Hi, Sorry haven't posted for a while. No easily available internet.
Thursday 6/18: Nice ride from Fairbanks to Wiseman (halfway up to top). Some rain,but mostly sunny. Nice cabin (Boreal Lodge). Many mosquitos. When pavement ended about 60 miles north of Fairbanks the road looked pretty bad. Sign said "dirt road next 415 miles". Turned out not to be all that bad. Mostly firm base with some loose gravel in places. Occasionly tricky where they were working on road. They would wet the road down thoroughly and then spread a mix of dirt and gravel. There were a few short stretches where it felt a little greasy. These comments apply to the 415 miles up to Deadhorse and back down the same road to Fairbanks (Dalton Highway).
Friday 6/19: Made it to Deadhorse around 5:30 this afternoon. Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay is the start point of the Alaska Pipeline. Security is pretty tight here. Had to provide passport numbers a day in advance so they could do background check. Can't ride the bike to the Arctic Ocean, but rather will have to take the tour the last 2 or 3 miles to the ocean. Staying in Arctic Caribou Inn. Kind of like barracks (it's where many of the workers are housed). They have great food. The room is warm and has hot shower (both very important up here). Saw large herds of Caribou last 60 or so miles today. Besides oil exploration and drilling, Deadhorse's main claim to fame is that it is as far north as you can drive/ride on the North American continent. That's why we came. Marilee's electic vest became disconnected about 20 miles before we got here. She said she thought she could make it on in without the hook-up since we would have to stop and fiddle with it, but she was pretty stiff and frozen by the time we arrived. Won't do that again.
Sabbath 6/20: Very cold this morning. Skiff of snow on ground. 31 degrees but howling wind causing windchill temp of 15 degrees. One guy from New York wore his shorts on the tour and stuck his foot in the ocean. The rest of us just cheered him, took pictures, and tried to stay warm. Snowing large flakes when we left around 11. Luckily the wind was a quartering tail wind so not as bad as it might have been. Got back to cabin at Wiseman around 6:30. Had a fair amount of rain over Atigun Pass (Brooks Range), but fortunately it had been more sunny yesterday coming up. Beautiful scenery.
Sunday 6/21: Got Happy Father's Day messages on cell phone from Margo and Natalie-Thanks! We've had some rain every day so far, but nothing like today. Usually showery and intermittent with little negative impact. Today it rained hard all the way from Wiseman to about 50 miles north of Fairbanks (about 200 miles). Thick layer of mud over bike and us. Spent an hour or 2 at carwash in Fairbanks getting bike cleaned up. They continually put down calcium up here for dust control and it eats metal so wanted to get it off bike quickly. Got to Delta Junction 95 miles southeast of Fairbanks and cleaned ourselves and some clothes up. Pretty ride from Fairbanks through North Pole to Delta Junction with large white snow-covered mountains (Alaska Range) paralleling our route to the south.
Monday 6/22: First day with no rain. Beautiful ride on "Top of the World" highway between Tok and Dawson City (via Chicken, Alaska). Had close call with a moose while hurrying to get from Delta Junction to Tok in time for breakfast. He decided he wanted to occupy the same spot in time and space as we did. Problem was that he was traveling different speed and direction than us. Ingredients for disapointing outcome, but fortunately we cleared him with a foot or so to spare. Thanks for your prayers. We caught the ferry across Yukon River and got in to Dawson around six. Stayed in Downtown Hotel. Our room was on second floor corner room right above Sourdough Saloon. There was a fellow playing an old upright piano in the saloon. He was minus some teeth and wore fairly thick glasses, but had a great smile and played a pretty mean piano. It was warm and light all night so we had the windows open and enjoyed the music. Scott, they even have a golf course ("Top of the World Golfcourse") just out of Dawson across the Yukon River. Turns out Dawson was quite the gold rush boom town around the turn of the last century. It was once the largest city in western Canada and had electricity and luxury items unknown in these parts at the time. They have some really nicely maintained/restored buildings. There are miles of gold tailings from the huge gold dredges. We were pleasantly surprised to run in to Gary and Bill, two fellow motorcyclists we had become acquainted with on the ferry trip up from Bellingham. Pure coincidence.
Tuesday 6/23: Nice ride from Dawson City down to Whitehorse, much of it along the Yukon River. Pretty nice day weather-wise with just an occasional short sprinkle. Ate breakfast at Moose Creek Lodge about 95 miles south of Dawson (very good). They had freshly made pastries. Stopped at Braeburn Lodge Just north of Whitehorse for a "world famous cinnamon bun". One bun feeds four people which was unfortunate since there were only the two of us. Oh well. All the tour busses stop there. There were two of them when we pulled in. Long line, but very worth the wait. They sell hundreds of them a day. Even have a private airstrip (Cinnamon Bun Airstrip), so you can fly in for your bun fix. Very convenient.
We will be at Northern Rockies Lodge at Muncho Lake, B.C. tomorrow night. Then on to Dawson Creek B.C. (different from Dawson City Y.T.) Thursday night, then Jasper Fiday night, down through Lake Louise to Cranbrook Saturday night, on down through Sandpoint and Couer d'alene to Lewiston/Kennewick Sunday night.
The pictures unfortunately came up in reverse order.
