North America, First and Second.

[OnHellas]

The border, silly poses called for.

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[OnHellas]

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[OnHellas]

The mozzies are bloody huge up here!!

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[DavidS]

I’m getting huge memory kicks from this bit.
Did you go down to Skagway from Whitehorse?

At the risk of repetition, going north to the miserable place that is Tok, we had 200 miles of continuous road upgrading. Bad enough in a 30ft camper, misery on a bike. The last hill before they ended was littered with abandoned trucks that couldn’t make it up the hill. We had been following a 5th wheel camper (articulated off a pick up) for ages but 100m before the top of the hill it started jacknifing......I told my wife to gang on tight, gunned the engine and just had enough momentum to squeeze past before he effectively blocked the ‘road’. God knows how long we would have been stuck there otherwise.

Really looking forward to your next batch of reports.

[OnHellas]

Today is Sunday the 28th of July and a mainly overcast 95 miles took us from Delta Junction to our most northerly point of our journey. Fairbanks.
We have discussed, more than once, heading further north up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle at Coldfoot and even to to Ocean at Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay........but we’ve decided that that isn’t for us.
Other things await. The Denali Highway perhaps, Denali National Park, Valdez, Homer and yes DavidS, maybe a visit to Skagway. We’ll see.
What I do know is that tomorrow will be laundry day and bike check time.
Although I lubed the chains last night they’ll need some more as it absolutely chucked it down earlier. We had about 20 minutes of torrential rain.
I started to think that a Klim warranty claim was looming as I got a bit wet in the trouser department......runs out the vents in the back of the legs were about a quarter open.
Done myself again!!

So from Fairbanks Alaska it’s

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

[DavidS]

Yes to Denali, Valdez and Homer. IMHO well worth the visits.
Denali NP is good. You can do a bus trip for the day. A bit hot, rough and dusty...we did a minibus tour.
Valdez is ‘just a town’ but the history of earthquakes, oil, oil disaster are fascinating and a great boat trip (the full Stan Stevens to Meares Glacier was a lovely day out...assuming that is still happening. It was a while ago.
Homer is arty and fishy. A lovely location. Never seen Halibut that size!!

[OnHellas]

WiFi at last. It’s been a while since we’ve had an internet connection. Even two of the McDonalds we found were shut.

So, catch up. A visit to downtown Fairbanks showed me why I didn’t bother last time. Still, I got my haircut although 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. The younger or foreign amongst you will just have to accept that it didn’t end up as usual.
The worst thing was that the clipper wielding hair hacking thief relieved me of $30.....!!!! $30...!!!!

With Fairbanks behind us it was time to head off for a rendezvous with two Alaskan residents that I met during the sidecartravels journey. Troy and Tracy are two super guys. Since meeting them at the Guatemala/Honduras border we’ve shared experiences through central and South America and stayed in touch since.
The plan was to meet at The Tangle River Inn on the Denali Highway.
We first retraced our steps, or wheel rotations, back to Delta Junction where we picked up some supplies and refuelled the bikes.
The next 100 miles to Paxson where pretty nice. The Alaskan pipeline making plenty of appearances as it makes its way to Valdez.
During a break in a lay-by we heard what at first sounded like thunder but turned out to be USAF jets breaking the sound barrier. There were jets flying everyday so I’m fairly sure that that’s what we heard.
At Paxson, a small sorry looking town, we joined the Denali Highway. The first 20 miles took us to The Tangle River Inn. No WiFi, no phone reception, no en-suite shower, no idea if Troy and Tracy would actually arrive.
The place has been owned by the same couple for 55 years. Good basic food, small functional clean rooms and just a beautiful location.
We had a whole day to hang around so we went for a walk along the lakeside, saw a beaver house but no beaver, moose poo but no moose, Arctic Turns were diving for food (birds, from the air diving for fish), a few small seagulls reminding me of home and endless mountain views. Wow! Peace....apart from the generator at the lodge running 24 hours anyway.

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

[OnHellas]

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Downtown Fairbanks highlights.

[OnHellas]

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I almost forgot to mention the true horror that is the horror that is Christmas Christmas shop at North Pole.

[OnHellas]

After a day off we had a leisurely start to the day as the chaps weren’t due to arrive until about 1pm, according to the last email exchange back in Fairbanks anyway.
Checkout at 10.30, then breakfast, then more tea. We chatted to the owner, Jack, for a while. He told us some of his favourite ‘stupid tourist’ questions.
Q. How deep is the lake?
A. I don’t know, I’ve never been to the bottom.

Q. What are all the mountains called?
A. They don’t all have names.

Q. How many fish in the lake?
A. ????????

Another cup of tea was drink and midday came and went. Just after 12 Sarah spotted a bike pull in.
I went to look out of the window and spotted the chaps, one on a 1200GS, the other on a Ducati Scrambler.

Greetings and introductions outside were followed by Tracy needing coffee, he likes coffee. Chat chat chat. After I don’t know how long we set off.
A mile up the road the tarmac ended. Approximately 100 out of the next 115 miles were dirt.
The views were stunning despite the low cloud. The promise of seeing wildlife along the way produced a squirrel and two rabbits. One of which was dead! Still, they weren’t anyone’s pets so do indeed count as wildlife.
We had a couple of stops along the way, for photos and for a drink.
The lodge we stopped at had dollar bills with names on pinned all over the walls and ceiling......apparently find one with your name on and pull it off isn’t what you do.....
The owner had an impressively large bear claw on a chain hanging around his neck. From a hunting trip many moons ago. The photo of him, gun and said bear showed that the bear had been a beast. About 650kg’s he reckoned.

Tracy was wondering how far the Ducati would go on a tank of gas so it wasn’t topped up at the lodges pumps. Troy was sent on his way with “it’ll be fine” ringing in his ears. About 20 miles later the Ducati stopped so the 1200 was syphoned of some fuel....which lasted a while...next my bike gave gas and finally Sarah’s.
The answer is 180.1 miles. A Ducati Scrambler and a full tank of premium American petrol.
We got to Cantwell and refuelled all four bike before riding the last 18 miles to Troy’s cabin in the rain.
The cabin was and is a Wow! Close to Denali National Park in the forest.
We had the tour and then it was dinner time. The sausages and salad had survived the day in the top box but the raspberries......smoothie anyone?

Two happy people, two happy bikes X2!