Adventure Bike Rider Forum

OnHellas wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:59 am something didn’t go quite right and apparently my fringe now resembles that of the ‘I got it wrong again Dad’ character from The Dick Emery Show.
Those of a certain age will remember.

Haha, I remember the hapless son well (was the Dad Roy Kinnear?). Still makes me laugh. DE was an avid motorcyclist, owning an R90S amongst others. I feel old now

The first skunk we saw was well and truly flat in the middle of the road in Sion NP.

There are loads of moose inside and just outside Denali National Park. We saw a Grizzly with four cubs about 30 yards away, from the relative safety of the minibus on our Park tour.

The lake at Tangle River.

Along the Denali Highway.

The next morning went by in no time as we sat and chatted. Breakfast soon became lunch, stories swapped, relived and learned.
The persistent rain made staying indoors an easy decision but the time soon came for Tracy to head home. As Troy was riding a borrowed bike he went too. Leaving us in the cabin with thoughts of a visit to Denali National Park the next day.
The weather kept to the script and our planned trip to the Park was in the dry. Although the overcast skies delivered rain by the time we’d eaten lunch in Healey. Still, it was only about 20 miles back to the cabin.

Denali NP only allows private vehicles to travel the first 14 miles of the park. To go further you need to take a bus. This is one of the downsides of travel by bike. It was to cold to ride to the park without our bike suits on, 12 degrees, and sitting in a bus for a couple of hours with the gear on.....no thanks.
We don’t want to do everything in this trip anyway, we need to leave something for next time....something like that anyway.

The living area in the cabin is on the first floor. With the trees so close it’s almost like being in a tree house.
A slice of paradise it may be but it does like to rain....and rain it did at departure time....and rain it did for the first 100 miles of our ride.

I had an interesting quick decision to stop moment when a level crossing announced the passing of a train by flashing lights and ringing bells.
Rain, Sarah just behind, cars behind her and that split second moment of yes I’ll stop.....I did stop. Just before the rails with the barrier coming down behind me.....the train horn sounded as I did a quick U-turn to put me the correct side of the barrier....we plan to take a ride on a train from Anchorage to Seward later in the week.

So the rain stopped, we saw Troy heading north again in his fairly secondhand Toyota pickup, grabbed lunch, stopped for WiFi and a few supplies, got the invitation from Tracy to stay at his house and kept going.
We had the house to ourselves as Tracy and his wife were out. It’s a weird feeling going in to someone’s house and following the “make yourselves at home” offer.

We headed off towards Homer this morning, it’s Monday the 5th today...time keeps on flying.
Sunny skies and yesterday afternoons higher temperatures persisted.
Another day of cracking scenery and big wide sweeping roads. We didn’t actually make it to Homer but stopped off in Kenai. For some reason I chose a motel next to the airport.....again. Hopefully no airforce jets this time.

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

Thank you For letting us stay at you amazing place Troy.

Mount Denali is 76 miles away according to the sign in the path.

There can’t be many things better than riding your bike in Alaska under blue skies.
Although we only ended up staying in Homer for one night it was good to get there, good to take a ride to the end of the Homer Spit and good to eat some of the world famous Halibut there.
We would have stayed another night but the available accommodation wasn’t plentiful and what was available was understandably up there price wise.

The views along the highway were breathtaking. I know that the blue skies played their part in how nice things looked but if you’ve been here you’ll know what it’s like. If you haven’t had the opportunity yet, it’s well worth the effort to get up here. Of course I’d recommend travelling by motorcycle.

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

On the way in to Homer.