Category: Alaska 2018

We left Deadhorse Tuesday morning with 40 degree temps and threatening skies.  I was hoping not to have a repeat of the miserable ride in two days prior.  After taking a one day break, the mozzies were back in full force.  I couldn’t even lift my visor while fueling up on the way out.  The road was further destroyed from two straight days of rain and we had heard rumors of snow on Atigun Pass.  It only took about 20 minutes or so of riding before it started raining.  Not a bunch, but just enough to distort the visor and make it difficult to see the potholes in the road.  The skies looked a bit less dark to the south and after about 1.5 hours of riding the rain stopped and the sun started to break through.

By about 50 miles from Atigun Pass we were riding in sunshine and on reasonably dry roads.  The Brooks Range was covered in fresh snow and the views were outstanding.  It was difficult to see the beauty of this ride on the way up – clouds covered the range and the conditions were so horrible it was all you could to just concentrate on the road and not crash.  But now we were able to look around, stop for postcard quality pictures and actually enjoy the ride.  By the time we got to Atigun Pass the freshly melted snow was still visible on the shaded shoulders but had covered the peaks for a dramatic scene.  Temps were still in the 40’s so most of the fresh snow was preserved.  Now I see why people come up here to conquer this track of road.  It’s pretty special on a sunny day.

Boreal Lodge in Wiseman was books so we stayed next door at the Arctic Getaway – a few cabins built around the historic house built-in the early 1900’s and owned by a German couple.  The stay was great and we were served a breakfast of sourdough pancakes and eggs for breakfast on Wednesday morning.  Picked up some more go juice in Coldfoot and ran into Lee in the restaurant by the fuel depot.  The three of us rode the 265 miles back towards Fairbanks together.  Lee picked up a piece of metal in his tire and it became a flat when he pulled it out.  A quick plug and air up and we were on our way again.  It is Lee’s second flat of the trip – a bit unlucky.  I have yet to have a flat on any of my trips so far.  Hopefully the streak of good luck continues for me!

Coming in two days earlier I had noticed a strange vibration on the bike in 4th and 5th gear.  Once I got on smoother roads I could tell it was getting worse.  We had planned to stay at the University dorms again but this time for two nights to have a day of bike cleaning and maintenance.  Can’t beat the price of $35 per single room with dorm style shared bathrooms.   Fairbanks, and Alaska in general is very expensive.  Even the Super 8 in Fairbanks is $175 per night.  The calcium chloride they put on the roads if very corrosive and our bikes and riding gear was literally covered in it.

We enjoyed a nice dinner and a celebratory beer at The Pumphouse in Fairbanks – first beer in 4 days as Deadhorse and Wiseman are both dry.  Then early to bed as we were all a bit tired from all the riding on somewhat difficult roads.  Thursday was to be a day off the bikes but there was a lot that needed to get done.

After a quick breakfast we were off to Autozone for oil and supplies, then to the car wash to spray down the bikes.  I used over $20 in quarters to get the hardened calcium chloride clay off my bike.  It now looks pretty normal except for where it had baked on to the header pipe and exhaust – probably will never come off there.  We got back to the University and I changed my oil and filter in the parking lot.  Then went on to checking the cause of the heavy vibrations.  By the time I got to Fairbanks the day before it had got so bad my hands would get numb in minutes from holding the bars.  The first thing I checked was the wheels and sure enough the rear wheel had a ton of side to side play – typically wheel bearing issues.  I was carrying rear bearings so had the parts but didn’t really have the tools or confidence to tackle the job myself.  I had assisted Ken a couple of times so had an idea of the process but decided to try to find a mechanic to do the job.  Many travelers had used a local guy Dan who works out of his house just outside of town.  I left him a few voice mails and he finally called me back around 5pm.  He offered to come pick up the wheel and take it back to his shop and do the bearing job.  By 9pm he was back with the fresh wheel and I was back in business.  I couldn’t believe the guy makes house calls and only charged my $30 for the work – he refused to take any more than that.  He even stuck around for another hour sharing stories about life in Alaska and motorcycle travelers he had helped.  What a character and great guy he is!

It’s now Friday morning and we plan to head for TOTWH – Top of the World Highway billed as an amazing dirt road between Chicken and Dawson.  Hopefully we have good weather as the views on a clear day are supposed to be amazing.  I’m excited to get on the clean bike, hopefully with no horrible vibrations now.

 

Today was basically a layover day with the only highlight coming at 3:30pm when the shuttle picked us up to drive through the Prudhoe Bay oilfields to the Arctic Ocean.  It had been raining all day long – in fact raining since about midnight from the previous day.  The air temperature had dropped to freezing and the wind was blowing steadily.  I was questioning my intent to do the polar plunge and join the Arctic Polar Bear Club.  Yesterday the daytime temps reached into the 60’s by early evening.

The driver was very knowledgeable about the history and workings of the Prudhoe Bay oilfields.  The area we would cross to reach the ocean is operated by BP, but partners ExxonMobile and ConocoPhillips also have compounds on the 200,000+ acre oilfield.  The operations there are immense with dozens and dozens of contractors operating all the essential functions to process oil and support the infrastructure and workers.  I knew Prudhoe Bay was largest oilfield in the US but didn’t comprehend the scale of the operation until seeing first hand all that is involved.

We finally got to the shoreline and the wind was kicking up big whitecaps on the ocean.  It looked cold and mean.  I grabbed a complimentary towel on the way out of the shuttle and made my way to the very end of the point – suddenly realizing how far back to the shuttle I would have to go to get back to warmth.  I was probably two football fields away with Joe and three others and quickly stripped down to my skivvies and scurried in up to my waist, leaned back and dunked under.  I did a 5 count with only my head exposed to the air and then made my way back to my clothes pile to dress.  The cold wind felt like needles pricking my skin but as soon as the clothes were on I started to feel much warmer.  Just my hands and feet were freezing on the walk back to the shuttle.  Once inside the shuttle it felt like a sauna due to my current body temp.  Soon I was back to normal and received the certificate for completing the plunge.  On the way back the shuttle driver mentioned that three weeks ago the bay was still frozen over.  We also got to see several Caribou and Snow Goose on the way back.

Tuesday we will leave Deadhorse for Wiseman.  It is still raining at around 8pm as I type this.  It’s supposed to stop by tomorrow but I’m a little apprehensive thinking about the further carnage all this rain has done to the road.  We will probably wait until at least noon or later to leave hopeful that things may dry up a bit.  I’m not looking forward to that sloppy slippery ride again but it must be done.

The certificate…

We left Fairbanks Saturday morning for Wiseman – more or less the half way point of the 498 mile ride to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay.  The forecast for the next several days is a bit sketchy but Saturday morning was partly sunny with scattered, non-threatening clouds.  The strategy is to be able to do the stretch from Wiseman to Deadhorse on dry roads.  Lots of bad things can happen to the road when it rains.  The Calcium Chloride they use as a hardener turns into what Joe describes as unicorn snot – something you don’t want to have to ride a motorcycle on.  The forecast for Sunday/Monday is for rain so we kept an option open to lay low in Wiseman for a day or two if it looked to be really bad.

The ride was beautiful all the way to the Yukon River Camp with a winding road through dense forest up and down the mountain passes.  One stop for photos a the famous Dalton Highway signs and then it’s mostly all dirt with only a few patches of tarmac all the way to Coldfoot.  No huge elevation gains in this stretch – maybe just 500-600 feet up and down rolling terrain through dense forests.  Yukon River Camp has the first fuel opportunity so we stopped to gas up and grab some lunch.  The menu was Vietnamese so we had a couple of Bahn Mi sandwiches – super delicious!  Was a great spot for a break in the middle of the day.

The rest of the ride into Wiseman is pretty much all dirt.    This is where I dropped my bike for the first time on the trip.  I was holding the handlebar leaning the bike towards me while bending over to check the oil sight glass when the kickstand moved forward and it toppled over.  I’m glad Joe was there to help pick it back up.  Fully loaded the bike is much heavier than the stock 350 lbs.  We were able to make pretty good time – averaging around the speed limit of 50 or sometime maybe a bit over – all the way to Coldfoot.  That is the last gas stop before Deadhorse so I filled it all the way to the brim.  My gas mileage has been a bit off lately so I was a bit nervous knowing I have to make 250 miles on the one tank.  Most of the time I’ve been averaging 40mpg + or – 3-8mpg so with a 6.6 gallon tank the math doesn’t inspire confidence.  I have a rotopax one gallon fuel cell that I usually carry – but left it off for this trip because I couldn’t get the panniers to fit right with it bolted on the rack.  Now I wish I had it.

From Coldfoot we rode the short 12 miles to our sleep for the night – the Boreal Lodge.  It really was a great set-up with 4 cabins sharing a common kitchen and living area.  Since we were the only guests in the cabin area we had the common area to ourselves.  Noodles for dinner, then early to bed as we had decided to get up at 6 with a 7am planned departure.  The forecast is for rain but we decide to go for it.  The road will be closed a few miles up the road on Monday from 6am – 6pm so we would have to wait 2 days if we didn’t leave Sunday morning.  It will be closed every third day for the rest of the month.  We booked a bus ride to Prudhoe Bay for Monday so we can get to see and swim in the Arctic Ocean.  They need a 24 hour minimum reservation lead time to compete the required security pre-check.  The route goes right through the Prudhoe Bay oil fields which are private property and heavily protected.

We woke up and were packed up right on schedule as I fired up my bike at 7am sharp.  We had picked this time to leave as the rains were supposed to start in the Wiseman area at 10am.  We thought we could as least stay dry on the south side of Atigun Pass.  It ended up starting to rain about 8am and never really stopped all day.  It just went from spitting to pissing.  The road turned out to be not too bad in spots and a big handful in spots.  The worst was the freshly graded sections that were soft and slippery – pretty much like unicorn snot.  The back end would dance all over the place with the occasional front end wobbly too – no fun.  It also didn’t help that visibility through a wet muddy shield was a problem during entire the ride.  Trucks would come by in the opposite lane and just blast mud, rocks and water from head to toe.  The only stops were waiting for a pilot car in the construction zones and once or twice to pull out a rag to clean the mask.  Stopping attracted thousands of swarming mosquitoes – most brutal mozzies attack since Siberia – probably equal in relentlessness.

We finally made it into Deadhorse with the last 20-30 miles mind-numbing washboard with mixed in potholes.  The trucks seemed to be going faster and splashing even more water in the that final stretch.  I couldn’t wait for it to be over at that point.  I was really cold even through it was only about 50 degrees and wet.  I was just pretty much mentally done – having given full concentration for six hours straight in those extreme conditions.

The town (more like industrial city) of Deadhorse is a bit confusing once you ride into town.  We just kind of drove around until we were in front of the Prudhoe Bay Hotel so went in to ask about sleeping arrangements.  They have double twins for $95 per person – but that also includes three squares a day + unlimited snacks and to go sacks.  You can pretty much grab anything all day long.  So that makes the rate a bit more reasonable.  Tonights featured entrees are prime rib and battered shrimp.  We went ahead and booked it.

Monday, to be rainy all day, is a road closure day so we are staying two nights at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel.  We have booked the 3:30pm bus ride to Prudhoe Bay – the only way you can get out there.  The roads are private and owned by the oil companies.  Planning to jump in the Arctic Ocean when I get there… we’ll see.

Bike covered in mud and calcium chloride…

From the rear…

At the Arctic Circle…

 

Friday morning I opened the blackout shades in the room to a clear blue sky day.  I think we are owed this after getting rained on all day yesterday.  It had also obviously continued to rain hard the night before as the dirt lot was flooded with huge puddles not present when we parked the. night before.  This is the first day in a while I didn’t gear up with the heated jacket liner.  It was a cool 50 degrees but the sun was shining so didn’t feel so cold.

The ride to the Alaska border station was short and the gruff agent was trying to scare us with word of the haul road to Deadhorse in the worst shape in years due to the large amounts of rain they have received this summer.  She asked us if we have more tires.  No.  Oh, those are going to be destroyed.  Do we know not to screw with the truckers, she asked?  They will radio ahead to let each other know of “ass hole” bikers.  Yes, of course we don’t plan to screw with the truckers.  Didn’t seem necessary pile on even more fear then I already had about riding the haul road.

We rode another hour after the border to Tok where we stopped for breakfast/lunch at Fast Eddy’s.  I chose the spot just due to the name and it actually turned out to be an excellent restaurant.  I had the Alaskan Omelet that had reindeer sausage, mushrooms, onions and jack cheese – gigantic and excellent.  They let you choose your side car so I added the biscuits and gravy – a nice light breakfast.  There would be no need for lunch today!  After gassing up I check my oil and it was down again.  I finally finished off the liter I had started out with.  I’ve leaked/burned a liter of oil in about 3000 miles so not too horrible.  With the help of Joe, I also was able to identify the horrible rattle I’ve lived with for the duration.  I couldn’t identify by the sound exactly where it was coming from.  I rode past Joe a few times and he saw it was coming from the chain guard.  Sure enough the bolts had worn a ring around the attachment holes and it was rattling around inside.  Now that I know what it is I can’t wait to get to the hardware store in Fairbanks to purchase some washers to fix it – was driving me crazy to have to listen to the racket all day.

After a quick trip to the Santa Clause store in North Pole just south of Fairbanks we arrived at the University of Alaska dorm rooms that would be our sleep for the night.  They lease out the dorm for overnight guests in the summer months – only $35 per night!  Much cheaper than the overpriced Fairbanks hotels – Super 8 goes for $180 per night!

Hardware store, dinner, some quick repairs then to bed.  Saturday we will make the run up to Wiseman to stage for the final approach to Deadhorse.  The weather is calling for rain so we may wait it out a few days in Wiseman.  The haul road turns into a skating rink when it rains due to the Calcium Chloride they thrown down on the dirt and gravel as a hardener.  We are hoping to find a weather window to get up and back so looking for two days of dry – hopefully we will get it.

At the North Pole…

Woke up Tuesday morning in Carcross with a plan to take the 14 mile ferry ride from Skagway to Haines.  Skagway is a cruise port and there are 4 giant cruisers scheduled in port today – guaranteed to be a shit show!  The ride is only a couple of hours but comes down a nice canyon so promises to be a good one.  The reason for the ferry is to do the ride from Haines into Haines Junction –  amazing by all reports!  The ferry isn’t scheduled to leave until 5:30pm so we have the day to kill in Skagway.  Luckily we have the England/Croatia football match to kill some of the time!

It was cold and threatening rain when we hit the road – and sure enough, we did get rained on almost immediately after a quick stop at the Carcross Desert.  Yes thats right, desert.  The river brings sediment down the river, deposits it on the shore, and then wind slowly moves it up the hillsides.  It’s a 14 square mile desert in the southern Yukon – very odd against the traditional Yukon landscape we had ridden through so far.

The ride down through the canyon was spectacular, but wet as it was raining steadily.  Lots of cool waterfalls were visible from the roadside.  We stopped at a historic suspension bridge but they wanted $18 for the full tour and $5 to just get a look at the bridge – so we skipped it.  Just before Skagway is the US border to Alaska – this one is actually manned with agents unlike the one in Hyder.

Skagway was pretty much exactly as expected – a cool historic town ruined by the cruise line.  Word has it they own 90% of the town.  Historic Main Street was full of shops catering to cruisers.  After parking the bikes near the ferry dock, we quickly found a taco stand, grabbed some halibut tacos and popped in the bar across the street to catch the second half of the football match.  We lucked out with an exciting match going into extra time where as we know Croatia was the eventual winner.

We were told to be back to the docks at 3:30pm to line up for loading so just spent a couple of hours wading through the sea of cruisers on Main Street trying to soak up some of Skagway history.  It was basically a hub for the Yukon Gold Rush of the late 1800’s so it’s past is quite interesting.  We even managed to find a delicious pint of IPA at the Skagway Brewing Company (probably owned by the cruise line).

We returned to the parked motorcycles and then lined up with the other bikers waiting to load into the cargo hold.  This ferry was going all the way to Prince Rupert with our stop in Haines the first.  We were the only bikes getting off – the other 5 continuing on to PR.  It was fun chatting it up and trading stories from the road.  Their trips were winding down while ours had barely started.  The ferry ended up sailing 2 hours late so we stood around in the cold and wind for a long time.  We finally got the load call and we’re leaving the dock around 7:30pm.  The skies an seas were angry but the ride was quite smooth.  Joe and I went out on the deck and up to the bow and could barely stand as the wine was so strong.  I would have blown into the sea  if I hadn’t had a death grip on the railing.

The one hour ride went quick and soon we were at the Haines dock with just a short 6 mile ride into town and our hostel for the night – a small compound of cabins on the edge of the dense forest.  Since we have been heading back south it actually started getting dark around 10pm.  We even got to squeeze in a load of laundry so now have some fresh clothes to wear!

We packed up and left the hostel around 8am, grabbed some breakfast in town and hit the road with Beaver Creek the target destination for the day.  Just outside town we crossed back into The Yukon after chatting with the friendly Canadian border agent about motorcycling – he also rides a DR650.  Shortly after the border we got crushed with rain.  Then it let up a bit and we got crushed again.  That pattern would continue all day long.  The temps ranged from 40 – 50 degrees – freaking cold while wet on a motorcycle.  The mountains all around were snow-capped and we learned at our lunch stop stop that the snow wasn’t there yesterday – it had just came overnight.

Around 4pm with still 120 miles to go, I was miserable and just wanted to get off the bike – but we gutted it out and made our destination in Beaver Creek.  Luckily one of the three lodges wasn’t sold out and we got a room.  Camping, our original plan, would have been horrible as it was still pissing rain when we arrived.  We grabbed dinner at Buckshot Betty’s and hit the sack.  Luckily their were really good blackout curtains in the room – sun now sets after midnight up here.  Hoping for sunny weather tomorrow!

Lunch stop at the Bus…

Larger than life…

The famous sign post forest at Watson Lake…

Our ferry fueling up in Skagway…

Crossed over into the YT this morning after free camping on a lake in northern BC.  Great spot shared with a couple from Vermont in a bad ass original Land Rover.  In original I mean a first generation rig from the 50’s.  He told me but I can remember exactly what year.  They had it decked out with a roof top tent and solar – super cool way to travel.  As it is an original the suspension is rough so they slow travel at around 100-150 miles a day.  Nice chatting with them until it got dark enough to go to bed around midnight.

So I need to back up a bit to where I left off on my last post.  I woke up Sunday morning at the B&B Austria House in Stewart after a terrible nights sleep.  No idea why because the room, bed, everything was great.  I was planning to return to the Salmon Glacier if the promised sunny day arrived, but it was not to be.  The sky was dark with low hanging clouds hugging the mountainsides.  So I packed up and headed back out to the Cassiar continuing north.

The day started with low threatening clouds but blossomed into the best day yet as far as weather goes.  The Cassiar north of 37A was beautiful and I made pretty good time running up to Bell II where I stopped for gas and a sandwich.  I chatted with a guy from North Carolina on a 1200GS that had just come down from his trip to Prudhoe Bay and he was able to give me some good beta on his trip. As I was starting to leave, Lee pulls up so we end up riding together to Dease Lake.  This is where I wanted to stop for the day so I could make the ride into Telegraph Creek in the morning – a 75 mile ride on a dirt road boasting 20% grades.

We hadn’t figured out a place to camp quite yet but grabbed some dinner at a pizza place at the Northway Motor Inn.  The guy from North Carolina stayed there the night before and said the pizza was pretty good.  We struck up a conversation with a local guy and his wife and it turns out he is the facilities manager at the local college and offered tent space on the grass behind school.  The only other camping option in town was at an RV pack so a nice quiet spot behind the school sounded appealing – and free!  As we were finishing eating, Joe who we had met the night before in Stewart appeared.  Funny how everyone keeps leap frogging on the way up.  Anyway, Joe was planning to go to Telegraph Creek as well so we made plans to meet up for 9:00am start.  Lee would not be joining us as he had been there a few times before and wanted to stay on his schedule.

The camp spot at the college was great – freshly cut grass behind the buildings blocking the road noise a bit.  Not that there is much traffic on the Cassier – especially at night where it is a bit dangerous to drive with all the animals out and about.  The overnight temps were in the high 40’s testing the limits of my camping gear.  I have a 35 degree bag and my sleeping pad is not insulated.  I was a bit cold and didn’t sleep all that great.  Adding to the cold, the sun doesn’t set until late and come back up at 4am.

I met up with Joe at 9am as arranged and we took off to Telegraph Creek.  It was an absolute amazing morning with clear blue skies with no clouds in sight. The road started out very smooth with a firm calcium chloride base – great when dry but super greasy when wet.  If it were raining or had just rained I wouldn’t have made the trip.  We covered the 75 miles in a couple of hours and agreed that the ride was as awesome as advertised.  There were a couple of steep drops with loose rock and sand but for the most part it was manageable.  We had lunch at the cafe in town and then made the return trip back arriving back to Dease Lake around 6pm.  Also added a couple more black bear sightings to the tally.  We grabbed some halibut sandwiches at The Shack, a little food hut near the highway junction.

While eating, we ran into a guy traveling with his two dogs by car that had come from the north and recommend a free camp spot about 250k out.   About three hours later we pulled in about 10:30 pm with all the camping spots full.  That’s were we ran into the couple from Vermont that invited us to share their spot.  They were sleeping in the roof-top tent so there was plenty of space to set up our tents.  Again it was still light out at midnight when we hit the sack.  I slept better as it wasn’t as cold as the night before.  Around 7:30am we packed up and were on the road by 9.

Next stop was Watson Lake which took us into the Yukon.  We grabbed some breakfast at Kathy’s Kitchen and stopped by the visitors center to check on the status of the fire that had evacuated a town on our route for the day.  We were told the highway was still open so all good.  Next to the highway was the famous sign post forest that hosts over 80,000 signs dating back to 1942.  Visitors are allowed to add their own signs so it’s and ever-growing attraction.

We ended the day just outside Carcross, YT at the Spirit Lake Lodge.  We panicked as the weather was sketchy throughout the day – cold, windy and rainy – and booked a hotel about an hour from Carcross.  Turns out sunny (but still cold and windy) in Carcross but I’m still glad we aren’t camping.  As I’m outside typing this it is about 50 degrees and windy.  I have my down jacket on but my hands are freezing.  The WIFI doesn’t reach the room so I am on the patio outside the closed reception area where there is coverage.  The innkeeper closes up shop around 8pm so if you don’t arrive before that you are out of luck.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day in Skagway and take a 5:30pm ferry into Haines were we will spend the night and is billed as interesting town.  My hands are now frozen and typing hurts so I’m out…

End of the road at the Stikine River…