My First Alaska motorcycle trip
In July of 2006, after traveling for four
days from Duluth Minnesota and driving about 14 hours a day for 2800 miles in
the rain, I got here to
Skagway Ferry in Alaska on Wed. evening about 6:30 PM
(9:30 PM central time) and discovered that the only ferry to travel over to
Haines by
water left at 2:30 the next morning and there would be no more until
the next Sunday. Good timing on my part and glad I covered from
12-14
hours each day to get there when I did. So I hung around there
in the rain (it had rained nearly my whole trip except for one day) yuk!
and by
9 PM they opened the doors to the ferry office so I could buy a ticket
and get my bike (a 1985 Kawasaki 1300 Voyager 6 cylinder fuel injected)
in the
proper line to load the ferry and then went inside the building to try to wait
out the next few hours. Anyway, it was still an adventurous trip
with just a
few possible accidents that the Lord helped me to avoid. I had to
dodge around a herd of wild buffalo on the road through the mountains
and even
a number of huge elk. I am glad I am a good steerer and defensive
driver! One group of elk came at me across the road at a full run and I
couldn't have stopped with the timing, but the Lord caused a split between the
first two and I drove through it with my bike, maneuvering keenly at
high speed
and missed them all. The buffalo herd I saw from a distance and it
was quite obvious I was going to have to stop since the biggest one
was guarding
the road in the middle.
I stopped short of
him and wondered if he was the type who would permit me to photo him for free
and then I got my answer when he looked like
he was going to charge..... but
then I offered to give him a few bucks, but all he was obviously interested in
were the does.....so I took his picture
anyway and then slowly slithered by him
at slow speed. I had a yearling elk try to race me later along the
shoulder but I throttled on and out distanced
him so he wouldn't run across my
path. He crossed the road right behind me... my bike ran wonderfully
the whole way except for a reoccurring kill
switch problem that I have got
cornered down to an intermittent kill switch relay, which I think I can replace
down the road sometime. The highest
price for gas I had to pay was
$1.50/liter which is about $4.50/gal Canadian. What a Rip off! The lowest was
in Floodwood, Minnesota for $2.81/gal.
I ran into heavy moths in Saskatuan for
about 8 hours and they were thick! They bloodied my windshield and
bike terribly so that I had to stop often
to clean the windshield to be able to
see.
Hwy 43 west was a good
four-laner across Alberta, but it ended abruptly into a mud trail (suitable for
only four wheels) and I had to take a 100 mile
detour to get around
it. I also took another 100 mile detour around Edmonton, Alberta,
since it was recommended to me by a tourist information
center representative
that I would be entering it during rush hour traffic and it might be very
dangerous for me with a bike in the rain...it rained all but
about
12 hours during my four day trip split apart by a few days...so I was glad
I brought my rainproof riding suit...... The Alaskan highway 97 was
a wonderful highway...very smooth and fairly bump free. The roads
through British Columbia were roller coaster type with bumps and rises from
frost
heaves every 20 feet which often nearly made me jump in the air
sometimes.
I camped the first night in
a small city camping park deep in a valley along a river for $6 for the
night. It stormed and rained hard all night and I got
pretty wet
even inside my tent. Before the rain started I walked up to the
center of the town where I was told the pay phone was but couldn’t find
it.
I had noticed an older couple out cutting their grass on my way
up there and decided to be brave and ask them for directions to the phone and
it had
already started raining by now. The kind beautiful woman
invited me inside her home and offered to let me use her phone to call as many
people as I
needed for nothing and then even insisted on driving me back to my
camp spot about a half mile away. I don't doubt she was an angel
sent from God
to assist me there....she was so sweet and had this angelic glow
about her...and she was so beautiful.....said she had just turned 50 but looked
more like
30....I thanked her profusely for her kindness when she let me off at
the door to my tent and then she replied, "When you help others, you get
back
1000 fold..so I am not worried.”
In the morning the sky had
cleared up and it was all blue but I had barely slept due to the constant
dripping of water on my body all night that I had
tried to limit by sticking my
head under the sleeping bag and letting the bag get wet instead of
me. I woke by 5 AM and it was not yet light, but I could
stand the
wet no longer. I packed my wet stuff and started my bike up and
tried to go but the grass I was on was so slick with rain that I spun out and
dumped the bike sideways with all of the weight on it. It wasn't
damaged, although I couldn't lift it back up to the upright position by myself
at its
weight of 900 lbs plus, so I had to unload everything, remove all of the
trunks and side bags to lighten the load and then with Herculean strength that
even surprised me, I was able to get it upright enough to put the stand down
again to hold it up. After I got my breath back, I started it back
up and
drove it across the slippery grass stretch onto the road, where I
reloaded everything back up. As I got to the gate on the end of the
driveway, I noticed
that it was still locked and I imagined that the office
people wouldn't be up yet for another 3 hours and I hated to wait so I found a
skinny spot around
the gate that I still fit the bike though and slithered up
the slight embankment and got out anyway.
I went picking blueberries in
the mountains yesterday after I got a nap in and we got about 2 gallons in a
few hours, ('bout the same size as store bought
tame ones, although a bit
tarter than I am used to) but it was still raining so it was a bit of a challenge
keeping upright on the slippery roots and working
around the huge downed trees
that the berry plants love to grow by. It was a very disappointing
view from up on the mountain since it was so cloudy
you couldn't see
anything. It was still raining, and that made it a bit more
difficult but then the mosquitoes weren't venturing out to feast on us as we
picked either, so that was a plus after all. But I guess
it's supposed to clear up by Monday so I can get some good pics around
then. Saw a grizzly
bear yesterday while driving back down the
mountain after picking berries. Glad we were in the truck!
The roads in British Columbia
are so rough and sharp that my cycle tires are shot for a trip home so I have
to order some and have them shipped to a
Honda shop in Whitehorse, Yukon
Territory, far north Canada, about 251 miles drive from Haines which I will
stop at on my way home and have them
both replaced on my way back by the end of
the month.
My last stop before arriving
at the ferry to go over to Haines, I had slept at a place called Toad River
where they had a huge collection of hats on the
ceiling...hundreds of them….
When I used the pay phone to
call in my location to my friends in Haines, an older couple came in and then
after when I said “Hi” to them, they had
said they had overheard me saying on
the phone that I hadn't had much opportunity to read my Bible since it was so
rainy and dark and their ears had
perked up. They asked me if I
was Christian and I affirmed that and then they informed me that they were
pastors in Anchorage at a full gospel church
there and knew about the Assembly
of God church in Superior, Wisconsin.
When I finally arrived in
Skagway, Alaska to take the ferry, I parked near an RV out from which came a
nice man and invited me inside for some hot
tea and a chance to warm
up. I talked with them for hours. They were from Seattle,
Wash. and he was a retired electrical systems guy. He was very
smart! He had designed and built his own hydroelectric plant behind his home
from a waterfall and was able to power his whole home (37 amps at
240 volts) and have enough left over to sell back to the power co. so they
didn't even have a bill at the end of any month. He had also hooked
up a
solar panel to power his storage batteries on his RV so he didn't even
have to plug in when he stopped anywhere. His wife was concerned
that if he
died, she wouldn't know how to fix anything that broke since it was
all automated in her home and RV and asked if she could call me. I
said that would
be fine, but I would have to add a surcharge for travel
expenses…..
Along the way, I had met
another couple from Chicago who were traveling to Prince Rupert Island just
north of Washington who planned to take the
ferry there. I told them
that the ferry schedule was not as advertised and only ran on particular days
and they had better make it there with me that night
or they would have to wait
again until Sunday to go. They showed up about 3 hours after I did
and I was relieved to see them get there safe. The rough
part of the trip down
the mountain (through White Pass) was that the clouds were so low that they
hung around the mountain and you couldn't see
more than a few feet ahead of you
and on a bike, that is scary since you can't always see where the road edge is
and if you make a mistake you drop
off the edge 100’s of feet to the rocks
below.....well I drove about 5-10 mph with my emergency flashers on and had to
stand up on the pegs to look
over the windshield to see through the thick
droplets that kept covering my view, but my glasses got fogged up then, so it
was not fun. The view was
disappointing since you couldn't see any
scenery at all due to the fog, and it was supposed to be the best part of the
trip! Well, through it all I could
sense your prayers for me and I
thank you all for them! As I sit looking through the living room window, I can
see the clouds parting once in a while to
disclose the majestic mountains that
surround me and to my left is a lake. It's breathtaking!!
My friends have no running
water in their trailer. It is all hand carried in five gallon
buckets for flushing toilets and you shower using a shower bag
which you fill
with half hot water and half cold and stand under it to get wet enough to get
wet to lather and then rinse off. I only took a gallon of water
to
shower.....aren't you impressed? Do we really need to use so much
water?????? I know we don't! Last night we had crab legs and rice
and smoked
salmon for supper. Today we are going to have fresh
salmon steaks. This food is fairly commonplace here......not
considered for only the rich,.... but
poor man's food, believe it or not…..
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