Alaska 2010

[Lano]

I was nine years old when Alaska became a state. I remember all the newspaper articles about it. I said I was going to go there. Well, I had retired the previous year so why not?

I bought a used KLR for the trip. Man I outfitted it for the trip. New tires, sprockets, chain, pelican bags, new cables, did the subframe drill thru bolt kit, removed/loctited all bolts etc. You name it, I did it. I just had one problem, I could not keep the thing running. It would run good for days, then just would not run at all. Well, it was in one of those running modes and I said "I'm going".

The night before as I was loading my stuff on the bike, I noticed the rear end getting lower. Well, I thought I would just adjust the rear shock. Bent down to do it and heck oil was everywhere down there! Blown seals!

Only one thing to do. I moved my stuff to my ST. That bike and I had done some miles together. I really had not prepped it for the trip. I took stock of the situation. It had a fresh oil change, and I only had 2000 miles on the tires. I did not have a set of spare tires for it like I did for the KLR tho. Well nothing is perfect. I just would not go to some of the places I had intended to with the KLR.

I left the morning of June 1st. I might add that I live in the Panhandle. I headed up Hwy 83. Went thru the Oklahoma Panhandle, thru Kansas into Nebraska. I stopped for gas at North Platte. I was intending to go to Murdo, S. Dakota for the night. (I had stayed there on my way to Swan River, Manitoba the previous summer.) The people at the gas station cautioned me that there was a big storm just north of us.

North Platte sits in a river valley. I couldn't see anything, so off north I continued. As I came up out of the valley, the whole sky was "black". I don't mind rain too much, but this looked like hail type weather. Turned around and spent the night in North Platte.

Next morning, I head north again. Good weather till Minot, N. Dakota. Ran into rain. Turned west on Hwy 2. Rain for 300 miles. Finally quit and sun came out. Great. Then the wind started. I live in the Panhandle, and know wind. This was horrible! I finally shut it down and spent the night in Chinook, Montana.

Next morning, I ride over to Havre and turn north into Saskatchewan. Continue over to Alberta. Calgary up to Edmonton. More traffic than I could possibly believe. This is not what I headed "up north" for. After leaving Edmonton, I kept looking for a campground. Finally found what I was looking for on the Pembina River.

After setting up camp, I took stock of my situation. It had been a horrible day with the traffic. It also dawned on me that I was trying to make too many miles in a day. Okay, lets slow down.


Home sweet home on the Pembina River.

Next morning, keep heading west.

All right, now we're getting somewhere!

It is larger than life! No fences for thousands of miles.

No words can describe this place.

I'll be back and fill in a lot of gaps later!

 

[scar04]

this could get interesting.

 

[MCRyder]

I've still got an Alaska trip on my "To-Do" list. I'll be interested to read your reports.

 

[Valker]

We'll have to get together and compare pictures some time. My two rides up were back in the early 80s. Glad you had a good one. I'll be doing that again in the not too distant future.

 

[Pedro]

Looks awesome. Take lots of pictures.

 

[SL350]

I want to do this but would prefer to keep a bunch of the miles off my lower back. It might be easier to trailer queen a small bike to Vancouver and ride from there.

This could get interesting. The gap I am waiting for is the gravel and large ruts.

 

[Lano]

Well, the trip has been over for quite some time. I am just now getting around to sharing.

My biggest problem on a trip is that I like to ride. I have a tendency to just keep going. It's easy to do up north, as the farther you go the more daylight you have.

As I left the Pembina River, I noticed that my fuel mileage was down. I think it was caused by two things. The ethanol in the gas and I think my air cleaner was dirty. I think all the slop on the muddy roads had not done it any good. I stopped at the next four or five Honda dealers I can across, but none in stock. That's really not surprising. The local dealers do not keep anything for the ST in stock. Really not that many of them around.

It is a paper element and you have to lift the fuel tank to get at it. You really can't clean a paper filter of soaked in crap. Bike ran well, just about 5-8 miles per gallon less mileage. The mistake I made was not putting in a K&N filter before leaving. Not a big fan, but at least you can clean a K&N if caught out on the road. I would of done it if I had planned on taking this bike.

Well, I went thru Grande Prairie then to Dawson Creek where I hit the Alaska Highway. Not all that pretty yet. Went thru Fort St. John, I stopped at Fort Nelson for the night. Camped at a campground on the far end of town. I pitched my tent next to a young man from southern B.C. He was on a bicycle! Had an enjoyable time talking to him. He was riding his bike to Whitehorse.

We ate dinner together at a little cafe. I took no cooking stuff because of the bears. So far, I had not seen any.



Took this picture for my grandkids. I also sent them postcards every day or so.

Lots of wildlife

Had a Mexican standoff with this fellow!

 

[atrisk5]

sounds great so far. I am going june 2011. from Texas stopping in North Plat to see mom on the way.

 

[Lano]

So far, I had good roads. I had planned this trip early in the season to hopefully miss all the RV's I had heard about. I did! Had lots of rain, but rarely all day. I was prepared for it. Had good gear. My jacket and pants never leaked. I had a light and a heavy pair of gloves. Wore rain mitts over them when necessary. It was only cool in the mornings. Couple of times, I woke up to the 30's. It would warm up to the 50's or low 60's. Perfect riding weather.

I stopped to take pictures at Destruction Bay. I hopped off the bike and took my full face Arai off to do so. I set it on my seat. I heard a thunk! Yep. Broke the part that holds the face shield on the left side. Also broke the mouth vent. Crap! Got a new helmet later in Anchorage. Actually got a good buy on it. HJC flip front. I likes.

From Destruction Bay, there was almost 100 miles of bad road. Potholes that were huge. There were monster ruts and frost heaves. The RV-ers were stacked up in there. Hard to pass, you did not know what the road was like in front of them.

When I got to the border with Alaska, it was raining. They had the first ten miles of road ripped up. You had to follow a pilot car. No chance to get a picture of the state sign. Spent the night in Tok. It was raining when I put up the tent and it was still raining when I took it down the next morning.

I had made arrangements to go Salmon fishing with a guide on the Kenai river prior to leaving home. Here I went thru Glenallen, Anchorage, to the Kenai Penn. Turnagain Arm is just beautiful. I got to Sterling where the guide lives. Took awhile, but found him. I had spoken to Joe on the phone from home. He was a nice guy, only one problem. The Kenai River was closed to fishing! Seems like not enough big spawners had made it up river just yet.

Found a campground right on the Kenai River. Just beautiful. Where the Kenai and Moose river join. Spent two nights here. Next day, did laundry and washed that calcium chloride crap off the bike.


Famous Signpost Forest at Watson Lake

I carried this up there for me and my wife

Weather could get bad on short notice.

Between Glenallen and Anchorage

Turnagain Arm

Taken from my campsite on the Kenai River

 

[Lano]

We'll have to get together and compare pictures some time. My two rides up were back in the early 80s. Glad you had a good one. I'll be doing that again in the not too distant future.

Valker,

It's a great ride. All the Alaskan Highway is paved now except for where they are working on it. I came home on the Cassiar. Still some gravel there. The Cassiar and Hyder, Alaska were the highlights of my trip. I'll get to that later.

 

[M38A1]

Ahhhh.... Thanks for putting a smile on my face thus far.

My trip North was a decade or so ago but things don't look to have changed much.

More please!

 

[_RG_]

Great pix and RR. Thanks!

I can see this ride is going on my to do list.

 

[Janet]

 

[Simmons1]

 

[The Bruce]

 

[Lano]

While in Sterling, I thought I should change my oil. I went to an auto parts store and asked them if I bought the stuff could I change my oil out behind their building. They said sure. So I loaded up on oil, grease for the shaft drive, and a plastic oil pan. Went to pay, and they said I did not need the oil pan, that I could use theirs. Okay. Well, I went around back with the stuff and what I did not understand was that they had a mechanics shop back there. All right!

A young man had me pull into a heated shop space. Got me a pan, and showed me where his tools were. Talk about service. They used the old oil in a shop heater. Nice folks.

Now time to go shopping. I made the rounds buying Tshirts and trinkets for the folks back home. Bought quite a load. Went to the Post Office and shipped them home in one of those flat rate boxes.

Spent that night also in camp on the Kenai. After riding so much, it felt like I was sluffing off. Next morning I could not stand it. I packed up and headed back to Anchorage. I needed a new helmet. Figured to buy as cheap a one as I could to get me home. Tried the famous Alaska Leather, but they did not have anything that grabbed me. They directed me to a Honda shop. There, I bought a modular Syn Max II.

Modular helmets where have you been all my life? Still had the itch, so I rode back up to Tok. It was raining. Thought I would motel it and clean up. Pulled up to the motel and there was a guy leaving out on a Harley dresser. Don't know how, but he dumped it right there. I jumped off and helped him get it back up. Just one of those things.

Next morning I had a decision to make. I could head up towards Fairbanks or start towards Hyder. I had heard so much about the Cassiar Highway that I just had to head that way. I rode down to Teslin, where I spent the night. Next morning, the Cassiar.


Wanted to see this since I was nine years old

Camped here and did some fishing

The Cassiar was great. I saw more wildlife on this stretch than anywhere else. So many black bears that I lost count. There are two long stretches of gravel heading down to Stewart/Hyder. On the last stretch, I was climbing up down and around some mountains. It started raining again. Oh crap. I just slowed down to 40 and no problem.

Here's what you see coming into Stewart: Bear Glacier

Here's the shot everyone wants, but this time my bike in the photo

This shows how you have to come out of Alaska back thru Yukon and B.C. to get to Hyder

 

[Sluggo]

My wife thinks I'm crazy for wanting to make the trip from Corpus Christi. I have a cousin that teaches in AK and says I'm welcome anytime.

 

[Lano]

My wife thinks I'm crazy for wanting to make the trip from Corpus Christi. I have a cousin that teaches in AK and says I'm welcome anytime.

You're not crazy at all. Tell her you know a 60 year old man who did it by himself and camped in a tent 3/4's of the time! I had a wonderful time. The thing you have to come to grips with is the distance involved. You won't get there tomorrow or the day after, or the day after that. Tell her that it's really not that expensive. Not counting trinkets and gifts I bought for people I did it on less than $2K.

 

[tshelfer]

Whew, for the first few seconds of reading this, I thought you were headed for Alaska in December! You've got some really awesome pictures. I'll go back and look more closely at my leisure. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Lano]

Whew, for the first few seconds of reading this, I thought you were headed for Alaska in December! You've got some really awesome pictures. I'll go back and look more closely at my leisure. Thanks for sharing.

As they say, I was born. I was born at night. I was not born last night. I did this trip from June 1st thru June 17th. For one reason or another, I am just getting around to posting it. The main reason being I just learned how to post pictures. As you can probably tell, this is my first Ride Report. I am winging it here. I had such a good time, that I want to share.


Bob

 

[tshelfer]

As they say, I was born. I was born at night. I was not born last night. I did this trip from June 1st thru June 17th. For one reason or another, I am just getting around to posting it. The main reason being I just learned how to post pictures. As you can probably tell, this is my first Ride Report. I am winging it here. I had such a good time, that I want to share.


Bob

Well it's an excellent first attempt. Thanks for posting it. I live vicariously through reports like this. I had a friend and his wife who were on a month-long trip during the same period. They were two-up on a red V-Strom 650.

 

[Lano]

The thing I noticed about the Cassiar, was that the vegetation was changing. The trees and undergrowth were getting much thicker and more lush. Hard to describe, like "tropical" if possible.

Example

Of course it was raining as I entered Stewart. It's a pretty little Canadian town. You don't have to go thru customs to enter Hyder. Hyder is a tiny place. Tourism is a large part of the economy here. They are glad to see you. I stayed at the SeaAlaska Inn like everyone does. It was the cheapest hotel bill of the trip.

Hyder/Stewart felt like home to me. You know, a place where you could live the rest of your life. Met up with a few other riders and had dinner with them. I might add that I saw far more bikers on my way back than when I was heading up.


Saw these signs so much, I had to stop and take a picture of one

While eating dinner at Hyder, a man and a woman entered. He looked familiar. It did not take but a few seconds to recognize him. It was SgtMarty and his pretty wife. Anyone who has researched Alaska or S. America has run across his blog. They were nice down to earth folk and a pleasure to meet them.

To not drag this out, I headed home the next morning. I rode Hwy 16 over to Jasper, down the Icefield Parkway. I kept heading south from there to Eureka, Montana. Headed over to Hwy 2, then back south on Hwy 83.


Keep an eye out folks

Icefield Parkway is beautiful

The water really is this color

There is so much more to be said about the trip, but I will not bore everyone. This is the only time I have been to Alaska, I am not an expert. I researched this "once in a lifetime" ride very heavily. I can tell you what worked for me.
I can also tell you to just do it. It's great up there!

Last night of the trip in Murdo, S. Dakota. That's all folks.

 

[The Bruce]

Awesome. So, tell what you would do different if you were to go again? What did you learn from your experience?

 

[Liteitup]

Wow! Definitely not boring. My friends and girlfriend look at me like I should be committed when I tell them I want to ride to New Mexico for 3-4 days.

More, please.

 

[The Bruce]

My friends and girlfriend look at me like I should be committed when I tell them I want to ride to New Mexico for 3-4 days.