Update From Alaska

How in the world am I to convey the experiences of the past few days? There has been beauty, pain, mud, sunshine (even at 2AM), rain, snow, camping, great roads, terrible roads, and more mud.


Just having a beer

Talkeetna at midnight

Yup - it's a good place to sit and have a drink

John has fun in a mud puddle

I am not much of a horse whisperer, but I tried.

We spent a wonderful night in Talkeetna and then headed to Fairbanks where we camped in the Chena River campground which was actually in the middle of town, but seemed like it was in the middle of no where.

We then headed out to the Dalton Highway - anxious about the 400 miles of dirt road ahead, but ready to take it on. About 6 miles after we entered the highway we came around a curve and saw what appeared to be 2 men hitchhiking. They were gesticulating wildly towards the bush on the other side of the road and as I stopped it became clear why – they had just rolled their car! They apparently took the corner way too fast, started swerving and lost control – their belongings were strewn all over in the bushes and the car was undriveable. They were both ok – just shaken up a bit. John and I did what we could to help – gave them food, water, etc, and were about to go get help when another vehicle came by that was going back towards civilization and had room for both of them. The following pictures were actually taken on our way back three days later – apparently they didn’t get the car towed.


The wrecked car

The road to Coldfoot was a little challenging, but we had great weather to work with. There were sections of road that were hard-packed dirt and easy to ride, but there were also a few sections that were swimming in gravel, and then there was the construction blast zone and my personal favorite… the water truck. I really think that the water truck guys have scorecards on their dashboards to see how many motorcyclists they can foil. The worst is when they are spraying calcium chloride on the road which makes it like riding in snot! There were valleys that looked carpeted in purple from the fireweed, cloud-covered peaks, and many rivers. By the time we arrived in Coldfoot we were a bit dirty, tired, and happy to meet more bikers to share beer with.


Coldfoot Camp was a gold mining camp - named because people got "coldfeet" in September and headed back to Fairbanks (which had to be done by way of the Yukion River.

The only things in Coldfoot now are a "hotel" made out of converted double-wide trailers, and a cafe/bar. There is also a ranger station and visitor center on the other side of the highway.

A motorcycle tour company was going through along with several other groups - we looked like a motorcycle gang - kind of - more like an off road gang.

We met Bill from Australia who had just come from a trip down to Tierra Del Fuego, a couple from North Carolina, one from Pennsylvania, aone from California, and some from New York and Texas.

Hearing tales of the road ahead.

The trip from Coldfoot to Deadhorse the next morning involved more of the same types of roads, but the scenery was much different. We crossed into the Brooks Range and up a mountain pass. It was amazing to see the mountains in the distance and then be right in the middle of them. On the other side we drove into a series of beautiful valleys with the Alaskan Pipeline running right down the middle. We saw a lot of little squirrels and something that John called an “Arctic Miniature Beaver”. We also saw a moose (from far away), and that was about it. The land running out from the valley became more prarie-like as we moved north towards the Arctic Ocean. When we finally pulled into Deadhorse it was a bit anti-climactic. I have no idea what I expected, but we quickly decided we would rather just eat a quick bite and turn around.


Beautiful day! Notice the dry gravel roads?

We could see a storm brewing in the mountains ahead. Thankfully we only got a little shower.

Look closely - I am the dot about to round the first corner.

The intrepid adventurers.

Snow on the pass

There were a few paved sections which made me happy. This was on the downward slope toward the ocean.



We bought stickers for our panniers to prove we had been there and decided to head back to Coldfoot for two reasons: (1) We saw three riders pass us going south who we thought were our Columbian friends that were to be in the area that week (2) some of the people we met the night before had just turned around to go back. We shortly discovered that this was not a good idea after all.

There wasn't much of interest in Deadhorse.

We gasses up from a barrel that had a credit card machine attached (in the shack).

We thought we were dirty - ha! You'll see what I mean in the next post.

A little dirt.

Remember the “swimming in gravel” I mentioned earlier? Well, about 3 miles outside of Deadhorse I hit a pool of it and got myself into what is known as a “tank slapper” – where your handlebars are oscillating back and forth with such force that they are actually slapping the tank. I lost it and went down in the gravel. I lay there for a moment trying to determine what was hurt the most and looking back at my motorcycle that was lying in the road behind me. John managed to get my bike and me up and across the road so the 18-wheelers wouldn’t run over us. The first guy to stop was a trucker who said that just the day before they had hauled two crashed bikes out and the riders flew back to Anchorage – not heartening news at the time as I felt like I was going to be sick – or maybe just pass out. Thankfully there was a rare concentration of bikers on the road that day, especially the Alaska Adventures touring group who helped a lot!

My bike looked so sad. The handlebars were completely bent over on the left side and my pannier had been ripped off. My windshield was shattered and my mirror was also gone. As for me – I hurt all over, but quickly determined that the main problem was my left foot. The next person to stop was the owner of the Alaska Adventures motorcycle touring company who told us that his sweep van would be by soon and they would be glad to put the bike on the trailer and take it into town. He and John made me comfy and got my boot off.


The lop-sided bike

The doc fixing me up.

The next group to come by included our new friends from Texas. They saw that everything was OK and then laughed because one of them had gone down only a half mile earlier! It was a busy day in the gravel. The next pair to stop was part of the motorcycle tour and one of them was a trauma doctor! He examined my foot – said I had probably ripped some of the ligaments in the top of the foot – wrapped it for me, and prescribed ice and Advil. A few minutes later, Phil came back with ice and Dan came by with the sweeper truck. They got my bike loaded onto the trailer and we headed to Deadhorse – again. We ended up staying the night so we could fix my bike.


Waiting for the van

Tom from the Nana Oil Machine Shop heats up my handlebar to bend it back into place.

John helps.

We headed out of Deadhorse at about 12:30 - not bad considering all we had to do to get the bike fixed! Stay tuned for the next post where we get REALLY DIRTY!