Alaska 2014 - Part 3

[Charles Scappaticci]

I left the town of Tok and continued west towards Fairbanks where I hoped
to find a hotel.  This is an amazing stretch of road and the mountains were
simply spectacular.  A couple of hours before I got to Fairbanks, the skies
opened up and and it poured on me all the way into Fairbanks.  I rode
around another hour in the rain trying to find a hotel with a vacancy, but
when I finally found one they wanted nearly $200 for a night.  I said no
thank you and headed back out the door where a local suggested a hotel that
I was able to call and they had a room for more like $125 a night.  Thank
you whomever you are.  The hotel room was excellent and big, so I was able
to spread everything out to dry, got something to eat and passed out for
the night.  Total mileage: 624.

The next morning was met with a lot of mist and I suspected more rain
though it eventually cleared up and was okay most of the trip south to
Anchorage. I made online reservations at a hostel in Anchorage to prevent
another rainy hotel search, so I felt I was ready to go on.  I had been
gone a week and was nearly half way through the trip with a lot of miles
behind me and I was beginning to have some concern about the tires holding
up.  I went to the local Hardley-Abelson shop to get a couple more souvenir
T-shirts and then rode out towards Mt. McKinley and Denali National Park
only to hit a lot of construction and yes, more mud and rock roads.  It was
a fairly uneventful ride the rest of the way to Anchorage marred only by
having to ride the last couple of hours in a torrential downpour.  It
stopped about the time I got to Anchorage and I easily found my hostel
where I was looking forward to some rest.  Unfortunately, I had made my
reservation that morning online, but it takes 24 hours for them to get the
reservation so I had no room.  Fortunately, they were able to find a room
for me with two old steel frame bunk beds, painted plywood floors and two
lockable school sized lockers.  At $33 per night I didn't care and I had
the room to myself.  I cleaned up and walked over to Enterprise rent a car
and rented a Nissan Altima for the next day.  My butt was getting a little
numb and I wanted to go see the Kenai peninsula, so this worked out well.
Total mileage: 462.

Saturday morning I awoke to the sun up since it hardly goes down for any
length of time in the summer, gathered up a few things, drove to the local
Harley dealer for a t-shirt then drove south down the peninsula and into
Seward on the coast.  Lots of pretty lakes, mountains and glaciers to see
on the drive and my butt greatly appreciated the softer car seat over my
Corbin.  When I arrived back at the hostel, I observed an older gentleman
working on a BMW 1150GS so I struck up a conversation with him.  Paul was a
72 year old Frenchman living in Montreal and was ultimately on his way to
South America.  He had ridden to Alaska from Montreal and we discovered
that we were both heading back towards Whitehorse the next morning and
agreed to ride together.  He warned me he did not ride fast and this
definitely came into play the next day.  Total Mileage - None on the bike.

Sunday morning Paul and I packed up and left Anchorage about 7:30am
intending to stop at the Canadian border and tackle the dirt on Monday.  I
had been dreading this since I had gone through it before and was not
looking forward to it.  We had good weather to start, then the cold and
rain settled in through Copperville and through the passes until we got
closer to the border when it became more scattered showers than rain.  We
gassed up just across the border about 5:00 pm and I was looking for a
place to camp when Paul decided he wanted to try to make it into Whitehorse
because he had a friend who had a B&B there we could stay at.  I was tired,
but agreed to go on to Whitehorse.  This actually turned out to be a good
thing as the dirt road was fairly well packed from the traffic Saturday and
Sunday and other than some rain in a few spots the passage was uneventful
except for my getting sick.  I had gradually left Paul behind as he was
very cautious on the dirt and I was riding along on some pavement when I
suddenly started to have severe stomach cramps and began looking for a rest
stop.  I was about to explode, riding in heavy rain again when I came
across a small rest stop, slammed on the brakes and ran into the bathroom
while tearing off my riding gear.  Ughh..  After cleaning up and getting
back on the bike, I continued heading northeast towards Whitehorse, past
Destruction Bay and eventually caught up with Paul who had not stopped nor
had seen me stopped.  We reacquainted ourselves and headed further on.  We
got into Whitehorse around 1:00 am exhausted.  Paul called his friend who
stated he had a wedding party and was full, so I got out my phone and found
a decent room for $110 a night.  We agreed to split this and collapsed into
out room for a few hours of sleep.  Total Mileage: 756 and nearly 18 hours
in the saddle.


Charles S.