Alaska 2013

[Zwartie]

After a great breakfast at my sister's place in Surrey we hit the road this morning (Sunday), around 10:30. It was a enjoyable and maybe more importantly, an uneventful ride! We took highway 99 to Whistler and had a break there for an hour or so. Then we continued on 99 and took in some absolutely incredible sites. The weather was great  - not too warm, not too cold and the FJ was running as smooth as ever. After a fuel stop we rode for a few kms and saw some clouds roll in so we decided it was best to put on the rain gear. What a great call that was. It rained and rained and rained and the temperature dropped (according to Jack's thermometer on the GS) to 7C (45F) and we trudged on for another hour or so until we couldn't feel our fingers. A stop at a a Tim Horton's for some hot chocolate and we decided to press on for another hour. The sky cleared for that last run and we made it to Williams Lake, BC. Due to the soggy nature of our gear, we decided to opt for the Super 8 instead of a campground. Dinner at the Laughing Loon and now we're back at the motel checking emails and of course, posting on various websites. My cousin Albert has a Blog on the go, but it's in Dutch so I'm not sure if anyone is interested in reading it or not. I can always ask him for the address and post it later. We did just over 500 km today which is pretty reasonable considering the time we left, the stop in Whistler and that we were no longer riding at Interstate speeds. I noticed immediately that the FJ's fuel consumption is way better than on the Interstate runs. I calculated that I could have gotten 391 km to a tank vs. maybe 325 when running hard on the interstate highways. Only 2,800 km to get to Fairbanks!

Zwartie

[Zwartie]

A few pictures from the trip so far...

On the Lake Express Ferry ready to leave Muskegon, MI, heading to Milwaukee, WI


Working on Bruce's bike on the side of the road somewhere in Iowa - the beginning of the end for the Guzzi. By the way, he already took it in to the dealership in London, ON and traded it in for a 2012 Super Tenere.


The FJ and the Tiger getting ready for the day in Winner, SD. It would be soon after when the fuel pump crapped out.


Jack caught up with us somewhere in Wyoming.


Riding through the mountains in Montana.


More riding in Montana.


Lunch in Wallace, ID


More to follow...

[Zwartie]

Here's Jack in front of the Olympic rings in Whistler, BC. The place was hopping with tourists, entertainers and mountain bikers.


Riding through the mountains in BC.


Albert on his Tiger 1050 - a very competent sport-touring machine!


Waiting for the construction crew to let us through.


Our campsite at the Shady Rest Campground in Houston, BC.

[Zwartie]

The last couple days have included some great riding and the mountains and interior BC region made for a fantastic back drop. Our ride from Whistler to Williams Lake included the first real rain we've experienced so far on this trip. And besides that, the winds really picked up making it even more challenging. By the time we stopped to warm up at a Timmies (Tim Horton's) the temperature had dropped to 7C. My fingers were frozen but the Road Toadz did a great job of keeping the rest of me warm and dry. We checked in to a Super 8 motel in Williams Lake, BC and I had the best sleep I've had for the entire trip. The nervous energy and anticipation is gone and now we're (or just me) into the routine of things. Yesterday was just brilliant - the weather was ideal with blue skies and a high of 24C as we rode our way to Houston, BC, about 550 km or so. We rode a bit more aggressively averaging speeds of 115 km/h and it showed as when we filled up with 310 km on the trip meter and the FJ easily swallowed 19 L of gas. For this leg of the trip I have a 5L gas can as gas stations are going to be few and far between. We camped out at the Shady Rest Campground which I would highly recommend as it is quiet and clean, and the owners are biker friendly. They let the 3 of us set up our tents on the group camping site at a whopping $24 for the night (for all 3 of us). We went to a local pup for dinner and then headed back to the campground for a couple beers and a campfire. I pulled out the small travel guitar that I packed for the trip and hacked away at the only two songs I know (sort of) - Free Fallin' and Day Tripper. Just learning to play and my level is somewhere between Beginner and Sucks. It was after 11:00 PM when we called it a night and the sky was still not completely dark. Oh, right, it's early July and we're headed north! The sun got up sometime before 5:00 so I rolled out of the tent to clean up. It's a cold one this morning at about 6C but promises to warm up again today. I'm sitting on a picnic table under a pavilion as I type this, waiting for the other 2 to wake up. I guess they need more beauty sleep than I do - I can't blame them for that.

Zwartie

[Firehawk068]

Excellent riding report so far!
Keep it coming..............Including Pics!

I'd love to get up to BC and do some riding...........

[Zwartie]

It's been a few days since my last update so here it is. Pictures to follow:

Monday July 15: When we left Williams Lake the weather was sunny and gorgeous and promised for some great riding, which was delivered.  We rode 550 km that day and made it to Houston, BC where we stayed at the Shady Rest Campground which I highly recommend – best and cleanest bathroom/shower facilities of any campground ever.  The only mishap that occurred that day was shortly after I filled up my bike at a gas station at the junction of hwy 16 and 37. I went in to pay for gas and as I walked back toward the gas pump I watched in horror as some jackass (technical term) tried to squeeze his Ford F350 between my bike and the building, rubbing the extended rear fender against my Givi bag and nearly dumping the bike. I am normally a pretty even tempered guy but in this instance I completely freaked out and ran up to the side of the truck as it appeared they were going to leave the scene, banged on the fender and yelled at the driver to find out what the F he was doing! We had a rather heated exchange of ideas and in the end the bag had a minor scuff on the side. We took a break and when my heart rate finally came down to normal we continued with the ride. If I learned one lesson from this experience other than not to freak out at times like this, it's that I need to move my bike away from the gas pump to a safer spot right after filling up and then go inside to pay.
Tuesday July 16: A bit of a late start – we hit the road around 9:30 and made some tracks before stopping for a late breakfast. Considering the late start we still pulled in around 660 km and stopped in at Dease Lake for the night. Not much in Dease Lake – just a typical northern native village with not much to do. It was late and we were hot and tired which the mosquitoes seemed to pick up on right away. The campground in town was for RVs only so we opted for the local motel at $160 for the room – can you say cha-ching!!! At least we were able to split it 3 ways with one on a thermarest on the floor so there were no "those aren't pillows!" comments in the morning.
Wednesday July 17: Destination – Whitehorse. We got a good start in the morning and rode a couple hundred km before we got to the first available restaurant and gas station at the junction of 37 and 1 – the Alaska highway! Another great day weather-wise but we could really tell we were getting north by the incredible bug collection on our bikes.  650 km later and we made it into Whitehorse and checked in at a campground that looked more like a hippy commune from the '60s. We called it an early night as we knew we were going to need some time to make it to Tok, AK the next day.
Thursday July 18: Whitehorse, YT to Tok, AK – 12 hours on the road for 625 km. Today was a long day but it was worth every minute! Didn't have as sore a butt as I would have expected but that may have to do with the fact that I spent a considerable amount of time standing on the pegs. We had been warned by others including 2 guys from Toronto on BMW GS1200's about the crappy roads but it was not nearly the nightmare that everyone described to us. The FJ handled the gravel and bumpy roads no problem at all and I spent as much time standing on the pegs as Jack did on his GS.
Friday July 19: Tok to Anchorage. This has been by far the most scenic ride. The views are absolutely incredible. We've been told that the Top of the World highway is even better but I can't imagine that. We'll have to wait and see. Another 600 km ride that took us about 10 hours to complete – partially because of construction, some gravel sections and a few hours of riding in the rain and partially because we stopped so frequently to take pictures. We ended up in Anchorage and checked in at the Creekwood Inn, just far enough from downtown to be affordable and close enough that we could walk in for dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse – an excellent microbrewery and restaurant.
Saturday July 20: Anchorage, AK. Today is a down-time day. We got up around the crack of 9:30 and spent a bit of time checking email and posting pictures on Facebook before getting up to do anything important – like going out for breakfast. It was a bit rainy in the morning but by the time we decided to go out it started clearing up nicely. We rode to a local BMW bike shop to check it out (I think it is simply called "The Motorcycle Shop") and then went to a shop called Alaska Leathers where Albert bought a cup holder for his Tiger. Jack and I swapped rides for the morning and I must say that I am quite impressed with the handling and power of the GS. It's much more nimble than it appears! If I only had $20,000 burning a hole in my pocket. We then rode downtown and walked around to find the local weekend market. We walked to a park where we thought the market should be and it turned out to be some event for or from the Governor that was just ending. As we began to walk away a local woman overheard us talking and then told us where the market is. She was walking in that general direction and then offered to give us a ride there. Talk about friendly locals! After the market we walked to the waterfront – there is no beach to speak of but we walked along the pathway and took some photos and just took in the fact that we are in Alaska already – holy shit! We went back for dinner at a local pizza shop and when we got back to where the bikes were parked Jack found a $20 parking ticket on his bike. We had squeezed all our bikes into one space and figured that the officials had determined that the owner of the brand new BMW would be most likely to pay the parking fine. I'm sure they saw my filthy 21 year old FJ and took pity on me and also saw the NL licence plate on Albert's bike and figured that they would never get $20 from a Dutchman. Back to the Creekwood to do some laundry, relax, have a beer or three and call it a night. Tomorrow we head for Fairbanks.

[fj11.5]

Mate ,you guys are having a ball  ,, must have been a half decent cop or he would of ticketed all of you , just because he could 

[Zwartie]

Some photos from the past few days (not including today)

A view of the mountains just outside Smithers, BC – Excellent, Smithers!


Ready to head onto the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. This is where my FJ was almost knocked over by a Ford F350


Stopping for construction. This is to become a regular occurrence.


Welcome to Yukon!


Jack ahead of me riding in the gravel. The FJ handled pretty good and I stood on the pegs through most of it.


The FJ is getting a little dirty on this trip. I washed it at the campground in Tok but it really made no difference once we hit more construction the next day.
[imghttps://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/969012_10151501463916615_203826017_n.jpg]http://[/img]

Our first photo in Alaska – we made it!!!


Our trusty steeds at the campground in Tok, AK


A typical view on our ride from Tok to Anchorage. The most scenic ride so far...
[imghttps://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1044611_10151501464271615_1695667042_n.jpg][/img]

[Zwartie]

Note to self - most campground internet access is extremely slow. Sorry about the missing photos in the last post but the preview was taking forever so I just hit "Post" and as you can see, some of the links didn't work out exactly as planned. If you are interested in seeing some more photos, I have an album on Facebook called "Alaska 2013" which is open for public viewing. This should be the link to that folder: https://www.facebook.com/ben.zwart.5/media_set?set=a.10151303066736615.1073741825.664136614&type=3

Thanks,

Zwartie.

[ribbert]

Geez, even the dirt roads over there you could land a plane on!

[FJscott]

Geez, even the dirt roads over there you could land a plane on!

That's not a dirt road it's a landing strip for the Mosquitos up there.

[ribbert]

That's not a dirt road it's a landing strip for the Mosquitos up there.

I'm not surprised, they hold the annual mosquito swatting championships in Sweden, which is about the same Latitude.

[movenon]

Great adventure ! Keep the information coming and pictures coming. I think it is "Jack's" bike there, I like his riding position.

George

[Zwartie]

Sunday July 21: We did the ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks. Road conditions were OK by Alaskan standards but it really was about the views more than the ride. Albert commented that it has gotten better every day and I agree with him. We're told the Top of the World Highway will be the best but at this point it's hard to imagine.

Here we are with a stunning view of Mount McKinley (or Denali, depending on who you ask)


The three travellers at a scenic lookout


A view of a glacier somewere near or in Delani National Park


Local resident


This is a view from our campsite in Fairbanks at 10:30 PM. Weird!


Tomorrow we head to the Arctic Circle!!!

[Zwartie]

Sunday July 22: This has been the most challenging and most rewarding day so far. We left Fairbanks at 8:00 AM and didn't roll back in to our campsite until about 10:30 PM. The first hour or so of riding consisted of mostly good asphalt and nice sweeping curves. Then we hit the Dalton highway and the games commenced. Ask me what I thought of the Dalton and my response would be "Which one?". We "only" rode to the Arctic Circle which is about a third of the entire run but the part we did consisted of smooth asphalt, sections with potholes so large and deep you need a ladder to get out and then there was the sand and gravel. Lots of it. Loose gravel, hard packed sand, and my personal favourite, wet soupy mush - not because it rained but because the construction crews were spraying water on it. It wasn't too deep or anything but just slick enough to make you wonder when (not if) the front end was going to wash out. Fortunately for us, that didn't happen. We made a stop in either direction at the Yukon River camp for fuel (over $5 per gallon) as there was no way we could have made it without that. The total ride to and from the Arctic Circle was about 640 km but it took us about 10 hours (not including stops) to do it all. We met some interesting characters at the Yukon River camp - a trapper and his mom who had to travel by boat a few miles down (or up) the river to get to their cabin which was another 1/2 mile walk in the wilderness. I see a reality show in the making. On the way back we stopped to help a guy named Chris who had a flat tire on his 2002 BMW 650 Dakar bike. We used Jack's side stand to pop the bead of the tire from the rim and then helped him install a new tube and get the tire back on the bike. He wanted to buy us breakfast the next morning but Jack just told him to pay it forward. It's the motorcyclist code (if there is one).

Zwartie