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Our day started out pretty average as we decided on Rock Springs WY for our*destination. Lori was starting to feel under the weather and wanted to stay indoors. We headed west along Hwy40 before picking up Route 318, decent riding with almost no traffic on this road.
Our GPS kept trying to grab my attention by indicating we should turn around for some reason. Usually if we just stick to the route it eventually figures out this is the way we want to go and re-routes accordingly. This time it kept insisting we turn around. I finally decided to pull over and plug in the same destination into the phone GPS to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Sure enough, same thing, GO BACK! Hmmmm. Re-tracing our planned route on the GPS, I could not find any reason why heading this way was a bad idea, so we continued.
A few moments later I looked over at a hill on my left and I saw what appeared to be a hand pointing in the direction we were travelling in. Seriously! As we got closer, I could make out that the hand was actually a small dead tree. Still, good enough for me and we kept on trucking. The phone GPS eventually understood our plan and led us up 10N, a dirt road.
Within moments we were in this canyon. Very cool but also a bit creepy in a way, as there was absolutely no traffic around.
Fantastic views, we passed a primitive campground a few minutes later but I got the impression Lori didn't want to stop here…
It felt like something out of a western actually, except we were riding our steel horse. Only thing that would have made this more complete is someone on a horse at the top of one of the ridges.
We eventually passed a vehicle stopped at the side of the road and I went back to see if they were ok.
As it turned out they had a flat, so we helped them with the tire change. But first we had to wait for someone with a jack since their Prius didn't have one. A few moments later a real cowboy looking dude passed by and of course had a jack. So we had a group tire change party in the middle of a canyon.
The couple driving the Prius said they were looking for Butch Cassidy's treasure that's rumoured to be buried in this canyon...somewhere. The cowboy with the jack said he actually knows someone that found part*of it, took it to the bank and was given $500 for it. Apparently the money*he found disintegrated on contact, it*was that brittle. Cool story.
We pulled into Rock Springs a bit on the early side for checking into a hotel, and besides we still hadn't booked a place. So we did the next best thing and found a Starbucks. Pulling up we see a loaded KTM Adventure parked right out front with a foreign plate on the back and all kinds of stickers from around the world. Cool! That's when we met Fernando & Almu, a couple from Spain.
They've been on the road since May 2013 and have already travelled through 26 countries and have covered over 75,000km. We spent the next few hours chatting up a storm. Unfortunately they were heading in the opposite direction. As in exact opposite direction to Ft Collins to the same dealership to get the same*K60's put on their bike. So we told them about Butch Cassidy's canyon and free camping and anything else we could think of. They are heading south into Mexico and are hoping to make it to Ushuaia by March.
Safe riding guys!
What a fantastically serendipitous day. From meeting Cooper the day before who told us to go another way, to stopping to help someone broken down. We would have either gone a different way or been here at a different time. I think it's quite amazing how all this stuff works out. It's meeting wonderful people along the way and experiences like those today, that add to the trip on so many levels.
We made our way towards Jackson WY where Fernando and Almu said they found a great campground. Lori's aversion to bear encounters and the desire for more serviced campgrounds (read bathrooms and showers), landed us in Teton Valley Campground in Idaho however. About a 30 minute ride from Jackson over beautiful Teton pass.
The entire day was filled with amazing cloud formations moving about all around us. We could see the rain coming down hard in some places but we managed to zig zag our way around all the storms.
We've been joking about how well our new rain gear is working out so far as we have seen about 2 hours of rain since leaving home a couple of weeks ago. Nice!
About 30 min outside of Jackson we saw some pretty dark stuff directly ahead. No more joking, we put on our rain gear.
Where we were heading.
Where we came from. Both pictures were take in the same spot just looking in opposite directions.
Somehow the rain managed to hold off till we were walking into a coffee shop in Jackson though. By the time we left it was sunny again. Of course by the time we got into our campground and set up, the skies were again threatening to dump on us. It seemed to pass us by however and made for one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen.
We spent the next few days here as Lori was still feeling unwell. We had absolutely picture perfect weather during our stay and it was nice not to have to pack up in the mornings. We're able to cook some decent food thanks to the fantastic Teton Valley Market & Cafe (if I recall the name correctly) about a 1 min ride into Victor. <a href="http://www.subaonmain.com/#" target=“_blank”>S.U.B.A.</a>, a block over, also had a cool vibe to it, excellent music and great coffee. It was a nice way to spend a few hours relaxing.
In the meantime, Lori was out making friends again.
Bacon, yogurt and fruit...breakfast of champions?
Guacamole, chicken, rice and a cold Stella to wash it down with - Yummy! I realized how much I miss this part of camping, just sitting around, enjoying the weather, cooking good food, chillin'. It's also really dry out here, no bugs to speak of here so it's easy to do all of those things. Temperature was in the high 20's during the day but it feels much more comfortable without all the humidity.
Lori is feeling a bit better this evening so we've decided to make the move north again tomorrow. It's going to be an exciting day as we ride through Yellowstone and take Beartooth pass out.
Wow, what a spectacular day! We rode through the Teton's, Yellowstone and finally up to almost 11,000 feet over Beartooth Pass into Montana. That's a lot to take in in one day I have to say. I have this strange sensation when we do days like this where the start of the day and end of the day feel like they happened on different days. It's a strange sense of time and place that I'm noticing more and more*on this adventure. Even on a larger scale, it's harder to put into context being in Newfoundland in June and now finding ourselves in Montana.
Time keeps on slippin' slippin'...
Another sensation that is much easier to contextualize is that of my appetite every morning. So after stopping for breakfast at a little place called Scratch in Victor ID, the best breakfast burrito I've ever had by the way, we headed north towards Yellowstone National Park.
Town square in Jackson, WY with its 4 antler arches. Each arch is made up of approximately 2000 antlers and weighs in at about 10,000lbs. It seems no elk are harmed in the making of these as they get the antlers either from an elk refuge or from dealers. It was another very busy and tourist filled town.
These elk were only a few feet off the road so we pulled over to get the camera out and take a pic.
Of course we also needed the camera as this was the view across the road.
Too bad we had just started riding, or I would have sat here all day starring at Grand Teton.
Entering Yellowstone.
Within a few minutes, everything opened up. Just for perspective, there is actually a buffalo in this shot.
Taking a break next to a massive vertical wall.
As exciting as rock walls are, Lori prefers this view I think.
We passed another wide open area with several rather large herds of buffalo. This small group was just a few paces off the road.
I thought I saw a sign for a bathroom up here somewhere…
No bathroom, but the view was pretty nice.
Back on the road and heading towards Beartooth Pass.
Making our way back up into snow territory.
The temperature dropping to 10.5C as we climbed higher
We snaked our way up through snowfields.
Breathtaking views around every switchback, Beartooth Pass tops out at 10,947 feet.
The switchbacks continue as we descend back to 5500 feet.
I always find it interesting to see a sign indicating a turn to the left but the road actually turning to the right first.
It’s difficult...no, it’s downright impossible to just casually ride a road like this. The constant switchbacks and s-bends just beg for a twist of the throttle at every exit. I have to say that the new tires were just fantastic on this stretch of road. I completely forgot we were 2 up and loaded down or at least didn’t really notice it dropping the bike into the turns. Not sure if Lori agrees, but ultimately it was a safer way to travel along the pass in my opinion. I was either going to stare at the mountains or focus on the riding. I have to give Lori a lot of credit for this ride. Not only for hanging on and not complaining but more importantly for continuing to snap pics the entire time. I think she may have a career in Moto photo/videography, you know like those guys on the back of bikes doing the Tour de France...
Just a brilliant day today! I continue to be amazed how the scenery just keeps on getting better and better.
We stopped just on the other side of Beartooth Pass at Perry's campground in Montana for the night. The owner wanted to show me the campsites so I hopped in his John deer ATV vehicle with him. As we're riding he asks if we have any food with us, apparently they've had a couple of black bears spotted in the park today.
No sooner did those words come out of his mouth, we get to the bottom of the hill and a black bear cub about 10 feet away stops us dead in our tracks. He took off as soon as he spotted us and someone else said they saw mom running after him. Although not my first black bear encounter, this was by far the closest I have ever been to one. Another camper said that the cub fell into the adjacent river this morning and got swept to this side. Mama bear left her other cub on the other side to fetch this one.
I wasn't sure I wanted to tell Lori this but also didn't want her to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and come face to face with one of them, so I felt that I had to. I was very impressed she was ok with staying there the night. Ultimately and happily, it was an uneventful and bear-free night at the campground.
It really doesn't matter where in the world we ride, there is always something beautiful to take your breath away
What a great day you have had guys & YES, we're all jealous
Keep it coming, for us poor people that have to work
btw - great pics Lori
We tried to come up with a plan for the day over breakfast at Cafe Regis in Red Lodge, just a few minutes from the campground. We looked north on the map and saw an ugly I-90 looking back at us, so we did the most reasonable thing we could think of, we headed back to Yellowstone, back along Beartooth Pass. We both agreed it was a road worth riding (at least) twice. It really was that spectacular.
Climbing back to the top.
Just as spectacular the second time around.
Back in Yellowstone, we passed a motorcycle crash scene, Goldwing vs pronghorn. The rider was just being taken away by ambulance as we passed by, we surmised with non life threatening injuries as the ambulance departed without lights and sirens and we could see the medics working in the back. The pronghorn didn't fare as well.
Riding into the town of Mammoth was a treat as the streets were lined with elk just hanging out, grazing, walking around, laying down in back yards, front yards, they were everywhere. I say there were elk in the streets! A strangely cool site. We were so mesmerized by the sight, that we forgot to reach for the camera.
The ride got more windy as the mountains gave way to more open scenery, rolling hills & ranches. We ended up in Helena for a couple of days. The bug Lori was fighting thought it was time for an encore.
Our next stop was in Columbia Falls where I had to pick up a care package. Thanks to Paul at ADVDepot for sending out a new horn and some gaskets for the Globescout lids.
We inched our way out of Columbia Falls in construction traffic, passing no less than 15 crosses lining the side of the highway within a few miles of town. A few were in groups of 3, very sad to see. Seems this is a dangerous section of road, I wondered if it was due to animals, winter conditions, other drivers? A reminder none the less that life is short. It's easy to get lost in your own little world while the miles disappear under you, seeing crosses always seems to wake me a bit.
Only Glacier National Park stood between us and getting back into Canada. Another stunning ride today up Going-to-the-Sun Road. Saw a mountain goat casually strolling next to the road near the top.
The road would lead us up that mountain…somewhere.
Pretty spectacular sights.
I continue to be amazed by the Crazy Ivan's in these parks, who think that the middle of a switchback is an excellent place to stop their vehicle for a picture, seemingly oblivious to the motorcycle (us) right behind them. Because a leaned over, fully loaded, 2up bike is super easy to stop in the middle of a turn, just like your SUV. Gotta pay attention during tourist season!
Lots of snow remaining up here.
The theme around pretty much every corner here was, “WHOA!"
Some people seem to have tunnel vision around here
We hit more (de)construction traffic on the way down as several miles of road is torn up and being worked on. All dust and dirt except for the sections being watered to keep the dust down which are mud. The Tiger getting a thorough dusting/mudding as a result - more street cred I guess.
We ended up camping in Okotoks, AB (cool name by the way), just south of Calgary. Another spectacular day!
In the morning we awoke to water dripping into our tent. Rain? That's strange, the forecast didn't mention rain! We looked outside to find a sprinkler strategically placed on our campsite, so that it covered the picnic table with our towels and about half the tent. Not a great way to start the day. I got no love from the culprit (employee) doing the watering when I brought this to his attention. I was quite unimpressed!
Too bad, overall it seemed like a nice town. We walked to a Shawarma place the night before for dinner, which was excellent and thought a stop at Cora's for breakfast would improve the mood a bit in the morning.
We skirted Calgary on our way out of Okotoks and rode towards Banff and Jasper. It didn't take long for the scenery to dramatically change from flat farmland to sharp, jagged peaks of the Rockies rising up from the ground.
“Hello and welcome back to the Rockies”, I heard them say.
If you hate mountains, this place may not be for you.
We stopped in Banff for a coffee and found the place just packed with tourists.
Lake Louise was the same, just teeming with people. It was Mission Impossible to find a parking spot here, we ended up on the curb just as you pull in. For some reason I've always had a nice calm, peaceful image in my head when picturing Lake Louise. In person it was more like a new attraction at a theme park however.
That's a little bit better. The view is still pretty epic I thought.
The strange thing is that as soon as we left Lake Louise, the crowds completely disappeared. In fact we found another lake just as beautiful, if not more so, just a short ride up the Icefields Parkway. There was not a single person in sight when we stopped. I think this was Bow Lake if I recall correctly.
It was one spectacular view after another.
Lori always seems to find beautiful plant life everywhere we go.
Although there was quite a bit of road traffic, the area still managed to have a remote feeling to it. In fact we were alone most pulls off we stopped at.
The Icefield Parkway very deserving of it's name.
It was another spectacular day. In fact we’re starting to be concerned about all this nice weather - no not really. But we’ve somehow managed to get through the last 3 weeks with only 2 hrs of total rain riding time. Our new rain gear seems to be working wonders!
We ended up just outside of Jasper at what we later learned was North America's largest campground, Whistler's Campground. We strolled up sans-reservation and hoped they could accommodate us. After a brief mix up, apparently someone was already occupying the site we got sent to, we set up and rode into town for a late dinner at Famoso Pizzeria. Excellent gluten free pizza by the way. No pics, sorry. I admit that for someone who loves food as much as I do, I'm slacking in the food pics department. I'll make a mental note to improve this. Of course given the choice of pics or eating…
I'm also discovering that we're both learning quite a lot about not only ourselves, but each other on this trip. I guess not unexpected considering the scale of such an adventure. We've discovered for instance, that Lori has a significant fear of bears. Although we learned this a few nights back in Montana, camping here at Whistler's where they just put down a bear because it lost its fear of people (very unfortunate by the way) is definitely not helping matters. It was actually the first time we took our bear spray out of the side case.
Even at Perry's in Montanta I didn't feel the need to have it out, especially with the large group of hikers having a big dinner and cowboy camping a site over from us. Even still, we're very careful not to bring any sort of food, or scented items into the tent with us. Even our stash of Werther's get's emptied out of the pockets. We all have to make small sacrifices sometimes. In the end, we had a very uneventful sleep.
Just a few minutes north of Jasper we found a beautiful spot and pulled over for a few pics.
I booked an appointment in Edmonton to get the bike serviced. It's nice to have a 10,000 mile major service interval, but the miles come quick when riding across North America.
Moving through Alberta was somewhat on the uneventful side once we got clear of Jasper. We killed a day in Edmonton getting the bike serviced and ended up in Grand Prairie a couple of days later. I was pretty excited to be heading north, not only closer to Alaska, but I was also looking forward to the extended daylight. At the moment*it’s 10:30pm and it’s still light out.
Happy Trails campground in Grande Prairie sounded nice for a stop. We found all the roads are freshly paved with every RV site covered in gravel and fenced off between each other, not exactly our thing, apparently we were in the minority judging by how packed they were. At least the tent sites were at the back in an open field.
One thing that has us perplexed so far is the location of the tent sites at most RV parks/campgrounds. All the RV's seem to get all the open spots in the middle of the park and the tent sites get relegated to the back of the park, where it's completely covered by trees and often next to a swamp. This ensures that RV sites typically have less mosquitos and are close to the bathrooms. Whereas tenters are in a mosquito infested area and have to walk across most of the park to get to a bathroom. Do you see where I'm going with this?
So far, the majority of RV'ers seem to hang out, well, inside their RV’s where they have all the amenities such as bathrooms, kitchens, comfy living spaces. The tenters, typically hang out outside, since their tents are often on the smaller side (and I think they're just much more social bunch anyway). They also have to cook outside and then there’s the bathroom sitch. Lori wakes up at 2am and is faced with a choice: does she want to get eaten alive outside the tent or make a run for the bathroom?
It was tempting to put a few more miles down what with all that daylight, but we decided to stop early and take time to swap out the gaskets on the Globescout cases. We had been carrying these with us since Montana and even with our stop in Edmonton, we still had not managed to replace them. I suppose I just wasn’t properly motivated with all the nice weather. The Triple G campground in Fort Nelson has a restaurant with a very cool western motif and makes a pretty mean breakfast burrito. We also met DualSport David from Alberta, on his KTM. He was doing a 4 day, 3700km loop.
Thinking of maybe riding all the way up to Whitehorse tomorrow, a mere 951km day. According to google, it would take 12.5hrs of actual riding time, so 16+ hrs with stops. Hmmm, on second thought…
Our schedule seems to be tightening up now that we’ve booked the Haines to Prince Rupert ferry, not sure we’ll make it up the Dempster. I would say that our days off are catching up to us, but to be honest we really haven't taken all that much time off. Additionally the forecast looks like crap over the few days that we’re supposed to be up there. Not that I care about the rain that much, but the road gets pretty ugly when wet. I've heard it described as a very slippery peanut butter like substance once it gets wet - not something either one of us were looking forward to.
Disappointing if we don’t get up there to say the least, but I’m not keen on risking our lives, the bike, huge towing bills just to say we did it. We’ve been talking quite a bit about this over the last few days. Going up the Dempster means we're doing big(ger) mileage days every day till the ferry, while skipping it means we can actually take a day off.
Animal count today =
1 black bear
2 moose
2 caribou
1 big horned sheep
There is a big horned sheep within 10 feet of us here...can you see it? We were experiencing radio silence with both our headsets charging in the tank bag this morning, while Lori had the camera and was snapping pics of anything interesting. We were following some traffic when it all came to a stop on account of the big horned sheep standing on the shoulder to our left. I could tell Lori was snapping pics as she moved around on the back. Later that day, we were going through the pics and for some strange reason I couldn't find the one of the big horned sheep. Lori's response, "what big horned sheep?". "You know, the one where all the traffic stopped, just before Muncho Lake. It was close enough to touch almost", I said.
Ever wonder how two people can experience the same event but have a completely different memory of it? That's how.
And in other news, our first fill up past Fort Nelson cost $1.79 per litre. The sign read “No Sniveling”. We probably could have skipped this station but I wasn’t sure exactly where the next one was so I thought I would top off the tank. Luckily I only had to put in 7 litres. Maybe I should have filled up the RotoPax here too as the next fill up made this one seem like a bargain.
Our next break was just past Muncho Lake, where we stopped for an expensive lunch break and an even more expensive fill up. $1.969 per litre. I wish that was a typo. It’s a good thing we were getting 40mpg on this stretch of the trip, and that this was another small fill up of 8 litres. You have no idea how good you have it back home. A dollar forty-what?
Muncho Lake
The entire Muncho Lake area was very picturesque.
A significant amount of construction coming out of Fort Nelson gave*the Tiger a bit more street cred.
Inside the restaurant I read something explaining why it costs so much to have everything shipped here. Seemed plausible until our next fill up in the Yukon only a 258km down the road, where we filled up for $1.45/L. Not sure why such a difference in cost, I imagined the same delivery truck dropping off gas at both stations.
Every so often either Lori or I get this feeling that we're going to see an animal. It doesn't always happen but in this instance a few miles down the road, we see some rather large droppings on the highway and some worn out patches in the grass where you can tell a large animal has rolled around. A few moments later we slowed down to see a herd of buffalo grazing on the opposite side of the road. Although Yellowstone had the highest buffalo population we've seen on this trip, this was actually the closest we got to these big guys.
We made it as far as Watson Lake today, Whitehorse will have to wait another day. We ended up in a gravel RV park with a patch of grass-like substance at the back of the property. “We don’t offer tent camping but there is a spot in the back corner you can set up your tent. It’s $25 and includes a shower, take it or leave it”, said the owner.
Ok OK, we get it...
Although the prime spot was already taken up by a couple and their bicycles, we managed to squeeze in beside them. We spent the evening chatting with them, Nici & Philip from Austria, who are riding their bikes all the way to Ushuaia, Argentina. They think it will take them about 2 years to get there. You can check out their Facebook page here.
Each bike is carrying two 25 litre pannier-bags on either side of each wheel, another dry bag on top of the rear wheel and a handle bar mounted bag. I think they’re more loaded than we are.
Just a short walk up the road is the world famous Sign Post Forest. Started by Private Carl Lindley, a homesick soldier working on the Alaska Highway back in 1942.
Currently there are over 72,000 signs in the forest.
In the morning Philip told us about another couple they met a few days back, that were hiking (not to be confused with hitch-hiking) across Canada, from Inuvik to Newfoundland. He asked if we could drop off a little package (of and chocolate bars) for them if we saw them.
Sure enough, 120km later, we see a couple pushing a cart down the shoulder of the ALCAN. We pulled over and told them that they might find this a bit strange but we had a delivery for them. They both had this strange look on their faces like WTF? Yes, those insoles you ordered came in and UPS asked us to drop them off…ok, not really. They were both super excited to get the care package, I mean who gets and chocolate bars delivered in the middle of the Yukon? I totally love this sort of thing.
Sarah and Oskar are both from Ontario, she’s from Brampton and he’s from Mississauga, where I grew up. The world got even smaller when I learned Oskar is originally from Poland, where I was born.
So how long does it take to hike across Canada? About 18 months give or take a few hours, mostly following the Trans Canada Trail. You can check out their blog at RambleCanada.wordpress.com.
On Sarah and Oskar’s recommendation, we pulled in to the Rancheria restaurant at mile post 710 for some breakfast, just a short drive down the road.
A few minutes later a bunch of adventure bikes pull up, followed by a couple more waves of bikers a few minutes after that.
We were glad to have our order already placed. We ended up leap frogging with one of the groups and ended up in the same campground in Whitehorse.
This really puts the distance into perspective for me. Wow!
Making good use of our kitchen sink again, handy little thing.
Sunset was officially at 10:25pm local time. It finally got dark around 12:30am. Now that’s pretty cool.
Robert Service Campground is located just outside Whitehorse right along the Yukon river, a great spot if you’re riding a bike. First, it is just a tent campground so no RV’s here. Also because we were on a bike, we were allowed to ride in to our site. Anyone in a car has to park in the parking lot and walk in. Something to consider if you have to haul your entire camping set up to one of the spots along the extremity of the campground.
Having made the decision to skip the Dempster we decided to take a day off here. We’re both getting a little tired of the daily grind and need a break. Ultimately I think we need a vacation but a day off is a good start.
The decision to skip the Dempster was a tough one. I really wanted to get up to the Arctic Circle and had this on my bucket list for some time. It came down to weather and timing for us. The weather was supposed to be really crappy everywhere from Dawson to Inuvik and Chicken. Wet and cold. No matter how much we liked Newfoundland, both of these aren't very appealing. Another thing I wasn’t looking forward to is the peanut butter like substance the Dempster turns into when wet. Had I been riding solo, I probably wouldn’t have given it much thought and just gone. Being loaded and 2 up, I had to ask myself how badly I wanted to get up there, and why. Going just to say that we went isn’t really all that important to be honest.
Riding up the Dempster also meant we would have to ride every day till we met the ferry in Haines 10 days from now, without a break. We were both tired as it was, and another 10 days without a stop was not all that super appealing. Not to mention if we had any sort of issues along the way. It left us with little room for error.
Skipping the Dempster also opened up our schedule a bit. We could take a day off here in Whitehorse and another day in Anchorage. It also meant we’d stay with nicer weather for a bit longer. We might also be able to get down to Valdez or Homer, although they are currently having some very significant rainfall…
The other issue we were having with rain is that our tent was leaking. At first we thought it was all the excess condensation but turns out that the seam tape used on the tent is flaking off and the tent is no longer waterproof. In fact, it hasn't been for some time. Good thing we've seen a little of the wet stuff. Considering the tent was bought new only a few months before, I didn’t think overuse was to blame.
To make a long story short, when we stopped in Fort Collins we had eyed another tent at REI that was actually bigger but somehow managed to pack smaller than ours, at a small weight gain. At the time, we decided against it due to cost. A few days later I looked in my inbox to find REI sent me a 25% discount code for a single item, it was hard to pass up. Only hitch was that the tent was now out of stock and on back-order. We took a chance and ordered it to be picked up in Anchorage, hoping that it would not only be back in stock but also shipped by then.
The good news is that it's shipped. The bad news is that it's scheduled to get there the day after we leave Anchorage. Hmmm, should be interesting.
We walked into Whitehorse along the scenic Millenium trail that runs follows the Yukon river, both conveniently located right behind our campsite. Had breakfast at the Burnt Toast Cafe, food was great, service on the other hand, let’s just say it was abrupt. What the “please let us seat you” sign actually meant was “let us yell across the room and point to where we want you to go”. I realize that service expectations might be somewhat different up in these parts but it was almost comical watching the staff. They must not be hurting for business, even though we watched some folks leave before ordering anything.
We also managed to kill several hours at Starbucks uploading pics and blog posts, free re-fills and free wifi always draws us in.
Dinner was great...wait...what? Is that a backless shirt? Why yes it is. The dude wearing it was a Rod Stewart look alike.
Oooh, I think I want one of those…
What would you do for a Klondike...boat?
After a nice 2 day break we left for Tok.
On the way, Destruction Bay was quite a treat. Spectacular scenery and perfect weather. We also took a break here for some lunch. I wouldn’t recommend the burger(like product), although the poutine was decent. Diet is so important when travelling after all.
Massive moose head hung up on the wall of the place, ads for air tours of the glaciers and they were even hiring. Seems everywhere we go, places are hiring.
Lots of construction along the ALCAN. Lots!
We stopped for some obligatory pics at the Welcome to Alaska signs just before crossing the border.
Tigger posing for a pic.
Speaking of which, we crossed the Canadian border entry point about 30km’s before the US border. Weird. We wondered what was in this no-mans land, although the speed limit signs in KM/H give it away. Of course we’ve also crossed another time zone entering Alaska. Cool.
Just before crossing into Alaska, we passed the 20,000km mark for the trip. Wow! We’ve really been putting some miles down so far and are both starting to feel it.
Alaska can be summed up into one word. Actually, no it can’t. It has turned out to be the visual highlight of our trip so far. If I had to start somewhere it would be with stunning! There are literally glaciers after glaciers, after glaciers…you get the idea.
Within moments of crossing the border we had a black bear and her cub cross the highway in front of us. We slowed down well in advance to let them cross and only continued once they were up the hill. About halfway up the hill mom stopped and looked back to see if we were following, then took off after the cub.
Pretty cool.
There are two cool campgrounds in Tok, actually probably more, but 2 you should stay at. On our 1st stop here we stayed at the Sourdough campground just south of Tok right off the Glenn highway (I’ll get to the other campground later). Cool place, the owners do a performance of some Johnny Cash and other old school tunes most nights. They actually sounded very good. In the morning there is all you can eat pancakes if that’s your thing, or you can ride into town for some real food. In the morning we made some tea while packing up and stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks before heading out.
Which way to go though? Valdez sounded like a not-to-be-missed spot but they had been having record rainfall for June, July and now in Aug. The forecast showed nuthin’ but rain for the rest of the year. It didn’t take much convincing on Lori’s part to aim the bike for Fairbanks instead, where it was sunny and warm.
About halfway between Tok and Fairbanks lies Delta Junction, where the Alaska Highway comes to an end. We had travelled all 1387 miles (2219km) at this point.
Fairbanks was an interesting day for us. We stopped at a scenic pull off during the morning and a moment a moment later another loaded bike pulls over and we met Daniel from Germany, who's pedalling his way to Ushuaia. You can find him online at Panamerica, a dream? | Just another WordPress site.
He told us about his bear encounters so far and having to use his bear spray on a black bear just a few days before, which didn’t exactly add to Lori's comfort level of being up in Alaska. It’s definitely a little different being all alone on a bike up here. A benefit of having a motorized version is that they’re a little louder and can outrun bears a little easier than bicycles. He also explained that he found having a third wheel much more stable and how he had all his electronics charging off it.
We ended up in a campground in town right next to a fair. It was one of the least communicative days we’ve had to be honest. Lori wanted to hang out at the fair and I wanted nothing to do with big crowds and loud places. Spending nearly every waking moment together and doing over 21,000km in 2.5 months was starting to catch up to us. Neither one of us ended up too happy this day. At least there would be little chance of a bear encounter with all the noise next door.
It was definitely one of the more unique campground offices I've ever seen. Fit for a Hobbit I say.
We left Fairbanks the next morning in silent running mode. It was a beautiful day and although we were only an hour or so outside of Fairbanks, we could see Mt McKinley quite clearly way off in the distance. Little did we know it would be our best view of the mountain. We had a very long chat about the previous day and essentially a status check with each other.
It turns out that all the camping, bugs, Alsaka, bears, camping near bears in Alaska, all of this, is pushing Lori’s personal comfort zone in every way. In the meantime, here I am having a blast. She’s wishing we could stay indoors more often and I’m hoping we ca do some stealth camping. Hmmm! Well it all kind of came to the surface around Fairbanks. I’m not sure what kind of solution we arrived at, if any, but it was really good to discuss it all. Communication is one of those key things when travelling with a partner, whether a spouse or a friend. Expectations and comfort zone play a huge factor in enjoyment of the trip. It’s really difficult to make everyone happy 100% of the time. Like any relationship, there has to be some compromise.
We continued on and after a stop in Cantwell for the night we took off down the Denali Highway in the next morning. Don’t let the word highway in the name fool ya. It’s paved for about 2 miles at the west end where we started and another 21 miles at the other end. Everything in between is anything from washboard, to potholes, to loose gravel to nice dirt to really crappy dirt. Overall not too bad riding though, we were still cruising along most of it around 80-100km/h
The scenery made concentrating on the actual road that much more of a challenge.
Mesmerizing suff out here.
I want to say that the Denali Highway felt very remote, but it was actually the busiest road we experienced in Alaska. It was crawling with hunters on their ATV’s and RV’s. As it turns out we were here on a Saturday. Animal sightings today = 1 squirrel.
We stopped about halfway down the highway for a break at The Sluice Box. A bit dark inside, the place was covered with dollar bills on every wall and ceiling. Lori had read somewhere about this old cabin circa 1900 being off the Denali and we had been on the look out for it. The dude at The Sluice Box said that it must be about 2-3 miles down a dirt road just past the bridge right off the Denali Hwy towards some mines. Well off we went in search of this mystical cabin.
Looks good enough to be a golf course down there.
Well after 10km we finally gave up and turned around. Bike eating potholes, 3 water crossings, some excellent views but no cabin. No mines that we could see either. Nice little side trip but we were glad to be back on the main highway. We had seen plenty of the Denali and decided to head back towards Cantwell instead.
Maybe this was the cabin, I dunno. Glad I didn't have to cross this water though.
Someone was nice enough to build a little rock bridge over the river.
We pulled in to the only gas station there and met up with a group of guys from Columbia riding MotoQuest rentals. The one guy nearly dropped his big GS1200 trying to get on, he was a bit vertically challenged for the big bike. Or maybe he just didn’t have enough gear piled on to lower it, I wondered . Moments after filling up, the owner came out and covered up all the pumps with plastic bags.
No more gas! This is why you fill up pretty much every chance you get up here. You just never know when a gas station is going to run out of gas.
All fuelled up, we headed south only stopping at the north and south view points for McKinley. Only the south gave us a little peak through the clouds.
Pretty cool sight actually. A few moments later it was completely enshrouded in cloud.
There was still plenty to see from the south viewpoint.
We pulled into the Big Bear campground in Wasilla after hours and set up in one of the middle spots where RV’s park. I know, I know, living on the wild side. There were plenty of vacant RV spots so we didn’t think there would be any issue with it. We'll plead ignorance in the morning. The following morning we awoke to another tent set up in the RV section, perhaps inspired by our brash disregard for campground protocol.
Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's thelist of Circumnavigators!
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and chocolate bars) for them if we saw them. 
we decided to take a day off here. We’re both getting a little tired of the daily grind and need a break. Ultimately I think we need a vacation but a day off is a good start. 
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