Day 237 – 2nd August 09
Sunday – Fairbanks, Alaska
Todays original special edition is at the bottom
It was bloody cold last night, crikey, I wish I had worn more stuff to bed! Anyway, I was up at sunup, sort of, I was awake but did not want to move, brrr! When I did get up I found it had been below zero overnight and it was not much better now! I needed fur like the cat 🙂 My bike seat had frost on it even.
There were a group of hunters here that were going up river to chase Moose or Caribou, they had a jet boat attachment to the bottom of the outboard leg, quite interesting, that would be good in shallow water back home I reckon.
Anyway, after some hot breakfast we packed up and headed off, the tents were wet, but we did not feel like waiting for the few hours it would need to dry off. First stop was just across the road at the visitors centre, but they were not open until 10am, bummer! I had forgotten to buy some Prudhoe Bay postcards to send to people back home, maybe I can get some in Fairbanks!
No matter, off we go southwards with cold air temps but a lot better views, the smoke seems to have dissipated somewhat, so that was a bonus, mind you the pavement had not improved at all!
It did not take long to find the smoke though, I still have not seen a fire, but apparently there are about 300 of them around the state! It gave me a slight tickle in the throat again, but the soreness had gone, maybe it would come back again, I hope not though!
The water trucks had been through here again, and we found a horrible stretch of road works where the grader and water truck had just been through, this meant an inch or so of loose crap to ride through, I managed to stay up, but I hate the feeling of the front wheel having a mind of its own. The idea is to ride fast but in a construction zone, this is impossible!! Simon was ahead of me and I am sure he was taking photos in case I fell off 🙂
It was not long after that little drama we arrived at the Yukon River servo where I added 4lts only and did not fill the spare container, I should be able to get back into Fairbanks on what I had. Another Harley and a CanAm Spyder were heading to the Arctic Circle, they were going to have fun through the slop, but goodonem for having a go.
Off we go again, we started to see more bikes heading north, it was funny really. On the way up we had seen heaps of bikes coming down, now the reverse was happening, but we were the only two bikes up there in between? This bike is Vstrom I think, it is too hard to make out as it is a bit blurred, but it has the looks about it. Only another hour of dirt and we were back on the pavement again, whewie, pump up the tyres and ready to roll 🙂
So, we had survived the Dalton Highway, well done to us 🙂 🙂 8) Now we had a fast run back to Fairbanks, the roads were built with lots of windy bits, so I enjoyed myself, nearly knee scraping at times 🙂
We stopped about 20km from Fairbanks where there is a visitor’s centre which explains some stuff about the pipeline. I had seen it on the way up, but there was about 6 tour buses stopped, so kept on going, this time we learnt some interesting facts, have a read 🙂
This is the actual pipeline itself, you can see the radiators and the sliding system used, quite an impressive design. This is probably all arse about face as I should have found these things before going up, but what the heck, better late than never 🙂
After that we grabbed some fuel and food before heading down to the car wash place to hose the crap off the bikes. This is the first time I have washed this bike since buying it, but it has done a good job, so it deserved it 🙂 I had a met a chap called Ben the other day, he was riding a Harley and also was going to do the Arctic Circle, well he was right here washing his bike down as well, he had done it yesterday, but blew some fork seals and now he had to wait for some new ones!! He took some photos of me.
This is when I noticed I had blown a hole in my belly pan, after checking back through all my photos it seems to have happened about 2 hours after leaving Coldfoot for PB, but for the life of me I cannot think of anything I hit that could have done this 😦
That is Ben, catch you around m8, rubber side down.
After that it was back to the dorms at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) where we organised individual rooms, quite cheap at $36/night, with showers, laundry and hi speed internet. After a well deserved shower, we moseyed on downtown looking for beer, which we found at a place called Tony’s, this was not bad, but we only had a few before heading back and buying some coke so we could drink in our rooms. It was not a real late night as we had had restless sleep over the past few days. But, we had a good celebration and as we had booked in until Wednesday, we could sleep in 🙂
Day 283 miles and 455 km
Trip – 29,160 miles and 46,928 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
Sunday – Fairbanks, Alaska
Well, I have achieved some great goals the past few days and of course it means a lot to sit down and write about, here is a sneak preview.
So, I left Dawson and rode the Top of the World highway, a good road in Canada but absolute crap on the USA side! But, I arrived in the (town?) of Chicken and stayed the night.
I met up with a Swiss chap, on a BMW of course, also riding north called Simon, we teamed up and both saw our first Moose 🙂
I managed to get to the end of the Alaskan Highway, although I have not seen the beginning yet, but I also survived the mossies in this region!
We arrived in Fairbanks Alaska and found rooms and went and had beer 🙂
We did not have many as we had some stuff to do the next day, I had major services to do, before we went north on the Dalton Highway, a lot of dirt, where I finally crossed the Arctic Circle, goal 1 achieved 🙂 🙂 🙂
Forget the fact I am pointing at the wrong continent I will fix that with an ET finger later, next stop that night was Coldfoot, it was cold!
The next day was a long one, 510 miles/821km, with about 85% of that dirt, up from Coldfoot to Prudhoe Bay and back to Coldfoot, 10 hours riding, 2 hours on site, but the major goal for the day was achieved, (pats himself on the back 🙂 )
I am so wrapped, I was never sure the weather would be correct for the ride or not, nor whether the road would be to hard for me.
I am back in Fairbanks for the next few days to recover and to catch up on the blog. The map on the left of the page shows me at Prudhoe Bay, the end of the road on this continent, even though I am not there any more, but it can stay like that until I leave Fairbanks, bloggers privilage 🙂
More to come as I get it done properly 🙂
Day ??? miles and ??? km
Trip – 27,764+ miles and 44,682+ km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 