I did decide to take a short day and arrived at the Thompson’s Eagle Claw Campground in Tok, AK at around 2pm and after a quick salad bar lunch at Fast Eddy’s in town. There were only two other bikers (3 people) in the camp when I arrived – a guy from Indiana and a couple from Australia/New Zealand riding 2-up. They had arrived the night before and were taking a layover day doing maintenance on their bikes. Thompson’s Eagle Claw has a nice stocked shop area for bikers to do maintenance on their bikes. I needed to drain some oil from out of my bike at some point (overfilled it a bit in Whitehorse), but that could wait until later. It was a nice day so I quickly set up camp and went for a hike around the area to hopefully stretch out my legs and back. Usually riding doesn’t bother my back but since tweaking it the other day I have struggled to find a riding position that doesn’t feel like it’s compressing my spine and causing pain. I did actually feel better after the hike so decided to get out the mat and do some Pilates and stretching. The combination of the hike and stretching in the warm sunshine provided some temporary relief. I also had picked up some icy hot patches a few weeks ago so stuck one of those on too.
Later that afternoon John, a gentleman from Alberta that I had run into several times along the Alcan, arrived to the campground. I was camping in the community area ($10) that contains several tent sites and John ended up grabbing a site there too. It was clearly the first camping John had done on his trip and the first time using his brand new tent as he was having a bit of trouble setting up. I had a couple of warm Guinness in my case so walked over to offer him a beer and help with the tent. Turns out it was the same design (MEC knockoff of the Nemo Galaxi 2p) as mine so I quickly got him set up. MEC is the Canadian version of REI. They also brand a lot of gear under their name brand just like REI. It’s a really good store but haven’t visited one since 2014 in Vancouver. I think I still have my member card somewhere. John is on a 2016 Africa Twin with the automatic transmission – basically can run like a scooter where no shifting is required. He later broke out a bottle of wine so my gesture was returned. It doesn’t get dark until around 11pm up here and I didn’t bring eye shades this time. I should try to pick some up when I get to a town with a Walmart or Walgreens.
The night was not too cold at all with temps in the high 50’s. The morning was overcast and I could feel the temperature dropping as I broke camp. I geared up for a cold and rainy day and I’m glad I did – cause that’s exactly what I got. It started raining almost immediately after I turned onto the highway. I wanted to ride up to Delta Junction which is the official end of the Alcan and then ride south to Paxson and the start of the Denali Highway. Everyone I had talked to that had ridden or drove the Tok Cutoff to the south said it was a nightmare. Ruts, potholes and deep gravel construction for miles. I would probably have to ride that coming back up from Valdez at some point but not today – I instead took the long way up to Delta Junction and back down the 4. I got crushed with cold rain the whole time.
After several of hours riding in the steady rain I reached Paxson and turned on the the Denali Highway. There is absolutely nothing in Paxson so I’m glad I gassed up in Delta. It’s about 135 miles of mostly dirt to Cantwell and Highway 3. I had no idea what the road was going to be like with all the rain. I hoped it wasn’t a calcium chloride coated road that is often found up here. That stuff gets slippery as snot and makes for a tense ride. It’s supposed to be one of the most scenic roads in Alaska but unfortunately I didn’t see much through the low clouds and rain. I could tell it was a massive glacial space but couldn’t see more than maybe a quarter mile in any direction. It was slow going as I was having a hard time seeing the road through a wet and muddy shield. There were a few cars, trucks and campers also on the road and when I got behind them waiting for an opportunity to pass the spray would mud up my shield. About 3.5 hours of riding brought me to Cantwell around 3pm. The road had been a mix of rocky gravel with maybe 25 miles of asphalt but none of the slippery muck I feared – thank goodness! I looked north and south up and down Highway 3 and both directions looked really shitty. I decided to head south to Anchorage to maybe find a hotel room to get dry. After riding around Anchorage for about an hour and a half in the rain looking for a cheap hotel I gave up – couldn’t find anything under $200 that wasn’t already sold out. I had passed a couple of campgrounds when riding in so went back and grabbed a tent site at an RV park and campground several miles outside the city. Thankfully it stopped had raining when I arrived and I was able to get my tent set up just before another wave came through. I spent the rest of the night in my tent reading and listening to the rain bounce off my tent fly.
The next morning started out overcast but not raining – I had to pack up my tent wet as it was not going to dry out any time soon without direct sunlight. My riding gear was also still soaking wet. I decided to ride north to see if the weather was any better up there. I had no cell signal so no weather reports. I got to the Denali National Park entrance and again it was crushing rain. Tons of people, tourist attractions and buss traffic in that area so I stopped for gas and continued north towards Fairbanks hoping find a reasonably priced hotel to dry out my gear. I also wanted to find aWalgreens to replenish some meds I was running low on. I accidentally dropped the open pill bottle in the sink a week or so ago and had got the pills all wet. I lost about 20 pills that had now deteriorated to chunks and dust in the bottle.
It was not raining when I arrived late afternoon in Fairbanks but it had obviously rained a lot over the past several days. Huge mud puddles everywhere with river and stream flood warnings in the area. I found the cheapest motel option in Fairbanks for the night – $129. Fairbanks (and Alaska in general) is not cheap. The location was ideal as there was a Walgreens, grocery store and BMW dealership within walking distance. I loaded up on meds, camp food and some parts from the dealership and returned to the motel just before it started raining again.
It rained all night and this morning the forecast is for rain again all day today. I should have just stayed in the south as the forecast looks better down there. It looks like it will be raining again all day today. As I type this I have no idea where I’m heading next. I think I will just look in the sky and see which way looks less shitty. There are only 3 roads out of Fairbanks so not too many choices. I looked at the photos I took the past few days and with the rain and low clouds they all suck. Hopefully the clouds will break somewhere today and I can try getting some better photos.