Anchorage to Fairbanks (Alaska)

We left Anchorage this morning late at about 10:30 am, 2 hours later than we wanted to be, but we were having issues getting our luggage sorted.

Despite my best efforts, I still have a small dry bag with a few random bits stuffed in it strapped to my top box. It's still a massive improvement of when we rode Russia, but we still have too much stuff! most of it is chargers and other crap needed to keep the electronics going, and a fleece I didn't want to bring.

We pretty much left he Hotel in Anchorage, turned onto the Parks Hwy and rode for 570km. The scenery was absolutely stunning. We spent the whole day weaving our way through valleys and over rivers through the Denali National Park, and out the other side.

When we stopped for our first fuel stop, a group of guys turned up on an assortment of BMW's all from  the same tour group 'Motoquest' out of Anchorage. Not one of them acknoledged us or even waved as they pulled into the servo past us,  and I thought what a bunch of fuckwits. All the bikers we have met so far had been really friendly (even Harley riders wave here). Anyway soon after one of them dropped his bike and I felt much better after that :)

After a few hundred kilometers, the valleys widened out, and it was like we were back in Russia again. The roads were lined with Birch and pine groves, and the smell of smoke from campfires had that distinctive smell about it. I think its because the smoke doesn't smell of eucalyptus, I think that's what makes it smell different to me.

After a ways, we had to stop for some road works. Megan stops beside me and casually says - "Hey - is there a bird in my Helmet?" and sure enough - there was a small bird deceased in the visor of her helmet. I started laughing and took a photo with my phone, aaaaand so did the road worker holding the stop/go sign. He whipped out his phone and took a photo as well. Never fear readers, I extracted the bird at out next stop and gave him a proper burial. I would like to say he came out in one piece, but he was really wedged in their tight! Poor little bugger.

We stopped again for fuel, and soon after spotted a couple of Moose on the side of the road. It's easy to tell when there is something to see, because there will be about 10 cars stopped on the side of the road.

after many many more kilometers of birches and Pines we rolled into Fairbanks at half past six, dead tired. We had spent 8 hours in the seat on our first day and we're shattered.

Checking the weather, it looks like we wont be able to make it to Prudhoe Bay. There is a week of rain forecast, which at the very least makes the dirt roads too slippery to ride (for us anyway), we have a long way to go, and it's just not worth the risk. We may not even be able to make it to Coldfoot tomorrow for the same reason. We are going to leave here and try to make it to the Yukon river. The roads are still partially dirt/silt this way as well, so we may not even make it that far. In that case we will just have to turn around and head for Tok. I will be disappointed to not make it inside the arctic circle.

Either way, we will be getting wet tomorrow. *sigh*

birdie num num

RIP birdie.