Day 1: 7/16/06
Well going to Alaska on a motorcycle has always been a dream trip of mine. But unfortunetly my job will only give me two weeks of freedom. Sure I could have "Ironed Assed" my trip, but I wanted a real vacation with some real R & R time. So, I hooked up with "Alaska Rider Tours"
http://www.akrider.com/news.html and they set me up on a 2004 KLR 650 for eight days. Eight days that I wouldn`t have had if I rode my own bike to Alaska. I was so extremely excited. I got to AK Riders soon has they opened for business. They had my rental bike freshly washed and ready to roll. I was also pleasently surprised because the bike ran like a champ. Phil Freeman, the owner of AK Riders was even helpfull in getting me some extra tie down straps that he called "boat straps". I packed up my bike and was ready to hit the road. At Alaska Rider Tours you can even UPS yourself your equipment so you wouldn`t have to carry it on the plane, and that`s what I did.
I think I packed too much crap? But it was everything I needed for eight days and being on my own. So off I went. I met up with a few other ADV. Riders from this site just north of Anchorage and I showed them how NOT to mount a fully loaded bike
. They rode with me to Eureka Road House on the Glenn Highway and they bought me lunch
. Thanks!
We said our goodbye`s and off they went back to Anchorage. Now I`m completely on my own. I promptly jumped on my bike and headed east to Valdez,AK. Fantastic scenery!!
The Worthington Glacier.
Up on the Thompsons Pass, I ran into some very ugly weather. It was so foggy (I was in the clouds) and I couldn`t even see my hand in my face, it was raining, and seriously cold. There was no way I was going to camp at the Blueberry campgrounds has planned, so I proceeded onto Valdez having no idea what to expect. While taking a photo of Bridal Falls (waterfall) a white truck come up behind me screeching to a halt then does a 180 and tears out of there (Starky & Hutch manuever). What the heck was that about?
I finally got to Valdez about 9:30 pm and found a $21 dollar campground
that would let me pitch my tent. There were other riders there too. All on Goldwings from Minnesota.