Day 21:Oh, well this is a great start to the weekend....
"He that rises late must trot all day."
-Benjamin Franklin
Parks Highway going North to Fairbanks.
Day 21 – Friday, August 12, 2011
It’s actually August 13th, right now.. but it’s still for the 12th. I’ve just got settled in the tent in Fairbanks. It’s been a good day but I spent the first half the ride being irritated at my preceptor. They had a picnic today and I thought we were free to go if we didn’t have a shift to do, so I got the shift thing lined out and thought I was good to go at 12. Wrong! I HAD to go to the picnic and stay till 4. The picnic was okay but that was 4 hours of precious time I lost before I even got going. I finally got lined out and packed up and was out of the driveway at 5:00 on the dot. It took forever to get out of Anchorage (damn Friday rush hour traffic. That city kills me) Then I had to stop and get gas because I thought it would be faster to wait and get it in Palmer. Wrong! Palmer is 5 miles past the turnoff to the Parks Highway. At that point I wasn’t real sure how much gas I had so I decided not to chance getting to Wasilla, which was only 7 miles away, so for 2 miles I wasted 30 minutes. In my defense I thought Wasilla was further from the cutoff onto the parks highway (AK-3) than it was. Then when i did get lined out with gas there was about 10 miles of stop and go traffic getting out of Wasilla. "Oh, I am off to a great start!"
Okay, got all that out of the way and it was a pretty ride. Not as pretty as southward but pretty. Lots of pine corridors and then it opened up. McKinley is up this way and viewable but it was too cloudy. I stopped at a rest stop along the way where McKinley can be seen from but it was way to cloudy. I did see some guys camping and riding bicycles. I bet those guys are having a blast. I did run into some minor rain but nothing to be concerned about. The weather is pretty fantastic. It’s 2am and it’s still in the mid 50’s. I really expected a cool night. Here’s to hoping that holds up.
I stopped for a quick snack/dinner in Cantwell. It's basically an intersection with a gas station the best I could tell. I think there was more to the town but I didn't go explore. I do know guys come up here on true dual sport bikes and take off across the wilderness. I bet that would be some amazing fun... just not on this bike with all this weight and street tires on it.
I didn’t take many pictures but I’ll post up what I got if they are worth looking at. I was really wanting just to make time and I debated going ahead and doing the first 50-60 miles of Dalton tonight but I don’t want to do that in the dark. Not necessarily because of the road in the dark. I just don’t want to be driving through and not seeing any of the scenery. I’m planning on getting up around 7:30 and getting out of here quick. I’ll eat breakfast about 60 miles up the Dalton at a place mentioned in the milepost I bought. That book is pretty neat. It has stuff about pretty much every mile post, hence the name I suppose. It would be really neat if you had a “co-pilot” who could keep up with exactly what was going on between the book and the road as you were going. I’m skimming for the high points. Lets be honest here. I’ll see the pretty stuff by myself and aside from that the main thing I want is a picture of me, the bike, and a sign that says deadhorse AK!
Sleepy time, cross your fingers the weather is as awesome tomorrow as it has been today.
--not sleepy time.. Archer time!
It’s actually August 13th, right now.. but it’s still for the 12th. I’ve just got settled in the tent in Fairbanks. It’s been a good day but I spent the first half the ride being irritated at my preceptor. They had a picnic today and I thought we were free to go if we didn’t have a shift to do, so I got the shift thing lined out and thought I was good to go at 12. Wrong! I HAD to go to the picnic and stay till 4. The picnic was okay but that was 4 hours of precious time I lost before I even got going. I finally got lined out and packed up and was out of the driveway at 5:00 on the dot. It took forever to get out of Anchorage (damn Friday rush hour traffic. That city kills me) Then I had to stop and get gas because I thought it would be faster to wait and get it in Palmer. Wrong! Palmer is 5 miles past the turnoff to the Parks Highway. At that point I wasn’t real sure how much gas I had so I decided not to chance getting to Wasilla, which was only 7 miles away, so for 2 miles I wasted 30 minutes. In my defense I thought Wasilla was further from the cutoff onto the parks highway (AK-3) than it was. Then when i did get lined out with gas there was about 10 miles of stop and go traffic getting out of Wasilla. "Oh, I am off to a great start!"
Okay, got all that out of the way and it was a pretty ride. Not as pretty as southward but pretty. Lots of pine corridors and then it opened up. McKinley is up this way and viewable but it was too cloudy. I stopped at a rest stop along the way where McKinley can be seen from but it was way to cloudy. I did see some guys camping and riding bicycles. I bet those guys are having a blast. I did run into some minor rain but nothing to be concerned about. The weather is pretty fantastic. It’s 2am and it’s still in the mid 50’s. I really expected a cool night. Here’s to hoping that holds up.
I stopped for a quick snack/dinner in Cantwell. It's basically an intersection with a gas station the best I could tell. I think there was more to the town but I didn't go explore. I do know guys come up here on true dual sport bikes and take off across the wilderness. I bet that would be some amazing fun... just not on this bike with all this weight and street tires on it.
I didn’t take many pictures but I’ll post up what I got if they are worth looking at. I was really wanting just to make time and I debated going ahead and doing the first 50-60 miles of Dalton tonight but I don’t want to do that in the dark. Not necessarily because of the road in the dark. I just don’t want to be driving through and not seeing any of the scenery. I’m planning on getting up around 7:30 and getting out of here quick. I’ll eat breakfast about 60 miles up the Dalton at a place mentioned in the milepost I bought. That book is pretty neat. It has stuff about pretty much every mile post, hence the name I suppose. It would be really neat if you had a “co-pilot” who could keep up with exactly what was going on between the book and the road as you were going. I’m skimming for the high points. Lets be honest here. I’ll see the pretty stuff by myself and aside from that the main thing I want is a picture of me, the bike, and a sign that says deadhorse AK!
Sleepy time, cross your fingers the weather is as awesome tomorrow as it has been today.
--not sleepy time.. Archer time!
|
Day 22: Deadhorse . . . or bust.
"There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them."
-Tom Krause
Rain on the camera lens.
Day 22: Saturday August 13, 2011.
Not long after I finished the previous entry it started raining. I could hear it as I was going to sleep and it was about the first thing I heard when I woke up. I look outside and it was really raining. No way was I packing the tent and stuff up in a true downpour. I went back to sleep for about 30 minutes and tried it again. Light drizzle.. time to go. I loaded everything up and the camping area host came over and gave me change for the $20 I put in last night (camping was $17 but I only had a $20) He gave it back and then I just gave it back and told him to keep it for the park or whatever.
I loaded up and problem number 1 occurred.
When I read about riding the Dalton hwy. I misunderstood what it was saying. You go about 15 miles out of Fairbanks and get on the Elliot Highway that takes you to Livengood and Manley hot springs and THEN you get on the Dalton. The problem is it takes 15 minutes to get to Elliot Highway.. then it’s 80 miles to get to Dalton Highway. –UHHHHG! That was another hour (or more) I hadn't planned for before I could even get started on what was not going to be an easy trip to pull off in the time I had. Oh, and to make things even cooler it started raining hard again. I finally got to the actual start of the Dalton Highway and it was steadily raining. I still stopped and took some pics at the sign though. I had stickers I wanted to put on this sign and I left them in Virginia! They probably wouldn’t have stuck anyway everything was wet. So off I went after a few pictures. I finally got started around 11:30
The very first part of the Dalton is dirt. Now, in Virginia when you say dirt road what you mean is a gravel road. When they say dirt here it’s really just dirt. When you have a true dirt road and it’s raining like hell what happens? Exactly. You have a mud road. It wasn’t really slick or anything. It was actually very smooth, actually smoother than the paved parts in most places. I was a bit alarmed at the first hill I went down. It was very steep. I know they say it has steep places but it was steeper than any road I can think of right off except maybe between Boone NC and Blowing Rock NC there is one section that is the same steepness. Anyway they have signs up that show the grade sometimes and I noticed quite a few that were 10-12% grades posted on signs. It was pretty freaky the first few times because my mind was screaming “MUD! MUD! MUD! DANGER! DANGER!” but in reality you can pretty much maintain the speed limit with no real drama if you are careful in the turns. It was a huge mess though. I stopped as soon as I got past the first dirt section to take some pictures and the bike was just covered along with my pants. It was awesome! It’s been a long time since I’ve been the cause of a bike getting that dirty. Reminded me of my trail riding days.
So then I hit the paved sections and thought I was going to be able to make up time and run 65-70 and I was right.. at least for the most part. The first section is great shape. The rest of the paved sections are basically shit. I don’t care for the frost heaves that much, oh… I should explain a frost heave. Now I’ve heard about them since I started planning this trip and never really understood. I assumed frost – heaved the pavement up and made bumps in the road. Now I know what they are for sure and I know why everybody hates them too. They do cause a heave in the road but normally you don’t see it. You are going along and then whoosh it’s like the road just disappears from under you a split second later, before you have time to react, you hit the other, lower, side. They suck and I never did find a good way to see them coming up. Most of them are just annoying but some of them hit hard enough to make me grunt or make my stomach do a flip. Those are mostly harmless. The tire buster’s are a whole other story. When you are on the pavement you have got to keep your eyes scanning to avoid them. If you are going 50 you have to be vigilant, if you are going 65-70 (as most people do on the pavement parts) you have to be EXTREMELY vigilant because they are fairly common. Imagine a pot hole 6-8 inches deep and 10-14 inches across. Now imagine hitting it on a motorcycle at 65 mph. Hence the name.. or maybe more accurately they should be called wheel benders because I’m fairly certain you could destroy a motorcycle wheel if you smashed into one. I managed to avoid all but a few smaller ones through luck and I like to think some skill on my part. There were some evasive actions taken to dodge a few here and there.
It never truly stopped raining on me and I was so far behind schedule that by the time I got to the arctic circle (mile 120) I was getting seriously worried about being able to pull this off. I got to cold foot (around mile 187) and had to do a reality check. It was pushing 4:00pm and I still had 250ish miles to go. Now I know I could do that easily enough. I calculated at my current pace (a little over 40mph avg. including a stop for lunch that took for damn ever at Yukon river bridge) that it was going to take me another 6ish hours to get there. That means at 10:00pm I would get to Prudhoe Bay and be “at goal”. That sounds great and perfect and all that until you realize I have to be back in Anchorage Monday morning at 8:00am.
If it took me as long to get back to Fairbanks as it would theoretically take me to get to Prudhoe Bay then if I left Prudhoe Bay at 8:am the next day I still wouldn’t get back to Anchorage until late late late Sunday night and that was assuming I kept up the same pace. Which if you ride you know it’s hard to just keep going for hours and hours like that.
While I was thinking this over a guy stopped to get gas at the coldfoot camp and we started talking. I told him about what it was like going south, he told me about going north. I learned he had been driving in the rain for the last 2 hours. I told him to expect at least 3 more hours of rain and my mind was made up. I wasn’t really having fun. It was cold, rainy, windy, foggy, and muddy. Part of my mind kept telling me it wasn’t supposed to be easy and the other part of my mind said .. no it’s not supposed to be easy but it shouldn’t be a miserable experience followed by another day of misery and pushing too hard all the next day to get back home either. If not for the time constraints I would have gone. I still want to go and sitting here in my warm little sleeping bag I regret not going. I know I made the right decision but it still sucks. I can try again next weekend maybe… I won’t try it again without either Friday or Monday off as well to give me three days to do it right. I thought I pretty much had that but then it got blown out of the water. I should have went to Valdez this weekend and tried for the day off and done this next weekend.
I’m back in Fairbanks now camping in the same spot I was last night. It’s still raining. Basically everything is wet or at least damp. I have to give major thanks to tourmaster for the suit. The thing, with a few minor flaws, is outstanding. I literally rode for 8+ hours in the rain today in mud and at speeds up to 80 mph in high 40’s/low 50’s temperature and I am dry and mostly warm. SIDI boots on the other hand can kiss my ass. I bought a pair of their touring “rain” boots and have had wet cold feet since about 45 minutes after I started today. They aren’t leaking. the water is simply soaking through the leather part. I thought it had a liner between me and the leather. I guess not. My feet are cold. Aside from that I’m good to go. Yes, I have treated the boots with a wax based water sealant that was recommended by the paper work that came with the boots. I would be better off with a pair of galoshes. In fact.. I may buy a pair to take back to VA with me. Cold feet are miserable.
So a summary. I made it to Arctic Circle which still blows my mind. I made it to the Coldfoot which is amazing and I rode about half of the haul road. I will be back one day (if not next weekend next year or the next.. etc.) to do the whole thing. I met some really nice people and saw some pretty amazing things. I gained a huge amount of respect for the people that drive this thing in the winter. I cannot even imagine some of these hills when they are snowy/icy. Sheer terror! And I got back to Fairbanks in one piece.
Now it’s time to snuggle into the sleeping bag and get some rest. I’m going to North Pole tomorrow and then back to Anchorage.
It has started raining again since I started typing this. I am sick of the rain.
-- update - days later
Just a quick note about the dirt. The mud was so heavily caked on the bike that the wheels were out of balance, the kickstand was hard to get up and down, and the seat had a pretty good outline of my butt on it. :)
I went and googled a picture of the Yukon River Bridge on the Dalton highway because I didn't take one. I had plans of taking one as I went across it but it was wet, muddy, and damn slippery. I had my hands full! I stole a picture so you could see it. It's a huge bridge and you are only allowed to go 10mph on it plus it's all wood planks and STEEEP! It was truly horrifying on the bike as slippery as it was.
Not long after I finished the previous entry it started raining. I could hear it as I was going to sleep and it was about the first thing I heard when I woke up. I look outside and it was really raining. No way was I packing the tent and stuff up in a true downpour. I went back to sleep for about 30 minutes and tried it again. Light drizzle.. time to go. I loaded everything up and the camping area host came over and gave me change for the $20 I put in last night (camping was $17 but I only had a $20) He gave it back and then I just gave it back and told him to keep it for the park or whatever.
I loaded up and problem number 1 occurred.
When I read about riding the Dalton hwy. I misunderstood what it was saying. You go about 15 miles out of Fairbanks and get on the Elliot Highway that takes you to Livengood and Manley hot springs and THEN you get on the Dalton. The problem is it takes 15 minutes to get to Elliot Highway.. then it’s 80 miles to get to Dalton Highway. –UHHHHG! That was another hour (or more) I hadn't planned for before I could even get started on what was not going to be an easy trip to pull off in the time I had. Oh, and to make things even cooler it started raining hard again. I finally got to the actual start of the Dalton Highway and it was steadily raining. I still stopped and took some pics at the sign though. I had stickers I wanted to put on this sign and I left them in Virginia! They probably wouldn’t have stuck anyway everything was wet. So off I went after a few pictures. I finally got started around 11:30
The very first part of the Dalton is dirt. Now, in Virginia when you say dirt road what you mean is a gravel road. When they say dirt here it’s really just dirt. When you have a true dirt road and it’s raining like hell what happens? Exactly. You have a mud road. It wasn’t really slick or anything. It was actually very smooth, actually smoother than the paved parts in most places. I was a bit alarmed at the first hill I went down. It was very steep. I know they say it has steep places but it was steeper than any road I can think of right off except maybe between Boone NC and Blowing Rock NC there is one section that is the same steepness. Anyway they have signs up that show the grade sometimes and I noticed quite a few that were 10-12% grades posted on signs. It was pretty freaky the first few times because my mind was screaming “MUD! MUD! MUD! DANGER! DANGER!” but in reality you can pretty much maintain the speed limit with no real drama if you are careful in the turns. It was a huge mess though. I stopped as soon as I got past the first dirt section to take some pictures and the bike was just covered along with my pants. It was awesome! It’s been a long time since I’ve been the cause of a bike getting that dirty. Reminded me of my trail riding days.
So then I hit the paved sections and thought I was going to be able to make up time and run 65-70 and I was right.. at least for the most part. The first section is great shape. The rest of the paved sections are basically shit. I don’t care for the frost heaves that much, oh… I should explain a frost heave. Now I’ve heard about them since I started planning this trip and never really understood. I assumed frost – heaved the pavement up and made bumps in the road. Now I know what they are for sure and I know why everybody hates them too. They do cause a heave in the road but normally you don’t see it. You are going along and then whoosh it’s like the road just disappears from under you a split second later, before you have time to react, you hit the other, lower, side. They suck and I never did find a good way to see them coming up. Most of them are just annoying but some of them hit hard enough to make me grunt or make my stomach do a flip. Those are mostly harmless. The tire buster’s are a whole other story. When you are on the pavement you have got to keep your eyes scanning to avoid them. If you are going 50 you have to be vigilant, if you are going 65-70 (as most people do on the pavement parts) you have to be EXTREMELY vigilant because they are fairly common. Imagine a pot hole 6-8 inches deep and 10-14 inches across. Now imagine hitting it on a motorcycle at 65 mph. Hence the name.. or maybe more accurately they should be called wheel benders because I’m fairly certain you could destroy a motorcycle wheel if you smashed into one. I managed to avoid all but a few smaller ones through luck and I like to think some skill on my part. There were some evasive actions taken to dodge a few here and there.
It never truly stopped raining on me and I was so far behind schedule that by the time I got to the arctic circle (mile 120) I was getting seriously worried about being able to pull this off. I got to cold foot (around mile 187) and had to do a reality check. It was pushing 4:00pm and I still had 250ish miles to go. Now I know I could do that easily enough. I calculated at my current pace (a little over 40mph avg. including a stop for lunch that took for damn ever at Yukon river bridge) that it was going to take me another 6ish hours to get there. That means at 10:00pm I would get to Prudhoe Bay and be “at goal”. That sounds great and perfect and all that until you realize I have to be back in Anchorage Monday morning at 8:00am.
If it took me as long to get back to Fairbanks as it would theoretically take me to get to Prudhoe Bay then if I left Prudhoe Bay at 8:am the next day I still wouldn’t get back to Anchorage until late late late Sunday night and that was assuming I kept up the same pace. Which if you ride you know it’s hard to just keep going for hours and hours like that.
While I was thinking this over a guy stopped to get gas at the coldfoot camp and we started talking. I told him about what it was like going south, he told me about going north. I learned he had been driving in the rain for the last 2 hours. I told him to expect at least 3 more hours of rain and my mind was made up. I wasn’t really having fun. It was cold, rainy, windy, foggy, and muddy. Part of my mind kept telling me it wasn’t supposed to be easy and the other part of my mind said .. no it’s not supposed to be easy but it shouldn’t be a miserable experience followed by another day of misery and pushing too hard all the next day to get back home either. If not for the time constraints I would have gone. I still want to go and sitting here in my warm little sleeping bag I regret not going. I know I made the right decision but it still sucks. I can try again next weekend maybe… I won’t try it again without either Friday or Monday off as well to give me three days to do it right. I thought I pretty much had that but then it got blown out of the water. I should have went to Valdez this weekend and tried for the day off and done this next weekend.
I’m back in Fairbanks now camping in the same spot I was last night. It’s still raining. Basically everything is wet or at least damp. I have to give major thanks to tourmaster for the suit. The thing, with a few minor flaws, is outstanding. I literally rode for 8+ hours in the rain today in mud and at speeds up to 80 mph in high 40’s/low 50’s temperature and I am dry and mostly warm. SIDI boots on the other hand can kiss my ass. I bought a pair of their touring “rain” boots and have had wet cold feet since about 45 minutes after I started today. They aren’t leaking. the water is simply soaking through the leather part. I thought it had a liner between me and the leather. I guess not. My feet are cold. Aside from that I’m good to go. Yes, I have treated the boots with a wax based water sealant that was recommended by the paper work that came with the boots. I would be better off with a pair of galoshes. In fact.. I may buy a pair to take back to VA with me. Cold feet are miserable.
So a summary. I made it to Arctic Circle which still blows my mind. I made it to the Coldfoot which is amazing and I rode about half of the haul road. I will be back one day (if not next weekend next year or the next.. etc.) to do the whole thing. I met some really nice people and saw some pretty amazing things. I gained a huge amount of respect for the people that drive this thing in the winter. I cannot even imagine some of these hills when they are snowy/icy. Sheer terror! And I got back to Fairbanks in one piece.
Now it’s time to snuggle into the sleeping bag and get some rest. I’m going to North Pole tomorrow and then back to Anchorage.
It has started raining again since I started typing this. I am sick of the rain.
-- update - days later
Just a quick note about the dirt. The mud was so heavily caked on the bike that the wheels were out of balance, the kickstand was hard to get up and down, and the seat had a pretty good outline of my butt on it. :)
I went and googled a picture of the Yukon River Bridge on the Dalton highway because I didn't take one. I had plans of taking one as I went across it but it was wet, muddy, and damn slippery. I had my hands full! I stole a picture so you could see it. It's a huge bridge and you are only allowed to go 10mph on it plus it's all wood planks and STEEEP! It was truly horrifying on the bike as slippery as it was.
Day 23: The sun will come out tomorrow... or the next day.. or sometime or other in the future.
"It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent."
-Dave Barry
I expected jingle bells?
Day 23: Sunday August 14, 2011
I woke up this morning to the damn campground host outside my tent. The rules to the campground changed, literally, over night. He told me about it yesterday so I wasn’t surprised. Instead of putting your money in the envelopes and putting it in the drop box he was just coming around collecting it. That was fine with me… but at 8:30 on a day when I’m not in a hurry after the ride I had yesterday (550+ miles total and most of them on the Dalton) I plan on sleeping in. I ignored him and assumed he would either A) assume I was dead. B) deep sleeper, or C) I don’t care what he thought as long as he left me alone.
He did leave and I did go back to sleep. I woke back up around 10:00 am and surprise! It was raining. I tried to just go back to sleep but I couldn’t so I just laid there till the rain slacked off then I got busy packing everything up. I kept expecting the guy to come around for the money but he never did. I really took my time packing up. It was basically 12:00 when I was finally loaded and ready to go. Checkout time is 12:00 so I figured I should be out of there by then. I went by his camping spot to pay but he wasn’t there. I looked around for him and then realized I was hunting for somebody to give money to for doing virtually nothing. I left. I figure I'll get a bill in the mail at some point because I assume he wrote down the plate number when he was there this morning.
I found my way to North Pole pretty easily. It’s about 20 minutes north of Fairbanks. I went down Santa Clause lane and was underwhelmed really. They have some light poles that look like candy canes and random Christmas-ey stuff but not what I expected at all. It was a very small town and I couldn’t find any thing that really screamed “Stop here! We have cool souvenirs for you and your young daughter!” I drove around a little and not finding much I gave up and consulted the internet on the phone. Turns out that there is basically only one touristy place in the town and that is Santa Claus House… so I went there. It was cool enough I guess. They have reindeer and a giant santa clause.. well 2 giant santa clauses actually. The store is basically tourist stuff though. They did have some really pretty artwork though. I guess it was art; it looked like art to me. They had these large glass carvings of animals. Bear, moose, eagles, etc. that were pretty enough but then they had another carving inside the glass at the base where the glass was polished so it was transparent and the carving inside was antler/rock/wood carvings depending on the artist. I thought they were really beautiful and worth the asking prices ($400 and up) but what the hell am I going to do with a 60 pound glass carving of a wolf with a pack of wolves carved from jade and some kind of wood in the base? Even if I could get it home where do you put something like that in your home? Maybe if I had a log cabin it would look right but any other home style and it’s going to look terribly out of place. They were pretty though. I wish I had taken pictures.
I tried to call my daughter while I was there to tell here I was at Santa’s house and stuff but she wasn’t interested she was at her grandmothers playing. I ended up shopping around the store for things to buy for her like I had planned and got pretty choked up. This is by far the longest I have ever been without getting a hug or kiss from her and it really caught up with me when I was looking for the perfect gift for her. I am getting home sick for sure. I did talk to her later and she was quite excited to know I was with Santa. I told her that I asked Santa for one of her Christmas presents early and that he said ok. I had her complete attention at the words "I was talking to Santa Claus about you. . . " I bought her a really neat little bear thats dressed up like a native Alaskan and he’s carrying a seal (like a pet seal.. not like “I’m going to eat this seal!”) The bear is wearing fur boots, coat, gloves, and a overcoat like thing. I think Chloe will love it. I got her a North Pole Alaska Christmas ornament with a Moose on it as well. I liked the store and would recommend going if you are in the area. I know it’s not the North Pole and all that. It’s just a cool little setup and they do have a lot of nice stuff if you are looking for Christmas stuff. I think it's a brilliant move by the town. I have no idea what it was called before they changed it but I can bet you money I wouldn't have spent money there had it not been named North Pole.
Ok, other than that I just got back to the business of getting back to Anchorage. There isn’t much to tell. I took my time since I had all day and took quite a few pictures. I stopped at some of the shops around Denali and rode into Denali as far as they would let me. They only let you go about 15 miles.. after that you have to ride a bus and you basically stay on the bus for the rest of the day. 4 hours, or 8 hours.. which tour do you want? There was no way I was getting on a tour bus for an hour, let alone 4 hours.. or god forbid 8 hours. Beside McKinley was not going to be visible due to clouds anyway. I’m sure it’s a beautiful place but I can go to beautiful spots and not have to sit in a bus for 8 hours to do it. Anyway, that’s my Denali diss. I wasn’t impressed at all.
After that I didn’t stop much except for gas and a few pictures here and there. It rained off and on all day. I did hit a patch of sunshine and 65 degrees. I got so warm that It made me sleepy. I debated taking off the rain suit from over the riding suit but decided against it and was rewarded with… more rain.
By this point I was just pissed off with the rain and the weather in general. I shifted into overdrive and I don’t think I was below 80mph the rest of the way back to Wasilla. I stopped and had dinner there. I briefly debated googling Palin’s address just to go drive by it but decided I didn’t care enough to do that. Besides, Wasilla is 1 hour from Anchorage. I can do it whenever if I decide it’s worth the effort. (I think probably not.. I’m not a fan really but I don’t like Obama either and I would take a picture of his house if I was in the area.)
That’s about it. Not much exciting today. Oh, I guess this is exciting, or at least reckless and pointless. I got behind some tour bus thing and was sort of stuck there. We came up on a railroad crossing and you can see the tracks a good half mile in either direction at the crossing. It was obvious nothing was coming. This stupid tour bus starts doing the “stop at all RR crossings.” thing. I had a moment of road rage and passed it as it was stopped looking up and down the tracks. Very redneck and highly illegal but whats done is done.
So I’m summing up the weekend like this:
Alaska – 1. I didn't make it to Deadhorse.
Bryan – 3. I did make it to the Arctic Circle, Coldfoot, and North Pole which were all major stops for me on this trip.
The other two weekends were amazing. This one was just rainy and disappointing. Still beautiful though. I would catch myself having a miserable time and remind myself where I was and then look around and I was good to go. As many things that went wrong with this weekend it was still an amazing weekend of riding.
Total for the trip 1,348 miles in 2.5 days.
Oh, and gas cost $5.89 per gallon in Coldfoot. Stop complaining.
I woke up this morning to the damn campground host outside my tent. The rules to the campground changed, literally, over night. He told me about it yesterday so I wasn’t surprised. Instead of putting your money in the envelopes and putting it in the drop box he was just coming around collecting it. That was fine with me… but at 8:30 on a day when I’m not in a hurry after the ride I had yesterday (550+ miles total and most of them on the Dalton) I plan on sleeping in. I ignored him and assumed he would either A) assume I was dead. B) deep sleeper, or C) I don’t care what he thought as long as he left me alone.
He did leave and I did go back to sleep. I woke back up around 10:00 am and surprise! It was raining. I tried to just go back to sleep but I couldn’t so I just laid there till the rain slacked off then I got busy packing everything up. I kept expecting the guy to come around for the money but he never did. I really took my time packing up. It was basically 12:00 when I was finally loaded and ready to go. Checkout time is 12:00 so I figured I should be out of there by then. I went by his camping spot to pay but he wasn’t there. I looked around for him and then realized I was hunting for somebody to give money to for doing virtually nothing. I left. I figure I'll get a bill in the mail at some point because I assume he wrote down the plate number when he was there this morning.
I found my way to North Pole pretty easily. It’s about 20 minutes north of Fairbanks. I went down Santa Clause lane and was underwhelmed really. They have some light poles that look like candy canes and random Christmas-ey stuff but not what I expected at all. It was a very small town and I couldn’t find any thing that really screamed “Stop here! We have cool souvenirs for you and your young daughter!” I drove around a little and not finding much I gave up and consulted the internet on the phone. Turns out that there is basically only one touristy place in the town and that is Santa Claus House… so I went there. It was cool enough I guess. They have reindeer and a giant santa clause.. well 2 giant santa clauses actually. The store is basically tourist stuff though. They did have some really pretty artwork though. I guess it was art; it looked like art to me. They had these large glass carvings of animals. Bear, moose, eagles, etc. that were pretty enough but then they had another carving inside the glass at the base where the glass was polished so it was transparent and the carving inside was antler/rock/wood carvings depending on the artist. I thought they were really beautiful and worth the asking prices ($400 and up) but what the hell am I going to do with a 60 pound glass carving of a wolf with a pack of wolves carved from jade and some kind of wood in the base? Even if I could get it home where do you put something like that in your home? Maybe if I had a log cabin it would look right but any other home style and it’s going to look terribly out of place. They were pretty though. I wish I had taken pictures.
I tried to call my daughter while I was there to tell here I was at Santa’s house and stuff but she wasn’t interested she was at her grandmothers playing. I ended up shopping around the store for things to buy for her like I had planned and got pretty choked up. This is by far the longest I have ever been without getting a hug or kiss from her and it really caught up with me when I was looking for the perfect gift for her. I am getting home sick for sure. I did talk to her later and she was quite excited to know I was with Santa. I told her that I asked Santa for one of her Christmas presents early and that he said ok. I had her complete attention at the words "I was talking to Santa Claus about you. . . " I bought her a really neat little bear thats dressed up like a native Alaskan and he’s carrying a seal (like a pet seal.. not like “I’m going to eat this seal!”) The bear is wearing fur boots, coat, gloves, and a overcoat like thing. I think Chloe will love it. I got her a North Pole Alaska Christmas ornament with a Moose on it as well. I liked the store and would recommend going if you are in the area. I know it’s not the North Pole and all that. It’s just a cool little setup and they do have a lot of nice stuff if you are looking for Christmas stuff. I think it's a brilliant move by the town. I have no idea what it was called before they changed it but I can bet you money I wouldn't have spent money there had it not been named North Pole.
Ok, other than that I just got back to the business of getting back to Anchorage. There isn’t much to tell. I took my time since I had all day and took quite a few pictures. I stopped at some of the shops around Denali and rode into Denali as far as they would let me. They only let you go about 15 miles.. after that you have to ride a bus and you basically stay on the bus for the rest of the day. 4 hours, or 8 hours.. which tour do you want? There was no way I was getting on a tour bus for an hour, let alone 4 hours.. or god forbid 8 hours. Beside McKinley was not going to be visible due to clouds anyway. I’m sure it’s a beautiful place but I can go to beautiful spots and not have to sit in a bus for 8 hours to do it. Anyway, that’s my Denali diss. I wasn’t impressed at all.
After that I didn’t stop much except for gas and a few pictures here and there. It rained off and on all day. I did hit a patch of sunshine and 65 degrees. I got so warm that It made me sleepy. I debated taking off the rain suit from over the riding suit but decided against it and was rewarded with… more rain.
By this point I was just pissed off with the rain and the weather in general. I shifted into overdrive and I don’t think I was below 80mph the rest of the way back to Wasilla. I stopped and had dinner there. I briefly debated googling Palin’s address just to go drive by it but decided I didn’t care enough to do that. Besides, Wasilla is 1 hour from Anchorage. I can do it whenever if I decide it’s worth the effort. (I think probably not.. I’m not a fan really but I don’t like Obama either and I would take a picture of his house if I was in the area.)
That’s about it. Not much exciting today. Oh, I guess this is exciting, or at least reckless and pointless. I got behind some tour bus thing and was sort of stuck there. We came up on a railroad crossing and you can see the tracks a good half mile in either direction at the crossing. It was obvious nothing was coming. This stupid tour bus starts doing the “stop at all RR crossings.” thing. I had a moment of road rage and passed it as it was stopped looking up and down the tracks. Very redneck and highly illegal but whats done is done.
So I’m summing up the weekend like this:
Alaska – 1. I didn't make it to Deadhorse.
Bryan – 3. I did make it to the Arctic Circle, Coldfoot, and North Pole which were all major stops for me on this trip.
The other two weekends were amazing. This one was just rainy and disappointing. Still beautiful though. I would catch myself having a miserable time and remind myself where I was and then look around and I was good to go. As many things that went wrong with this weekend it was still an amazing weekend of riding.
Total for the trip 1,348 miles in 2.5 days.
Oh, and gas cost $5.89 per gallon in Coldfoot. Stop complaining.
|
|
Day 24: Let there be heat!
She's a little spit fire that one.
Day 24: Monday August 15, 2011.
My heated grips were here waiting on me. I would have really enjoyed these a few times over the weekend. So I installed them today and they work fine. I liked the oxfords much better. The control box was much more trick looking but an old fashioned toggle switch works just as well.
Hmm, not much else happened today. I got all my camping stuff out and am letting it dry. Everything was at least damp if not just wet. I need to get my sleeping bag/pillow out tomorrow and run it through the washing machine or at least the dryer to get the moisture beat out of it. I’ve been very impressed with the sleeping bag though. It’s been in the mid 40’s several nights and I’ve always woken up warm and cozy. As soon as I unzip it I’m ready to crawl back in but it’s doing it’s job.
Plans for the coming week/weekend. I really need to get lined out and go see the glaciers up close and get pictures. I’ve seen some other interns pictures and it just look amazing. It’s only a few hours from here so I can go on a weekday if needed. Maybe tomorrow if the weather is pretty. It was beautiful when I got out of work today but 2 hours later it was raining again. I’m pretty much at my breaking point with the rain. Just f’n stop already. It’s very frustrating.
The weekend is all up in the air. I am really bummed about not getting to Prudhoe Bay and am seriously considering trying it again with an extra day off (if I can get it anyway) It may mean I end up needing a new rear tire before I get home though. We are talking about an extra 1,700 miles on top of 1,400 miles I just put on.. and I’ve put 3,000 miles on the tire already. I’m not overly concerned about having to put a new tire on.. it’s just a hassle and will waste at least a ½ day on the way back that I will probably need to get back on time.
Decisions, decisions. I really want Prudhoe Bay… but at the same time I really want to see Valdez and some other places. We’ll see how it goes.
My heated grips were here waiting on me. I would have really enjoyed these a few times over the weekend. So I installed them today and they work fine. I liked the oxfords much better. The control box was much more trick looking but an old fashioned toggle switch works just as well.
Hmm, not much else happened today. I got all my camping stuff out and am letting it dry. Everything was at least damp if not just wet. I need to get my sleeping bag/pillow out tomorrow and run it through the washing machine or at least the dryer to get the moisture beat out of it. I’ve been very impressed with the sleeping bag though. It’s been in the mid 40’s several nights and I’ve always woken up warm and cozy. As soon as I unzip it I’m ready to crawl back in but it’s doing it’s job.
Plans for the coming week/weekend. I really need to get lined out and go see the glaciers up close and get pictures. I’ve seen some other interns pictures and it just look amazing. It’s only a few hours from here so I can go on a weekday if needed. Maybe tomorrow if the weather is pretty. It was beautiful when I got out of work today but 2 hours later it was raining again. I’m pretty much at my breaking point with the rain. Just f’n stop already. It’s very frustrating.
The weekend is all up in the air. I am really bummed about not getting to Prudhoe Bay and am seriously considering trying it again with an extra day off (if I can get it anyway) It may mean I end up needing a new rear tire before I get home though. We are talking about an extra 1,700 miles on top of 1,400 miles I just put on.. and I’ve put 3,000 miles on the tire already. I’m not overly concerned about having to put a new tire on.. it’s just a hassle and will waste at least a ½ day on the way back that I will probably need to get back on time.
Decisions, decisions. I really want Prudhoe Bay… but at the same time I really want to see Valdez and some other places. We’ll see how it goes.
Day 25: Early to bed. . .
Day 25: Tuesday August 16, 2011
Today was a very nice day outside. I was stuck at work most of the day though so I really couldn’t get out much. The other factor is that I am so tired. Not from riding, just lack of sleep. I never seem to get to sleep before 12:30-1:00am and then get back up at 6:15 and do it all over again. It is wearing on me. I say everyday that I am going to bed early. Then I look up and it’s 10:30 and I’m nowhere near ready to hit the bed. I did some laundry today and started packing my dress clothes to mail back to Virginia today. Then I decided to go out and about to find a car wash to get the mud off the bike from the weekend and some food. I got that stuff out of the way and decided to go back to Thunderbird Falls. I went there and hiked up a few weeks ago but didn’t take the camera so a return trip was in order. (pics below) As I was getting ready to start walking a few of the other interns I work with every day showed up and we ended up hiking up together and hanging out for a while. They are quite funny to hang around with and we had a good time joking and so forth on the way up the hill. After that we went on to Eklutna Lake because they hadn’t heard of it. (pics of this on day 2 or 3 I think) We hung out there for a while and then all headed back to Anchorage since it was, you guessed it, 10:30. I finally got in bed around 12:00ish so you see how the cycle keeps repeating. Maybe tomorrow!?
Today was a very nice day outside. I was stuck at work most of the day though so I really couldn’t get out much. The other factor is that I am so tired. Not from riding, just lack of sleep. I never seem to get to sleep before 12:30-1:00am and then get back up at 6:15 and do it all over again. It is wearing on me. I say everyday that I am going to bed early. Then I look up and it’s 10:30 and I’m nowhere near ready to hit the bed. I did some laundry today and started packing my dress clothes to mail back to Virginia today. Then I decided to go out and about to find a car wash to get the mud off the bike from the weekend and some food. I got that stuff out of the way and decided to go back to Thunderbird Falls. I went there and hiked up a few weeks ago but didn’t take the camera so a return trip was in order. (pics below) As I was getting ready to start walking a few of the other interns I work with every day showed up and we ended up hiking up together and hanging out for a while. They are quite funny to hang around with and we had a good time joking and so forth on the way up the hill. After that we went on to Eklutna Lake because they hadn’t heard of it. (pics of this on day 2 or 3 I think) We hung out there for a while and then all headed back to Anchorage since it was, you guessed it, 10:30. I finally got in bed around 12:00ish so you see how the cycle keeps repeating. Maybe tomorrow!?
|
Day 26: Somebody is in for a long flight home. . .
Aeroplane
Day 26, Wednesday August 17th, 2011.
It’s exactly one week till my departure date. I’m excited and sad at the same time. I am just now getting to know my way around the city good and now it’s time to leave. I’m not going anywhere today. The weather is rainy and then sunny. It’s went both ways for the last hour or so. I stopped by the grocery store and grabbed a steak and I just ate that. Yum. I love steak! Aside from that I plan on getting totally up to date on the website and just chillin’. Then hitting the bed early.
I took one picture today. It's of that plane up there. It's awesome because sometimes they come from the airport and fly pretty much right over the house. It's not as loud as you would expect. If you aren't paying attention you will just think one of the hundreds of small planes is flying over. I've tried a couple of time to catch them flying straight at the house but I always miss them. Below are some pics from the Airforce base of some random planes flying around. It's like an air show over there at times. At least once a week they will be doing some crazy flying over there. Amazing to watch them.
It’s exactly one week till my departure date. I’m excited and sad at the same time. I am just now getting to know my way around the city good and now it’s time to leave. I’m not going anywhere today. The weather is rainy and then sunny. It’s went both ways for the last hour or so. I stopped by the grocery store and grabbed a steak and I just ate that. Yum. I love steak! Aside from that I plan on getting totally up to date on the website and just chillin’. Then hitting the bed early.
I took one picture today. It's of that plane up there. It's awesome because sometimes they come from the airport and fly pretty much right over the house. It's not as loud as you would expect. If you aren't paying attention you will just think one of the hundreds of small planes is flying over. I've tried a couple of time to catch them flying straight at the house but I always miss them. Below are some pics from the Airforce base of some random planes flying around. It's like an air show over there at times. At least once a week they will be doing some crazy flying over there. Amazing to watch them.
Day 27: Greetings Programs!
How much longer must we wait manufacturers?
Today was a drearily cold day in Anchorage. I just went home from worked and crashed. I fell asleep on the couch around 6:45 and woke up around 8. Then I had some hot pockets and a glass or two of beer and that was about all. I played with the dog for a little while and fed her. Then I packed up my stuff in case I decide to go anywhere tomorrow. I actually loaded it all on the bike and realized that wasn’t going to work since I normally store my riding suit in the top case while I’m at work and I’m positive it’s going to be raining. So then I took it all back off the bike and set it down ready to go if I want it.
Then bed time.. well after I sat and watched TRON – Legacy for the 12th time.
Then bed time.. well after I sat and watched TRON – Legacy for the 12th time.