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Published: June 16th 2009
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June 12th
We left Chicken after a hearty breakfast sandwich at the camp cafe. Only a few miles of dirt road remained to be negotiated until the pavement reappeared. The night before I had spent a considerable amount of time cleaning and adjusting the drive chain on my motorcycle. The succession of rain and dust and various other dirt had made quite a mess of it. Normally I have a gadget to make quick work of the task, but on a road trip like this, it is accomplished with a can of WD-40 and a rag.
The first 80 km or so to Tok were under a bright sun and warm weather. Once we got closer to Tok, the sky started to cloud over and eventually opened up on us. The rain did not let up for the 500 km that remained between us and Anchorage. What I did see of the scenery along the way was beautiful: mountains, lakes and glaciers as far as the eye could see. But because of the gloomy weather, the eye could not see all that far. Needless to say we did not stop to take in the view, preferring to push
on and make it to Anchorage as soon as we could. We did break a couple of times just to warm up and eat.
Once we arrived in Anchorage, the weather improved greatly. The GPS guided us to the "Alaska backpackers Inn". I noticed almost immediately that the city bore an uncanny ressemblance to Saskatoon, right down to a few restaurants that had identical names. The hostel was sort of on the edge of the "hood", where it meets the downtown touristy area. That night I found a grocery store and picked up a few supplies. The hostel was filled with people of all ages from everywhere: Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Columbia, Russia.
We had a 2 person private room, complete with bunk bed. I chose not to sleep on the top.
June 13th
The first order of business was to get the oil change on the bikes done. I had brought the necessary tools, all that was needed was the proper oil and a place to do it and dispose of the old stuff. I had 2 ideas in mind: Walmart, where I had done the same thing last year in Utah, or a
dealership called "The Motorcycle Shop". The latter is somewhat famous because in the documentary "Long Way Round", Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor got their BMW GS 1150's serviced there.
The Walmart we located did not have any service bays, so, over breakfast at the Walmart McDonald's, I placed a call to The Motorcycle Shop and confirmed they would let us use their lot and take our used oil. We headed there and were shown where we could park the bikes to work on them, The manager also supplied us with oil drip pans. As I was about to go inside to buy my oil, I noticed a rider wearing a neon yellow motorcycle jacket taking a picture of the dealership. He looked familiar. I asked the manager if that was Dr Greg Frazier. It was.
Greg Frazier is a well known motorcycle travel author. He has circumnavigated the earth solo on 4 occasions by motorcycle and written probaly a dozen or more books. He is also a columnist in a variety of motorcycle magazines. Anyway, I chatted with him and got my picture taken next to him. He was very personable and told me he was getting ready
to head into northern Alaska on a KLX 250.
Pat R and I split up for a few hours after that. He wanted to look for some motorcyle boots and I wanted to wander around downtown. Pat had learned the hard way that boots with laces are useless in the rain...
I visited the Alaska Law Enforcement museum and chatted with the gentleman who ran it. I found out that he was a retired policeman and was surprised to learn that he retired from the Alaska State Police at the rank of Commisioner, which basically means he ran the whole organization.
Later, I met up with Pat R again and we wondered along 4th Avenue, which is the touristy area, lined with shops and restaurants. I picked up a few souvenirs and enjoyed an outdoor concert for a few minutes. We walked right to the waterfront from where we could see the port and the big ships coming in. By now it was about 6 PM, and we were getting hungry. We headed back to the hostel and decided to head out to Applebee's for some supper.
The last few hours of the night were spent
at the hostel chatting with Janine, a 27-year old from Switzerland who quit her position as a lawyer in a firm to travel. I also spoke to a girl from Quebec who works in the human resources department at Cirque du Soleil. Pretty cool.
June 14th
We left (waaaay too early) at about 9:30 headed towards Whittier. Whittier is an isolated outpost on Prince William Sound that used to be a naval base in the 1940's. It's tucked away in the Sound and does not freeze up in winter. During World War 2, the American Navy opened the base and in order to bring in supplies, a railroad had to be built... through a mountain. The tunnel is used today jointly by cars and trains with one small problem: it is only wide enough for traffic in a single direction. So there is a schedule to determine who goes and when. It is $12 for a motorcycle to drive through. They gave us specific safety instructions and explained that bikes are the last vehicles in a group to go through, that way there are no cars behind you when you wipe out. Basically, you are riding in between
2 rails, so you must keep your motorcycle within those rails, otherwise, driving into the rail would likely cause you to derail. There is very little room on the outside of the rail, maybe 1/2 meter at best. Buses must just squeak through. The tunnel leads right to the townsite and is about 100 km from Anchorage.
We arrived about 3 hours before the scheduled departure time for the ferry. We checked in, parked our bikes in the staging area, and set out to find a place to have lunch. The ferry departed right on time and that brings me to present time, sitting on a ship in Prince William sound. The sailing time to Valdez is about 5 1/2 hours. We will be there for 2 days and tomorrow is kayaking day!
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