside. Like wash your car and cut the grass daylight. I felt like I was going to bed at 5:30 in the afternoon. I woke up once (I think around 4:30 or so) and it was daylight again. Apparently it got dark for a few hours while we slept but I can't attest to the fact.

We got up around 7:00, made coffee, showered and prepared to leave.

I sat my stuff by their Pathfinder and waited to leave.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8779/28597843320_c512d5b62f_k.jpg)

The lady who lived there gave us a lift to Motoquest. They were open when we got there at 9:00 am. The folks were all super friendly and the bikes were clean and ready to go. We signed the necessary paperwork, transferred our gear to the hard cases and put all the stuff we would not be taking back in our suitcases for storage at the facility while we were out riding. Fortunately it was not raining so that made getting ready a lot easier.

Mill doing his thing.

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Their insurance required we demonstrate our ability by riding around the parking lot before we left. We did so and were given the green light.

Us. ready to go.

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This is Robin. A very cool girl with lots of spunk who rides. Apparently a lot.
She was great to deal with and fun to joke around with.

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With all the paperwork and prep behind us, I turned on the GPS, turned on my SPOT tracker and we pulled out of the parking lot.

Before we left Anchorage we stopped to get something to eat. We hadn't had a proper breakfast and both of us were really hungry. We stopped at the Pita Pit on Old Seward Highway. I got a breakfast pita and it was awesome good. Eggs and cheese and bacon and bell peppers and onions and mushrooms. All cooked on the grill then stuffed into a big soft pita. That thing was awesome.

As we were finishing up Mill grunted a disgusted grunt and then voiced his disapproval at what had just happened. We were not 15 minutes down the road and he had somehow managed to leak a lot of pita juice onto his shirt and riding pants. I found it hilarious and got really tickled over the affair. I joked with him that we were not even out of Anchorage and he had already soiled his riding gear.

Mill, with pita juice.

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I think he got a wet paper towel and tried to clean it off, but it was not to much benefit.

With our hungers satisfied, we got our helmets, jackets and gloves on and hit the road.

We would be heading south, for our first night's stop in Seward. Our ride would be on down the Kenai Peninsula on Alaska Highway 1 - The Seward Highway - to our destination.



Not far south of Anchorage the highway turned SE and ran along The Turnagain Arm. The Turnagain Arm is famous for having one of the strongest bore tides in the world. There was a paragraph or two in the book I read that mentioned it, with a BIG warning: Do NOT venture out onto the mud. You can get stuck. There have been cases of individuals getting out onto the mud and getting stuck. Then, despite the best (unsuccessful) efforts of rescue crews to extract them in time, they drowned when the bore tide came rushing in.

I figured that would be a pretty crappy way to go so we heeded the advice and stayed on the asphalt.

Mill, with the Turnagain Arm mud in the background.

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Both of us, at a different stop along The Seward Highway. (using a little tripod)

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Same spot. A nice Japanese dude came over and offered to take our pic.

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The ride was really nice. lots of clouds obscured much of what I am sure would have otherwise been some beautiful views. But no rain and the temps were - best I can remember - around 70 or so. We made our way on down the road and stopped for a pic here.

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Me. There.

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The highway made a hard right bend at the tip of  the Turnagain Arm and headed back SW. A 1/2 hour or so down the road we took a right turn and made the ride out to Hope, Ak. Hope - population 192 - sits on the south shore of the Turnagain Arm, directly across the way from where the pics above were taken. There is not much in Hope. A campground right on the shore, with a small cafe and a place to buy beer and soft drinks and snacks and such.

And then there is another little cafe place that is famous for their pie. We stopped there. I got some (great) clam chowder and Mill got some fruit topped cheesecake thing that was awesome.

One other thing in Hope is a small clutter of junk in a lot on the side of the road. I couldn't pass the opportunity.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8898/28265257614_87fbd6f4e5_k.jpg)

Soon enough we were back to The Seward Highway and headed towards Seward.

But before Seward, we would stop and take a hike out to see Exit Glacier.  That and Seward for the next addition to the Ride Report.

If you want to know more about the bore tide: http://www.alaska.org/advice/alaska-bore-tide

I had never seen a glacier before. Or if I had, it hadn't been enough of an event to have stuck with me.

Flying to Anchorage took us over the Canadian Rockies. Although I had an aisle seat, I was able to lean over and see out the window plenty fine to see numerous glaciers ten's of thousands of feet below.
They were huge.
Massive.
Massively massive huge.

Even when viewed from 37,000 feet ASL, you could not mistake them for being anything less than incredibly large rivers of ice. Extremely slow moving rivers, but rivers none-the-less.


Exit Glacier is at the terminus of The Harding Ice Field and is know as a "Drive-up glacier" which means, no surprise, you can drive very near to the glacier then walk the remainder of the distance.

Mill and I took the spur road off The Seward Highway and rode out to Exit Glacier. Wow! what a big chunk of ice! And to think what we could see was just a (ice) drop in the bucket that was the remainder of the glacier and The Harding Ice field. We learned that Exit Glacier, like pretty much every Alaskan glacier, is receding due to global climate change.

* Side note/Editorial comment: It sort of chapped my butt to read the Wikipedia info on Exit Glacier and see the article blame the recession of Exit Glacier on anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming. When in fact, scientists have documented the glacier has been receding since the early 1800's, which just so happens to be..... the maximum distance the glacier is documented to have extended which occurred in conjunction with.....The Little Ice Age. *

Back on track now.... Mill and I walked the 3/4 mile or so out to the close-up viewing areas and took some photos.

Exit Glacier.  The "tracks" are sections of rock and soil that were eroded and picked up along the way as the glacier flowed through the mountains.

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A zoomed-in view.

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This is where the glacier was in 2005

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Glaciers create huge quantities of rocks and gravel. Seriously. Lots and lots of rocks. From pea sized up to the occasional multi-ton chunk of granite, left sitting wherever it happened to have been pushed when the glacier melted and said goodbye to the boulder.

Exit Glacier is in The Kenai Mountains.  I feel inclined to give credit where credit is due: The Kenai Mtns and the Chugach and The Alaska Range, and others, might not be part of "The Rockies" but make no mistake, there are as many big mountains of granite and as many smaller rocks and boulders in those ranges as I saw in Colorado or Idaho.

The river of water from glacier melt and some of the field of gravel rock left behind as the glacier retreated.

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With the Exit Glacier experience behind us, we motored on south towards Seward.

Seward, Alaska. 
Population ~2550
Named after US Secretary of State William H. Seward who served under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson.

Seward fought for the purchase of Alaska from Russian. A deal he eventually negotiated. 
586,412 square miles bought.
$7.2 million

2¢ an acre

As we made our way on day to Seward (pronounced Soo-word) we rode out of the fairly nice weather we had seen since leaving Anchorage and rode into clouds and light rain. This was to be the first of many riding-in-the-rain and clouds and fog experiences we would have during our week of riding in Alaska.

Seward sits at the tip of Resurrection Bay and is Alaska's only deep-water, ice free port. It was founded in 1903 at the terminus of what is now The Alaska Railroad. Seward sees an average of 80 inches of snow each year. It is Mile 0 for the annual dog sled race along the Iditarod Trail.

In 1964 a magnitude 9.2 megathrust earthquake occurred with the epicenter 95 miles NE of Seward. It lasted four minutes and thirty-eight seconds and  was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America, and the second most powerful ever recorded world wide. Seward suffered major damage from the earthquake, tsunami and fire. But that was 43 years ago and while books say remnants of the damage can still be seen in a few places, we saw nothing but light rain in a small town which gave every indication it owed its existence to being located on the shore of Resurrection Bay.

We stopped at the harbor when we got into town. Fishing boats, pleasure boats and sail boats abounded.

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The books and pics all speak to the presence of spectacular mountain views all around Seward. For us it was "What you see is what you get.".

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Our room for the night was at The Hotel Seward. Built in 1905, it was a neat place. A warm, inviting atmosphere and friendly staff. Our room was in The Historic Wing. A modest room, clean and comfortable but with no in-room facilities. There were two shared bathrooms (very modern) at the end of the hall.

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After we checked in we hauled our hard cases up to the room and decided to go straight away to eat. We rode back down to the harbor and ate one of many seafood places - The Alaska Seafood Grill. The rain had stopped so we sat outside on the deck and ate. It was very good food and a nice dinner to end our first day of riding in Alaska.

Back in our room, we watched a little TV and with nothing more to do, we went to bed. With it still broad daylight outside.

The next morning we would head back north, retracing our route to Anchorage, then continue out of Anchorage heading north.

Away from anything remotely resembling a decent sized town.

Side note - I remember this song from when I was a little kid.

I can't being to count the number of times I found myself singing it inside my helmet while riding in Alaska. Pretty much always singing it in my mind, but sometimes it would be out loud.

"Where the river is winding, big nuggets they're finding. North to Alaska, we're going north the rush is on."

I always liked the song. Now I like it even more.

Before moving on, this happened in Seward. I think it was two days after we were there. Apparently a whale attempted to breach right under a small boat. The whale knocked a hole in the boat, sent one passenger into the water and the others sprawling in the boat. The slowly sinking boat did manage to get a tow back into Seward harbor and all aboard were OK.  http://www.ktva.com/humpback-whale-hits-boat-near-seward-981/

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The sun went down and it got dark.
The sun rose and it got daylight.

I was never aware of either event taking place, but barring some bizarre occurrence, I feel safe assuming both took place.

I woke and wiggled around in the bed a few minutes, enjoying the comfort of the sheet and light blanket over me. We had slept with the window open and temps in the 50's made me appreciate the cool temps with the blanket to keep me warm.

Not long after we were up and getting ready it started to rain. Not a downpour, but far more than a sprinkle. We would definitely be starting the day in full rain gear. And that is what we did.

We rode out of Seward in light rain with low clouds and pretty much zero opportunity to see the beautiful mountains we knew were all around. We stopped for gas and were then back on the road headed for Anchorage.

Our ride back to Anchorage, just like our ride down to Seward had done, would take us through the Chugach National Forest. Established in 1907, the Chugach includes 6.91 million acres, making it the third largest US National Forest. It includes much of the Kenai and Chugach Mountain Ranges. But, as fate would have it, we would not be seeing much in the way of mountains. There were occasional periods when the rain would stop and the low clouds might give way to a higher cloud deck and some improved views, but under the gray sky, colors tended to be muted and most all the higher snow capped peaks were hidden in the clouds. But, an hour or so after leaving, things changed.

We rode out of the rain, the low clouds began to break up some and the sun came out. We had the chance to see some beautiful scenery. The mountains were more visible and all the colors in the vast numbers of wildflowers came to life.

This was our first stop. No more rain gear. Sunshine and some nice views.

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My steed for the week (more on it in a later update).

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Sometimes you just have to stop and lay down in the flowers.

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And sometimes you have to sit in them.

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And sometimes you have to take a dookie in them.

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Just kidding! Mill didn't poop in the wild flowers. He just squatted down on one knee for the photo.


And that direction is where we are headed!

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We were back on the road soon and the ride was much nicer. No more rain, for now at least and the road was nice.
Back along Turnagain Arm we rode. Then back north to Anchorage. We stopped in Anchorage for gas and a snack. There was a big event in town: Arctic Thunder at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson was taking place. We stood in the parking lot of the gas station and watched F-22 Raptors flying around.

As we rolled north out of Anchorage, we were in the initial stage of leaving modern municipalities and the trappings (both good and bad) of highly commercialized urban and suburban life in our rear view mirrors. An hour or so later we were off the major highway and onto surface streets and in much more rural, less populated areas.

We were headed for The Talkeenta Mountains and Hatcher Pass Road (aka Fishhook Road). With a stop at Independence Mine State Historical Park.

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As we rode out of the greater Anchorage metro area, I began to get a little better feeling about what was ahead.

The Anchorage-Seward-Anchorage ride had been through some remarkable scenic areas and appeared to be a fairly heavily travel tourist route, and likely a route that saw a good number of Anchorage residents head to Seward for the weekend. We had seen quite a few nice open water fishing boats being towed between Anchorage and Seward, so I figured plenty of folks were off to try their weekend luck for Salmon and Halibut and Cod and whatever else folks in Alaska fish for in saltwater.

We were on the Glenn Highway for maybe 30 minutes. Where the Glenn split to go northeast and the Parks Highway started, heading west/northwest, we left both and headed due north on Trunk Road which would lead us to our turn onto Hatcher Pass Road.

Hatcher Pass Road is 60 miles long, with about 23 miles being dirt/gravel. Located in the SW part of the Talkeenta Mountains, it is said to offer great views of the Talkeentas and The Chugach and The Alaska Range. While the weather was improved, there was still more than enough clouds to prevent anything close to clear views of distant mountains.

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We stopped to check out the Independence Mine area. I am glad we did. It was really interesting.

The Independence Mines got their start in the mid 1890's when the first active claims were staked in the area. The early mining interests joined forces to become the Wasilla Mining Company. The W.M.C. operated the mines from 1934 through 1943 when WW II brought a halt to the gold mining efforts there. Mining resumed in 1948 but ended soon after in 1950.
The Independence Mines produced a total of 140,000 ounces of gold at the time the mines closed in 1943. I did not find any info on how much gold was produced the final 2 years of operation.

There has been no mining in Independence Mines since 1950. W.M.C had expected to resume mining operations one day, but never did. This lead to the mining community buildings and equipment being left in place.

And it all still sits there today. The effects of weather are at work 24/7/365, slowly but surely wearing down the old wooden structures.

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But some of the buildings still soldier on, looking a little worse for wear, but still pretty much solid, seemingly shaking their fists in defiance at mother nature.

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It came as no surprise that the mining community was not afforded the benefit of electrical service via wires strung in from some faraway place. But, they had electricity. A really big generator sat on a pad. This is the rating plate on that generator.

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And this. The air cleaner for the diesel engine that ran the generator.

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There was an old miner's cabin at the top of the ridge. I'd guess it was 3/4 mile distance from us. Sitting right on top of the ridge. I guess the fella knew how to build a cabin for it to still be standing.

I used max zoom on the camera to get this pic.

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I stood there a few minutes and thought about the guy who built that cabin.
What drove him?

Was it greed? Was he hungry for wealth? Did he lust for what he imagined he might buy with the money he sought by filling a little cup or bag, an ounce, (give or take) at a time?

Was it adventure? The challenge of fighting all of nature's forces, to dig in granite, looking for little flakes and specs than meant money in his pocket?

Was he a dreamer? Not necessarily dedicated to the cause of counting success by a few flakes and specs now and then? Not satisfied with a smattering of gold left in the sluice box after a day of back breaking work? Was he the one who dreamed of striking it rich? Finding the mother lode.

Or maybe he was a man who had no other options. No work. No skills. Nothing to count on as far as a "regular" job goes. Did he mine because it afforded him work, with at least the possibility of a big payoff?

I wondered the same thing about all the miners. What drove them to endure such hardship. Brutal cold and rough working conditions. Granted, The Independence Mine community was a fairly decent place in its day. With about 16 families and around 200 miners, the community had about 25 buildings and offered all the basics on-site (trucked in).

But there were those who came before the community. I wonder about them most of all. They were there, on their own, looking to find gold and stake a claim. Some managed to do both. I kinda like to imagine the guy who built the cabin on top of the ridge did both. He earned it.

There was one of those tourist telescope things at the little pavilion we were standing under. I turned it towards the cabin and put my camera lens up to the eyepiece and focused the telescope as best I could, working in conjunction with the camera autofocus.

I got this picture of the cabin. 

Good for you prospector. Your cabin still stands there, giving the occasional wondering soul something to wonder about.

I figure it will still be there, sitting on top of that ridge, when this wondering soul is somewhere, far away, 6 feet under.


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Mill sat down to take a break and look through his pics. He had a fly on his cap.

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We had a snack and got our gear back on, then were back on Hatcher Pass road, headed for The Swiss Alaska Inn, in  Talkeetna, Alaska.

Will pick up in Talkeetna for the next update.

Ciao for now.

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We finished out the remainder of Hatcher Pass Road and dead ended into the George Parks Highway. We stopped there at a little building, sitting all alone at the intersection. They served baked goods and coffee and cappuccino and lattes and other similar items.

I got a doughnut and some fancy latte thing. I don't ever buy stuff like that but decided to this time. I guess because I was on vacation and maybe partly because I was in the middle of Nowhere, Alaska and wondered what some fancy latte would taste like from the little shack sitting on the side of Parks Highway.

The latte was good. Not that I have much experience with various lattes to compare it to, but it tasted good and the doughnut was good too.

Sitting there, with Mill, on an old painted picnic table, in a far-bigger-than-necessary gravel parking lot, I noticed something odd.  There was a structure, built of lumber and plywood, out near the highway. It had signs for the latte and doughnut shack on either side so those passing by on the highway might be tempted to pull in and sample the goods. Also, a few other misc signs and banners were nailed to the wooden structure. I would guess it was maybe 15 feet high.

And what was odd? There was a fair sized flat screen TV bolted to the side of it, up near the top, facing the gravel parking lot. No weather protection. No awning to protect it. Just a TV bolted to the side of this tower thing, about 12-14 feet off the ground. I couldn't believe it was "for real" so I walked over and ducked down enough to get inside and take a look. Sure enough, power cord and HDMI cable were hanging right there.

I walked over to the latte shack and asked the guy there. He explained that he had put it up not too long ago and had tried it out and it worked. He planned to show their winter snowmobile excursion and dog sled rides and other stuff, to try and get folks to stop in and help his business. I asked if the weather had not messed with it and he said "No, not so far.".

Crazy the stuff you see......

We hit The Parks Highway and finished off the 60 miles to Talkeetna (Tal-keet-nah).
The ride was nothing spectacular. It was - no surprise - pretty cloudy and not much to see due to that.

Our reservation was at Swiss Alaska Inn. I had a little bit of expectation, thinking there would be some sort of "Swiss" influence in the building or architecture or decoration. Or.... something? ? ?

Nope. The folks who run it are Swiss, and aside from that it could be called "The Generic Alaska Inn". It was actually pretty decent accommodations. Nothing fancy, but nice enough. We had own bathroom this time.

There was a restaurant in the main/office building but they only served breakfast.  The lady suggested a 10 minute walk on a trail through the woods to dump us out on main street in Talkeetna. So that is what Mill and I did.

Talkeetna is a small town. Not really a town so much as a cluster of buildings. It's what is officially called a "census designated place" which I assume means some folks live there but it isn't really a town. The census designated place is 43 square miles (which would make it a decent sized town - if it really was a town) with a population of around 800 people. It's an old "town", started in 1916 as a district headquarters for The Alaska Railroad. I think now it exists pretty much as a small touristy area with plenty of cool, old historic buildings. We ate at a nice restaurant on the outside deck and watched people come-and-go. The food was excellent.

No pics from this segment of the trip. Nothing worthy on the 60 mile ride from the outdoor TV/latte shack up to Talkeetna, and I forgot to carry my camera with me when we went to eat, so no pics of Talkeetna.   Here is a random Google image of the Wildflower Cafe (where we ate).

https://cdn4.gbot.me/photos/HA/c4/1370198881/-_Wildflower_Cafe_in_My_Gu-20000000005886027-500x375.jpg

After dinner we walked back the The Generic Swiss Alaska Inn and flopped on the bed and watched TV for a while, then, with the window open, we went to bed. Still daylight.

Monday morning would see us roll out of Talkeetna, headed for Denali and then across the Denali Highway to near Paxson.

Teaser - more liquid sunshine. Our first stop. A few miles down the road, for gas and some breakfast.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8777/28862226892_93c6cc28b3_b.jpg)

after a 3 day work trip I am now back home and ready to get going with the ride report again. So, here we go!

I think it was the morning of day 3 - Talkeetna - Swiss Alaska Inn, that I noticed the change in time and extreme change in daylight hours had not really messed up my body clock too bad. With no ability to judge time based on ambient light, you just use the clock. Go to bed about 10:00 - 10:30 and wake up about 6:00 - 7:00. And that is what we did. We were on the road out of Talkeetna around 8:00. The skies were gloomy and I think a few sprinkles fell but we rolled out sans rain gear.

The teaser pic above shows us at our first stop, about 15 minutes after we left, at a big truck stop/gas station/convenience store place on The Parks Highway. Mill bought breakfast off one of those rolling things that keep hot dogs and sausages and those Mexican things turning 'round and 'round. I opted for a ham, egg and cheese biscuit, from inside one of the display shelf things, and a Monster Vanilla Light. Both hit the spot.

Based on feedback from a few folks we asked who had pulled in headed south, we could expect light rain for quite a ways so we donned the rain gear after buying gas and hit the road.

Wasn't too far along the way we came up on road construction. There wasn't much of a line but we had already learned that motorcyclists are expected to go to the head of the line at construction stops. Since we were already the head of the line, we just talked to the girl manning the STOP/SLOW sign and waited to go.  I think pretty much all road construction in Alaska is done from the end of May through mid Sept. The conditions are brutal in winter and take their toll on the roads, so the construction crews have to make hay while the sun shines. I sometimes felt like they might be fighting a losing battle, but they are out there working, all over the place.

I'll take this opportunity to mention something: I think every single person we had interacted with so far, including the guy pumping gas at the gas station who I had just asked about rain behind him, had been very nice, very friendly and just seemed to be genuinely nice folks. While everyone had been nice, some had been pretty engaging and seemed more than willing to talk and share input and ask questions. At one construction stop the guy behind us got out of his truck and talked it up. He rode a motorcycle and we shared stories. He had a dog that rode with him in the truck and on the bike. It was a very friendly dog. I love dogs and had a good time petting and scratching him on the head and ears. I think he liked it. At least he sure seemed to.

The friendly girl at this stop gave us notice and we were back on our bikes. She turned the sign in her hand and smiled and waved. We rolled away, SLOW, behind another one of these.


(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8217/28437682003_92467ec0c9_b.jpg)

5 minutes later we were out of the construction zone and motored on our way. The road was still hard pack a lot of the time and we stopped to take a few pictures. The rain was spotty and mostly light showers so it wasn't a washout, but the low clouds sure (continued to) obscured the view.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8261/29055604085_0323d8aa50_b.jpg)


While we were sitting there, The McKinley Explorer rolled by. I wondered if they had been able to see the highest peak in North America. I wondered if we would get to see it.


(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8619/28979261961_6e353e0dc8_b.jpg)

We motored on, headed for a stop in Cantwell. But before Cantwell, we would be south of Denali on The Parks Highway and in the area for best viewing of Denali - only tourists call it Mt. MicKinley. (Fact: you cannot see Denali from the Visitor Center. Only from The Parks Highway or via a bus ride into the park from the Visitor Center.)

Well...... the weather simply was not going to cooperate. I have said I could have seen just as much of Denali had I stopped and stood there looking with a pillow case over my head. The highest peak in NA was right "there" and it was just as well to have been a 1000 miles away. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

We stopped in Cantwell for a cup of java and to use the bathroom.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8253/28979229051_887fd62c53_b.jpg)

We then headed north again on The Parks Highway. Next stop: Denali Visitor Center.

The ride was about an hour. Mostly cloudy and a few sprinkles. Nice road that I am sure would have been beautiful in nicer weather but I enjoyed it all just the same.

It was on this stretch of road that I was reminded; Alaska is one HUGE (and geographically significant) chunk of land. 

586,412 square miles. 1/5 of the United States.
Equal to the land area of Texas, California and Montana combined.
17 of the 20 highest peaks in the US are in Alaska.
If you include the islands, Alaska has 33,902 miles of coastline. More than twice the total of the lower 48 states.
Already mentioned the most powerful earthquake (1964) but also the most powerful volcanic eruption of the last 100 years occurred in Alaska in 1912.
The Yukon River, at 2,000 miles is the 3rd longest river in the US.
Alaska has 3,000 rivers total and over 3 million lakes.

Yep. A pretty amazing place.

I sort of feel like our 2050 miles riding in Alaska would be about like riding around Jefferson, Shelby and St. Clair county in Alabama with all the rest of the state unseen.

We made it to The Visitor Center and spent some time looking at exhibits and getting educated on the history of the area. It was interesting and we saw some neat stuff. 

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8015/28950068342_466f8d0395_b.jpg)


(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8123/28979233231_1454660498_b.jpg)

The weather had cleared significantly while we were there and the temp was much warmer, in the mid 70's or so. We hoped we might get lucky so we headed back south towards Cantwell.

No joy.

Clouds and then some more clouds.  Neither of us complained. Just accepted it as part of the deal.

We stopped at a nice newish-looking Chevron convenience store on the east side of The Parks Highway. Turns out it was pretty new, having opened about 2 years ago. The old business had, quite literally, "blown up". The lady who owned/managed(?) the place took time to talk to me and tell the whole story. A gas leak in the lower level of the business (underneath the store) had lead to the explosion. Right there, with customers and all, it went Boom! Yes. People were hurt and some pretty serious.

http://www.newsminer.com/witnesses-describe-explosion-at-cantwell-chevron-store/article_563ed9cd-ed3e-5692-b496-0ae7961769ae.html

Our stop was uneventful. I saw a guy walk in with a Univ of  Alabama t-shirt on. I mentioned that we were here from Alabama and asked if he was from Alabama. He answered no, that his mom was. He wasn't rude but didn't seem too concerned over the matter so I said no more.

We ate some food and snacks and joked back and forth with the guy working the register.

With our gas tanks full, we hit the road and turned left off The Parks Highway, onto The Denali Highway.


(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8197/28434554174_086b4716ae_b.jpg)

I heard that Texas complained so much about being the second biggest state behind Alaska that the Alaskans got tired of the whining. Alaska told Texas if they didn't shut up, Alaska would split itself in thirds and make Texas number 4 8)

FYI -  I got home and began to look at my pictures, I was disappointed in the quality overall. The resolution, the detail, the noise level..... something just wasn't right.  I checked my camera and found I had somehow managed to shoot the entire week, NOT in High Quality mode. I was in the the normal mode and the quality suffered slightly for it. Kinda bummed but nothing I can do about it now.

Carry on.

The Denali Highway. 

According to Wikipedia: Denali Highway is a lightly traveled, mostly gravel highway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Opened in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali National Park (then known as Mount McKinley National Park). Since 1971, primary park access has been via the Parks Highway, which incorporated a section of the Denali Highway from Cantwell to the present-day park entrance. The Denali Highway is 135 miles (217 km) in length.

According to 'Alaska.org':  The Denali Highway is certainly one of the most spectacular drives in the world. Much of the route lies above timberline, so the vistas go on forever. The mountains and glaciers of the Alaska Range form a majestic backdrop, with miles of rolling tundra punctuated by shallow lakes in between.  The Denali Highway stretches 135 miles from Paxson to Cantwell, connecting the Richardson and Parks highways. Before the Parks Highway was completed in the early 1970s, the Denali Highway was the only road access to Denali National Park. The road is mostly gravel (max speed varies from 35 – 55 mph depending on surface conditions), and winter conditions close the road every year from October through mid-May.

According to Brian: A really cool road. Rough as a cob in some places. Smooth in others. Rumor has it there are spectacular views to be enjoyed in clear weather. Experience shows, in mostly cloudy conditions with on again-off again light rain, it is still a great ride.

To be honest, I had The Denali Highway pictured in my mind as being a lot worse than it was. Both Mill and I have ridden plenty of truly rotten stuff over the years and so maybe it was a bit "unfair" to have expectations built around what I considered truly bad roads.

Some sections were very smooth and a blast to ride on.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8100/28769117460_02ecf06f38_b.jpg)

But, make no mistake, The Denali Highway was indeed very rough in spots. Mostly potholes. Significant potholes. Imagine basketballs and those big red kickballs you played with in grammar school, cut in half. That's about the average size of the potholes, by the thousands. Like a mini moon surface. There were sections that would be like small fields of potholes.

And this is where I will go off on a little tangent and talk about........  The Suzuki Vstrom 650.

I had been anxious to try one out. I had never ridden one but had considered one when I bought the Versys. The Vstrom did spectacular.
Mill and I both commented numerous times about how surprised we were. The bikes we were on were built in Sept 2014. They were the newer generation. 17" rear and 19" front. I am not certain (haven't taken the time to look) but I'd bet a dollar to a dime the Vstrom has a degree or two more rake than the Versys. And, the suspension was surprisingly good for stock. Mill and I rode the roughest sections at 50-60 mph and never missed a beat. The bikes tracked straight and true and at speed, the Shinkos skipped over the potholes with nary a complaint.
The stock seat? Awesome. One of the best I have ever sat on.
Features? Nice. Two separate trip meters with individual realtime MPG average. Ambient temp. And more.
Mill was a bit cramped in the seat to peg distance (he's 6' 4"). I was fine (6' even)
Mirrors are good.
Power is very linear. No surprises and not likely to ever scare you. It is plenty adequate without being intimidating. Might be a bit challenged for two-up with gear, but I am certain it would still get the job done.
All-in-all, a VERY well thought out bike. In my opinion, a very good bike for the price. I told Mill, I could do everything we did on the Vstrom if I had been on my Versys but it would not be NEARLY as easy and manageable and likely not nearly as fun and enjoyable.
With 17" front and rear, and my guess of a degree or two less rake, the Versys is a much quicker steering, more twitchy bike. It just requires more attention than the Vstrom. For sporty riding or canyon carving, the Versys wins. If you have lots of nice dirt and/or gravel to ride, The Vstrom wins every day. And as we were to find out later, with a good bash plate, the Vstrom can manage some pretty gnarly rocks.

My riding buddy for the week, stopped for a break and to take in the scenery.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8832/28979237241_164bcd726d_b.jpg)

A random bridge over a random river with a not-so-random guy in the mirror.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8390/28769096100_6f6a8a0caa_b.jpg)

The not-so-random guy taking a break to stretch and relax his back. Mill had some back problems during the trip. Nothing major. Just annoying. I think he, like me (and a bunch of others), suffers with the generally low grade chronic aches and pains that come from more than one too many crashes.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8152/28769114770_986c6f3336_b.jpg)

As we rode on we came upon a gravel turn off onto a short road that lead down to a lake. We rode down to the lake and took a break. It was supremely peaceful. The road was out of sight at the top of the hill and there were no traffic sounds. There were NO sounds. At least nothing man-made. Even with the cloudy skies, it was a really beautiful spot.


Alaska is a veritable goldmine when it comes to wild flowers. They are everywhere and none too bashful about showing off.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8544/28769112290_932e5bf3c9_b.jpg)


(https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7624/29022681656_5cc3b73a66_b.jpg)


Mill as he makes his climb up the gnarly, brutally challenging gravel road from the lake.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8181/28437709823_3672d92299_b.jpg)


We headed on. Down a long grade, across a valley floor and up the other side. Behind us, and off to the south, the sky had cleared a bit.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8876/28979251041_3a053d2bcb_b.jpg)


Further on down the road we came across this. It appeared somebody's plans did not work out.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8496/29055622415_8d20e24979_b.jpg)

The day was winding down and we were getting close to our destination. We stopped again. Just because we could.
Another pic of the Vstroms with a decent backdrop.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8068/28437720453_e8b81cf306_b.jpg)


Not long after that pic, we rolled into our stop for the evening. Tangle River Inn.

And that is where we'll pick up for the next update.

Someday I hope to ride to Alaska, but I'll never get four consecutive weeks of vacation before retirement.  So glad to know about the rental option!

I'm curious about hotel arrangements ... Did you reserve rooms in advance or were the stops unplanned?  Could you get away with no reservations, i.e., being spontaneous about where you stay?

The rental deal was awesome. Motoquest is top notch.

I was advised to make reservations ahead of time so I did. Now that I have been, I think you could manage it without reservations. Our only stop that was not in what was at a minimum a decent sized town, was at Tangle River Inn.

I think you could pretty easily manage to plan the days so that you made it to a town with a few options. Camping gear as a backup would be smart, but I'd guess probably not ever used by necessity.

edit to add: the only way you could be "spontaneous" is if you camp. Towns and options are not scattered here and there so if you want a bed and a shower, you plan and end the day where there are options.

You either make it to a city with options or you stop somewhere and camp.

un·pre·ten·tious :  adjective
* not attempting to impress others with an appearance of greater importance, talent, or culture than is actually possessed.
* (of a place) pleasantly simple and functional; modest.

And that folks, would be Tangle River Inn. And for that matter, most of what we saw and experienced in Alaska.
The places and the people, heck, even Alaska herself came off as unpretentious.

I remember in the Idaho ride report I made an analogy. If Colorado was a fancy, high dollar hamburger, dressed up with all the trimmings, then Idaho was a simple, hand formed hamburger. Nothing fancy, but certainly not going to disappoint.

In that context, I would call Alaska a big, fat pot roast. A big slab of meat. Solid. Thick. Unpretentious.
As if to say "Here I am. More than you can manage in one meal. Come, and make of me what you will."

The Tangle River Inn was built and first saw operation about 45 years ago. I think some of the pictures on the wall in our sleeping quarters were original equipment. Now don't think it was old and dilapidated. It wasn't. It was just.... very... unpretentious. It didn't need to be anything more. It sat pretty much alone, on the side of The Denali Highway. About 25 miles from the east end of The Denali. Wasn't much competition in the area so it really didn't matter if the pictures were late 60's/early 70's vintage or something picked up recently at Target on a weekend trip to Anchorage.

Mill and I checked in and were directed to our room. Our room was one of 3 or 4 in some sort of what appeared to be a modular building. The room was clean and comfortable and another setup with a shared bathroom at the end of the hall. They had a handful of smaller cabins and a conventional row of about 8 standard, old style hotel rooms. They also had a restaurant.

Mill and I changed clothes and walked to the restaurant. Two ladies were at work, serving folks and taking away their plates when their meals were finished. I asked one of the ladies "Does it matter where we sit?"  Her reply: "On your butt is the best place."  She said it with a bit of a grin. Just a little upturn in the corners of her mouth to give away the fact that she was joking with us.

We sat at a table by the window and enjoyed a very fine meal. The two ladies were both very nice. Very friendly and we joked with them over the course of our dinner.

With dinner finished we walked back to our room. No TV. No radio. Nothing to do but relax. We went to bed early.

We woke up on day four and walked back to the restaurant to eat breakfast. I had noticed a generator (the big diesel kind) ran nonstop, and I saw no overhead service. i asked to confirm: They are 100% dependent on the generator for electricity. They have two actually. The main one and then one just a bit smaller they use for backup and when the big one is down for service.

The generator lives here.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8688/29075349565_713a16808e_b.jpg)

The clouds were still low and thick that morning but we got enough of a glimpse to see that, on a clear day, the view would have been pretty darned nice.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8099/28998921121_1fcdabebd0_b.jpg)


Mill and I showered and got our riding gear on and put our stuff in the hard cases and hit the road. About 20 minutes later we were sitting at a stop sign, Paxson, Alaska, at the east end of The Denali Highway. We turned right and headed south on The Richardson Highway.

The Richardson Highway was the first major road ever constructed in Alaska. What started as a pack trail in 1898 was upgraded to a wagon road in 1910 and then again upgraded to automobile standards in the 1920s.  Mile Marker 0 is in Valdez and the end of The Richardson is Mile Marker 368 in Fairbanks.

That morning, Mill and I were headed to Mile Marker 115 - Glennallen, Alaska.

The weather was the best we had seen yet. No low clouds. No fog. No rain. Bad thing was - no big, snow capped mountains nearby, but it was nice to have clear views and nice temps. We stopped at a pull-off and took a break. We could see mountains waaayyy in the distance. I got my Garmin GPS and switched to Topo maps, held it so that the map display was oriented with my view and touched the screen to put a pin at the edge of the mountains we could see.
70 miles away.

You can just see them in this pic. On the horizon above the 3rd little green bush thing, moving from left to right.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7642/28970240292_f003d0c9cc_b.jpg)


We rode on south and came across a little airport, Gulanka Airport to be exact, and stopped for a few pics. As you can tell, the clouds were thick again.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7647/28789105360_b3735d0e98_b.jpg)

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8255/28998934351_e1886b8339_b.jpg)

A few miles on down the road we arrived at Glennallen. Actually we were at The Hub of Alaska Maxi Mart / Tesoro gas station. It sat at the intersection of The Richardson Highway and the east end of The Glenn Highway. Glennallen proper was a mile on down The Glenn Highway.

We bought gas and got something to eat at a food trailer that was set up on the edge of the parking lot. After a 30 minute or so break, we got back on the bikes are retraced our track, riding back north through Paxson, on our way to Delta Junction.

A friend of mine from high school had moved to Alaska years ago. We were going to spend the night with her and her family. But, before that, we would do a little off road riding.

right here

https://www.google.com/maps/@63.1791111,-145.53708,3a,90y,39.35h,74.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svuHFA-nX6f3s-VOLUq9S7w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

We passed the left turn at Paxson that marked the beginning (or end, depending on which way you were headed) of The Denali Highway. I will say there was a part of me that wanted to go do it again. But we didn't. We kept heading north.

Not too much later the sky once again cleared up a bit. The low clouds gave way to higher clouds and much improved visibility. Between Paxson and Delta Junction we saw what would be some of the best views of the entire trip.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8060/28454644384_ae7ff82015_b.jpg)

I have not mentioned it until now, but we had seen quite a few miles of The Alaska Pipeline as it snaked along the terrain, roughly following The Richardson Highway. As we rode north the pipeline was often much closer to the road. We took a gravel road turn off The Richardson and rode a few hundred yards to stop at a gate. The gate only served to keep trucks and cars from driving right up to the pipeline.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8461/28454551144_0551b6d090_b.jpg)

No effort was made to stop anyone from walking up to it. And so we did.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8378/28970261302_3486cd3f67_b.jpg)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8005/28454556664_e4219c31ca_b.jpg)

Seems like I end every major trip with two or three "take-aways". Things or places that I found very interesting and intriguing and therefore they are things I read about and learn more about. For this trip it was The Alaska  Pipeline and glaciers. Mostly the pipeline.

I found myself fascinated by it. The whole thing. From planning it, to building it and all the way through today and the current level of oil flow, and the future. What does the future hold in store for The Alaska Pipeline?

Oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in 1968. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 pushed gas prices high and limited availability of gas at the pump all across the US. The pipeline plans and construction were then set in motion. Construction began in  1974 and ended May 31, 1977.
Oil first flowed from Prudhoe Bay on June 20, 1977.

* 800 miles of 4 foot diameter pipe.
* 480 miles of pipe elevated on 78,000 vertical support members.
* 320 miles of pipe buried underground.
* Maximum single day flow:  2,145,197 barrels on January 14, 1988.
* Total oil carried from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez: more than 17 billion barrels to-date. (A barrel is 42 gallons so that's 714 billion gallons of oil)
* More than 124,000 heat pipes (the radiator looking things seen in the pics) transfer heat from the pipeline to protect the permafrost.
* Temperature ranges seen across the pipeline over the course of a year: minus 80 deg F up to 95 deg F.
* Initial 1969 estimate of total cost to build: ~$800 million.   Actual total cost of construction: ~ $8 billion.

There is SO much fascinating info regarding the pipeline. It is a true marvel of design, engineering and construction. The more I read about it, the more fascinating it became. Dealing with the weather, the permafrost, and many other unique challenges make it a very interesting subject to study. If you find it even just a little intriguing, I bet you'd enjoying reading more about it.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8158/29042789756_221f1f16cc_b.jpg)

We continued north along The Richardson, enjoying the nicer weather and nicer views of the mountains and glaciers.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8055/29075412165_e4516c3781_b.jpg)


We stopped at a little roadside pavilion near Summit Lake and saw Red (aka Sockeye) Salmon swimming along in the Gulanka River.


(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8435/29045025496_7405a99252_b.jpg)


A few miles further north we took a right turn onto a gravel road that would lead us to some of the most motorcycle fun we had the entire week.
An impromptu decision. A very good one.  We were going to ride out close to The Gulanka Glacier.


(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8338/29075394235_a58ae2338a_b.jpg)


Stay tuned.

Good stuff.  Appreciating and enjoying.

Thank you sir.

One thing I forgot to mention. I asked the owner/operator man (at least that's what I think he was) at Tangle River Inn a few questions. They are open mid May  through mid Sept.

Even though they close for winter, apparently he still has to make occasional trips to the place for maintenance or whatever.

I asked him what was the coldest temp he had ever seen there.

-72 deg F.   Wow.       That's about a 150 deg temp swing between coldest in winter to warmest in summer.

Just a few minutes after getting back on the road from looking at Salmon in the Gulanka River, we came across a gravel road that turned off to the right, just past the north end of Summit Lake. We took the turn, not really having any idea where it went or what it would be like.

The road went for a mile or two across a big, wide, pancake flat area, probably a mile or so across. The wide open area tapered to a much narrower width as we rode closer to Gulanka glacier. The road was very rough in spots. Chocked full of potholes and some occasional gravel and a little mud here-and-there. The Vstrom took it all in stride as we made good time for about 1.5 miles.

A zoomed in view of the glacier, taken as we got closer to it.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8517/28800165580_b6fd4272dc_b.jpg)

The road gave way to a narrower jeep/side-by-side trail and went from gravel/dirt to rocks. It was a very rocky trail. Mostly rocks average 8" to 12" and made for a rough and very fun ride. The Vstroms handled it well. An occasional bump to the bash plate but nothing ever serious enough to make you think you were breaking things.

We rode until we came to a boulder field. It would have been doable on the DR650 or the CRF 250 but not so much with the Vstrom. We backtracked and then took another trail which lead us out to the flowing water that came from glacier melt. We stopped here and took a break and a few pictures.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8551/29009418061_db54964191_b.jpg)


(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8315/28998967211_ce2e92cdde_b.jpg)


The Vstrom really earned higher marks after the ride into and out of the rocky areas below the Gulanka Glacier.


(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8088/29075401685_6bf000bfd6_b.jpg)


After a few minutes break we headed back out of the rocks and back to trun right on The Richardson, headed to Delta Junction. It would be later that evening, while talking to my friend Janet and her family, that we would learn our excursion out into the rocks and boulders below Gulanka Glacier had put us smack dab in the middle of the area where the annual Arcticman event is held. The Arcticman is a really big event.  It's hard to imagine all the rough rocks and boulders buried under so many feet of snow. But, that's what happens and the folks at the Arcticman event make the best of it.

http://www.arcticman.com/about-the-race





As we continued our ride towards Delta Junction we enjoyed more great views under pretty skies.

This pic doesn't begin to do justice for how pretty this was. We had a nice wide panoramic view of the scene behind us. To the right, rain poured from a big Cumulonimbus cloud while to the left the sun shined brightly. It was a really cool scene.

](https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8013/28457769573_3518201677_b.jpg)

And more views of The Alaska Pipeline.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8046/28970309642_aa35697246_b.jpg)


The remainder of the ride to my friend's house was nice and easy. We continued to enjoy nice views and good weather. We rolled up to Janet's house and unloaded our gear. It was really a good time that evening, visiting with her and her family. We enjoyed a great dinner of moose steaks and chunks of moose tenderloin. Both of which had been marinated and cooked on the grill. Also had some home prepared, canned smoked salmon. Both were outstanding.

By the way - the Alaska Moose are huge animals. An adult male is about 6' high at the shoulders and weighs 1,000 - 1,500 lbs. I learned that a single big moose can provide enough meat to feed a family for a year.

Mill and I slept downstairs.  Wednesday morning, Day 5 dawned cloudy and light rain. No worries. After breakfast and goodbyes we donned our gear and hit The Richardson, headed back south. Destination: Copper Center, Alaska.  The weather would turn much nicer and we would have a good day that day.

Awesome photos, Brian.  Every time you post, you are making me more envious. :drool

I was watching Wild Alaska the other day, and they were cleaning a moose.  They were making steaks, sausages, jerky, etc., and wrapping it all in 5 lb packages for the freezer.  They said you can get 350-400 pounds of edible meat off an average-sized moose, so that's roughly 80 full 1-gallon ziploc freezer bags.  That's a lot of meat.  They said that most families that hunt for their food try for one moose per year.

I'm enjoying your ride report.  I am also envious of your skill with the written word.

Quote from: Nice Goat on August 19, 2016, 10:55:56 AM
Awesome photos, Brian.  Every time you post, you are making me more envious. :drool

I was watching Wild Alaska the other day, and they were cleaning a moose.  They were making steaks, sausages, jerky, etc., and wrapping it all in 5 lb packages for the freezer.  They said you can get 350-400 pounds of edible meat off an average-sized moose, so that's roughly 80 full 1-gallon ziploc freezer bags.  That's a lot of meat.  They said that most families that hunt for their food try for one moose per year.

I hope you are able to make the trip one day. I think you would enjoy it.

The moose meat we ate was really, really good. Granted it had been marinated and cooked on the grill, so whatever "natural" flavor might have otherwise been present was masked by the marinate.  But, something tells me I could manage just fine with a few hundred pounds of moose meat.

Quote from: lazeebum on August 19, 2016, 11:35:15 AM
I'm enjoying your ride report.  I am also envious of your skill with the written word.

Thank you sir. I enjoy doing ride reports for trips like this. It is a good chance to revisit each day and helps cement the memories in my mind.

The icing on the cake is knowing even just a few other folks like to read along.

We had coffee and breakfast with my friend. Her kids were up and we talked and joked around with them for a few minutes. Soon enough we had our gear on and were ready to hit the road. Oh, did I mention it was raining? Not hard, but about what we had gotten used to. A decent light rain. But not near enough to make a fuss over.

With our rain gear, helmets and gloves on, and the bikes loaded, we said goodbye and in short order were headed back south on The Richardson, but only for about 1/2 mile. We took the left that put us on The Alaska Highway. We would stay on The Alaska Highway until we reached Tok (rhymes with Coke) about 105 miles on down the road.

The Alaska Highway was built during WW II to connect the lower 48 with Alaska. It was opened to public use in 1948. Originally 1,700 miles long, it has seen many reroutes and numerous sections straightened so that today it is 1,387.  With our morning ride to Tok we would cover a whopping 7% of The Alaska Highway.

To be honest, it was kinda boring. Trees lined the roadway and it was on and off drizzle or light rain. No mountains to see but we did see 4 or 5 mooses (or "meese" if you perfer).  Big critters those mooses!

Yes, I know... the plural of moose is moose. I actually was curious and took a few minutes to read about why moose =/= meese, but goose = geese.  English is a crazy language.....

Anyway, we rode to Tok, seeing a few moose and probably about 5 million trees along the road. The weather cleared up some as we got near Tok and while we didn't know it at the time, we were done with the rain for the day and some great riding and great views were in store.

Speaking of "store", we stopped to buy gas and went into the convenience store for some snacks. I had my go-to Monster Vanilla Light and a Clif Bar. Also bought a good sized bag of trail mix. It was only $2 or $3. That was a steal! It was great trail mix. Trail mix is usually pretty pricey. Mill and I both thought it was a great deal and great trail mix.

A guy pulled in to buy gas in a 1989 Mustang. (considered the 25th Anniversary Edition). I walked over to talk to him. He had bought the car locally. It had been in a barn, unmoved for several years. It was in very good shape and low mileage (about 30K IIRC). He was proud of it.

Somewhere along the way, I don't remember if it was before we got to Tok or after we left Tok, we came upon more road construction. We had about a 10 minute wait, so we got off the bikes and talked to the worker holding the sign.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8171/29022259591_2afe8ce17a_b.jpg)


Mill took a break, sat down, crossed his legs and got his Zen thing on.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8159/29022263281_780a928dac_b.jpg)


When we left Tok we hit The Glenn Highway which would take us back to Glennallen, this time arriving from the east, rather than the north. This section of The Glenn Highway from Tok to Glennallen is called "The Tok Cutoff".

The Adventurous Motorcyclist book had recommended a ride down Nabesna Road which was a left turn between us and Glennallen.  Nabesna Road is 42 miles long. Dirt, gravel and a few stream crossings. Built in 1933 to provide service to The Nabesna Mines and to bring out the ore, Nanesna Road is one of only two access points into the Wrangle - St. Elias National Park.  The Wrangle - St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest single tract of land managed by the National Park Service.  Total area: 13,176,000 acres or 20,587 sq miles.

It wasn't too long before we slowed and turned left onto Nabesna Road.  The ride was a blast. Being off pavement again, for more than a short distance, was so much fun. The bikes continued to do great and we were treated to some beautiful views.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8177/28477871024_f83d7ef8c1_b.jpg)


We were fortunate and saw two Trumpeter Swans out on this one little lake.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8762/28480828373_d5b8f51490_b.jpg)


(https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7533/28994156942_d8e44f28fb_b.jpg)


We continued on, enjoying every mile. We came to one decent sized stream crossing. The State does basic maintenance on the road, which in the case of the stream, I think that meant dumping loads and loads of gravel. And then some more gravel.

And maybe a little bit more.

Both Mill and I got squirrelly - going and coming - when we rode into the deep gravel to cross the stream. Neither of us fell over but we both missed a decent opportunity to do so.

Nabesna Road officially ends at a private hunting lodge. Nobody was around to say "Hello" to. We noticed the road continued on, so we rode on. We didn't make it far. The road got a bit muddy and a metal pipe was exposed and all dented up. We could only see so far and not knowing what was beyond, we decided to stop there. Neither of us felt like taking time to get a Vstrom unstuck from a big mud hole. Nor did we want to risk falling and breaking a leg or breaking a motorcycle while trying to cross the pipe on wet, muddy tires.

End of the road. For us.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8128/28480878663_35d2176636_b.jpg)

Mill had bought two of those long Slim Jim sausages, with an equal length of cheese packaged right along side of the Slim Jim. I had the bag of trail mix. We stood there and had a snack and something to drink. It was a really fine time. And some great stuff to see.

This reminded me of Idaho. That is one big chunk of granite right there.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8278/28480871723_dc0a3f3bda_b.jpg)

We turned the bikes around and head back out. We stopped now and then to enjoy the views.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8517/28480885143_c27a58f831_b.jpg)


The speed limit on Nabesna Road is 35 mph. I think we broke the law a few times.

We hit the Glenn Highway/Tok Cutoff and continued on west. We arrived for our second stop at the Hub of Alaska Maxi Mart at Glennallen.
Gas and a snack and a chance to shed gear. The weather was warmer and we were both a bit over dressed.

When we left Glennallen we would be back on The Richardson Highway, headed south, for our night in Copper Center.

I've tried to refrain from sullying all the excellent ride reports from everyone with my Mongo-esque "Me like the pretty pictures and words!", but I really want to express my gratitude and admiration to each of you for sharing the great adventures.

Quote from: KevinB on August 20, 2016, 12:00:49 AM
I've tried to refrain from sullying all the excellent ride reports from everyone with my Mongo-esque "Me like the pretty pictures and words!", but I really want to express my gratitude and admiration to each of you for sharing the great adventures.

Thanks for the kudos KB.
I too enjoy reading of other folk's travels.

And with that, let's go finish out day 5.

After a nice break at The Maxi mart, we got our gear on and headed south on The Richardson. We only had about a 15 mile ride to reach our destination for the day: Old Town Copper Center Inn and Restaurant.

With the weather much better, we continued to enjoy some really nice views. The afternoon of Day 4, when we stopped to view the pipeline and the ride on to my friend's house in Delta Junction, along with the ride we were enjoying then, the part of Day 5 from Tok to Copper Center, would be the best weather we had for the week.


With such a short ride, we were in no big hurry. We pulled off at a roadside stop.

A pic of Rose Hips bush.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8585/28487826633_bf390420b9_b.jpg)

An afternoon of these clouds was much appreciated when compared to the low, gray clouds we had seen so much of the time.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8489/28487833103_cef7d052ca_b.jpg)


Mill had a fly on his jacket sleeve.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8529/28487841843_7835f72d51_b.jpg)

I was lying on my back in front of Mill's bike for the week. I took a pic.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8895/29073844386_2576b56d38_b.jpg)


Back on the bikes, we cruised along.
We had not known ahead of time that the short ride from Glennallen to Copper Center would give us some great views of Mount Wrangell.


(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8061/29073863446_4005e66020_b.jpg)


It was a beautiful scene. Mount Wrangell is a shield volcano, highest peak: 14,163 feet. We had been on the far side of Mount Wrangell on our ride out Nabesna Road, but had not been able to see it due to the peaks closer to us. Wrangell is covered in a huge ice shield that remains year round. The largest glacier on Wrangell is Nabesna Glacier whose melt water is the source for The Nabesna River.

Another view.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8460/29073850086_f3dd4e1545_b.jpg)

And another for good measure.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8127/28487837103_8303177181_b.jpg)


After soaking up the spectacular views we rode on and soon pulled into the parking lot at Copper Center Inn.  It was a really nice place.
Nothing fancy.
Nothing pretentious.
Just good.

We ate dinner in the restaurant. Awesome good food.

I noticed this hanging on the wall.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8331/28819820480_47ae8cbca2_b.jpg)

I asked about "Ashby". Apparently I was the one and only "Ashby" the folks working there now had ever checked in and we all wondered if I might be related to George Ashby.

In 1922 Florence "Ma" Barnes bought what was then known as Hotel Holman. She renamed it Copper Center Roadhouse and Trading Post. When Ma Barnes died in 1948 she willed her estate to an orphanage in Valdez. The orphanage turned around and sold the property to George I. Ashby. He then took over operations. George died in 1979.

I did a fair amount of research and best I can tell, if I am related to him, it is somewhere way, way back in the past, beyond any info I could find.

This painting sat on the mantle.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8400/28487851463_a18afcc98a_b.jpg)


After dinner we walked down to the Klutina River which flows behind the Inn. It was cold, and fast flowing. It looked like it would be fun to ride down in a raft or kayak.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8077/29073871456_7d58d01438_b.jpg)


It was late in the afternoon and we walked around for just a few minutes. Across the road from the Inn.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8418/28819823420_372a96118b_b.jpg)



We walked back to our rooms for the evening. We had this view of Mount Wrangell. 

from ELO's song "Mr. Blue Sky"

Mister blue, you did it right
But soon comes mister night creepin' over
Now his hand is on your shoulder
Never mind I'll remember you this
I'll remember you this way.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8286/28819826550_c649c0be47_b.jpg)

Soliloquy: A soliloquy (from Latin solo "to oneself" + loquor "I talk") is a device often used in drama when a character speaks to himself or herself, relating thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them with the audience, giving off the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections.

I remember learning about a soliloquy in my senior year of high school.
1979-80.  Ms. Jackson's class.   Advanced English.
We were studying Shakespeare. Macbeth to be exact.
We had to memorize Macbeth's soliloquy. I can still recite it to this day.

I guess, technically speaking, this is not a soliloquy. But it sorta kinda fits, so I'm going with it.


I mentioned earlier that the ride down The Alaska Highway from Delta Junction to Tok was kinda boring. And that is true. It was kinda boring.

It was during that boring time that I got to thinking about riding.
And music.
Riding and Music.

At one time I had the Bluetooth setup in my helmet. A little speaker against each ear. Piping my favorite tunes right into my ear canals. With 500+  songs on my iPod, and my iPod sitting in front of me in a Ram Mount, I could literally ride for days and never listen to the same song twice. It was great.
Or so I thought.

I love music. All kinds of music. Well, not ALL kinds. I hate certain kinds. Like that stuff where some guy grunts a bunch of sounds that I assume are words, but nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could ever have any clue what he is saying (not singing) unless they already knew the lyrics. I hate that stuff. Despise it. But otherwise and for the most part, I enjoy music. Many different types of music.

I can't even begin to play a single instrument.
When I watch Derek Trucks play a guitar, or Elton John play a piano, I can only imagine what it might be like to be able to make an instrument of wood and strings produce such sounds.
When I listen to somebody like Don Henley sing solo, with nothing but a piano to accompany him, It's the same thing. How can one man produce such incredible vocalizations?

Music is amazing and intriguing to me. It is salve for a wound. Fuel for a fire. It can calm or energize. I think there is a reason armies have gone to battle with music playing.

Music guides thoughts. It directs my memories and influences my imaginations.

Music is unique among sensory inputs to the human brain. It has been shown, repeatedly, to bring about memories and create social interactions in Alzheimer's patients who were otherwise essentially non-responsive.

So yeah, at one time I had the Bluetooth setup in my helmet. But I took it out and put it in a box and put the box in my closet. And that is where my Bluetooth listen-to-music-while-you-ride setup remains to this day.

That is what I thought about during that boring ride from Delta Junction to Tok:  If I love music so much (and I do) why did I do away with it when it comes to riding my motorcycle?

What I realized is that music was, for me, taking away from the experience of riding my motorcycle.

When I look at my life over the course of weeks and months, there is no time that I am more alone than when I have my ear plugs in, my helmet on, and am riding down the road on my motorcycle. Short rides don't count quite as much. It's the longer stints in the seat that really carry the weight.

100+ miles. An hour or two in the seat. Nothing but me and the motorcycle.
No music.
No TV.
No other people talking.
No dogs barking.
No neighbors cutting the grass.
Nothing else.
Just me. And my thoughts. And my recollections. And my imaginations.

No music to taint the time alone.  Nothing to steer my thoughts.

Complete. Mental. Freedom.

And so it was, during that boring ride from Delta Junction to Tok, that I ruminated on the matter and talked to myself (out loud at times), and I chuckled about the whole matter.

I snickered at the conscious awareness of the mental and emotional freedom that living in my own little "helmet world" provided.

I smiled because I was on my motorcycle, on a boring stretch of road, and while the road was boring, I wasn't really bored. My mind and my thoughts were free. Free inside my helmet world. Just as they had been since I took the Bluetooth setup out of the helmet and put it in a box.
And I was glad that I ride motorcycles. Glad that I have those times alone, in my own helmet world, to let my thoughts go wherever they may.

And then I think I saw a moose.

And then I think I started to sing 'North to Alaska', out loud, inside my helmet.

And I laughed at myself because I realized I could not do Johnny Horton any justice at all.

Sometimes I like music when I ride and sometimes I don't. I do sing when I ride and I often wonder if the people I see out in their yards can hear me as I go by.

I enjoyed reading your ride report. Thanks for sharing.

Quote from: VWCarlos on August 21, 2016, 12:32:25 PM
Sometimes I like music when I ride and sometimes I don't. I do sing when I ride and I often wonder if the people I see out in their yards can hear me as I go by.

I enjoyed reading your ride report. Thanks for sharing.

If they do hear you it probably makes them jealous. You out riding a motorcycle and singing. With them just standing in their yard.

Glad you are enjoying it. Stick around.
Still two more days to report on.

It's cool you found the Ashby's connection. I was stoked to come across Stewart Crossings, and Stewart River, etc... Reminds me of how small the very large and vast world actually is.

I used to never ride with music. Mainly because I obsessed over ever tick or sound I heard. I was convinced I needed to hear those things in case I was about to experience a break down. Then I realized, wind noise can be pretty annoying. I sometimes appreciate the monotony of it, but I also appreciate the distraction of music at times, and the ability to call my wife while I'm riding. Your Bluetooth unit may not have had it, but mine has a cool feature they call the "OFF" setting, for when you don't want it "ON". Kind of like a gun, I'd rather have it and not need, than to need it and not have it. Jus' sayin'...

( Seriously Brian, I'm not laughing AT you! I'm laughing WITH you!)

Good stuff!

Quote from: Ghost Rider on August 21, 2016, 09:01:32 PM
Your Bluetooth unit may not have had it, but mine has a cool feature they call the "OFF" setting, for when you don't want it "ON". Kind of like a gun, I'd rather have it and not need, than to need it and not have it. Jus' sayin'...

( Seriously Brian, I'm not laughing AT you! I'm laughing WITH you!)

Good stuff!

Thanks Lincoln.

Oh I have already thought:  "If it wasn't me writing it, and if I was reading this, I would think 'That guy is dumb. The thing has an "off" button.' "

There are times I did enjoy the music, but honestly, I don't remember a time since I removed it when I have found myself really wishing I hadn't.


Day 6 is up next.

Spoiler Alert!

We ride to Valdez.
And it rains.

The room at Copper Center Inn had something no other room we had stayed in had: a device to move air. There was a gizmo with two fans, maybe 6" in diameter, mounted in a plastic housing with a few buttons to select speed and if you wanted the little resistance heaters to come on. It mounted in the window and blew nice, cool air into our room.

Seems no place in Alaska has a ceiling fan. And no place we stayed had any form of air conditioning (cooling). When it is warm just a few months out of the year I guess A/C is not a good investment. If I lived there I am pretty sure I would be on Amazon ordering me a bunch of ceiling fans, and maybe a small window unit or two.

Anyway, we slept good with the fans blowing in cool air.

Soon after we woke I stepped outside and took this pic of Mount Wrangell. This time the peak was visible and the base was in clouds. I guess if I could somehow stitch the two together I would have a nice pic of the whole thing.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8477/29068270061_8c2c58b470_b.jpg)

We ate breakfast in the restaurant. They sure did serve good food. An older fella (maybe mid to late 60s) was there drinking coffee. We struck up a conversation with him. He was a very friendly guy and shared a few stories about the place and the area. I really enjoyed talking to him and listening to him.

After the conversation we paid our bill and walked back to the room to get ready to go. I remember Mill and I, once again, discussing how friendly that guy had been and how friendly pretty much every person we had interacted with had been. I guess maybe I was a little surprised. I hadn't expected folks in Alaska to be rude or anything like that. I think maybe I had expected them to be.... I don't know..... hard. Sort of "keep to themselves" kind of people.
Such was not the case for us. Everybody had been really, really friendly. At the risk of stereotyping, it was like they were all Southerners.
Open, friendly and generally seemed to enjoy talking and often times telling a story or two.

I found myself pretty much liking the folks in Alaska.

We got ourselves ready to ride and put the hard cases on the bikes and slowly rode out of Copper Center. It had been a nice visit but it was time to hit The Richardson Highway again and head to Valdez.

The weather was kinda crummy again. Lots of low clouds and not much opportunity to see the mountains around. Once in a while we'd get a decent view.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8380/28527177803_be7be75999_b.jpg)


And a little while later, another decent view.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8401/28524119554_1b123f4be5_b.jpg)


The ride from Copper Center to Valdez was only about 110 miles. Even with breaks, that ride might take no more than 3 hours. We had a whole day to fill.
No worries. We had a plan.

We would turn left off The Richardson and take The Edgerton Highway to Chitina.
From there we would take McCarthy Road to its end in McCarthy.
From there we would ride across a foot bridge and ride an old dirt road to Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.
Then we would backtrack and take The Richardson down to Valdez.

Lots to tell about from this day:

Guys from Israel sharing coffee with us.
Crossing the Kuskulana Bridge.
"Why in the world would they put a culvert way out THERE?!"
One hard case would leave the bike and slide down the road.
For the second time on our trip, I would run across an object with direct ties to Trussville, Al.
and.... it rained.

No time tonight to get into it all. The rest of Day 6 will probably require 2 or 3 updates.

I'll leave you with this for now....

Just wait until you see the snow tire setup on this thing. Now don't go cheating and do the Google thing. Even if you sneak and do it the interweb will know and you will steal some of the Ride Report Mojo.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7723/28858612030_42929b64a4_b.jpg)

I enjoy riding with Mill.
We had general plans for the day.
We knew where we were starting from, and where we would be spending the night.
We knew the route we would be taking.

That makes it all sound very structured. But it never really felt that way. Not at all.
We just rode. And stopped whenever we wanted to. Laughed and joked a good bit. Very laid back. Very casual. Very easy.
Nice.

I would say I am very fortunate that I have that same experience with most all my riding buddies. It makes the experience(s) all the better.

When we left Copper Center we went looking for a road that was a turn off The Richardson Highway within about a mile of where we hit the highway.  It was supposed to be a dirt road/trail that went 20 miles or so off into the woods, all the way to Klutina Lake. Said to be at MM 100.5 if memory serves me.
Well, despite several passes back and forth and a few visits to the GPS, we had no luck. I have looked at maps since being home and fact is, I think we sat looking at the road twice. The name of the road sign did not match the name of the road given in the book so we (understandably) assumed it was not the road we were looking for. We threw in the towel and headed south. We had bigger fish to fry.

About 20 miles south of Copper Center we turned left onto The Edgerton Highway. Immediately I recognized the view as one I had seen quite a few times in various print and online "tourist" resources. I didn't stop to take a photo because I knew countless already existed.

The road was straight as an arrow and according to my odometer, the distance I could see ahead to where the road took a hard turn to the right was a tad over 6 miles.

Link to random internet photo of this stretch of road.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FPsQAk-ZoKw/VlHh91Xi9aI/AAAAAAAAI50/6dvOye3DotM/s1600/201507-dag7-edgerton-highway.JPG

The Edgerton is only 33 miles long and ends in Chitina.  The sky was pretty cloudy and there wasn't much in the way of pretty scenes to warrant a stop for pics so we made the ride to Chitina without stopping.

Chitina. (pronounced: Chit-na) Well, there ain't much to it. A credit card only gas pump that sits in a gravel lot.  A liquor store.  An old building converted to a hotel.  The Chitina Emporium (which I think is a gift/nick-nack shop). A ranger station. A smattering of residences. A covered roadside pavilion. That's about it.

We stopped at the gas pump to buy gas and at the pavilion to use the bathroom. Then were back in the seat and headed down McCarthy Road.

McCarthy Road starts at Chitina and ends 60 miles later at McCarthy. It is a rough gravel/dirt road that follows an old rail bed. Lots of potholes and washboard and some sections that are nice and smooth and straight. It was a fun ride.

About 15 miles or so from Chitina we came to the Kuskalana Bridge.

The Kuskulana Bridge is pretty spectacular. It was built in 1910-11, during wintertime (with temps down to 60 below 0 F). The bridge was urgently needed to get copper out of the Kennicott Mine area. The bridge spans 525 feet and is ~240 feet above the Kuskulana River.

Pic of Mill and the bridge.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8468/29112985296_037444b77b_b.jpg)

And just the bridge.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8272/29112979536_d8718ec7a3_b.jpg)


The river below the bridge flowed fast, through a narrow canyon with walls of near vertical granite maybe 100 feet high. It was a menacing looking thing. Something about it. It just looked intimidating.

Side note - my single greatest regret involves this bridge and an opportunity we did not know existed until we got back to Anchorage and were talking with the folks at the Motoquest shop. It was then we learned there is a steel grate foot bridge underneath the road surface that we could have accessed and walked out on.
I would have LOVED to have done that. I KNOW it would have made my stomach do flip-flops, being able to look down through the steel grate and see the river roaring >200 feet below. Man I hate we did not know at the time. That would have been really, really neat! Oh well. Maybe that will be an excuse to go back one day.

Random internet photo of the steel grate foot bridge. (sure wish I had my own to share!)

http://www.terragalleria.com/images/np-alaska/wrst37012.jpeg

In any event, it was a cool bridge to ride over. Mill took this pic of me as we rode across the bridge.


(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8533/28547482474_97ae09d665_b.jpg)


After we crossed the bridge is was a fun 45 mile ride on to McCarthy. My right hand/wrist were giving me problems that morning. I stopped and told Mill to go ahead on and wait for me at the end. I was going to take some Ibuprofen and ride a bit slower for a while to see if I could avoid making things worse. I would see him when I got there.

I stopped a few times to take some pics. The sky had cleared a bit and there were some good views now and then.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8196/29068285871_c8dbe1470c_b.jpg)


I don't know the name of this peak. If I was to name it I'd call it "Old Flat-Top".

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8723/29040371612_1a57e5a736_b.jpg)


I thought this was especially neat. The various layers of different colored material.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8513/29145877425_69a51f1306_b.jpg)

I arrived at the End of McCarthy Road to find Mill sitting there talking to some fella who knew a lot about the area. There was a big gravel lot where folks parked (mostly tourists and outdoorsy types I assume). Mill and the fella who knew a lot were right near the road.  I rolled to a stop and joined in the discussion. There was a bridge across a small river that was originally intended (by the Park Service) to be for foot traffic only. I'll jump to the part that matters: things changed and we were free to ride our motorcycles across it. Slowly and respectfully.

We putted across the bridge and had no problem easing by the occasional person on foot and nobody gave us a second look.

On the other side of the bridge was McCarthy. First settled in 1906, McCarthy filled the role of recreation area and supply depot for the Kennicott Mines. Quite a few old, historical buildings remain, converted to eateries, coffee shops, gift shops, etc.  McCarthy is now a small touristy and outdoor recreation (fishing, hiking, bicycling,etc.) area today.

Also across the bridge is........

Rigor Mortis.

You know about it from the pic in the last post. Clearly cobbled together by a guy who was willing to get the job done with whatever resources he had available. I have to assume the standard wheel/tire setup was for summer use. But take a look at the round thing on the truck bed. Metal spokes bolted to the end of the axle (somehow??) That was his winter "snow tire" setup.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8480/29113011326_8be4c16192_b.jpg)

The "tires" were a most discombobulated mess of various metal parts bolted to what appeared to be two big pieces of very thick conveyor belt material.
I figure he did a full swap with the two big changes in seasons and managed to putter around in the snow OK.

I can't imagine it would be good for more than a few miles per hour.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8496/29068307031_82db684fef_b.jpg)

We stopped for a bathroom break then rolled out of McCarthy on old dirt road - clearly an old railroad bed - headed for Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.


(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8228/29169979955_83c0a28074_b.jpg)

The ride from McCarthy to Kennecott was only 4 miles or so. Easy ride on a hard dirt road that was the old railroad bed from way back in the day.

There were two "Kennecotts":
The Kennecott mines where copper ore was mined.
The mill town of Kennecott where the copper was extracted from the ore.

I have noticed two spellings: KennIcott and KennEcott. I saw something somewhere about which and why, but I didn't really care and it doesn't really matter to me.

It is a really interesting area. I will use info direct from the National Park Service information document on the Kennecott area. Read it if you want to. Skip down if you don't.

Side note - it is another reminder to me just how strongly motivated some men are and the great lengths to which they can and will go in search of fortunes.

In the summer of 1900, prospectors Clarence Warner and "Tara n-tula" Jack Smith were exploring the east edge of the Kennicott Glacier. As they drew closer to the limestone-greenstone contact, along which US Geological Survey geologist Oscar Rohn had predicted copper would be found, they were amazed by the magnificent green cliffs of exposed copper. Samples from their discovery, the "Bonanza Mine Outcrop," revealed up to 70% pure chalcocite, one of the richest copper deposits ever found.

Mining engineer Stephen Birch, in Alaska to look for investment opportunities for the wealthy Havemayer family, began buying up shares of the Bonanza claim. However, without a way to transport the copper to market, it was worthless. Some said building a railroad from the coast, across mountains, powerful rivers and moving glaciers would be impossible. Others offered a glimmer of hope. The Havemayers collaborated with J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family, forming the Alaska Syndicate, to build a railroad and develop the mines. In the fall of 1907 the Alaska Syndicate hired Michael J.Heney, builder of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. For the next four years his crews worked relentlessly, building rail bed and bridges through difficult terrain at temperatures down to 40 degrees below zero. At the same time, Stephen Birch was in Kennecott developing the mining claims. By hauling an entire steamship, piece by piece, over the mountains from Valdez to be reassembled on the Copper River, he was able to bring equipment in by dog sled, horse and steamship to begin mining ore even before the railroad was finished. The first train left Kennecott in 1911 just ten days after the railroad was completed, filled with $250,000 worth of copper.

Kennecott was a place of long hours and hard, dangerous work. At the height of operation, about six hundred men worked in the mines and mill town. Paying salaries higher than those found in the lower-48, Kennecott was able to attract men willing to live and work in this remote Alaskan mining camp. Miners often worked seven days a week, coming down only for the rare holiday or to leave Kennecott.

Mill workers and miners came to Kennecott only to work, living in bunkhouses with little time off, often sending money home to their families around the world. Despite the dangers and grueling work, the Kennecott workers mined and concentrated at least $200 million worth of ore.
Reaping profits fueled by America's high demand for copper, Kennecott Copper Corporation invested in mines in Chile and the lower-48. By the time the Kennecott mines closed in 1938 the corporation had grown into one of the largest minerals companies in the world, due to the perseverance and ingenuity of its founders, investors and workers.

A few pics...

Mill took this pic of me as we rode into the mill town.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8534/29190202025_51ddd46ca1_b.jpg)


looking back down the road we had just ridden in on.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8381/28902387630_d8e7d553bd_b.jpg)


'cause you gotta have 'lectric.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8223/29092055991_56cb8bf5d2_b.jpg)

Inside the huge power house.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8598/29170041285_228f4a717d_b.jpg)


For the second time since we had left Anchorage (other time was at Tangle River Inn) I saw a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. Recognizing the label on the bottle I walked over and looked at the tag. Yep.

Amerex. Trussville, Alabama.
Amerex produces about 2.5 million fire extinguishers each year. I know exactly where two of them are located in Alaska.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8503/28551094933_1469eeca48_b.jpg)

Mill and I had coffee and a snack at a little tourist focused shop. We sat on a deck in the back and had a view of the glacier and the moraines.

Moraines? 

"A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (soil and rock) that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth (i.e. a past glacial maximum), through geomorphological processes."

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8173/28858643470_c678a4e25c_b.jpg)

Wow! This view was amazing. Countless, and I mean untold numbers of piles of rocks lay in front of us. It was a truly impressive site. One I had never seen before.

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8492/29145929825_3e5c49e04f_b.jpg)

It is hard to capture it all in pictures. The area was HUGE!  And yes. As mentioned in the info display photo above, you could occasionally hear rocks crashing down from one of the piles. Somewhere.   Even though we could hear them and looked for the piles from where the sounds were coming, we never saw any rocks falling, only heard them.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8130/28858652650_b572d11737_b.jpg)

Now get this... so while Mill and I sat there drinking coffee and having a snack on the deck, we both noticed waaayyy out there what looked to be a culvet. A big pipe in the middle of all these rock piles. We tried to figure out WHY?! Why in the world would anybody put a piece of pipe way out there in the middle of all that mess?

If you look close you can see it in this zoomed and cropped pic.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8246/29145970765_3f658c7a40_b.jpg)

We never did come to any rational explanation and for that matter, we never would have.

As we were getting ready to leave I walked back into the gift shop/coffe place and ask the girl working there about "the pipe". She was talking to a guy about her age, both mid 20's I'd guess. She was really nice looking and I figure he thought the same and was not going to pass on the opportunity to chat with her. He also worked in the area and both knew all about "the pipe".

I wasn't a pipe. No pipe at all.

It was 100% natural and was the result of ice melting. A chunk (ball?) of ice had been there and when it melted, it left the arched pile of rocks and dirt looking just like a pipe was in place supporting them.  Go figure....


With our curiosity satisfied, Mill and I got on the bikes and headed out of Kennecott, back through McCarthy, across the narrow bridge and hit McCarthy Road on our way back to Chitina.

I gave Mill the lead again.

The sky was worsening and a few sprinkles began to fall. There was little traffic on the road and in some stretches we easily topped 70 mph. My hand/wrist were no bother any more and we had a good time riding back towards civilization.

A day or so earlier one of the bolts that was used as the main security point for my right hard case had worked loose and was now spinning freely. That meant when I tried to tighten the big hand turned knob to snug down the hard case, once I got to a certain point, the bolt would just spin and I could tighten it no more. Not a problem on smooth asphalt but since that time whenever we rode rough roads I had to grab the throttle every 5 minutes or so with my left hand and reach back with my right hand to snug the loose knob back down.  (for the record, this was the only problem we had with either bike over the course of 7 days riding)

On the way from McCarthy to Chitina, there was one particular stretch of road where I waited a little too long. I reached back and the knob was gone.

You can guess what happened a mile or so further on down the road.

Will pick up there for the next update.

Thanks for taking the time to take us on this awesome adventure you guys had.

Quote from: griff on August 23, 2016, 11:56:57 PM
Thanks for taking the time to take us on this awesome adventure you guys had.

Thanks for taking the time to read it, and for taking the time to thank me.

Now, let's talk about that hard case thing.....

So there I was, banging along through a pretty rough stretch of McCarthy Road when I reached back and found the knob was gone. I didn't know for sure how long it had been missing, but I KNEW I had just ridden some rough stuff so I made an assumption and continued on. I would reach back frequently to make sure it was still there and would raise up to check via the rear view mirror.

The frequent checks slowed me allowed Mill to get ahead by a 1/2 mile or so.

The sprinkles began to turn into a light rain so he pulled over and so did I, to put on our rain jackets. I told him about losing the knob and he asked if I wanted to secure it somehow. "Nah." I said. "Been through some rough stuff since I lost it and figure if the case was going to come off, it would have come off already. I think it will be fine."  (The case would have had to bounce about 2 inches straight up to clear the bolt and the road was just rough which seemed to do no more than cause it to rattle and vibrate)


Rain jacket stop.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8233/29212492935_8323fb8ddf_b.jpg)


(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8494/29134100421_de326dc971_b.jpg)


Fortunately the rain wasn't real heavy so it wasn't a big hassle. We thumbed the starter buttons and were back on the road.

Alaska has a lot of these things called "frost heaves".  Think a series of small scale roller coaster hills. They are ridiculously bad in some stretches of highway. I seriously think you could hit them just right, at speed, and get both tires off the ground. Matter of fact, I am quite sure you could.

Well, McCarthy road had a few as well. We hit one at about 40 mph. It didn't rattle and vibrate the right side hard case. But it was more than enough to loft it that 2 inches necessary to clear the bolt. I heard it sliding down the gravel and looked in my mirror to see it doing the same. I braked and turned around. Mill was in front and didn't know what had happened. He continued on.

I picked the case up and inspected it. No real damage at all. The bracket tab that went over the bolt was a little bent, but otherwise you'd have never known it had left the bike. I slid it back on the rack, pulled my little kit of tools and other handy items out of the other case and dug out a piece of para-cord. About that time Mill pulled up and I told him what happened.

Within a minute or two I had the case secured with the cord and we were back on the road.

The rain was on/off the remainder of the ride back to Chitina. When we got to Chitina we stopped at the pavilion for a break.

At the pavilion.

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8162/29212510965_1a99abdfc2_b.jpg)

There were two other guys there, car travelers, who broke out more serious snacking material. They fired up a little Jet-Boil and broke out some snacks. Soon they had two small shiny metal cups, about the size of a shot glass.

One of the guys asked if we'd like a cup of coffee. We said yes to their offer and the four of us began to talk. They were from Israel. They had flow into Anchorage, bought the Subaru they were driving and would spend two months touring around (not just Alaska). At the end of two months, they'd sell the car, one would be headed back to Israel and the other would be going to Hawaii (friends or family there? Can't remember). They were super nice guys. Very friendly.  I wanted to tell them both how much I respect and admire Netanyahu but decided I'd leave that aside and just enjoy the talk and the coffee.

Their coffee is not like our coffee. Much smaller amounts and sweetened with a good bit of sugar. It was very good. We all had a few cups and then it was time to say our goodbyes.

We all wished each other well, shook hands and Mill and I got on the bikes and rolled away. We stopped a 1/4 mile down the road at the big gravel lot with a gas pump to fill up our bikes. The two guys from Israel went past while we were filling up. They blew their horns and waved.

With the gas tanks full Mill and I hit The Edgerton, headed back the way we had come in. Within a few minutes we saw the two guys ahead in their little Subaru. The driver had his window down, waving and giving us a big "thumbs up". We passed them on the left, blowing horns and waving as we did. I could see the smiles on their faces when I looked over.

I gotta say, that was a cool moment. Really neat. I'll always remember that moment and something tells me they laughed about it and they will remember it too.

We arrived at the intersection and turned left, headed for Valdez.

And it rained. And it continued to rain. And we rode. And continued to ride.
Except when we stopped.

Like we did here. To take a picture of this glacier. Worthington Glacier.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8476/29134092891_ff37fd5caa_b.jpg)


And then we rode. And Mill took this picture of Worthington Glacier. And me.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8473/29212547375_c4055d8f34_b.jpg)


On we rode. In the rain.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8898/29104776302_6ae92271ce_b.jpg)


We began an ascent that would have us cross through a gap in the Chugach Mountains: Thompson Pass.

Thompson Pass has a few claims to fame.
* Average 552 inches of snow each year. Most snow of any place in Alaska
* 974 inches of snow fell during the winter of 1952-53. The most snow ever recorded in one season at one spot in all 50 states.
* December 29, 1955 - 62 inches of snow fell. The most ever recorded in a single day anywhere in Alaska.

It did not snow on the afternoon of August 4, 2016.
It rained.
And the wind blew. Pretty hard. Hard enough to make a motorcycle weave around in an unpredictable manner.
And the temp was low 50's and I got a little cool. Not bad. But the coolest I would be during the 7 days we rode.

Once across Thompson Pass we began the descent that would take us all the way down to a few feet above sea level and our ride into Valdez.

But before we made it to Valdez we stopped for a few pictures. Of us. And our bikes. In the fog and rain.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8087/28589871264_e8988083c7_b.jpg)


(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8861/29134088561_d8d64bab86_b.jpg)


Mill took a selfie.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8534/28925483950_14588f9cb3_b.jpg)


We motored on into Valdez and checked into our hotel. The Mountain Sky Hotel. It was the nicest place we would stay while on the road.

We ate seafood across the road at Alaska Halibut House. The fries were average. The fish was awesome.

Somebody said there were some mountains visible from Valdez. Not so much on that day.

Mill and I went back to the room. We showered and watched some TV and just relaxed. We would wake up the next morning for our last day of riding in Alaska.

Love the report. :) Waiting on the next one.

Quote from: scott59 on August 24, 2016, 10:54:42 PM
Love the report. :) Waiting on the next one.

Thank you sir.

I think I will do the next one now.......

Friday August 5, 2016. The last of seven days riding in Alaska.

The sun was up long before I was awake.

The weather was great. Perfect temps in the low 70's. The sun shining brightly. Azure blue skies with an occasional puffy white cloud. It was a perfect morning.

Somewhere.   I mean I know that happened somewhere. But it didn't happen in Valdez.
Nope. In Valdez it was cool. Low clouds and..... are you ready?


Drizzling rain!


Mill and I showered and got ready to head out. When we went to load our bikes I took this stunning photograph of Mill. I think he was awe struck and all he could manage to do was to point and make some "Ooooohhhh.... Ahhhh...Wow!" sounds.

Spectacular view!

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8451/28945885940_f46a537d4d_b.jpg)


Vladez, Alaska.  According to NOAA and The Weather Channel, it is the snowiest city in the United States. Averaging 300 inches per year.  If Mill and I had been there in the winter, it probably would have come a blizzard.

Valdez has a population of 4,000. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 by a Spanish dude, an explorer, Salvador Fidalgo. He named it after another Spanish dude, Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán. A town was established there in 1898.
I figure most folks know about Valdez from the 1989 oil spill that occurred as a result of the giant oil tanker the Exxon Valdez running aground on Bligh Reef, in Prince William Sound, about 25 miles from Valdez.

Today Valdez thrives on being a commercial and recreational fishing port, tourism, and serving as the terminal at the end of The Alaska Pipeline.


Mill and I mounted our hard cases on the bikes, checked out of the hotel and rode out of Valdez. In light rain.

Our ride would take us back up The Richardson, through Thompson Pass, back to The Maxi Mart at Glennallen (3rd visit) where we would turn left to hit The Glenn Highway for our ride back to Anchorage.

My general plan had been to stop a few times along the way, before getting back to Glennallen, to take some pics. Well..... that didn't happen. It rained and stopped and rained and stopped and the clouds were low and the views, well, there really wasn't a whole lot to see.
So 20 miles became 40.
And 40 became 60.
And 60 became 90.
And before long we had covered 120 miles and arrived at The Maxi Mart. And the rain had stopped!

We bought gas. We had not eaten anything for breakfast so we rode a mile or so down the highway, into the (small) town of Glennallen, and stopped at a little restaurant and ate. The food was good. It was there we saw a single rider on a big adventure bike ride by. We discussed the fact that both of us had noticed just how few other dualsport/adventure bikes we had seen in comparison to what we had expected to see. Neither of us had kept count but if I had to guess, I'd guess 20 -30 over the course of a week (not counting anything we saw in Anchorage). I had sort of expected to see a whole bunch of bikes. Folks riding and exploring Alaska. But, that wasn't to be the case.

After we finished eating we continued on west on The Glenn Highway.

The weather continued to improve. Lots of clouds still, but no rain. Just an occasional light shower.

We stopped for pics now and then.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8514/29155094171_e86c75c8a5_b.jpg)


(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8337/29199719456_4828cfba54_b.jpg)


We rode on and stopped for a few more pics.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8295/29199714486_20c5fec22d_b.jpg)


(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8318/28613036703_5a9b9f406c_b.jpg)


It was at this stop that Mill picked up a passenger. I found this nipple lying on the ground. I wedged into the rear rack of his bike. (I later learned he had seen it first and had picked it up and thrown it at me. Apparently hit me on the back and I never even knew it.)

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8081/28613032843_aa0e201956_b.jpg)


I bet this would have been a really nice view if not for the low clouds.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8308/28945648980_ac093cc6fd_b.jpg)

On we rode. We stopped to view another glacier.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8406/29155101991_b48c0b1582_b.jpg)

And more moraine. Amazing stuff. It was hard for me to look at the glaciers, and see all that ice, and try to realize just how much rock and dirt is ground up and riding along inside the ice.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8566/29199693956_bfc6cac579_b.jpg)

Later on at another stop. I appreciated someone's sense of humor.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8035/29155109371_b62b399ae3_b.jpg)

And I now find myself having to say "That's it." That's the last of my pics.

Kinda makes me sad now that I didn't take any when we returned the bikes. Or something else, somewhere along the way. Yeah. A bit of a bummer.

Mill sent me all his pics on a DVD and I sent him all mine on a jump drive. I checked his pics and found one more, after the last stop.

So here it is. The last pic of the trip.  Sitting still at a construction zone.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8267/29126300212_dc5a73f2bc_b.jpg)

Kinda anticlimactic wouldn't you say? But then again, maybe not. I guess it's as fitting an end to the pictures as anything else would be. After all, those stops were as much a part of our ride in Alaska as anything else. It was - as much as anything else was - part of the experience. And you know, looking back on it now, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

We finished out The Glenn Highway, right there in the middle of Anchorage. We stopped to buy gas (in what turned out to be a very shady area). I knew things were sketchy when I opened the cooler door to grab a soft drink and an alarm sounded. I only know of one reason to alarm your soft drink coolers. We finished off our soft drinks, donned our helmets and gloves and rolled out of the parking lot.

The GPS guided us straight to the Motoquest shop. I remember thinking when the front and rear tires rolled over the gutter and hit the asphalt of the parking lot "Well, that's it. Ride over."

And it was.

The folks there were all very friendly and we talked to them all the while we unloaded and got ready to go. I can't say enough good about the Motoquest experience. Aside from the one lost knob, the week was worry free and problem free. Actually I did have one fork seal leak, but given the miles and miles of riding on some really rough roads, I would not even consider that a problem. More a matter of wear-and-tear.

We had called the folks we were staying with and they provided a ride back to their house. We shook hands and said Goodbye to the folks at Motoquest.
Again, seriously top notch folks and a top notch outfit. You can plan a trip with them with the highest level of confidence based on my experience.

Back at our room for the night, we showered and were treated by our hosts to a fantastic meal. Grilled salmon. Vegetables and fresh bread. And TWO homemade deserts!  Flan and some type of Mexican desert salsa. Made with fresh fruits, sweetened with sugar and eaten on sweetened, toasted pieces of tortilla. It was great! Apparently they host quite a few Airbnb folks. They said this was just the second time this year they had served dinner to their guest. Lucky us!!

And so day 7 came to an end. Bed time came and I climbed in bed. But before I did, I closed the blinds and drew the black curtains.

It was dark. I was going to bed in a dark room. It was like being home. Soon I would be home.

But one more day in Alaska remained.

Brian, you have shared an amazing report of your adventures in Alaska. It made me realize just how much we didn't see. The areas you rode were much more scenic than what we saw. Thanks. Now I have a burning desire to go back until I have seen it all. So much for getting anything else done next summer break...or the next 10 probably :)

Brian, as with all of your ride reports, this is another great one.  You really know how to combine great pics, a great writeup and your interesting perspective on things to make for a thoroughly enjoyable report.  Thanks for posting this!

Thanks much to the both of you. I really appreciate the kind words and am glad my friends enjoy reading my ramblings.

I'll be back within the next day or so to wrap things up.  A summary of Day 8 and some thoughts and oddball trivia (example: the souvenirs I brought home)

Mill and I both woke around the same time Saturday morning. We showered and made some coffee and packed all our stuff in prep for the ride to the airport. Our hosts had some out-of-town obligations for the day and needed to be on the road before too long. We loaded up our gear and they provided a ride to the airport.

My flight left around 9:00 pm and Mill's was set to leave somewhere around midnight. That meant we had a day to burn waiting on our flights. There is a place there, inside the terminal, where you can drop off your bags and pay a small fee to have your baggage secure stored while you go off and do whatever until close to flight time. We paid the fee and had about 8 hours to kill.

The Alaska Aviation Museum is about a 15 minute walk from the terminal so we put one foot in front of the other and headed to the museum. It was a really nice museum. Lots of interesting stuff. It was a enjoyable way to spend a big chunk of the day.

The museum is adjacent to Lake Hood Seaplane Base. Lake Hood is said to be the largest and most heavily populated seaplane airport in the world. We watched a number of float planes come and go. Some were pretty spirited with takeoff occurring pretty soon after rolling on the throttle and gaining speed down the water runway. Others seemed to lumber along until the wings made sufficient lift to get the pontoons to skim along the surface of the water, eventually losing touch with the surface as the float plane began to gain altitude.

On in the afternoon we walked back to the airport. We looked at various exhibits there in the terminal. They had many full mounts of various Alaska wildlife. A Moose, a few Grizzly/Brown Bears, a Polar Bear, etc.

Eventually the time came for us to go get our luggage out of storage.

Mill's flight was still too many hours away so he could not go through security at the time. He and I shook hands. I queued up for security. Once through security, I got something to eat, looked at a bunch of displays of native Alaskan art and culture and before long I was on the plane and getting settled in for the flight to Atlanta and then my connection back to Birmingham.  I would arrive in Bham around 9:00 am Sunday morning, so obviously it was a night flight. 

We took off in the daylight and made the turn to head southeast. We were running from the sun and before long it was below the horizon and the sky was dark. The cabin lights were dimmed and folks settled in to rad a book or listen to music or sleep.

I dug the neck doughnut thing out of my backpack. "I'll get my money's worth this time. 7 hours flying overnight. I'll get some sleep!"

Nope. Well, not enough to count for anything really. I don't blame the doughnut. I just couldn't get much sleep.

The nose of the 767 dipped and the flight attendant announced initial approach into Atlanta. People stirred around. A few window shades here and there were raised. We were flying into the sun now and day was breaking.

Another bucket list item was behind me now. I had ridden in Alaska. And I had enjoyed it very much.

It's a dichotomy really. The emotions after a big trip like this has come and gone.
Real happiness. Really glad you did it.
But at the same time there is a certain feeling of disappointment. The dream has been realized.
Sort of reminds me of the feeling of excitement and happiness I had as a kid on Christmas morning when I ran to the tree to see what Santa had seen fit to deliver. And then it wasn't too long before I'd realize it was over. Christmas had come and gone.
The anticipation was over. Santa had visited. The presents had been opened.

And so it is with Alaska. The anticipation is over. The present has been opened.

And now, a few weeks post-Alaska, I'm feeling forever more blessed and fortunate to have once again been able to enjoy a trip like Mill and I just took.

But I know there is still a lot of kid inside me and I know that as the weeks and months pass, I'll be on the lookout. Waiting for the next trip that I start to think about, then decide I really want, and probably dream about. 

Just like a kid looking forward to Christmas morning......



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Final thoughts/observations/comments


* When Mill and I left Anchorage we headed down to Seward, then back through Anchorage for the big loop that would bring us back to Anchorage at the end of the week. We rode a total of 2050 miles. Not that much really, but a fair distance.
Outside of the greater Anchorage area, we did not see one McDonald's restaurant. No Burger King or Taco Bell or Wendy's. We saw a few Subway locations (I think all were attached to or in association with a larger convenience store/ gas station). No Walmart. No Best Buy. We saw a few True Value hardware stores but otherwise pretty much no big chain stores.

It sort of makes sense...... The Greater Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, and Walker counties. 
Population: 1,140,000.   Let's ballpark it and say the area is about 7,000 square miles total.
So, 1.14 million people in 7,000 square miles.

Then consider Alaska. The total population for the entire state is ~740,000 people living in an area of 663,000 square miles! 
And, approximately 40% of Alaska's population is in Anchorage.

Outside of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau there is not one city with a population >9,000 people.

Alaska is vast. Sparsely populated and very much not inundated with all the chain stores most are accustomed.


* 65% of all Alaska land is owned by the Federal Government.

* The rain - We never saw what I would call "heavy rain". While I had a pretty substantial rain suit with me, I never broke it out. Lightweight Frogg Toggs with my standard DS/Adventure pants and jacket were all I ever needed. I will admit it would have been great to have been able to see Denali and many other scenic spots we were not able to enjoy due to low clouds/fog/rain. But, we knew going in there was a better than even chance we would see a good bit of rain. It was all part of the experience.

* Souvenirs: A friend asked me what I brought home as far as souvenirs goes.   Not much. I bought a small sticker that I put on the back of my helmet. I have one other small sticker sitting here on the desk beside me. Other than that..... 2 small rocks. One from the Denali Highway and one from the Klutina in Copper Center.


So that about wraps it up.  There have been several other Alaska ride reports over the last few weeks. Each of them different with all involving riding in Alaska.

If I had it to do over again, would I change anything?  Probably not. The "fly there - rent/ride -fly home" approach was great. I don't have 3-4 weeks vacation I can take all at once, and honestly, if I did, I don't think I would spend it all getting there and back. If I was retired and had 2 months, I'd be all over it.

Ask away if you have any questions.

ALASKA!   I give it  TWO THUMBS UP!!

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I give your report two thumbs up!

I'm wishing I had more than two thumbs. Will big toes count?

And like you, I feel very fortunate to have made this trip. Something I hope I will never take for granted. Thank you, Brian, for taking the time and energy to wade through your experiences and share them with us.

Great ride report... Thanks for sharing it. I think the fly/rent-ride/fly is a great way to maximize your ride time at your destination.

Great way to wrap up your report.  I also agree that fly and ride is the way to go.  While I have a lot of respect for those who ride all the way there, there is no way I would do that unless I was retired and could take my time doing it.  Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us.(http://advrider.com/styles/advrider_smilies/thumb.gif)(http://advrider.com/styles/advrider_smilies/thumb.gif)

Another excellent report.  More than anything else, this is why I am a member here.