Month: June 2012

In a couple of hours I set off to Tok before driving the ‘Top of the World Highway‘ to Dawson City the following day. I’m quite looking forward to getting going again and, as the tour leader says, it’s all down hill from here.

I’ve enjoyed my time in Fairbanks and am left with quite a few happy memories. Most of these center around the openness, friendliness and helpfulness of all the Americans I met. Not one has been curt or impatient with me and most have gone out of there way to help – little things like when shopping for some stuff in Safeway I was asked if I had my discount card which reduced the cost by a third. When I said I hadn’t because I was an English visitor, the checkout girl said, “Well we’ll use my father’s then”. A similar thing happened in a ‘liquor’ store where somebody in the que let me use theirs. And when I asked a bus driver how much a fare was he asked if I was over sixty (not sure how to take that) and then said my trip was for free! These are petty examples but indicative ones.

The weather has been great here but it’s light nearly 24/7. Last night we walked back from the campus ‘pub’ at 11.30 and it was broad daylight! Weird,

I’ve walked round a couple of large American chain stores – Fred Meyer and Sears – and formed the view that choice was slightly greater than the UK (though not a lot) and prices similar if not more expensive.

Well there isn’t a lot more to say other than two guys gave up halfway down the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe bay because the weather was atrocious and from the other six who made it I got various stories about the trip’s value though the most honest was that there wasn’t much if anything to see (on route or while there) and the mosquitoes were immense (size and quantity) – but they felt it important to be able to say they’ve done it!

PS I probably won’t post again for two days until I get to Dawson City.

David Beckham hasn’t been chosen for the British Olympic football team. Common sense prevails at last. Perhaps he and his idiot wife will now just disappear to America not to be heard of again!! My ride down South feels easier already.

PS Put a new photo of the day up. One I forgot about – the traffic girl in Hyder with gun in case of bears!

PPS Very relaxed day today doing very little. Am going to have dinner tonight with an American teacher (retired male) who Symon and I met earlier and who is very keen to spend time with some Europeans. Should also mention that when buying a new bulb for my headlight earlier I found myself in the close proximity of two guys who are either auditioning to be the seriously bad guys in a film or are serious bad guys – they also drove a classic broken down hotted up sports car if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t like to meet them in a dark alley ………………….

I’m increasingly pleased with my decision not to go to Prudhoe because; a) last night, with a couple of guys on the tour, having watched a recently posted YouTube video about some people taking a car up there this May: I was reminded how dirty and unsightly the road and the towns on it are, b) some ‘me’ time just chilling and looking around an American City/Town was needed and c) my cold necessitated some rest.

So, today I started off by getting some money and exchanging it for Canadian dollars. Getting the American money was easy but in a Wells Fargo bank I was met with a very polite teller saying only account holders could exchange US dollars for foreign currency. I then tried a smaller local bank and was told the same plus that nowhere in Fairbanks could meet my demand! By this time the manager had come over to see what was going on and after me switching on the charm (yes it exists) she said she’d make an exception for me ……………….. I also looked around a ‘Sears’ where for any red blooded male the tool section is to die for.

Everywhere I’ve been I’ve been met with incredible friendliness and courtesy plus nobody seems in a rush. The food is also great and well priced: A very nice Thai meal last night and some Sushi tonight. I’m now retiring to bed with a beer and my Kindle plus a couple of Aspirins.

I’m ensconced in a nice room at the University of Alaska campus in Fairbanks (the second largest city in Alaska). I’ve had my morning coffee, been to the supermarket to get some supplies and am thinking about eating now: Everybody here is really nice and friendly. PS The skies were blue and the temperature in the mid twenties centigrade until an hour ago when it started to rain. Oh well the bike needed a clean.

Somehow I’ve got a cold – passed on by room mate me thinks, so the thought of six days R & R here seems very appealing, especially after a 500 mile ride to get here yesterday. That’s the equivalent of London to Aberdeen just to cover a small bit of the Yukon and a small bit of Alaska!

During the first 100 miles of yesterday’s ride the views were outstanding – see pictures. Then it all flattened out until the US border after which and for the last 100 or so miles to Fairbanks you could have been anywhere in Europe – just gentle lush greenery everywhere. I rode on my own for the last 100 miles as there is a real danger of the trip just turning into a race from point a to b each day without time to see the scenery stop to rest etc etc. Indeed this issue has become a talking point by about half the group who are about to declare ‘UDI’ and start doing there own thing. For instance, when the group returns from Prudhoe Bay the next mileage is nearly 400 miles to Dawson City. the last 160 miles of this is the Taylor Highway which, for its last 100 miles is mainly an unmade road with epic scenery i.e. you want to ride it slowly and to stop and see things. Not confront it at the end of a hard day when you’re tired and in a rush because it’s getting late.

My roommate has agreed with my suggestion that the previous day, a rest day for the group after Prudhoe Bay, we take a leisurely ride to Tok  which is 200 miles away and at the start of the Taylor Highway: Then we spend the night there and do the Taylor Highway slowly the following day. I suspect one or two others may join us and that this may set a precedent for the future.

One guy went on the group leader’s first trip over America about two years ago. He said that exactly the same mutiny occurred then with people getting a bit fed up with just riding vast distances quickly and missing all the sights as they sped past. Interesting.

So, now I chill for a while and then start planning to get a bit more out of the trip as I may never do another one like it.

Oh, before I finish, I came upon a huge Grizzly bear by the side of the road yesterday – he was big – and a coyote and a Caribou. Wildlife spotting is looking up a little.

Rode 400 miles from Watson Lake to Haines Junction today and while the scenery is stunning, I find myself crying out to see a town and people. You can have a bit much of forests, lakes and mountains.

About two days ago I finally made the firm decision not to go to Prudhoe Bay but to spend four days in Fairbanks while the others rode there and back – another 1k miles in total. This wasn’t a decision based on fearing travelling the Dalton Highway – which gets talked of as one of the world’s most dangerous roads. The reality is the Dalton is paved for half its distance and tightly packed dirt for the other half. In the summer and in the dry it’s a pretty normal road (that’s what all the Harley riders we meet say), it’s just not so nice in winter with thick snow etc etc. Any case my decision was met with interest by my fellow travellers and it is clear that quite a few of them think I’m not stupid as the Dalton is through boring permafrost scenery and at Prudhoe, which is an oil company town, you are restricted as to where you can go and what you can see. Indeed you can’t get access to the sea!

So, tomorrow is a longgggggggg ride to Fairbanks – 500 miles. Me, my roommate and a one or two others are setting of at about 6am and just intend to do a steady ride all day stopping every 100 miles or so for a leg stretch and something to drink and eat.

The temperature here gets up to late 20 degrees c in the early evening and the skies have been blue and we haven’t had any rain – I hope I’m not tempting providence? In short the weather has been great and a few people we’ve met coming up from the USA say it’s raining there!

The tour leader who hopes to sell this tour big time to bikers is clearly using us as guinea pigs – while he’s done this trip before he hasn’t taken a group on it. And already it is clear that he realises the days are just too long on the road. But there isn’t a lot he can do about it now apart from put a brave face on.

But I mustn’t give the impression I’m not enjoying it. I am. But it is tiring. Of to bed now.

We set off from Hyder at 8am. After entering Canada – Hyder’s on the border – we drove through a small town and then rode for 150 miles without seeing any habitation and only a few vehicles! Indeed for the next 250 miles we passed no towns or hamlets and just a very few motels and petrol stations. All we saw was massive lakes, massive mountains and massive forests. My motorbike friends may joke about the enormous petrol tank on my bike but they wouldn’t if they were out here!

Not sure what I think about Canada. The people are friendly and the prices of things OK, but its vastness and desolateness makes it only suitable for a certain kind of person I guess – suspect that’s why most of its population just live in a few cities mainly on the East coast. Also the wild life seems to be in hiding as far as I’m concerned. Just one moose today! I also wonder if it’s a bit over hyped for you see people casually cycling around miles from anywhere without a care in the World?

Tomorrow we chug towards Alaska – again. 400 miles to Haines Junction: Oh, by the way, I’m currently in the Yukon at Watson Lake and riding through the Yukon all tomorrow. By tomorrow night we’ll have done nearly 3000 miles and be quite near the half way point which, frankly, I’m looking forward to. The jury’s still out as to whether I’ll do the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. I’ll more or less definitely do the first 250 miles of it to Wiseman but after that its 250 miles of packed dirt road!

Indeed the roads are surprisingly good over here – please touch wood for me. A couple of guys were here 3 years ago and both are surprised how much new road has been laid. Let’s hope it continues.

I’m staying in weird place tonight, ‘The Airforce Lodge’, which is the last remaining one of its type. It’s a prefabricated building designed to house American transit pilots who flew new American war planes to Fairbanks where they gave them to Russian pilots who flew them on to Russia and used them to fight the Germans in WW2. Apparently there were thousands of these lodges the caretaker said – this one has been completely refurbished. Quite an irony that the caretaker is a good German from Hannover!