Watson lake to Hyder Alaska

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Kev

In 1944 a guy placed a sign at a cross roads in Watson lake, another fellow thought it a good idea and copied him. Today there are 17,400 signs. It’s a become a sign post forest with sign’s stolen from all over the world and placed here. It get’s bigger by the day.
Well I finished another long ride of 800km or so today in Hyder Alaska, just over the Canadian border. What an amazing ride. The fact that It rained hard for most of the day couldn’t dampen my spirits. I saw 15 Black bears including sow’s with their cubs along the way. You have to sneak up on them because there shy and run off when they see you. I’ve also ridden through the most amazing glaciers I’ve ever seen. The ice sit’s perched precariously atop mountains for the last 50 km of the ride to Hyder. There are signs for glacier avalanches along the road. You can even see chunks the size of buildings that have fallen off and crashed or slid to ground below. It would be awesome to witness this but I fear you may not live to tell about it. Hopefully the rain will stop so I can ride to the top of one of these massive chunks of ice.

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Dawson city to Watson lake,

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Kev

I ended up spending the whole day in Dawson city, an interesting place for sure. It’s an old gold mining town that now survives on tourist dollars. There’s still board walks through out town and its got that old west feel about it. The locals are friendly enough.They all look as if they’ve just emerged from the mountains to collect supply’s and find out who’s frozen to death lately before getting horribly drunk and meandering back to from where they once came for another winter.
There’s a bar in town that sells a sour toe cocktail. It’s actually a real human’s severed toe. The saying goes,” you can drink it fast or drink it slow but lips must touch the toe”…you get the idea. That toe emerges after 9pm and spends its night in the mouths of strangers. It’s not the original toe either, apparently the original along with a few others have been ingested by hungry patrons over the years. Now people will their toes to the pub so they can both delight and disgust tourists.

Around 12 the following day I left town and rode 840km, almost all the way to Watson lake. It was one of them days I just felt like riding. I finally pulled up at a motel at 11pm frozen stiff. I’ve given up on camping here, come evening it gets real cold. I spent the day riding thought the most amassing scenery, Honestly you could stop every 5 minutes and be amazed at the sight in front of you. At one stage the view in my rear view mirror was so good I nearly rode right off the road. Oh and I saw another bear, a black one this time.

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Fairbanks to Chicken

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Kev

Yes it’s called “Chicken” a tiny town in the middle of some mountain range between a town called Tok in Alaska and Dawson city, Canada. I didn’t really plan on staying here but I missed the border crossing after racing 65 km on dirt roads to get there before 6pm. It was another mile/km issue. Anywho I returned to chicken to spend the night. An interesting place that consists of a saloon and, that’s all I saw actually. The saloon and the restaurant where I was allowed to sleep. Along the way I went through the North Pole, a whole town devoted to Santa Clause. The street lamps are like candy cones, it’s really well done actually,  only in America. I also spotted a moose along the way,  I shouted at him so he’d lift his head and stop eating for a second so I could take a photo, he looked up as if to say screw you buddy and went back to eating. I later found out that a moose killed a guy last year outside Alaska university. apparently they have a mean streak, fascinating stuff I know.

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Prudhoe bay to Coldfoot

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Kev

As you can imagine there’s not much a doing on top of the world. The weather’s a little Arctic to say the least. The only people up there are oil rig workers that spend their time counting the minutes until they can return south. I took a ride about, hit a nice green duck and headed south. It’s a hell of a journey for sure but the scenery along route is well worth it.

I stopped at a camp ground in the middle of nowhere about 400km south and pitched my tent. I was the only one there or so I thought. I’ve been wishing to see a bear all along on this journey and I guess my wishes came through. They have big large metal boxes at these camp grounds for keeping your food in. The reason for this is so that the bears don’t rip into your tent to get at it and rip into you in the process. While wandering over to the food bin I saw something moving about 15 meters away. A grizzly, my first one and nothing between me and him. The trees around here are not the biggest and even if you did manage to climb one I don’t think a bear would have much trouble pushing it over. So ignoring the bear safety training course I had taken fifteen minutes earlier from the camp ground notice board I wandered over for a closer look. Now I’m the kind of guy that learns from his mistakes, but unfortunately I have to make them mistakes first so as I can learn. One part of me wanted to get closer to see what he would do but the other part of me wanted to get the hell out of there. The sensible side one out when it started towards me. I backed off shouting nonsensical crap like it says on the tin and hoped it didn’t follow me. After all I was loaded up with the food I was trying to get away from. I thought about throwing it to him but there was a long night ahead and I was hungry. About an hour later a few hunters came and camped along side me, they were armed to the teeth like everyone else up here so I was finally put at ease. I spilled some sort of pine cleaner around my tent, like that’ll work and went about my business. A great night’s sleep in total brightness was had.

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Artic Circle

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Kev

After eight hundred km’s through mountains an dirt I’ve made it to the top of the world, Prudhoe bay Alaska. Any further north an I’m in the Arctic Ocean. It’s bright twenty fours a day and almost zero degrees right now so I’m not hanging around too long. I’m off out in search of polar bears now, wish me luck.

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Anchorage to Fairbanks

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Kev

Well I’m now in Fairbanks after a 600km ride. I wont mention the fact that I forgot the Seppos still use the imperial system and that I almost ran out of fuel in the middle of butt hole nowhere,I rode 35km, yes km not miles on vapours. Lucky for me the locals are friendly and helpful. I went to Denaili National park to see some wildlife but still haven’t come across any bears. I think I’m the only one in Alaska that didn’t see one today. However I did see a giant Moose and a bear shaped rock.
Tomorrow its off to the Artic Circle and ocean.

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Alaska

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Kev

After twenty one hours in the air travelling backwards through time I’ve finally arrived in Anchorage Alaska, the starting point for this aimless adventure.
Just inside the Airport terminal I noticed a stuffed bear menacingly staring at me from behind a glass wall. Welcome to Alaska I thought, try not to get any closer to bears than this. I was assured by a new friend that I’d be alright whilst riding my motorcycle, that they’d get me while I’m sleeping in my tent.
The next morning I paid the bail money to free my bike from customs and reassembled her in a car park, all the time keeping one eye out for bears, apparently they can be anywhere any time. I guess that’s why there’s gun stores everywhere too. That’s got me thinking that maybe I should invest in something better than a loud scream, mosquito repellent and a leatherman.

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The begining

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Kev

My bike is in the Air and should be in Anchorage Alaska Friday the 12th of Aug. With a bit of luck I’ll have it cleared from Customs and on the road the following Monday. When things get interesting I’ll start posting here, Please feel free to leave comments or any advice you think fit. If you know anyone that would like to put me up or just show me around their home towns that would also be great. I hope you enjoy the journey.

Kev

Posted in Alaska | 12 Comments