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Published: August 5th 2015
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Ride Day 16.
Our hosts in Homer proved that coincidences do happen. Anna & Byron had a delightful B & B overlooking Homer & looking across at the ice fields & glaciers on the far side of Cook Inlet and also over the 6km long spit mentioned previously.
The coincidences began before we found the digs. Arriving in Homer my infallible navigation system broke down when I realised I had the wrong address for the B & B. After circling the town in the hope we might spot it, I asked in a bookshop. They had never heard of Stay & Play B & B, but kindly found it on the interweb & phoned them - first coincidence : they were across the road from the bookshop doing some shopping. We introduced ourselves & followed them back to our accommodation. Discussions revealed that they spend half their year in Auckland as their daughter is living in Grey Lynn & has 2 kids (their grandchildren) Their daughter works at a Deli in Richmond Rd Ponsonby "Ripe" and we experienced some of the Deli & Anna’s creations at breakfast the next morning – delicious.
The NZ connection came
about as Byron’s mother was a Kiwi war bride, all his cousins are Kiwis and hence their daughter did her OE in NZ with an aunt - & stayed.
Reversed our route from yesterday back to Anchorage only stopping at a knife shop only the way. Handmade knives that the proprietor makes on site. He is a 3rd generation of knife maker. The business was started by his Grandfather in 1964, his father & uncle are also knife/ makers. He explained the whole interesting process starting from a lump of steel through to the finished product which are top quality $300 to $800 knives. Obviously successful as he can’t keep up with orders.
Lunch at Cooper Landing (again) Women running the restaurant remembered us from yesterday. She said she had a Kiwi motorcyclist through last week who had been on the road for months who had done most of the Americas.
We carried on around the Cook Inlet and saw the same number of Beluga Whales we saw yesterday – none!
Riding past Anchorage it was quite hot & according to the thermometer on Bryan’s bike it was 30 degrees C. However this same unit was
saying we were travelling South!
Heading North we eventually reached Hatcher Pass. This was a winding sealed road past a fast flowing river - we were gaining altitude rapidly & were bsoon at 800m. Eventually reached a crossroads where the GPS route I had plotted told us to turn left up a winding gravel road where we passed at the highest peak (1200m) a group of people who were paragliding off a high bluff – riding thermals & remaining airborne for lengthy periods. Continuing on for a total of 33kms on this road we finally decided we were heading away from our arranged accommodation so did a U turn & retraced our steps. An extra 66kms we needn’t have done but a great road. When we returned to the start of the gravel we found the Lodge 50m up the road from the crossroads!
Hatcher Pass Lodge is a great Ski Lodge with spectacular views as per usual. Hap the owner who built the lodge in 1967, told us to ensure the door to our chalet was shut at all times to keep the ground squirrels out. He also warned us not to make eye contact with them
as they were aggressive and go straight for your throat. We left our neck braces on for the whole stay!
A beer on the deck & a great reasonably priced tasty dinner saw us ready for an early night after 494kms – 510kms today (depending on whose GPS you read) and a total now of 5881kms.
Not much of a story today so I will introduce you to some of the cast (people we have met) that keeps the trip interesting:
Ø The Mexicans: Mentioned in an earlier post that we had met them near Dease Lake & they were also heading to Deadhorse….We haven’t seen them since, so we think they may have abandoned their bikes & be tunnelling the rest of the way.
Ø
Touratec Guy: (For non-motorcyclists Touratec sell “ Everything an Adventure Motorcyclist doesn’t NEED, especially luggage– at high prices) Touratec Guy, who we met in Watson Lake, has undermined Touratec’s whole marketing & sales strategy by packing everything into a plastic milk crate which he strapped to his carrier!
Ø Parts Man: In a motorcycle shop in Whitehouse where we tried (& eventually succeeded) to buy brake pads, we encountered Parts Man (mentioned in a previous post). When told the model of the bike, he looked it up in the brake pad catalogue & using his highly qualified MO he looked across the page for the code & either dropped or lifted a line & sold us pads for the wrong bike for $58.95. Being a little suspicious of Parts Man’s expertise we removed a set of our pads & compared. The pad material was the same but unfortunately that’s where the resemblance ended. Returning to the counter & after he assured they were the right ones we could see (even reading his catalogue upside down) that he was reading his lines wrong. Giving him the correct number & getting the correct pads at $42.95 I told him he needed to give me back $16. Endeavouring to confirm this mentally to no avail, he decided to use a calculator which didn’t seem to help so he worked it out longhand on piece of paper using the pencil that was perched behind his ear. It all worked out ok in the end when he gave me a $16.31 refund. His boss then arrived & gave him the rest of the day off on stress leave!
Ø
Pocahontas: In Skagway we met the sol Indian Adventure rider referrered to in a previous post, who in spite of being an Asian Indian & not a First Nation Indian has acquired Pocahontas as a nickname – not sure why.
Ø Sons of Anarchy: In Tok we met 2 Harley Davidson riders who are from New York & New Hampshire respectively & are “Packing Heat”. They are also on their way to Deadhorse after failing to get there last year due to bad weather. However, we ran into them again in Homer & it sounds as though they will fail again this year in spite of doing 700 miles a day – (so they claim!) Sturgis calls & they will probably turn right at Anchorage instead of left & then 21head to South Dakota.
Ø
Eskimo Nell:I met her outside a Liquor Store in Anchorage whilst the others were getting supplies. She was really friendly, interested in our trip, described herself as an Eskimo & kept asking so many questions about our trip & the logistics I couldn’t get away & kept the others waiting.
Ø
Crystalpak/Figment: The early morning receptionist at our Anchorage Motel. I woke early one morning so went to the lounge where there was WiFi to write the blog & clear emails. Crystal got talking to me, made me a coffee & asked about the trip. She described herself as an Eskimo & when I queried why she didn’t call herself an Inuit she explained she couldn’t be bothered with all that PC rubbish & in fact she was an Inupak – Inuit’s are from Iceland or Greenland or somewhere else. However she is still involved in the culture, eats seal & whale & used whale blubber to her help her son teethe. Many women in this part of the world are of copious girth but Crystal was slim & attractive. Bryan & Ian never saw her & after I described her they refer to her as “figment” for some reason? I prefer Crystalpak.
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