Alaska trip 2022

Sgt Bilco · Jul 23, 2022

Day 3 dawns..............wet!! Alaska is in the middle of the worst rains since 2001 and we are bang slap in the middle of it. We have a 300 mile ride to do and it does not relent even for one second and needless to say we all get soaking and even the best gear has started to complain.

We stopped in the tourist hotspot called Talkeetna to grab some breakfast only to find it's basically closed until 11am. We managed to find a coffee to warm the cockles and rode manfully on into the gloom.

Many places up here are having staffing shortages after Covid like us so it seems it's a worldwide problem!! A lot of cafes etc are either closed, have a limited menu or apologise in advance for the really slow service.

Doc · Jul 23, 2022

Looks great. Shame about the weather for you all.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 23, 2022

Still Day 3.

In the middle of all that bloody rain, 1 x 1250 and 1 x 850 had fuel cap issues and they just wouldn't close. These keyless caps seem to have solved a problem which never existed and it's just one more thing to go wrong!! Bill solved it in the end and he thinks the bikes opened the caps at the same time and as they were next to each other, the bluetooth signal confused the ECU's.

Anyway, we soldiered on and after turning off the main highway to ride 68 miles of the magnificent Denali Highway which is hard packed dirt, we get to our overnight which is called the Alpine Creek Lodge. It really is the middle of nowhere but it's a great places run by some of the nicest people you could meet. We were wet cold and miserable but we got set up in our rooms and all the kit dried in their generator house which served as a drying room

Most of their income is snow mobile riders in the winter and hunters. It's a very different life for sure and very cut off but they enjoy it and the bar is excellent!! In a land were everything is expensive, this place charges just $95 per nigh for rooms dinner and breakfast which is all home cooked and very tasty.

The owners son harvested the 24th biggest Grizzly recorded and the old fella is hanging on the wall as proof. We tend to get all squeemish and judgemental about hunting but these guys manage the area, kill only what the need to and make sure the wildlife is plentiful......which it is.

Mileage 303
Start song: Blackberry Smoke - One Horse Town
Long Hot Summers Day - Turnpike Troubadours (oh the irony!!)

Posh Pete · Jul 23, 2022

Great write up Chris. Hope all goes well and the weather improves!

That grizzly skin reminds me of warnings by my Canuck relatives:

Q - How do you protect yourself from bears? A. Put bells on your gear and carry peppermint spray.

Q - How do you know if bears are around? A - Look for their poop on the trail.

Q - How do you know if grizzlies are around? A - Examine the poop. If its a grizzly, it'll jingle and smell of peppermint!

adventuredon · Jul 23, 2022

love the photos and side details

Sgt Bilco · Jul 25, 2022

Apologies for the lack of updates but the internet is very sketchy in the land of the free and I'm struggling to download the pictures.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 26, 2022

Day 4 Alpine Creek Lodge in the Denali to Fairbanks

After a jolly decent night in the bar, we dragged ourselves out of our beds and enjoyed a hearty breakfast. This place is just brilliant and at just $95 for dinner, bed and breakfast it's teh best value of the whole trip.

We went out to get our kit which had dried nicely and what the hell was this up in the sky? Yep you guessed it, bit's of blue sky appeared and everyones spirits rose as we got ready to go. Perhaps we'd seen the worst of it and teh long range forecast did say it would get better. Even the cat looked pleased.......

With the old yamaha and all the other bikes packed, we headed back along the Denali Hwy and the guys could finally see just how fantastic the scenery is up here. I'm sure some of them thought I was kidding.........

Sgt Bilco · Jul 26, 2022

The weather slowly improved although is was still a bit chilly and the scenery was nothing short of spectacular.

Like most of the pictures, an i phone or ordinary camera cannot do this place justice.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 26, 2022

A few more of the Denali Hwy.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 26, 2022

Back onto the main highway and a very welcome coffee stop to finally dispense with the waterproofs as the skies were clearing and temps coming up nicely.

We had a coffee stop and a great little coffee shop amongst the touristy stuff at the entrance of Denali National Park and headed towards Fairbanks.

Stopped after another couple of hours or so as that is about as far as I can get on the little Yamaha and got chatting the driver of this road train. Anyone who comes on my trips knows I'll be found chatting to a truck driver about stuff.

For those interested, this Peterbilt has a 16 litre Cummins engine rated at 640bhp matched to an 18 speed Fuller box which those of us of a certain age know it's a magnificent combination. The driver reckons he can earn up to $150,000 per annum up here but it's long hours and you are away from home a lot. 20 years ago, it would have been a consideration.

Arrived in good time at the wacky overnight stop called Svens which is a brilliant little place and finished the day off with this magnificent BBQ. Vegetarians, look away now

Mileage 240
Starting song - Fortunate Son by John Fogarty with the Foo Fighters
Finish song - Whiskey in the Jar by Metallica

earthmover · Jul 26, 2022

Keep it coming Chris! Between you and Tim I'm re-living my dreams.
Cheers
Mark

barak666 · Jul 26, 2022

Brilliant report, Chris.... thanks for taking the time to post! :beerjug:

Sgt Bilco · Jul 27, 2022

Day 5 Fairbanks to Yukon Lodge via the Arctic Circle.

The day dawned sunny and warm si we headed off to one of my favourite cafe's called called the Sourdough but unfortunately it din't make it through the pandemic....bugger.

Onwards we went and stopped at a proper old school Truckstop just north of Fairbanks where the portions are huge which was ideal for the day ahead.

And of course there are trucks and my reports wouldn't be the same without some diesel porn

Sgt Bilco · Jul 27, 2022

The road from Fairbanks to Livengood is 80 miles of pretty decent tarmac with lots of sweeping bends and elevation changes but that all changes as you hit the actual Dalton Highway and teh signpost where you have to stop for the usual picture.

This is the 9th time I've ridden this road and I have to say the conditions at the start were as good as I've ever know. Dry and with very little dust thanks to some recent rain so lets see how the little Yamaha performs on this alien environment even though it's shod with knobblies. To be fait, it was doing OK but the usual crap Yamaha suspension was really struggling which was no surprise.

The mossies were out in force so it was out with the nets.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 27, 2022

Lovely ride up to the Yukon crossing where we needed to fuel. We were also staying the night here so it was chance to get the bikes unloaded to make the trip the the circle much easier.

When we got there, they had run out of fuel as the fire department had emptied the tanks the day before. There had been huge fires in the area in the previous weeks so they had used all the fuel which is fair enough. We had to wait 4 hours for the tanker to arrive which was nothing compared to the guy who had had to wait nearly 30 hours before he could go anywhere!!

It's one of those things you have to expect up here and you just put up with it. The wait gave us time to assess the trip to the Arctic circle as it was raining on the highway just north of us which makes it very sketchy at best and also a huge sink hole had appeared 30 miles north which could possibly close the road. After a bit of deliberation, everyone was up for it and we'd try and get as far as we could on the understanding that if I decided that is was getting too bad, we would turn round.finally got gas we headed north.

Sgt Bilco · Jul 30, 2022

Fuelled and fed we head north to the Arctic Circle.

I'm aways very wary of the Dalton Highway as you can get four seasons in one hour and every time to climb a hill, there can be a completely different weather system on the other side.

The road conditions can also change in an instance and there had been a huge sink hole appear half way up. When I say road conditions, they can be good hard packed dirt and change to a slippery sloppy shit which will challenge anyone

As luck would have it. the road smiled on us and there was only a few miles where it was tricky. The sink hole had also been filled in so after 65 miles we got to the Arctic Circle

Sgt Bilco · Jul 30, 2022

Obviously, we had a few pics at the sign and after 9 visits there, I don't recall having my picture taken so I thought it was time I marked teh occasion.

After 15 minutes of trying to avoid the mossies and making friends with squirrels we headed back to the Yukon Crossing and even the mighty Yamaha made it back relatively unscathed but hell it was tough ride on a bike which is totally unsuitable.

One of the guys joked that on any other day, if someone had said at 4 pm "lets do a 130 miles ride on a dodgy dangerous road just to stand at a sign to have a picture taken" you have told them to fuck off

Really pleased for all the guys because a few were pretty inexperienced in conditions like this and it's a real achievement to get to this point.

Well done everyone

Mileage 281 - 85 on tarmac and 196 0n dirt.
Start song: Black Crows - Jealous Again
Finish song: Ramones - Judy is a Punk

gazza12adv · Jul 30, 2022

Only a few tough places, it was bloody awful.lol glad we did it but just about all of us were close to crashing on the wet mud.

I've crossed the Arctic circle in 3 countries now which is nice. :okay

gazza12adv · Jul 31, 2022

And by the time we got back to the motel my R1250gs which was just 2 weeks old and had done only 460 miles when we left looked like this.

ShakeyBMW · Aug 1, 2022

That there is proper mucky. Well done!

Alaska trip 2022

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