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Published: August 17th 2015
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Ok, we left Fairbanks heading south after we had repaired and serviced Trev's BMW and fitted new LED headlights to all the Harley's at Jerry Summer's, Thunder Road Cycles.
Gerry and his team were such a pleasure to deal with.
The ride down from Fairbanks to Cantwell was uneventful apart from a great lunch just before Nenana.
We checked out the old Railway town of Nenana after lunch.
Some of us stopped at Denali for some coffee and a look around, every thing here was pretty expensive, and sorta like Queenstown as it just caters for tourists during their short summer. The place is abandoned during the frozen months of winter.
When we reached Cantwell and our pre booked cabins at Bluesberry Lodge,they were not ready for us. Some of us never got our rooms until after 7.00pm. We had 'dinner ' at the local gas station. String found a box of beer under the stairs while we were waiting for our rooms,so that sorta eased the mood a bit. The fellow was a bit different to deal with,but in the end we all had a bed.
The ride from Cantwell to Anchorage was just stunning with the vista just unfolding
Jerry our main man in Fairbanks
Jerry owns and operates a motorcycle repair shop in Fairbanks. in front of us. We had a great breakfast at Mary's McKinley View Lodge in Trapper Creek with Mt McKinley as our back drop.
We all took the extra time to ride the 30 odd kms up to the railway town of Talkeenta (note to self. Must have lunch here). It was great to see the Trans Alaska scenic train while we were there.
I had been having dialogue over the past few months with Victor and Barbara from Alaska Leathers and as we pulled into our Super 8 there was the shop on the next block, so by default it was good planning.
Victor and Barb invited Gerardo and me to their house for dinner, the we took one of their dogs (they have 3) for a walk in the park,where we saw the damage the Beavers are doing to the trees in the area.
The next day Victor took a few of us for a scenic tour further south just past Girdwood and of course another great lunch. That night,Alaska leathers put on a Welcome to Alaska Dinner to us, they had invited many of their customers and other world travellers to meet and mingle with us.
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Lodging in Bluesberry Lodge
Kept rolling by Awanui Tyreman Big thanks to them for a great night. Rocky Bear scored a cool pair of goggles from Barbara,so he's chuffed.
The following day we reluctantly left Anchorage and made our way up to Tok, where we had stayed a week or so before, Tok is one of those places that you just need one night on your way to somewhere else,which in our case was Dawson City,back in Canada.
At Tok,we ran upon Mike Vinsen and his wayward gang of greybeards again,they seem to be shadowing us up here?
We woke to an absolutely stunning day with not a cloud in sight,the ride to Chicken was a mix of Tundra and stunted trees trying to survive on permafrost. We stopped at Chicken for scones and coffee before heading up onto the 'Top of the World Highway ' which runs along the top of the Continental Divide between Alaska and Canada. The rivers on our left,including the Klondike run out to the Bering Sea in the North West,while all the water on our right would eventually finish up in the Gulf of Alaska in the south.
After a few formalities we crossed out of Alaska and into Canada, making our way
down to Dawson City. As we reached the Klondike River,with Dawson City on the other side,a small car ferry was there to transport us to the other side. During the winter this river will freeze over,so you can just drive across!! Pretty amazing to think that such a flow could freeze.
Every room in Dawson hotels have been booked out for months,but my faith in Shirely from Downtown Hotel at least got all of us a bed for the night. Some of us had to double up for the first night but all have their own rooms for tonight.
Dawson City is an old gold mining town and is sorta left in the era, with it's boardwalks and old buildings and believe it or not the bloody dreaded Vinsen Grey Beard Gang is in town also.
We have a day off today to enjoy this place with some entertainment from a mud plug event, where two high powered vehicles compete in the mud,you really had to be there!!
At this stage all the bikes and riders are fit and well and tomorrow we keep going South to the old trading post of Carmacks.
Cheers for now. Rosco
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