North to Alaska
One word: Epic!
Prelude by Nicole Christensen, lead guide.
May 15th, 2010
Today is the day we meet all the clients for a welcome dinner and get all the logistics out of the way. I am checking and double checking things in my mind to get prepped for the trip; sat phone, check, helmet cam, check, first aid kit, check…..and of course all the paperwork for the clients to sign.
We spent the morning dressing up the bikes, polishing mirrors, garbage bags in the panniers and final details for customer comfort. Rob is out gassing up the bikes, with a little time for fun he buzzes by on an electric motorcycle he demo’d from Best Buy. Cute and quiet!
Ariel should be here soon. She has rented a car and is driving in from Seattle. She claims she has over packed but after seeing how little she travels with I find that hard to believe.
Staging here in Portland has been easy and convenient; moments from the airport and lots of activities to spend extra days before the tour. Beautiful views of Mt. Hood right from the Hotel parking lot and the flowers are in bloom, a sure sign that spring has arrived in the northwest.
The weather has been exceptional the last couple of days, almost too hot for us cold weather people. I am looking forward to getting on the road and cooling down as we head north. Tomorrow is “go” day and I am happy to have helmet time in the near future.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Arrived in Portland Saturday afternoon, met up with Nicole and Rob all ready and waiting (and looking mighty tan i might add, from their "summer" down here in the lower 48!) in the Embassy Suites parking lot, with the bus and trailer all set up and ready for action, the bikes all clean and fresh and ready to go, stickered up, the trailer loaded with gear and swag for the clients, fancy new Scorpion jackets, riding gear, helmets... So much Hi-Vis it hurts! I moved all my gear into the trailer, and returned the rental car, Rob picked me up on the BMW GS1200 to return to the hotel, and it had been so long since i'd ridden on the back, i forgot how much I like it! Cruising around, checking out the scenery while someone else did all the driving was pretty nice.
The weather was absolutely perfectly clear, and HOT, hard to prep clients for Alaska weather when it's 90 degrees out! But we got some great views of Mt. Hood, Oregon's signature semi-active volcano in the Cascade range. We had our welcome dinner, and I roomed with Valerie, a gal from Australia who had arrived a few days earlier to check out the area before she heads north for the 28 day expedition all the way up to Prudhoe Bay. In fact, all four clients riding North with us will be heading all the way up to Prudhoe, they're in it for the long haul.
Arrival dinner was getting to know everyone. We have Valerie from Australia, Colin and Shirley from England, and Tom from Michigan. Colin seemed so relieved when Nicole chose the appetizers and suggested the kitty for the duration of the trip, he was so pleased to have all responsibility and decisions taken over for him. He's perfectly happy to sit back and enjoy the riding and the scenery and leave the tough stuff to the guides.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Departing Portland, we woke up and the weather was decidedly more seasonable, chilly and drizzling, typical pacific northwest spring. everyone suited up, extra layers for the chilly morning, and we were on our way to Vista house and Multnomah falls. Great views, great twisty roads, and such lush vegetation! moss hanging from the trees... But as we headed along the columbia river, the geography gradually became more desert, less vegetation, and it started to heat up like the dickens. every stop, we shed more and more layers, and drank as much water as we could... by the time we met up with Rob outside of Ellensburg it was almost 90 degrees and we just had to keep moving so we didn't collapse from heat exhaustion.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Left Ellensburg this morning to a bit more overcast skies, which we were relieved about because it meant the sun wasn't beating down on us. Headed north on 97, and took a slight detour in Leavenworth, a little fake Bavarian village on the edge of the Cascades, it looked a bit like disneyland in the Alps, but we had a great time walking around and checking out the goodies and kitsch. And Val got to visit some nice chocolate shops and get a stash of sweets to satisfy her sweet tooth that's quickly becoming notorious!
Wildlife sighting of the day was a massive osprey taking off in the middle of the pack of bikes, right in front of Val. I was right behind her, thought it was going to take her out, it looked so close, so i just backed way off so it didn't get me too. But Val ducked, and it barely cleared her and i was just left gape-mouthed in my helmet..
We crossed the Canadian border without a hitch, feeling pretty pleased since when Colin was asked for the plate number on his bike he just said, "Pass." And when I was asked if it was my bike, I just said, "No." Canadian customs didsn't seem to think this was a problem...
Just about 6 miles north of the border, we're staying in the town of Oosoyoos (no one is sure how to actually spell that), with fantastic views of the lake right outside of our back balcony, and sunset now happening at about 9.20... Big day tomorrow, we've about 400 miles to cover, but should be some fantastic scenery as usual!
I was joking with Colin earlier, asking did he ever think he'd be on motorcycle tour where the women outnumbered the men?! we have 4 women, 3 men! we all had a laugh about that...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Rode through the Okanagan Valley, Nicole took us on some kick ass back roads along the Fraser River Valley, and through Spence's Bridge. Had lunch in Cache Creek, then bombed through the last 200 miles, had a total of around 400 miles today, but kick ass scenery and awesome weather again helped us not mind the long day at all!
Stayed overnight at the Sandman Hotel in Quesnal (which is allegedly pronounced Kay-nell, but i have my doubts...)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
A day off from our progress north, a good day for maintenance and errands. There's a Wal-Mart right behind the hotel so it was like a tourist destination for our Australian and British riders! They stocked up on candy and hair bands. Rob put heated hand grips on Val's bike to prepare for the cold days to come, being that she's australian and this is her first time riding in the rain, and accustomed to temperatures closer to 100 than 35! All of us met up at noon for a scenic ride into the historic gold-mining town of Barkerville, BC. We saw our first moose of the trip on the way in! A big dopey cow who didn't seem to know what to do with all the bikes whizzing by. Nicole got to ride two up with Rob on the way in, since we didn't need the support vehicle for our short 100 mile jaunt, which is her favorite thing to do since she's a big time snuggler.
Barkerville was better than everyone expected, they do such a great job there of preserving the town and making learning the history fun. We got there just in time for a town tour, which is presented as a journey through time, with guests acting as miners new to town, and various townspeople giving the tour. The actors were hilarious and made the whole tour a hoot. Afterwards the four ladies of the tour got a great photo of ourselver dressed up in old-timey clothes, good fun and a great opportunity to get out of those motorcycling clothes for a bit! When we finished taking photos we found the guys learning how to pan for gold from a four time world champion panner... none of the boys got gold fever though, but Nicole wanted a portable gold pan for her pannier for panning on the AlCan.
Thursday, Thursday, May 20, 2010
Quesnal to Dawson Creek, approximately 320 miles.
Fairly uneventful day, threatened rain all day, but didn't pour on us til the last 20 minutes, amazingly lucky considering all the massive puddles and we roads we encountered. Saw a massive bear and even some caribou! We arrive in Dawson Creek to some pretty gloomy and foreboding weather, but we've finally arrived at the start of the world famous Alaska Canada highway, the AlCan! We take a look at the visitors center, learning about the history of the highway, built after Pearl Harbor by the US Army as a supply route to connect Alaska to the contiguous states, where previously travel to Alaska was only accomplished by air, with a series of fuel depots through Canada.
Friday, Friday, May 21, 2010
Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson
Today, we're not so lucky with the weather... Snow day! cold, rainy, snowy, wind from every direction. temps from 33 to 36. Pretty much the worst conditions you could have and still be able to ride. Barely. But we all put on our best gear, put Hand warmers in every pocket and in the gloves, and soldiered on. No one takes the trailer option and rides along with the support vehicle, not even Shirley riding pillion! Maybe it's a testament to their toughness, maybe it's a signal about how much they don't want to ride with Rob all day :P
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Fort Nelson to Nugget City
We go from a crappy, freezing day previously to a perfect day, warm and perfectly sunny, great views, lots of wildlife sightings: rock sheep, caribou, bears and bears, Rob even claims to have seen a lynx from the bus window but i have my doubts...
Liard Hot Springs day, wherein we find out it's Victoria day weekend, so it adds a "crowd" in a normally secluded area with no population density, there must've been 30 people there! Oddly high securtiy at the hot springs , apparently there had been some trouble with people drinking heavily and breaking bottles, so i'm pretty sure they called in all 3 police in a 500 mile radius. everyone was super friendly while we were there though, and the water was nice and warm to help ease sore muscles, so we all figured we'd be able to throw our leg over the bike more easily after our soak.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Nugget City to Whitehorse
Today was a big time wildlife viewing day again, non stop bears, and i even saw the first bald eagle of the tour on my way into Whitehorse. Whitehorse is a fun old mining town, and a major stop along the Alcan, but we're exhausted from all of the phenomenal views so just have dinner and the Edgewater Hotel's fantastic restaurant before we drift off to sleep. Day "off" tomorrow for a ride into Skagway, only 240 miles round trip.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Day "off" in Whitehorse, side trip to Skagway
Today Rob joins our riding group for the jaunt into Skagway, our first foray onto Alaskan soil! Val opts to ride pillion with Rob today so she can take her eyes off the road and just take pictures instead, a suggestion she was trepidatious about at first but she turned out to love it! Rob has a ton of experience and provided a smooth and relaxing ride, and the ride into Skagway is world class, I was jealous that Val got to look around so much more than us! But I had the helmet cam working overtime to capture all the spectacular and amazing views, snow over the pass, with still and perfectly reflective lakes, finally dropping down into the town of Skagway, a picturesque port town with an amazing mountain backdrop. Of COURSE we saw more bears than we could shake a stick at, and one even ambled out into the road as Colin and Shirley were passing and almost had them off the bike. We got our first taste of the cruise ship crowd in Skagway, one had just arrived that morning and the crowds were a shock after the relative solitude of most of our ride. But the views and phenomenal twisty riding more than made up for all of that!
Tuesday and Wednesday, May 25 and 26
Whitehorse, YT to Tok, AK, and finally to Anchorage.
Alaska today!! yippee! On our penultimate day today, we cross into the US for the final time on this journey and we're safely on Alaskan soil, but first, a beautiful ride around the aptly named Destruction Bay, the bay still has icebergs floating around, so even though the air temp is around 65 and the sun is out, the breeze is brisk! The roads today keep you on your toes, with huge frost heaves, craters, cracks that look like they've been caused by an earthquake, and of course the ever-present bears on the road! We're starting to see more of an RV presence, but they seem to travel in packs so they're pretty easy to pass on the motorcycles! Rob ends up a bit behind us today because the bus with trailer needs to take these rough roads a lot slower than dual sport motorcycles. After crossing the US border, we wait for our whole group to get through and end up chatting with some Harley riders in the parking lot, one of them had crashed into a deer on the way up and messed up his front fender pretty well, a reminder about how much you need to stay alert when you're riding with that much wildlife.
We stay at Fast Eddies Motel in Tok tonight and order 3 "personal" pizzas, it turns out to be so much food we get some take away boxes and decide to have leftover pizza for lunch tomorrow! Rob will meet up with us at the glacier pull-out, heat it up in the bus microwave, give us some cold waters, sodas and appetizers, and we have our 3rd great inexpensive and amazingly scenic picnic lunch with the support vehicle. This is a great option on these long riding days, so we don't get out of our riding groove and we get to enjoy the scenery and fantastic weather.
For our first riding day in Alaska today, the weather is once again on our side and we get perfect views of the Wrangell St. Elias mountains range, all snow-capped. We just keep wondering how the views can get any better and around every bend we end up gape-mouthed with awe. The interesting move today is another climate change, we move from alpine short stubby trees barely blooming with spring, and end up dropping down into Anchorage which seems like a tropical paradise, lush green forests of birch and cottonwood, warm weather, no more icebergs on the lakes, with temps somewhere up around 75. It's great to be back in Alaska!
