Saturday, July 7, 2007
Coming Home The Long Way
Tonight Doug and I are in Whitehorse, YT. Last night we stayed in the village of Beaver Creek, YT. Our room did not have TV, which bothered Doug, or telephone/internet, which bothered me. It was a long but beautiful ride yesterday from Valdez to Beaver Creek.
Leaving Valdez we were treated to some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. Here is a picture and Doug and one of me in front of a glacier:
The first part of the ride was just beautiful; the last 150 miles or so into Whitehorse was a little boring. This is very funny in a way because all the scenery is beautiful but Doug and I are a little overdosed on beautiful scenery.
Today we left Beaver Creek for Whitehorse. We came here to reinstall our street tires. The ride started out bad with about 40 miles of loose gravel. I hate loose gravel when it gets deep because it pulls the motorcycle around. I have found the faster I go over it the less I feel the pull but I get really nervous that I will fall at a higher speed.
Just when we thought we were out of road trouble the road heaves began. The road actually undulates and my shocks compressed enough that my tires scraped on something. This has happened a number of times on this trip. I must slow down to avoid disaster. We met a fellow in Fairbanks who was tossed off his Honda Goldwing in one of the heaves. He was not wearing protective clothing and he looked pretty scraped up. His bike was undrivable. Another guy on the road today said he was almost tossed off his Honda Shadow.
To make the ride even more bad, we encountered road constructions. For about 15 miles we waited and then proceeded behind a pilot truck. The truck only wanted to go about 5 mph which was difficult for Doug and me considering the surface was mud and gravel. It is easier to move a little faster on a motorcycle. Oh well, as Doug always says, "it's just part of the adventure."
I want to end with a story about a guy I didn't meet yesterday. Doug and I had just completed lunch at a little town called Tok, AK. I was in the parking lot getting ready when a guy on a Harley with a sidecar pulled up. I noticed he had a passenger and another passenger in the sidecar. As usual I greeted him but he more or less ignored me. He looked like the typical Harley rider with leathers, half helmet, head band, etc. He looked mean and I felt he was probably mean by the way he ignored my greeting.
His wife got off the bike and they both walked around to the passenger in the sidecar. The man gently reached down and removed the full-face helmet from the passenger who was a teenage boy. He then helped the boy out of the sidecar and the woman handed the boy crutches. All of a sudden I realized this mean, hard looking man was being gentle and loving to his son. The boy will never ride but he will have stories to tell about how he, his dad and mom rode across Alaska on a Harley Davidson.
I guess this reinforced the old addage, "never judge a book by its cover." I will try harder.
Tomorrow we head to the little town of Hyder, AK. We must get there on the Cassiar Highway which is about 60% gravel. I hate gravel.
We are working our way to Vancouver and then through Washington, Oregon and then into California. If all goes well we will arrive back to A&S on Saturday, July 14th between 3-4pm. It is difficult to predict because of the weather and road conditions we may encounter but we have a goal and so far we have made all of our goals.
Dell
