Philly to Anchorage - Leaving May 21 on an F650GS

[JackB1]

Day 12– Monday, June 1, 2009
Start: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada
End: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
Trip Miles Today: 292
Total Trip Miles: 4357

For once I managed to sleep in a little later and didn’t actually get on the road until after 9. This following a nice breakfast at Bee Jays Truckstop, reputed to be the finest restaurant in all of Watson Lake.

When I rode out this morning it was already over 50 degrees (F) and it only got better from there. It was 75 (F) when I arrived in Whitehorse around 3:30PM, and sunny thoughout. Following two days of difficulty with weather, there was nothing but a few construction zones to inhibit progress today. Thankfully. Incredibly, after all the wildlife observed yesterday, I saw nothing in the way of interesting critters this entire day.

The ride today was almost directly westward through area dominated by hills and wide river valleys. The road follows, in sequence, the Rancheria River, the Swift River the Teslin River, then immediately before Whitehorse it crosses the Yukon. White capped mountains are seldom out of sight on this part of the route. Tonight’s layover, Whitehorse, is both the largest city in the Yukon and it’s capital. Whitehorse, at the headwaters of the Yukon River, played an important role in the region’s 1890s Gold Rush History. It was a stopover point for Stampeders who came overland from the Alaska Ports of Skagway and Dyea, 100 miles to the Southwest. After drying out and repacking their stuff most continued by steamboat to the gold fields further down the Yukon River. The area’s rich Gold Rush History colors many of the tourist attractions but there is much to see also in the way of scenery and wildlife. I personally enjoy the vistas at nearby Miles Canyon on the Yukon River.

I was surprised, and pleased to find a VERY nice new botique hotel, SKKY (www.skkyhotel.com), on the Alaska Highway just across from the Whitehorse Airport. A number of years ago, while on a flying adventure to Alaska, I had stayed at the old hotel on this site, the Airport Chalet or some such. The previous place was, to put it mildly, pretty dumpy. No so this place, only opened in February. Very nice place and very nice people. Rates are not out of line with the numerous lesser choices. I hope they make a go of it!

More pictures from today and from the entire ride to date can be seen at http://jackb1.smugmug.com/



Bee Jays Cafe - the best restaurant in Watson Lake??






AK highway under construction - not so bad after yesterday.


Miles Canyon near Whitehorse

This DC3 is the wind sock at the Whitehorse Airport (yes it actually turns on a big bearing!)

[BoochZilla]

How we doing? Whats the bear count? Let me know if you need anything.

Pics are awesome so far. I just got back from MotoGP in Mugello - back in the office if you need to touch base.

Two Wheels Down!

Anthony

[JackB1]

The actual bear count is up to 8 (saw 2 more today). The documented count is 4.


Bear #1


Bear #2 Running Away. This is a wussy bear!


Bears #3 & #4

[GSdiablo]

Whitehorse Airport.

Back in 1995 my NWA flight had to do a "stop" in White Horse, when we arrived the airport was closed. The locals came in and opened up the airport. The "locals" were great. The crabby people from the usa showed how spoiled we are on a 8 hour delay. (I was fine because there was a bar across the lot and we drank ) Nice start to my "haul road" trip. The first night(still hung over) my tent was flattened by 80 mile an hour sideways rain.
Welcome to the NW, not for wimps

[JackB1]

Day 13– Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Start: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
End: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
Trip Miles Today: 224
Total Trip Miles: 4581

For the first time in over a week I didn’t go anywhere today. Well, it’s not exactly that I didn’t go anywhere. Maybe we’ll just think of it as a “local” ride. What I did was that I got up nice and early and rode the 100 miles to Skagway, Alaska, then returned later in the afternoon to Whitehorse. I made that trip for a couple of reasons. First, the ride along the South Klondike Highway is as scenery packed as just about anywhere else I’ve been on the trip. High alpine peaks, mountain lakes and rivers, waterfalls, the Klondike has it all. Secondly, Skagway is a very cool place to spend a day (or part of a day.) Skagway was an important port of entry during the Alaska Gold Rush at the end of the 19^th century. Steamships came here from all the Pacific ports – Seattle, San Francisco, et al. Here the steamers discharged their gold stampeders, some 30,000 in the 1898 season, and they began their overland (and uphill!) trek to the headwaters of the Yukon River some 40 miles distant through the White Pass. Skagway today is basically a tourist destination that plies its Gold Rush heritage to good effect. As a deepwater port at the end of the Lynn Canal, Skagway is served by virtually all of the major cruise lines that offer Alaska tours. The ships come in as day stops. There were 4 of them docked in Skagway today. There is virtually no overnighting of tourist crowds here. The town comes alive with tourists about 8:00 am as the cruise patrons surge down the gangways and by about 8:00 in the evening it’s all back to a sleepy little town again as the cruise boats depart for their next destination North or South. Shopping, exploring the town’s history (an excellent visitor center), hiking, rafting, sightseeing, dining are all available. The third reason I cam here today is that good friends Don and Sandy Verdiani were on one of the cruise boats berthed in Skagway today. I went there to surprise them and to have breakfast before they headed out on their scheduled activities. Don and Sandy are the friends who will be joining my wife and I in Anchorage on Friday for our week touring as a foursome.

Riding over to Skagway also meant that I reentered the US and, in particular, Alaska for a few hours. So I guess I can now say I rode to Alaska. Still, there are some 700 miles to go till I get to my real destination which is Anchorage and the surrounding area. No claims of “mission accomplished” quite yet.

As you can tell from the pics, the weather was perfect – except for the part where it was really cold riding out there in the early morning hours. Like REALLY COLD! Like 28 degrees (F) in places. By the time I returned after noon it had warmed up mightily and it even got over 80 (F) this afternoon, so my discomfort was short lived.

I saw two more bears today. I saw one on the way over to Skagway and the other on the way back. Both Blacks, but they seemed bigger that the ones I saw the other day. Perhaps that’s just because I was closer to these guys. Each one was right adjacent to the side of the road! No pics, though. They ran away too quickly. I suppose that’s actually a good thing.

I’ve just checked the weather and it looks like the good stuff is going to hold for the next two days. That’s good. I’ve got about 700 miles to go and I am going to try to split it up as 400 miles tomorrow and 300 on Thursday. If that works out I should be in Tok, AK tomorrow night.


More pictures from today and from the entire ride to date can be seen at http://jackb1.smugmug.com/



Red Onion Saloon in Skagway, AK (also the Brothel Museum!!)




Tutshi Lake - Klondike Highway near Carcross, Yukon




Bove Island near Carcross, YT. Klondike Highway Northbound from Skagway.




Yukon Transportation Museum, Whitehorse

[JackB1]

Day 14– Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Start: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
End: Tok, Alaska
Trip Miles Today: 378
Total Trip Miles: 4959

Day 14 will be fondly remembered as the day of poorer road conditions and construction zones. However, the day started out on a somewhat odd note. I departed Whitehorse with no drama and was happily sailing along, some 50 miles down the road when I noticed that the gas gauge was WAY down – like already only a quarter of a tank left. This with another 50 miles to go to the next available fuel at Haines Junction! My heart sort of skipped a beat (or two!) as I went through, in my mind, what the problem could be. Maybe the fuel gauge has failed….seems unlikely to fail in this mode. Maybe the engine controller is in some sort of default mode where it goes full rich…nah, the bike’s running too good, and there is no sort of indication of any problem in the dash. Geez, maybe the fuel tank is split and the fuel’s spilling overboard……stopped, checked, no leaking fuel! Then it came to me. The problem is that I am a moron, and I had neglected to fill the tank last night after returning from Skagway. Whew. I had pondered how I could complete the trip with some sort of failure that allowed me only to go 100 miles at a time and it wasn’t a pretty scenario. Good thing the problem is simply that I am an incompetent.

Anyway beautiful weather prevailed and the main thing to be said about today is that the condition of the roadway North of Whitehorse, and especially after Burwash Landing and the Kluane area is dramatically inferior the that of the highway further South. I also spent probably 25 miles in construction zones today – loose gravel, hard packed gravel, and mud. It’s really not so bad if one maintains a reasonable speed but the worst is the trucks and buses, all going too fast, and pelting the bike and I with rocks. Thank heavens for lexan visors. I mentioned that the road was bumpy with uneven patches, holes, frost heaves and hollows. The highway department tries to mark some of the big ones with red flags and cones but there are so many that it is easy to become numbed to their existence. Also, they clearly can’t/don’t mark them all. Be advised - if there is a red flag there is probably a bump. If there is no red flag, you cannot assume there is no bump!

The route today takes you through several regions. Most of the remaining portion of the route in Yukon continues in the same wide river valleys and around lakes in the same fashion as prior to arriving in Whitehorse. As before, snow capped peaks are not far away and almost always in sight Then, getting closer to the Alaska border the character of much of the terrain changes to large marshes, ponds, and swamps (as well as, no doubt, this year’s bumper crop of mosquitoes.) This is the kind of place where you would expect to see moose, which I did. He was a huge bull just grazing through one of those innumerable ponds. Sadly, he was too far away to get a worthwhile picture. The other wildlife sighting of the day was a very large porcupine which crossed the road in front of me, then stopped and ran alongside for as long as he could. He was a bigger animal than I expected him to be, and another critter that I had never before seen in the wild.

Rode just short of 400 miles today and will finish up the remaining 300 miles to Anchorage tomorrow. The bike has developed this cute little “thing” where it likes to stall at idle. I believe it has something to do with fuel tank venting as now, whenever I open the fuel tank to fill it there is a substantial vacuum in the tank. Just got off the phone with the BMW dealer in Anchorage and he is going to take the bike in on Friday and see what he can do with that as well as do a 6000 mile service while I am in town. Other than that, all is well and I look forward to completion of this northbound portion of the ride tomorrow and errands in Anchorage on Friday. I’m warming up to the idea of not riding for a few days and simply being a “tourist” like so many others I have met on the trip.


More pics from today and the rest of the trip at http://jackb1.smugmug.com/




Today's Theme



Today's most common scenic view




World's Largest Gold Pan, Burwash Landing, YT



Starting to get a bit dirty, are we?

[JackB1]

Day 15– Thursday, June 4, 2009
Start: Tok, Alaska
End: Anchorage, Alaska
Trip Miles Today: 364
Total Trip Miles: 5323

Well, the weather held on for one more day and I was able to complete the Northbound segment of my ride to Alaska without having to crawl in to my rain gear a final time. While I did have times of cold and wet, I really don’t think I could have hoped for any better at this time of year, in this place!

The 364 miles today was pretty straightforward. South from Tok Junction on the Tok Cutoff, briefly to the Richardson Highway, then to the Glenn Highway into the Anchorage area. This is Alaska Route 1 the entire way and it would be hard to get lost. The scenery is pretty non-descript for the first 50 miles or so but then you get an excellent look at the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and the Wrangell Mountains – most notably Mt. Sanford at over 16,000 feet. After the turn onto the Glenn Highway at Glenallen, most of what can be seen is the glaciated North side of the Chugach Mountains and this range remains in view all the way into Anchorage as the highway follows the Matanuska River Valley. I did make the side trip up to the Hatcher Pass, above Palmer as The Hatcher Pass was the symbolic goal for my charity raising activities for the Austin Hatcher Foundation. Fortunately the weather was decent as it can still be pretty nasty this early in the season.

As has been the case throughout, the bike ran just fine, though it did do its little idle die-out trick a couple of times. Tomorrow it will be deposited at the BMW dealer in Anchorage for the motorcycle version of a week at the spa. I probably need to pick up on a couple of pieces of equipment too, notably a replacement for the heated vest that failed, a new bungee cargo net (you know that tag that says "do not over stretch?" Believe it. I think I also could use some sort of oversized "foot" for the sidestand - i've had some troule on softer touchdown points and it's only a matter of time!. We'll have to see what's available for the F650GS. It's not like a R12GS where everything in the world is commonly available.

No recent day would be complete without the mention of wildlife. An early morning highlight was a very good look at a moose, up close and personal. A large cow (shown in the pictures) was grazing on the right side of the road. The good news is that I saw her in time because apparently my movement, or light, or noise, caused her to do the obvious thing – move into the road directly in front of me. Oh well, it makes for great photo ops! These animals are not PhD candidates. I did see one other moose standing in a lake well off the side of the road. However, THE most amazing sighting came at about 4:00 PM, inside the city limits of Anchorage and not a mile from the International Airport. I was sitting at a stoplight, amongst all the other cars, and here come a moose mommy and her two calves walking slowly and deliberately up the median. This sort of thing is not seen very often in the part of the world where I live!

I sit here tonight asking myself how it went by so fast. It was 15 days, and 5323 miles ago, that I was standing in the surf at Ocean City, NJ. When I checked in to my hotel this evening I felt tired, the normal result of a long hard uphill push. Less than an hour later, though, I found myself with maps spread on the bed – contemplating the return trip and how to make it a worthy partner to the northbound trip I completed today. I am both somewhat weary, but amped up at the idea of a return that follows a different route and is longer yet! I achieved all the goals I set out for myself for this segment. I arrived at the Hatcher Pass, in the Talkeetna Mountains, just north of here, near Palmer, with a minimum of fuss. This completed the “Hatcher Foundation to the Hatcher Pass” element of my trip which has been so important to me as a fund raising activity for The Austin Hatcher Foundation. In fact it was made even more fun when I added a visit to Austin, Minnesota and the Spam Museum so I could call it the Austin (Mn.) to Hatcher (Pass, AK) ride. OK, maybe only fun for simple minds like my own. I was also able to accommodate one of my most important supporters, RevZilla Motorsports, by being able to also claim “RevZilla to Wasilla.” I was, however, mightily disappointed this afternoon, as I stood on Main Street in Wasilla, and discovered that I could not actually see Russia. Perhaps if I were a little taller.

I do not intend to do daily entries as I spend the next 10 days or so traveling with my wife, Lisa, and friends Don and Sandy Verdiani. I may make entries from time to time but, not to worry, I will be back to a (hopefully) daily entry to cover my return trip starting on or about Tuesday June 16.

More pictures from today ride, as well as from the entire ride can be seen at http://jackb1.smugmug.com










Big, kinda dumb animal!




At the top of the Hatcher Pass (Talkeetna Mtns near Palmer) for the Austin Hatcher Foundation





RevZilla goes to Wasilla!

[1P8RIOT]

I'm glad you're having a good time and all is going well for you. I'm following your report as I'm leaving from Los Angeles on the 23rd. Great report and pictures. Maybe I'll run into you on my way up. If I do, the first round is on me Enjoy your "time off" and safe travels

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by 1P8RIOT

I'm glad you're having a good time and all is going well for you. I'm following your report as I'm leaving from Los Angeles on the 23rd. Great report and pictures. Maybe I'll run into you on my way up. If I do, the first round is on me Enjoy your "time off" and safe travels

Rockin cool! Keep me posted on your route and timing. Good chance we'll cross paths and I'd go most anywhere for a free beer! Thanks for lookin' in!
Jack

[XPLORZ]

Great report! Yep, thats two thumbs up.

Please keep us posted on the solution that the dealer comes up with for the stalling problem. We will be heading that direction starting the 19th or 20th and the wife will be on her new F650GS.

[GISdood]

Hey Jack,

Just stumbled across this RR this morning... great job with the pics and text so far! Just wanted to wish you safe travels and let you know you've got a PM coming with my contact info. If you plan on overnighting in Prince George on your south, we've got a spare room and plenty of space. I'd love to be able to help out, even if its just a free warm meal, a cold beer, and a place to crash. Safe travels!

~GIS

[JackB1]

Well, the "tourist" part of my trip is over and I'll be getting back on the road this morning. Headed out from Anchorage to hop on the AK highway for the even longer trip back to Pennsylvania. Regular trip reports coming again beginning tonight! Jack

[BoochZilla]

Looking forward to the report on the return trip Jack!

Two Wheels Down Baby!

Anthony

Originally Posted by JackB1

Well, the "tourist" part of my trip is over and I'll be getting back on the road this morning. Headed out from Anchorage to hop on the AK highway for the even longer trip back to Pennsylvania. Regular trip reports coming again beginning tonight! Jack

[JackB1]

Day 27 - Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Start: Anchorage, Alaska
End: Tok, Alaska
Trip Miles Today: 317
Total Trip Miles: 5902

Once again, the game is on! I departed Anchorage this morning under partly cloudy skies on the first leg of the trip to home, to Malvern, PA. Ordinarily there is something distinctly anticlimactic about a return trip. That’s doubly true in this case as the first three travel days will be exactly the reverse of my northbound journey. So, today’s leg was Anchorage to Tok, AK via the Glenn and Richardson Highways and the Tok cutoff. Tok is my entry point for the Alaska Highway southbound. Despite the lack of scenery surprises (I’m seen it all before) there were several very unexpected highlights to this day. Sure I got another look at the Wrangell-St Elias Range and also the glaciers on the North side of the Chugach Mountains. In many ways the scenery looked were better than 1 ½ weeks ago because as I went along today the weather only got better and better. By mid afternoon it was mostly sunny and 70 degrees (F) so I actually did get more really good photos this time through the area. However it was those unexpected elements that served to make today special.

So how often do you see a Bentley Automobile? I’d have to say not very often and I’d wager that anyone who is reading would say much the same thing. Bentleys - stately, expensive, rare. So all that being said, who would have expected to see over 30 classic and vintage Bentleys cruising along my route today? That’s exactly what I got. Over 30 Bentleys being driven to their overnight stop in Tok, AK as part of the 2009 Bentley Drivers Club Canada-Alaska Tour. Some of the cars date to the 1920s, there are a number from the 30s and the newest that I’ve seen “only” date to the 60s. The event started in Vancouver several weeks ago and I’ve tripped over the group as they make their return from Anchorage. It looks like we’ll be on the same route for the next couple of days….Tok to Whitehorse….Whitehorse to Watson Lake, YT. I’ve personally spoken to entrants from England, Australia, and Switzerland and I’m told there are others. The Bentley Drivers Club is an International organization that stages several International rallies like this per year. Seems the members just ship their cars to wherever in the world an event is being staged. This is obviously an avocation for the “Leisure class.” To read more about this event go to http://www.bentleyalaska.com The cars are WAY COOL and these people drive then pretty hard!

The other unexpected highlight today was aviation related. First, let me back up to last weekend. Over the weekend, on TV and radio, we kept hearing about some substantial military exercises that were being commenced in the South Central Alaska area. Mostly the PR was to make people aware of the potential for sonic booms (Cool!), lots of military aircraft activity and the like. OK. This morning, about mid morning, while still following the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska River Valley, I happened to look up just in time to see two Air Force C-17 Transports flying the river valley, directly toward me, and not 500 feet in the air! Those suckers look huge at that altitude! Of course, they were gone before I could dig the camera out of the tank bag and fire it up. Nonetheless, a very neat sighting – right up there with seeing bears (which I did not today!)

Several people have asked about my return route. As mentioned, I’ll take the Alaska Highway at least as far as Watson Lake, YT. At that time I’ll make a decision whether I’ll go south to Prince George via the Cassiar Highway or continue on The Alaska Highway to Dawson Creek, BC and then go south to Prince George from there. I’m mostly waiting to seen on weather and road conditions, though the fact that this Bentley Group plans to take the Cassiar complicates things a bit as they have the ability to absorb nearly all the hotel rooms in some of these tiny towns. I’ve got a couple of days to sort that out. In any case I’ll get to Prince George, and then continue southbound to re enter the US near Seattle. After that I’ll be headed for Oregon and only then begin to head East via a, as yet, mostly undetermined route.

I’ve also had inquiries regarding the stalling issue with the bike. The bike was in the BMW Dealer in Anchorage (The Motorcycle Shop) for a week while I traveled with my wife and friends. Upon my return and following pickup the bike has performed flawlessly. The idle is stable, as it was when new, and I’ve had no stalling issues in the first 500 miles of riding. The dealer was pretty evasive about what they did but talked about lines to the vacuum canister. The fact that there is a 40+ page thread on ADV Rider regarding a whole of litany of issues as I described makes me believe that there is a real issue and apparently dealers know what to do with it. In any case, the problem is fixed – at least for now.

I’m in kind of a reflective mood tonight as it’s my last night in Alaska (for now!) but tomorrow, in any case, it’s off to Whitehorse. That will be a nearly 400 mile day through the crappiest (and most construction intensive) portion of the Alaska Highway so I’ll be glad to get tomorrow behind me. I hope the weather holds!



Matanuska Glacier












Always more pics at http://jackb1.smugmug.com

[JackB1]

Day 28 - Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Start: Tok, Alaska
End: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
Trip Miles Today: 384
Total Trip Miles: 6286

Well, my trip is now over 6000 miles and counting. Not exactly “epic” in the classic sense but pretty epic by my standards. I’m pretty sure that I’ll break 11,000 miles by the time I return home and 12K is not out of the question. Every epic with which I’m familiar has the protagonist engaged in battle with forces that try to undo him. Like that day, two weeks ago, when I crossed Summit Pass in the freezing rain and slush, I found today to again be a battle against the elements. The elements today consisted mostly of road conditions and a bit of weather thrown in for good measure. As I mentioned during the Northbound leg of the trip, the 125 miles from the Alaska-Canada border to the East end of Kluane Lake in the Yukon, is the area in most disrepair and the area with the majority of construction activity on any portion of the highway. When re-entering Canada this morning the construction zones were already on my mind but, unprovoked, the nice lady at Canadian Customs advised “be really careful in the construction zones, we’ve had several bikers down in the past few days.” As if I needed reminding. Basically these construction zones (5 of ‘em in the first 125 miles–varying in length from 3 to 8 miles) are where the old paved road has been completely torn out and a dirt/gravel/mud path takes their place. Sometimes there is 2 way traffic and sometimes it’s one lane only with either flagmen or pilot cars. Also, the condition varies from very hard, stable dirt with embedded stone to something that is like a slurry of pea gravel and mud. The pea gravel-stone-mud ones are the worst, especially just after rain or the water truck has come through to keep the dust down! This mushy stuff is just waiting to toss unwary motorcyclists. The first construction zone after crossing into Canada is the very worst for these conditions. I came pretty close to dumping the bike but judicious throttle application saved the day. Others were not so fortunate. Late in the day I spoke to some German Tourists, riding 2 up on a Moto Guzzi, and they had laid the bike down in that very area. Like the Canadian Customs Lady said “be VERY careful in the construction zones.” On top of the fun of customs and unstable road surfaces, I got pretty well doused with rain in the area around the aptly named “Destruction Bay” (named by Alaska Highway road builders in 1942 when, while building the first highway, some mega storm came along and trashed everything.) Not only did I get doused but, when the storm came up the temperature dropped down to 40 deg. (F) for almost an hour. Good thing that I had the foresight to put on my NEW heated vest which works flawlessly!

The route today was simply to go nearly 400 miles down the Alaska Highway. No turns, no side trips. Just pounding out miles. Still contemplating what to do for a route to Prince George – Cassiar Highway or Alaska Highway to Dawson Creek, then over the Yellowhead to Prince George. Cassiar Highway is about 100 miles shorter and reputedly has better scenery, but has some unpaved stretches 20 miles or so in length and less in the way of services – lodging, gas, etc. I sure would like to run into some riders who have come up the Cassiar to see what they have to say about the condition of the road. I'm also less that totally impressed by the OEM Bridgestone Battle Wings performance in the mushy stuff. If I were to do this again tomorrow I'd fit up something a little better suited. Anakees? Hmmm. In any case I’ll have to make a decision about the Cassiar after tomorrow. We’ll see.

That’s about the story of today. I’m holed up in my absolute favorite hotel of the whole trip, the SKKY Hotel in Whitehorse. Hope I can get some more sleep that last night. Here’s a travel hint for everyone. Don’t stay in hotels occupied mostly by construction workers especially if there is a bar nearby. Noisy crowd, they. I've also been checking for places a day or two down the road and am finding rooms way harder to get than when I was Northbound 2-3 weeks ago. Height of the travel season I guess. All those campers, pickups, and cars headed northbound and chucking rocks at me in the construction zones obviously need places to sleep too.






Near Northway, AK. Looking Southward from AK Highway.





Big Storm brewin' near Destruction Bay.


German tourists 2-up on a Moto Guzzi California



There are always more pictures at http://jackb1.smugmug.com