Alaska 2014 - Part 4

[Dave King]

Nice ride report. Thanks for sharing. That's definitely on my bucket list. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 11, 2015, at 11:14 PM, Charles Scappaticci <scapco at ecentral.com> wrote:
> 
> Monday morning Paul and I said our good byes and I hope he made it to South
> America and back.  I'd still like to be able to ride as well at 72.  My
> goal today was to make it back to Dease Lake so I gassed up and headed east
> on Highway 1 towards the  turnoff to the south, just before you reach
> Watson Lake.
> 
> I had a nice and uneventful ride until I got to Teslin and that spooky wire
> bridge.  I made it across the bridge only to realize I had forgotten to get
> gas and there was none on the other side.  I mentally blew it off thinking
> there would be another gas station somewhere and I definitely did not want
> to go across that bridge again if I didn't have to..  Wrong...  Twice I
> came across nice new signs telling me there was gas/food/lodging two
> kilometers ahead only to find they had been closed for years.  I was past
> the point of no return so I kept going figuring I would be hitch hiking
> soon, especially since I was on reserve and 240 miles from the last time I
> had gotten gas.  My luck so far this trip held and shortly before I was
> about to run out, I found a gas station and restaurant with gas and more
> than a few other bikers there.  I filled up, got a snack and had a
> conversation with a Brit on a KLR 650 and two of his Turkish friends who
> were headed west.  I warned them about the roads and went on.  I headed
> south and stopped at Cassier, home of some of the biggest Jade mines in the
> world that sit up at very high elevations.  I picked up some trinkets for
> the girls and then made it down to Dease Lake where I got a room at the
> same hotel we'd stayed at on the way up.  I was really starting to worry
> about my tires as they were getting pretty square and I sill had nearly
> 2,000 miles to go, this worry would get worse the remainder of the trip.
> Total Mileage: 435
> 
> Tuesday morning I awoke to cool and misty air and a wet motorcycle from the
> nights rain.  This off and on rain pattern would continue most all of the
> way back to the junction at Kitwanga.  The stretch from Dease Lake south
> requires several gas stops and they are fairly evenly spaced about 150
> miles apart, miss one and you are screwed if you're on a GPZ.  I stopped at
> a gas station along the way and made a huge mistake.  Filling up in a heavy
> downpour, I put about a gallon of diesel in the bike before the smell
> alerted me to my mistake.  Having no way to get it out, I topped the tank
> off with gas and took off.  Actually, other than not idling well, it ran
> okay and once I diluted the remainder of the diesel with gas at Kitwanga it
> was fine.  I eventually made it on a town called Burns Lake where I had
> stayed in 2012, cleaned up and went to get some food.  Another long day,
> Total Mileage:  485.
> 
> Wednesday morning I awoke to sunny skies and was looking forward to the
> ride through Prince George and back to Jasper.  This was the 4th time I
> have ridden that road and I've yet to have any rain, nothing but sunny
> skies.  About 40 miles out of Prince George I saw two animals run out on
> the road a ways in front of me.  As I got closer I realized it was two
> wolves, so I slammed on the brakes and went for the camera.  Unfortunately,
> all it was was a moment of eye to eye contact and they were gone into the
> woods.  Still this was a very cool thing to see on the highway.  The rest
> of the ride into Jasper was uneventful and I finally got to camp out at a
> campground near Jasper.  I set up the tent and gear, washed my hair in the
> shower, and rode into Jasper to my favorite Italian restaurant.  Not only
> does this place have good food, but they have an amazingly hot group of
> waitresses, LOL!  That will make your food taste better!  I stopped by a
> gas station, fueled up and picked up some food for breakfast then headed
> back to camp.  I did some more worrying about the tires then headed to
> bed.  Total Mileage: 398.
> 
> Thursday turned out to be another absolutely gorgeous day and a great day
> to ride back through Jasper National Park and Banff National Park.  I got
> an amazing picture of perfectly still water reflecting off of the glaciers
> in Banff and just had a great ride before heading through Calgary and the
> slab south and back into the US.  I took a few back roads and found a nice
> KOA campground on the edge of Glacier National Park, set up my tent and
> took a badly needed shower.  When I came back, three Aussies had set up
> next to me, two brothers and a sister traveling through Canada.  They were
> in their mid 20's and we had a pleasant conversation.  They were very
> interested in shooting firearms and had stopped at several shooting
> ranges that they had come across.  When I told them what I have at home in
> my gun safes they groaned loudly as they would have loved to shot a few of
> them.  I grabbed something to eat at a local BBQ place, had some ice cream
> and headed to bed.  In the middle of the night, I came down with severe
> stomach cramps once again and had to go running to the bathroom at 2:00 am
> in the morning.  It finally dawned on me that both times I had gotten sick,
> I had ice cream which confirmed my theory that I have inherited my mom's
> lactose intolerance, bummer.  Total Miles: 448
> 
> My last day on the bike was relatively easy, I headed south through some of
> the roads Chuck and I had come up on, sweating every mile on the worn
> out tires.  Outside of Glacier National Park were some very twisty roads
> and the wobbles the bike made when leaned over didn't exactly help my
> confidence any.  Still the road and weather were good and the tires ended
> up making it after all, though not without a lot of stress on my part and I
> made it to Chucks house around 2:00pm, IIRC.  We pulled my truck and
> trailer up to the little hill by his garage so I could ride the bike onto
> the trailer ramp, started to turn... and fell over on the right side badly
> scratching the right lower and cracking the little gray plastic piece that
> fits between the engine and lower.  Damn#$@%*#* was all I could say, but
> there was nothing I could do at that point.  I had ridden safely nearly
> 6,000 miles, including some genuinely frightening roads, only to fall over
> loading the bike.  I got cleaned up and Chuck, his family, and I headed out
> for some dinner and had a nice enjoyable evening before heading off to
> sleep.  Total Miles:  234
> 
> The next morning we said good bye and I headed out on the last leg of the
> trip, 1,000 miles of southern Montana and a lot of boring Wyoming
> interstate back to Denver.  The trip back was uneventful and I arrived home
> on Saturday night safe and mostly sound except for my butt which was
> partially numb for the next week.  All in all, the trip took 15 1/2 days,
> 8,000 total and almost exactly 6,000 miles on the bike.  I averaged 453
> miles per day when I was on the bike, 516 per day including the time I was
> in the truck.  I was very impressed with the Pilot Road 2's and was
> fortunately able to find another set as they have discontinued the rear
> tire size.  I've heard the Pilot Road 3's suck, but the 4's are supposed to
> be as good as the 2's, so we'll see when it comes time again.  I lucked out
> and found a clean, but expensive used right side lower and got the bike
> looking good again.
> 
> Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat, given the time and money, though I'd
> prefer either a KLR650 or BMW GS.  Bruce's son Danny is already planning a
> 2016 trip to Alaska, he wants to ride to Prudhoe Bay.  I wanted to do this,
> but time didn't allow and the old GPZ isn't the right bike for it, so we'll
> see.  Maybe next time I'll fly into Anchorage and rent a GS to go north to
> Prudhoe Bay.  That will keep me dreaming this next winter.
> 
> Charles S.
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