Alaska

July 23, 2011

Today’s goal is Talkeetna, about 150 miles north.  I’ll pass through Anchorage again, and Sarah Palin’s home town of Wasilla on my way to Talkeetna.

The roads are paved and in very good condition, about half the distance is a 4-lane divided highway and the rest is two lanes with an occasional third lane for passing.

The weather is cooperating so far, with partly cloudy skies in the morning turning into mostly cloudy with little spits of rain by the time I rolled into Talkeetna.

Views along this particular stretch of highway are mostly not too remarkable.  Pretty flat,
although the mountains are always visible in the distance.  That said, the landscape is pretty spectacular by Florida standards everywhere you look.

Downtown Talkeetna

Historic Nagley's Srore

Talkeetna is a popular tourist destination.  I am told that it was the inspiration for the town featured in the TV show “Northern Exposure”.  As I rolled into town, there were lots of people walking in the street.  Some have come to visit the quaint shops and restaurants, while others are here to enjoy outdoor activities that the area has to offer.  “Flightseeing” is a major draw and float planes are everywhere.   Additionally, salmon fishing is a big deal and the salmon theme is in evidence just about everywhere.  Talkeetna has a permanent population of less than 1,000, but swells during the summer.

From Wikipedia:

Talkeetna is located at the confluence of three rivers, the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna. The Talkeetna townsite was established in 1919 when the railroad surveyed and auctioned 80 lots.  Flightseeing, rafting, mountain biking, hiking, camping, fishing and hunting make up a large portion of the local economy.  The core downtown area is classified as a National Historic Site, with buildings dating from the early 1900s
including Nagley’s General Store, Fairview Inn and the Talkeetna Roadhouse.

Swiss-Alaska Inn

My cabin

Evening cigar

I am staying at the Swiss-Alaska Inn, a collection of rustic cabins and a restaurant a couple of blocks off the main drag.  No TV signal in this part of the woods, but there is internet access.

Tomorrow is a big day.  239 miles of mostly non-paved roads that will take me through part of Denali National Park.  Oh, and it will be raining all day!

July 24, 2011

Awesome.

No, AWESOME!  THIS is why I came here.  Simply fantastic day today.  Four days to go and I don’t know how it could get much better.

Today’s ride took me north to the Denali Highway.  As if the paved roads weren’t good enough, the Denali Highway, with its graded dirt/gravel surface, offered the most stimulating riding conditions and views.  Even the rain, which was off and on all day, and the very cool temps, couldn’t detract from the experience.

GST Chopper

The fun really began where the pavement ended.  The Denali Highway is a dirt/gravel road that cuts through some of the most spectacular landscapes on this earth.  From vast prairies to grand mountain ranges & dense conifer forests to low-growing tundra like landscapes, this area has it all.  Talk about big sky country, this is BIG SKY country.  Wow.  Just wow.

There was so much to see, I was stopping every 500 feet with another “Oh my God” moment.  Took lots of pictures, but they really don’t convey the grandeur of the area adequately.  Man, I’m glad I came here.

Part of the experience came from the sheer solitude.  I encountered few vehicles and even fewer bicyclists and hikers.  Alone, I was.  Just me, the bike and 130 miles of pure Alaska wilderness.  The thought crossed my mind once or twice about how screwed I’d be if the bike had problems, or if I took a spill in loose gravel, or if an animal ran into my path, or if…   well, you get the idea.  Absolutely no cell service.  Even the “hotel” I am booked in tonight has no cell coverage.

Tangle River Inn

Cabin

The Blogger

This is a very sparsely populated area on the edge of a vast wilderness.  It’s great.

July 25, 2011

I woke up at 5:00 this morning.  My shoulders have been bothering me, especially at night, and the nuisance pain was too much to ignore, so I got up.  No coffee in the room.  Damn.  Restaurant doesn’t open until 7:30.  Double damn.  So I grabbed a shower and went to the deck in front of the lodge where my laptop could receive wifi signal and updated the blog…   in high 40’s temps.

Ice flow? Glacier? You tell me.

Awesome.

More awesomeness

After breakfast, I loaded up the V-Strom and headed toward my next destination, Chitina (pronounced “chit-nah” by the locals), 150 miles to the south.  The weather was better today.  A mix of sun and clouds.  No rain, but very windy and cool.

Although not as exhilarating as the previous day, the scenery was still amazing as I headed down Alaska Rt 4.  I even caught a glimpse of the infamous oil pipeline that carries crude from Prudhoe Bay in the north down to the port in Valdez.  The roads are paved with lots of elevation changes and sweeping curves. Would have been nice to have the RC8R for that stretch.

Yesterday's mud

More mud

I arrived in Chitina at about noon.  Too early to check in to the Chitina Hotel, so I inquired about a place to do some laundry and was directed to a small apartment complex around the bend and up the hill that has a coin laundry.  The laundry is part of the apartment  complex, and the apartment complex is part of the holdings of a Native American tribe.  The residents are descendants of the Athabascan  tribe.  I didn’t have any soap, and the young family that was there doing their laundry wouldn’t let me get any from the vending machine (it takes your money), so they gave me some of their own detergent.  Nice people.  A little later they ran out of quarters for the dryers, and I had a pocket full, so I gave them some to finish up.

At the laundry

Later, I checked in to the hotel and did a little walking around the very small town.

I am spending two nights in Chitina.  At the edge of town, about 3 blocks from my hotel, is a narrow, one-lane pass that turns into a narrow gravel & dirt road to McCarthy.  I will be taking that road 60 miles to McCarthy tomorrow.

Rusting old relics

Chitina and McCarthy share a common history.  Both were founded as a result of the discovery of rich copper deposits in Kennicott.  The narrow gravel road was formerly a railroad that took the copper ore to the port in Cordova.  The mines closed in the late 1930’s, the railroad was abandoned and the towns died.  I’ve been told to watch out for old railroad spikes.

Hotel Chitina

More tomorrow.

July 26, 2011

Ahhhh.  I slept in until 6:30!  That’s when the shoulders started to complain.  The problem is too many years, I suppose, but I’m going to see a doctor when I get back anyway.

Beware all those who pass though here...

I am sitting at a table in the restaurant at the Hotel Chitina, enjoying an Alaska Amber and reflecting on the day’s ride.

I fired up the V-Strom at about 9:45, not really knowing what to expect from the 60 miles of reclaimed railroad bed that I was about to traverse.  I kept thinking about the warning of old railroad spikes taking out the tires of the unsuspecting.  Gravel & dirt, I’d already done 130 miles of that on the Denali Highway.  How hard could it be?

60 miles of this???

So, I set out.  Just a few hundred yards from the hotel the road narrowed to squeeze though the pass that had been cut through the rock more than 100 years ago to allow the railroad to go through.  It was like passing into another dimension.  One side paved roads and civilization, the other side single lane gravel with 60 miles of nothingness.

The reward

A river runs through it...

I went through.

On the other side, a wide rushing river surrounded by mountains.  The road followed the river for several miles, providing too many opportunities to stop and take pictures.  Like the Denali Highway, forward progress was hampered not so much by the terrain, but by the compulsion to stop and take it all in.

Kennicott

But there was also the terrain.  Loose gravel and turns made for slow progress in the first few miles.  At 25 mph, I was sure that I wouldn’t get there in one day. After a while though, the path straightened out a bit and the road surface became more hard pack than loose gravel and I was able to pick up the pace by quite a bit.  Passed a few vehicles coming the other way.  If I were in a car, one of us would have had to pull off to let the other pass, but on the bike I just hugged the edge of the road and kept going.

Huge old processing facility

Before I knew it, I was entering McCarthy.  McCarthy is a very rustic “town” in the middle of nowhere.  There are no services.  No electricity, no telephone, no sanitary services.  Yet, there are shops and a couple of places to get a bite to eat.  Very much an authentic  frontier town.  The real deal. Cars and trucks cannot enter as the only access is a very narrow pedestrian bridge (motorcycles are allowed to cross).

Power station - inactive

I didn’t spend much time in McCarthy as I wanted to get to Kennicott, the reason that the railroad was built in the first place.  Five more miles up the road, I entered the old mining town.  I haven’t researched it much, but the mine and its accessory structures are located on the banks of a glacier run.  The glacier is still there, but it appears that it has receded a bit.  In the path of the glacier, lots of debris deposited by the glacier and tailings from the mining operations which ceased in the 1930’s.

Mine tailings

I dunno. I liked them.

There is a vigorous ongoing effort to save and restore the old buildings associated with the mining operation, but it will be a huge task.  Some of the largest and most complex wooden buildings I have seen…  slowly succumbing to the movement of earth and the passage of time.

Must have run on the RR track

I stopped and had lunch at the Glacier Lodge, which is very close to the buildings being restored.  Chatted with a few folks who were interested in the motorcycle.  I met two women who had been riding Alaska on dual-sports for several weeks and were getting ready to ride to Prudhoe Bay.  My kind of women!

Lunch at the Glacier Lodge

After lunch and a few more pictures, I headed back to Chitina.  Not sure where I am supposed to go tomorrow, as I haven’t checked my itinerary, but I believe it is Valdez.  After that, it’s back to Anchorage and on a plane back to Florida.  The time has gone by way too fast.

July 27, 2011

Time to leave Chitina. I’ll skip the part about the shoulder pain, which is still with me, even after taking 2 Alieve at about 2:00 am.  Nope, won’t even mention it.

All packed up and ready to go.  Turn the key, press the button and…

Nothing.

Dead battery.  Seems that if you don’t remember to turn off the grip heaters, they will stay on until they completely drain every ounce of electrical power from the battery.  Crap.  Fortunately, there were some jovial fishermen in the restaurant who offered to give me a jump start.   After about 10 minutes of charging from the vintage Subaru, the ‘Strom finally came to life.  I thanked the group of fisher-persons (3 guys and one gal), and headed to my next destination.

The rest of my trip is kind of a downer now.  The roads, although plenty beautiful, aren’t
taking me to some fantastic new destination.  They are taking me back to Anchorage and the end of this adventure.  Bummer.

Majestic Lodge

Lodge entrance

I am staying at the Majestic Lodge, in Glacier View.  It’s about 80 miles from Anchorage.  There really is a glacier, but it’s about 14 miles from my location.  I saw it because I overshot my destination and had to turn around after getting directions.  Yes girls, sometimes men do ask for directions!

The cabin in the mountains

Anyhoo, the lodge is very nice.  Constructed in 2001 by a husband/wife team, they operate like a B&B with cabins, a very nice log main structure with dining facilities, and a separate building for weddings and other gatherings.  I am the only guest here tonight,  which is kind of creepy.

Airstrip

Family hauler

There is a private airstrip adjoining the property and several Cessna’s  have taken off and landed since I arrived.  The owners of the lodge have their own plane tied down in the rear of the property.

Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door.

The view from the deck of the lodge is spectacular, as you can see from the photo.  Can you imagine waking up to this every day?

That’s about all.  It’s 5:30 in the afternoon.  In about an hour I’ll fire up the ‘Strom again (I turned off the grip heaters this time) and venture about a mile down the road for dinner.

By the way, although the 10-day forecast that was available when I came here showed rain every day, and 60% at that, I have only experienced one day of fairly steady precipitation.  The weather has been very nice, although I experienced a few brief showers during my ride today.

Last post tomorrow.

August 1, 2011

Well, I’m a little delayed in entering this last post.  After leaving the Majestic View Lodge in Glacier View, things got a little hectic with preparations to return to Florida, so I am updating now, from my home.

Once in Anchorage, I stopped downtown to check out the scene, pick up some gifts and get some lunch.  Anchorage has a nicely developed downtown area with lots of trendy shops and restaurants.  You might call Anchorage the Flower City as there are many city maintained beds of annuals and hanging baskets that really add pop to the city.

If you squint, you can see the glacier!

After lunch, I topped off the gas in the V-Strom before returning it to MotoQuest.  The folks at MotoQuest were again very helpful and gave me a ride back to my hotel.

This view, forever etched into my mind after 13 hours of looking at it.

The next day, I checked out at 11:00 am, went to the airport and spent the next 13 hours waiting to board my flight.  Ugh.  Long story short, the flight was delayed, which caused me to miss my connection in Phoenix.  Finally got home at about 9:00 pm.  At that point I had been up for about 30 hours.  Sleeping would not be a problem.

Except for the ordeal in getting home, the trip was fantastic!  Memories seem to fade so quickly that I think that I am filling this space for my own later benefit rather than anyone else who might stumble in here.  Regardless, glad that you came along and hope that you enjoyed the trip as much as I did!  You really should do this…

What's next?

Now, the only question that remains is:

Where to next?