Whitehorse and Highway 37

This time we saw more of Whitehorse than just the campground and Walmart. We stayed in the same campground, but in the morning we went into town and ate at a Tim Horton's and toured the last riverboat that operated until 1955. It was way bigger than I expected and I was amazed at the weight saving measures they employed in it's construction. It only weighed 300 tons, and could carry 300 tons of cargo! It was also very luxurious, but passengers were carried only when it had freight to transport. If the mines were not shipping ore then the boat was parked - the passenger business was not profitable enough to pay for the voyage. They also used a lot of wood, and the boiler was designed to burn whole logs, about a foot around and 4' long. I'd have hated to be the fireman who had to chuck one of those in the fire every 30 seconds.

After leaving Whitehorse we were facing 1000 miles of very remote areas, so we did our laundry, got a really good, hot shower and started South. We would follow the Alaska Highway to just before Watson Lake, then turn south on Highway 37 and drive down the western part of British Columbia.

I didn't realize it until I started mapping our route that BC is about the same size from north to south as the western US. Just to cross BC was the equivalent of a drive from San Diego to Seattle! Unlike the US, there is no Interstate 5. The first 60 miles or so of Highway 37 were basically a two lane gravel road (recently sealed though, so not too bad) There were no painted road markings, few signs, and the trees came right to the edge of the road, so the sheep, bears and horses crossing the road appeared almost instantly in front of you.

We stayed at a very remote campground, but they did have internet access so I managed to get my work done before the generator was shut off and the internet connection went dark. Since there were no restaurants around, we used the camp stove and ate some Pork skewers that we bought in a grocery store and some dehydrated food and canned veggies. It was very cold at night, so I slept well since my tent fan was not working so heat would have been an issue.

As soon as I heard the generator come back on in the morning I checked my email and then it was time to go.

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Destruction Bay - one more time

We decided that a 600 mile day that included the northern part of the Alaska Highway was too far, but in the end it was a 500 mile day due to our early stop the night before.

We had lunch in Tok, AK at the "Grumpy Grizz Cafe" and tried one last time to verify that the Top of the World Highway might have been re-opened in the past few hours, but no luck so we'd be heading back the way we came.

The border was super easy to pass through (no wait, and 30 seconds to show our passports) and the road seemed very familiar. We managed to pass through without damage, but did see a few trailers parked at the side with damage and a film crew taping footage of a burned out frame of an RV that didn't make it...

The road damage through this part of the highway is hard to describe. Part of the problem is that you are driving on a road that looks like they paved over ocean swells, and you bounce up and down like you're in a boat. The road was once flat though, it's the ground that's sank and heaved. The other damage you see is long cracks that have opened up in the road. They run for hundreds of feet, and the worst ones are nearly a foot across and a foot deep. They run along the road in places, then change direction, so as you are trying to avoid them they move into your desired path. Sometimes you can find a spot to cross them that's been filled in, and other times you just have to hang on and try to cross them at a good angle where they are narrow enough not to grab your tires. Most of the bad spots are marked with flags, but not all of them, so you don't want to rely on the flagging system too much.

It's certainly the part that people have driven the highway before are talking about when they say you need a really good suspension on whatever you're driving, but if you are slow and careful it is not a problem...

Most of the parts that were "bad places" along the highway were gravel areas that were very dusty, and difficult to operate a motorcycle on, but actually relatively smooth.

We saw very few police while in Canada - Destruction Bay apparently decided to take matters into their own hands with speeders on the highway and put up a plywood police car to slow everyone down as they came into town over the hill. It worked with me the first time I saw it from far away!

Dodging Icebergs

On Friday it was finally time to head toward home. We left Girdwood in the morning and rode to the Whittier Railroad tunnel, where we had to ride between the rails. The tunnel was opened in 2000 to vehicle traffic after 55 years of being the only access to Whittier from the rest of Alaska - and only by trains. To get a car or boat there, you had to put it on a train.

The brochure I read made it sound very complicated, but basically they added some safety shelters along the length of the tunnel and put concrete between the rails so you could drive through there. The tunnel is open for 15 minutes for one direction, then closed for 15 for trains to go through, then open for 15 minutes for the other traffic direction, then the trains get it again.

The tunnel is 2.5 miles long and very tall and skinny compared to a normal car tunnel. They make you close your convertible roof and if you are on a motorcycle you go last and have to wear a helmet (duh) because rocks and water come down off the ceiling (it is bare rock)

I was a little leery of having to ride for 2.5 miles on a strip of concrete 3 1/2' wide, while trying not to get dizzy from the passing lights and carbon monoxide, but it went just fine. The concrete was textured so it had good grip for my tires, and the speed limit is only 25. They also made a big deal about the jet fans at the entrances, but compared to the winds we've been riding through for 2 weeks it was a light breeze!

Once we were in Whittier it was time to catch the Ferry to Valdez, AK. I had booked us on a "Fast Ferry" and was not disappointed. After waiting in the rain outside on our bikes we were let on board to strap down our bikes on the vehicle deck and take a seat in the passenger level. The ferry wasn't at all what I expected - it was clean, modern, and very smooth and quiet. We left the dock so fast and smooth that you almost couldn't tell we were moving. After clearing the harbor we were going 39 knots - 45mph. That is faster than a lot of motorboats and we passed a few that were going in our direction.

After the safety briefings - similar to an airliner's - the displays showed a moving map along with our course and speed. I made sure to go outside to the sun deck (rain deck?) and take photos from there since the rain was beading on the windows making it hard to photograph from inside.

Dad used the time to catch up on his sleep.

When we entered the area of Prince William Sound where the Exxon Valdez had it's troubles I went outside to take some photos and nearly fell over when the ship suddenly changed direction. We then whizzed past an iceburg, then another turn and several more icebergs went by... There were dozens of them. Most were about the size of a car (OK, the part above water was...) and a few were the size of the fishing boats. Since they were the "tip of the iceberg" I have no idea how big the rest was!

We left the ferry in Valdez and I needed gas, but we didn't see a gas station so we decided to just head out of town and I'd get gas somewhere along the way. Soon we were in a very remote area and climbing fast. I stopped at the summit and took a photo of the snow by the side of the road. I threw a snowball at dad but he didn't seem to want a snowball fight. (and since I had snow and he had rocks it would have been a lopsided battle anyway, so I backed down)

No gas though - and there weren't any more gas stations until we got to the next town 60 miles away! Fortunately I made it and dad was still very wet and cold from getting stuck in the rain without his rainsuit while waiting for the ferry so we checked into the Caribou motel (where they "caribout you") and had dinner at the Caribou Restaurant. (but I had a hamburger, no reindeer meat please)

We left most of our stuff outside and wrapped the bikes in tarps which was good because it rained really hard during the night.

Fishin' for Silvers - added video

Friday was the big event I'd been waiting for all week. We woke up bright and early (when the sun comes up at 4am that's easy to do) and rode to the Hood lake floatplane base. Hood lake has a ton of floatplanes and is across the street from Anchorage international airport. It is actually somewhat in the middle of the airport. The roads around the lake have signs warning “yield to aircraft” and “aircraft have right of way” and they aren't kidding – there were planes parked everywhere and we found a nice parking space for our motorcycles right under the wing of a float plane that was sitting next the the building we were leaving from.

After getting our fishing license at the office we boarded a Turbo Otter from Rust Flying Services and were taken about 30 minutes across the tundra to a place on Yetna river. I had never been on a float plane before, but basically we lined up on the dock, climbed in (there was room for 10 passengers) and then they loaded whatever freight or baggage was going inside the cabin with us. The only amenity beside the metal framed canvas folding seat was a set of headsets. I would assume the pilot could use them to talk to us but he never said a word after he gave the safety briefing as he was closing the freight. (passengers are "self-loading freight")

We were pushed from the dock and the engine was spooled up, then the pilot went around the lake in small circles to warm up the engine and get clearance to leave. Once he was ready we went down the lake very fast with the floats just barely touching the water, then he slowed down, made a 180, and sped up again. We took off so fast I didn't have a chance to make a video of the takeoff. We were up in the air by the time I hit "record"

The flight was made from 800'. We were going about 130mph so we arrived at the river in half an hour. Even from the 3nd row I could read all of the pilots instruments so it was fun to watch what he was doing when I wasn't glued to the window watching the landscape go by. Since we were so low everything was passing very quickly.

There wasn't much warning we were going to land other than the pilot reducing power, drifting down to about 500', then lowering the flaps and dropping right down to the water level. In all it took about 30 seconds. Very turbulent muddy water was swirling around below us, full of whirlpools and logs. The plane gently sat down on the water and pulled up to a sandbar where small skiffs were waiting to take us to the lodge and get our fishing gear.

We put on some waders, drank some scalding hot chocolate, and headed off to the spot our guide “Dragon” recommended. Our fishing licenses were for one day of fishing which allowed us to catch 3 silver Salmon each. Once we reached the fishing spot in a grassy slough off the Yetna where the water was filtered by the grass along the banks we dropped in a hook with a big clump of fish eggs that were pickled from the previous year's catch. It didn't take long and the first bite I got was hauled in. It was a 10# silver with a nice hooked “beak” The next two fish I brought in were a little smaller and didn't have the hook. They were about 8# or so.

Dad brought in two that were similar to them, and I caught a pike which the guide cut loose after it tried to bite him.

We went to the fishing lodge (about 3 miles up river from where we were fishing) and had a lunch of mashed potatoes, pork, and applesauce with a reduced vinaigrette drizzle. It was all stacked up in one pile, which sounds weird but I want to make it again some day because it was very good.

In the afternoon we went back to the same spot but the fish had lost all interest in eating. I caught one more little silver (6 or 7#) and we used it to finish out dad's quota. When we returned to the lodge our guide cleaned the fish for us and we took the bag of fish with us to the plane so it could go to the processor in Anchorage. I'm hoping to get 15 or so 1# steaks out of it. Marlene said those steaks go for $20 each back home, but it will cost $200 to have them processed and shipped so there go most of the savings, and of course add the $10,000 or so that the whole trip up here cost and those will be expensive Salmon steaks, and I don't even eat fish!!! I'll eat these though!

After another snack at the lodge we went back to the river to catch the float plane, which made a big, low circle over the fish camps in the area to let everyone know he was arriving. An army of little boats converged on the sandbar where the pilot stopped and started unloading the plane. The plane was stuffed to the ceiling with boxes of mail, fresh fruits, stuff from Costco, many cases of alcohol and soda, and even a shower stall from Home Depot. All was taken off one at a time and handed down to the boats. Then the pilot put the seats back in place and we were allowed to board. I made sure I was the first one over to the plane and climbed up to where the co-pilot might sit if there were controls present. The rudder pedals appeared to have been removed and the plane had the type of control column that could be passed back and forth. I love aviation and was really glad to have a front row seat.

We drifted a few feet down river into the strong current and the pilot took off. Here's video of the takeoff. It was amazing how fast the plane can leave the water. The air was bumpy for the first half of the ride, but was smooth as we crossed the Knik arm into Anchorage, and I was able to record our approach and touchdown.

When we arrived back in Girdwood we were full of fish stories, but they were all true! Aunt Donna made another amazing dinner (a pasta dish I need to get the recipe for) and then we started packing for a quick departure in the morning.

Girdwood, Kenai Peninsula and Homer

I'm playing a little catch-up so the dates aren't going to make much sense when I post these entries. We left Denali and headed down to Girdwood, AK, the home of my Uncle Bill and Aunt Donna (Welch)

Girdwood is a ski community – really a fancy ski resort with a few stores and a couple dozen homes. I have only skied once so the slopes looked terrifyingly steep. I'm not sure I'd want to go there unless I had a lot more practice. It didn't take long to drive through the whole town and see it all, so I headed out to the Seward highway and rode down to the Portage Glacier. I couldn't actually see the glacier because it was around a bend in the hills, but I could see about 3 or 4 others and I took in the view and visited the National Park visitor center at the end of the lake that the glaciers created.

The lakes and streams that are fed from the glaciers are an intersting milky-blue color, and are gritty. The water has a very fine silt from the ice grinding across the mountains. That water all eventually ends up in Turnagain Arm (a bay off the ocean) and has silted it up to the point where it is mostly quicksand. The tide varies by 30' or so and if you walk out on the sand and get stuck you will quickly get drowned. There is a tidal bore there – a phenomenon where the incoming tide builds up over the outgoing tide, so when the tides change from low to high the incoming tide is actually a 6' wave coming into the area from the sea. It looks like a tsunami wave. I was not able to time things to see it while we were there, but it happens 2x a day.

I only left the house for 2 hours the first day there (Wednesday) because I was tired and wanted to talk to Aunt Donna. It was also a chance to catch up on some work I was doing.

On Thursday, dad and I headed down to see the Kenai Peninsula. We had heard it was a 3 hour trip to Homer – but when we got to Homer it took 5 ½ hours! We barely had a chance to look around and then it was time to make a fast run back to Girdwood. We only stopped for gas, and that was a very quick stop. We managed to make it back in just under 4 hours.

On the way down we did stop quite a few times, for photos, and also to check out the little villages and some of the rivers. I wasn't able to get a photo of the “combat fishing” conditions along the Kenai river, but the fishermen were definitely lined up along both sides of the river, each with their own little 12 – 20' “personal space” around them. There were also boats running up and down through the rivers, which are very swift and could be considered “whitewater” in some places.

Homer was the end of the line for us, both for the day and also for our whole trip. It is as far south as we could go on the mainland portion of Alaska – the rest would have taken a Ferry to reach or you'd have to go through Canada. We had lunch at a pizza place called “Fat Olives” then rode out onto the spit – which reaches about 2 miles out into the water. At the end of the spit I took a picture of the bikes – from here on we would be riding back toward home.

Denali National Park

From Fairbanks to Denali NP was a leisurely 2 hours of riding, so before we left we went out one more time in the rain for a ride around Fairbanks. For a town of 35,000 or so in an area with 90,000 it had the biggest Walmart I've ever seen. I would guess it would have to - there's probably not a distribution center near here so they probably bring things up in larger than normal quantities. I peeked in the back door to the warehouse area, which is usually just 2 or 3 rows of big storage racks. The one in this place had ten or so racks. I really only needed a screw put in my eyeglasses but the vision center wasn't open so we got back on the road.

We went up the road 10 miles or so to a place called 'Fox' which is where the pavement ends if you're going north in Alaska. I wanted to ride all the way to the end of the paved roads and we were pretty close (actual end of pavement was further up and we had a good place to turn around so we did so while it was safe)

Near Fox is a turnoff to a small park where the Alaska Pipeline runs through. We spent some time there checking out the displays among 3 or 4 tour buses worth of other tourists. I have always been fascinated by the challenges faced by the designers of the pipeline and there were information signs as well as the actual pipeline to look at. They had many of the configurations of supports and insulation shown in the 1/4 mile stretch that was on display, so I was able to walk around them and appreciate just how big the thing is and how well engineered it is. While looking at the information boards I discovered that the principal designer of the pipeline is a Purdue Graduate. Go Purdue!

After visiting Fox we headed back through Fairbanks, checked out of our hotel and once again had to deal with heavily loaded motorcycles. I took a picture of the bed in the hotel room with all of my stuff on it. What you don't see is the tools and equipment I keep on my scooter - it's a tool bag, extra batteries, extra face shield, towels, spray cleaner, a bottle of oil, spray lubricant, two gas cans and a fuel pump!

I would have loved to have made the whole trip with an empty one, but at least with all of my camping gear we can stop whenever we want and camp comfortably. We flew down the highway to Denali (maybe a little too fast) and while dad waited on a waiting list to get in to see a ranger to register for a tour I went and found a campground and booked us in for a couple nights. Then we could enjoy our 8 hour tour without worrying about all of our stuff on our bikes in the parking lot.

The next day we boarded a bus that took us 60+ miles into the park to a visitor center near Mt. McKinley AKA Denali. Denali means "the great one" but we didn't get to see it today because of the rain. We did see a few grizzly bears, Dall Sheep, Caribou (Reindeer), a wolf and a moose.

Denali NP seemed unique to me because there is just one road into it, about 90 miles long, and it's not paved except near the entrance. You can get on a bus, ride out to almost anywhere along the road, and hop off the bus and hike into the wilderness. The driver will radio HQ and tell them where you left the bus and you are on your own. They have you view videos on how to deal with the wildlife and you rent a food storage container to carry your provisions (they also have another similar one for your waste to go in...) We didn't go through that program because we stayed on the bus out and back except for visiting the two information centers along the route. I was really amazed that people can go out with the bears and wolves, but the animals are not interested in the humans because they are not an opportunity to obtain food. They said that once an animal associates humans with food that animal must be destroyed. Apparently the programs are a success as the animals completely ignored us and we didn't hear any reports of hikers being attacked.

Today we are heading down the George Parks Highway to Anchorage and then to Girdwood, AK. I will be one fuel can short the rest of the trip - one of them (just filled!) flew off the bike the other day and sprayed gas all over the highway. Dad managed to avoid it but ended up stopping off the road on the very soft gravel shoulder and it gave way under the weight of his bike. Fortunately we were able to get the bike back up onto the road, but unfortunately he will need a new paint job on his fairing and right saddlebag. I felt terrible about it. All dad managed to fling at me was little water bottles and I'm tossing napalm bombs at him! Today I will have everything back on the bike so one item can't become unstable like that.

Whitehorse and Fairbanks

I've not posted in a couple of days - been busy with riding and a little bit of work - house(tent) work that is...

We left Watson Lake and had a leisurely ride only 280 miles or so - but man was it cold!

Our first stop was the Signpost forest, where during the construction of the highway someone

put the distance to their hometown on a

post with other signs, then another was added,

and another... well it's to the point of absurdity now... I think I read that there were 27000 signs there. Most appeared to be home-made by travelers through there, and many were license plates people had removed from their cars. It was quite a sight to see and fun to walk through.

While we were at the signpost forest I took a good hard look at my scooter. So far during the trip the only issue we had with the bikes was dad's cruise control was kicking off and his brake light was coming on at random times. We traced that to a loose plug on the brake controller. As we were leaving the campground it started raining and I reached with both hands to zip up my jacket. Normally you can take both hands off the handlebars with no problem, but I had apparently never done it while going only 25 or so, because when I did the bike immediately went into a "tankslapper" If you aren't a motorcyclist, that is when the front wheel wobbles from side to side hard enough to bang the handlebars back and forth against the tank. Think of a shopping card with the wiggly front wheel and you get the idea.

Fortunately, the scooter doesn't have a tank there so the bars just shook like crazy and wiggled back and forth, but unfortunately it is still terribly violent and scary. I immediately leaned forward and was able to stop it from doing that. I did a little testing and it only happened below 40, so I just made sure to keep a tight grip on the bars when going less than 40... I re-tested the bike at Fairbanks with no load on the back and it doesn't do that, so I'm guessing it's due to so much weight on the back of the bike when I'm fully loaded.

Once I was sure my scooter wasn't going to kill me I took the lead the first section because I was pretty sure I could not make it on fuel - well, 162 miles later at the next gas stop I was pleasantly surprised. At the point when I normally fill up my scooter around 140 miles there is one "bar" showing on the display on the dash. Well, after 20 miles or so that bar starts flashing. I went another 10 miles with that last bar flashing... and at some point the bar goes away and you are out - but fortunately I didn't get that far. So I know now know that I can go quite a bit further on a tank - maybe 30-40 miles. That's important up here because more than half of the gas stations are boarded up!

Our second section of the ride wasn't so far, but I did celebrate a bit of a Milestone - 25000 miles on my scooter. I took a picture of the odometer to post on the burgman web site some day. Most people just tell where they were when it happened, but I'll have a picture too. We arrived

in Whitehorse quite a bit earlier than we normally stop, but there weren't many places to go beyond there, so we decided to stay. We stopped in the visitor's center in the center of the city, but decided to just go to the motels and try to find a room. The first place was pretty grungy

looking, the next place we went looked great but was full. We decided to go to an RV resort back up the road and it was really nice. I got a good nights sleep and did my laundry so I'm good for another 8 days of clothes.

The next morning we decided to get a room in Fairbanks. Someone said it was only 400 miles or so from Whitehorse so dad booked a room online. Because we made the reservation the same day as our stay, it was non-cancellable... As we were getting ready to pack Dad asked the

campground owner and he said "around 600" Oops! That's farther than we rode any other day!

We ran back to the campsite, packed quic

kly, put all of our rain gear on (mostly for warmth) and took off down the highway. Well, we ripped through the miles pretty fast even though it was raining and the temperatures were upper 30s and low 40s, but after about 250 miles we stopped for gas and started hearing horror stories about the road ahead. One man on a motorcycle said the potholes were two feet deep, with loose gravel and ruts 6-8" deep for 120 miles. I felt a sense of doom as we headed down the highway... and after 50 miles or so it started. First it was just a bump here or there, then the ruts started, and after a few more miles we passed a highway department truck with a man filling potholes. His shovel and the lower part of the handle were not visible in the hole he was filling - it was about 2' down!

The worst part of it was that there were places where you'd think you'd dodged a hole, then a ridge or dip in the pavement would bottom your bike out. In some places, they had aparently given up on filling the holes and the whole road was covered in Gravel. That was smoother, but since it was raining, it was slick and the gravel was loose. Most people slowed way down for that section of road and took 3 or 4 hours to go through it. Dad and I manag ed to go through there at 60mph or more, and I followed a truck that looked like it belonged to someone local. He dodged most of the holes and ridges, and I sat about 150' behind him and watched his wheels... if there was a hidden ridge the back of the truck would jump up in the air and I would slow down or swerve around the problem... It worked really well until we had to stop for me to refuel, then we were on our own, but most of it was behind us. We survived the worst part of the Alaska highway!

The Alaskan border was nothing like what I expected. You enter Alaska on a gravel road, and climb up a hill to a guard house. There is one lane for cars and RV's and one for big trucks. That was it! We waited for about 15 minutes to get through, but heard from others that it took as long as an hour. After clearing the border it was back on dirt and gravel roads for another 10 or 20 miles, then things started improving. By the time we got down out of the hills where the border station was we were flying down the highway, and the weather improved to the point where we knew that we could easily reach Fairbanks, just 200 miles ahead.

Once we arrived in Fairbanks we checked into a brand new motel - just a month old. We decided it was so nice that we'd stay two days and recuperate from the crazy ride the day before. We hauled everything inside and I spent the day cleaning my scooter and changing the oil. I can normally change the oil in 15 minutes or so, but it took 3 hours because every time I went out there to do something it would start raining or hailing. The storms have gone through here all day on about a 30 minute schedule. Even the locals say this much rain is unusual for July.

Tomorrow we will be back on the touring trail, checking a few local attractions then heading down to Denali to camp and see Mount McKinley. We did get to see it on the way to Fairbanks - It's amazing to see it covered in snow and glistening white in the sun (what little sun there was)