“This is the law of the Yukon, that only the strong shall thrive; That surely the weak will perish, and only the fit survive.” – Robert Service of the Yukon
Welcome to possibly my last of a series of badly written dispatches about our ride around Alaska. In all honesty it’s not an easy task to ride all day and then attempt to do what I was attempting to do and without a laptop. I typed it all out in my iPhone. Impressive? Well, not nearly as impressive as to the way that I locked up my little Versys front brake and skidded to a halt just a few feet away from that moose that almost took me out. And I have four other riders as witnesses to prove it.
Our mission was not to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has ever gone before!
No, our mission was only to join together as friends and challenge our minds, body and souls along the journey. We all came back a little spent from doing so, but, in the end; no one died or got seriously hurt.
You load up your motorcycle panniers with whatever you anticipate you’ll need and you head out into the last frontier. The motorcycle you are riding qualifies as either a thoroughbred, a donkey or in some cases even a stubborn mule. We rode everything from a Craigslist find BMW Dakar to a 2018 Kawasaki Versys 300 that was in a storage container in Prince George, Canada for three years to a 2017 Versys that was ridden up from Tucson; just to start this ride. The rest of the boys all bought new bikes like brand new Ducati Desert X, Africa Twin, Husky 901 Norden and three others are KTM890’s.
Did the rider on the stubborn mule have more fun than the one on the thoroughbred Ducati Desert X? He experienced two flat tires but, with that reserve tank that he could by a flip of a switch fill his main tank never worried about running out of fuel on the Dalton Highway.
At times your life depends on your bike but, not so much as the skills that you have previously acquired to make it to as far as the haul road, Deadhorse and Prudoe Bay.
When we arrived in Deadhorse there was reason enough to celebrate. But, when we worked our way back towards Coldfoot the challenges and rewards were extremely noticeable. Some riders including a KTM 890 experienced overheating problems. The muddy roads were slinging up all kinds of mud that worked its way up and into the bikes radiator. The weather was such that it changed numerous times in the span of hours.
If you know weather think of everything minus a tornado and anything above 50 degree temperatures. The visibility on the pass on account of fog was nearly 100 feet. It wasn’t nearly as bad on our return. Then there’s the haul road truckers to worry about. If you move over submissive like to the very edge of that big miserable salt like arena they call a truckers road then you won’t have any problems, that’s if you can ride.
And if you don’t, then you’re in for a surprise because the truckers are there to do a job and you can easily become a speed bump on their path to deliver the vital supplies needed at Deadhorse to keep Americas oil supply flowing.
There’s two theories about how Deadhorse got its name; one is from a local business prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s, the “Dead Horse Haulers” trucking company.
And the other one is simply an exhausted or profitless person that gave it the name as in beat a dead horse or flog a dead horse.
I probably came the closest. That moose I nearly hit was probably almost as much scared as I.
But, just like in Star-trek it’s continuing mission now changes to “Its continuing mission” (to reflect the on-going mission) we are only halfway done.
In two more weeks we reunite again and start our ride two; this journey takes us to the following places:
7/14 – Anchorage to Valdez (299mi.)
Stop 1 – Sheep Mountain Lodge (108mi.) Lunch, Matanuska Glacier viewing.
Stop 2 – Glennallen (73mi.) Gas at Tesoro “The Hub”.
Stop 3 – Valdez (118mi.) Stay at Best Western Valdez Harbor Inn, 100 N Harbor Dr, Valdez, AK
99686, (907) 835-3434.
7/15 – Valdez to McCarthy (180mi.)
Stop 1 – Chitina (120mi.) Photo Op in historic town. Excursion on the Haley Creek Trail
10mi. round trip.
Stop 2 – McCarthy (60mi.) Stay at Kennicott Glacier Lodge, 15 Kennicott Millsite Rd.
Glennallen, AK 99588•(907) 258-2350.Tour of Historic Kennicott copper mine.
7/16 – McCarthy to Devils Mountain Lodge (175mi.) Note; this route will follow AK-1 Highway,
aka the Tok Cut-off to Slana, where we will turn right on the Nabesna Rd. to the Lodge.
Stop 1 – Chitina (60mi.) Gas
Stop 2 – Devils Mountain Lodge. Stay at Devils Mountain Lodge, Mile 42 Nabesna Road,
Gakona, AK 99586, 1-707-400-6848. Super Cub flight seeing tours of mountains
and glaciers.
7/17– Devils Mountain Lodge to Eagle Alaska (272mi.)
Stop 1 – Tok (104mi.) Gas.
Stop 2 – Chicken (77mi.) Lunch, Historic Gold Dredge viewing.
Stop 3 – Eagle (91mi.) Stay at Falcon Inn B&B, 220 Front St, Eagle, AK 99738•(907) 547-
2254. Tour Historic Army Fort, Ft. Egbert.
7/18 – Eagle Alaska to Dawson City Yukon Territory. (145mi.)
Stop 1 – Jack Wade Junction(68mi.). Turn off to Top of The World Highway.
Stop 2 – Dawson City (77mi.) Stay at the Eldorado Hotel, 902 Third Ave, Dawson City, YT
Tooth Gerties, have to get the Sourtoe Cocktail, the recipe is; 1oz of the alcohol of your choice and a severed, frostbitten, petrified, human toe.
7/19Dawson City to Fairbanks (385mi) OR For those Ending Trip in Anchorage Dawson to Anchorage (499 mi.)
Stop 1 – Tok (183mi.) Gas, Lunch. This is where we split ways with the Boys from the North.
Stop 2 – Delta Jct.(107mi) Gas FBKS ONLY
Stop 3 – Fairbanks (95mi.)
7 /20 – Optional on your own, Anchorage to Seward (284 total miles.) Free ride for those that want to go down south from Anchorage. Places of interest.
Alyeska/Girdwood, Hope, Whittier tunnel, Kenai, Ninilchik , Seward
Lots of day light so you can spend all day sightseeing all day.
Alaska: our final frontier.
These are the voyages of (insert your self here into here) your continuing mission: to explore strange new parts of Alaska; to seek out new wildlife and wilderness and new civilizations; to boldly go where (almost no one) has gone before!
And to do so riding your own thoroughbred, donkey or even a stubborn mule like Roberto’s and my Kawasaki Versys 300 that just keeps going and going and going.
Thank you Todd and Tom for this amazing Alaskan adventure that non of us will be forgetting anytime soon. We survived the last frontier and are ready, willing and able to continue our journey together soon.
Trawlercat
End
Trawlercat Chronicles 