Alaska - British Columbia - Yukon - Alaska!

Today I have finally managed to get Internet access at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska. The last two days have been an, um, interesting experience. It all started ok with the ferry journey from Wrangell to Haines - journeying through Frederick Sound we were surrounded by Humpback Whales, it was millpond calm so very easy to see all the whales blowing. After a rough night on a sofa in the observation lounge, I had decided to get off the ferry at Haines instead of Skagway as it was a slightly shorter and supposedly much prettier route. The ferry docked a 5.45am so I roared off along the Haines Highway at stupid o'clock in the morning, still tired and knowing that it would be at least a 300 mile day.

I quickly ran out of superlatives for the scenery. I stopped about five times in as many miles to just gawk, I even forgot to take pictures. After about 20 miles or so I stopped at a wide floodplain to take a picture, and saw a grizzly bear (it may have been a very big black bear) about a mile upstream. Not for the first time I chided myself for not packing binoculars. It was however freezing cold for the first time on the trip. Just a little before the road went through Canadian customs into British Columbia, I stopped for a very Hobbit like "second breakfast" at a tiny gas station (sign read, Food, Gas, Beer so just the essentials!) just to warm up really. Crossing into BC the scenery changed - did it realise it was supposed to as it was now Canada? - and became a sort of tundra, with lots of (I think) Marmots sitting on their hind legs watching me. There was absolutely nothing and no one for mile after mile.

Euphoria

The wonderful glaciers, mountains and wildlife gave me a feeling of complete freedom and a sense of how completely cool nature is. Every time I thought something looked amazing then something else would come along, and so the journey along the Haines Highway continued. Even the crossing into Canada was painless. I didn't want the day to end. "Incomprehensibly vast" became the Frase phrase of the day, and I used it without mercy to describe everything.

Still very cool

After the crossing from BC into the Yukon the scenery changed again, on the left was Kluane which when added to Wrangell-St Elias national park in Alaska forms the largest protected place on Earth. I'd been scanning the trees for miles when I should probably have been looking at the road, but around the Destruction Bay area I saw an enormous grizzly, standing right beside the road, licking his chops. This was probably in anticipation of the two cyclists I passed a mile up the road, oblivious and cycling straight towards him. That's the last time they'll complain about pedestrians stepping off the pavement in front of them :)

I filled up again with petrol rather than let the bike run below half a tank full. It was at this point I started to notice how cold I was.

Really want to get off now, thanks

Over the next 50 miles or so I just kept adding clothes under my jacket to try to warm up, to no avail. Added to that it started to rain. The Yukon still passed by as before and drew my attention but it was just too cold to enjoy it. I needed to stop for the night soon. I was aware I was supposed to be meeting Jim in Fairbanks on Saturday and wanted to make Beaver Creek on the Alaska/Canada border. So I kept going.

I then remembered that actually I had a few Canadian Dollars left but plenty of US. So stopping in Alaska made more sense than stopping in the Yukon. It was just a short hop over the border. In a blindingly stupid moment of idiocy I rode straight through Beaver Creek without really checking where the next town was (in miles) and headed for the US border.

Numb

The border for Canada is about 30 miles before the border for the US, so I really don't have a clue who owns the land in between. Signposts (Km in Canada and miles in US) were non existent, so I couldn't really decide. My fingers and toes were so cold I was having a hard time controlling the bike, and I was wobbling about in the road. There was absolutely no one else on the road, even though it was still only about 5pm Alaska time.

By the time I got to the US border I couldn't really speak properly and just needed a hot shower and sleep. The border official was a really nice guy, he asked a few questions (mostly about the bike!) and I tried to give one word answers. He said "First time in Alaska?" and I nodded dumbly. Then he asked if I wanted an Alcan stamp in my passport and I tried to grin, but instead my teeth just chattered. "Pppplease".

I hope he doesn't think all English folks are like me.

I finally made Tok completely numb at about 7pm. The last fifty miles of road is actually just gravel and dust as roadworks have put paid to any tarmac. Which of course was now wet muck, as it had been raining all afternoon. The first three motels I found were all full, I'd been promising myself a hot shower all afternoon and was mortified at the thought of camping. A lady at one of the motels told me about vacancies at another place so I managed to get a room, have a shower, eat and crash out.

In the morning job number one was to fix my right mirror as the roadworks had shaken loose the bodge fix that my friends had done after I dropped the bike on it's test run. On one particularly bone shaking bump the mirror and bike parted company, and my joy at deftly catching the mirror was short lived as I nearly crashed the bike.

The ride from Tok to Fairbanks was pretty uneventful - like riding down a long straight green tunnel - until about 80 miles from Fairbanks I rode past some moose on my side of the road, close enough to see their gorgeous chocolate colour coats glistening in the rain. Then another set of road works.

I'm looking forward to a rest tonight before I meet Jim in the morning and press on to Prudhoe Bay on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The bike really needs a clean.

Fraser.