1 month in Alaska and then 9 days to get back to Virginia...
Should be epic!
I'm getting lined out with this website for it.
AK to VA in 9 days. - Home
I've got the first 13 days up now and am still about 5 days behind.
Check it out if you want. I will try and move everything over to a normal thread here once I get back and have plenty of time to do that kind of thing.
It's a lot of work to keep up with the website and everything else going on while I'm here!
I'm getting lined out with this website for it.
AK to VA in 9 days. - Home
I've got the first 13 days up now and am still about 5 days behind.
Check it out if you want. I will try and move everything over to a normal thread here once I get back and have plenty of time to do that kind of thing.
It's a lot of work to keep up with the website and everything else going on while I'm here!
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
Crazy -- 42 degrees between Soldotna and Homer? We were there in early July, went to Homer, and it must have been in the low 60s. We saw 90 degrees in Fairbanks. A bit of rain in AK, but not much at all. Our coldest temps were in northern BC, 42 degrees near Toad River. Alaska was cake by comparison. Well, okay, the highway between Anchorage and Glennallen was pretty cold and wet.
Edit: Just read some more. Total bummer about the weather you're seeing. You're right about *most* of the mud on the Dalton -- no big deal. Hell, we found ourselves doing 80mph in the mud, in a lightning and thunderstorm. Also 80mph on pavement. And gravel. Didn't see any frost heaves really. The slippery stuff, though, it's REAL slippery. As in, 40mph, riding-on-ice slippery.
We lucked out, I guess, wet ground mostly between Fairbanks and Coldfoot, but very little actual rain. Did 11:45am from Fairbanks, 4:30pm at coldfoot, pushed on to Prudhoe Bay, arriving after 11pm. turned around, left prudhoe at 11:30am, made it back to Coldfoot in time for dinner again, 4:45pm, fairbanks at 11pm, went to the liquor store and loaded up for a party... which meant a drink before passing out for 10 hours.
Have a great time. Every time I get on my bike, I remember being up in Alaska. Maybe that's because I haven't washed it, and i returned 4 weeks ago. Geez I'm lazy.
Edit: Just read some more. Total bummer about the weather you're seeing. You're right about *most* of the mud on the Dalton -- no big deal. Hell, we found ourselves doing 80mph in the mud, in a lightning and thunderstorm. Also 80mph on pavement. And gravel. Didn't see any frost heaves really. The slippery stuff, though, it's REAL slippery. As in, 40mph, riding-on-ice slippery.
We lucked out, I guess, wet ground mostly between Fairbanks and Coldfoot, but very little actual rain. Did 11:45am from Fairbanks, 4:30pm at coldfoot, pushed on to Prudhoe Bay, arriving after 11pm. turned around, left prudhoe at 11:30am, made it back to Coldfoot in time for dinner again, 4:45pm, fairbanks at 11pm, went to the liquor store and loaded up for a party... which meant a drink before passing out for 10 hours.
Have a great time. Every time I get on my bike, I remember being up in Alaska. Maybe that's because I haven't washed it, and i returned 4 weeks ago. Geez I'm lazy.
It was warm again the next day. I'm thinking it was just because of teh storm moving through. Froze my ass off though. haha
I think where it's been raining so much it's washed off the "slime" they talk about on Dalton. Everybody kept talking about it but I never saw anything like that and the mud was mostly as comfy as the pavement.
I'm like you. I think the bad road condition is greatly exaggerated. It had it's moments but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Did you guys ride over hatcher's pass. That road is all to pieces. I have a love/hate relationship with that road.
I thought about pulling the super man ride like what you are talking about but being up there alone and knowing I had to be back in anchorage one way or the other.. I just couldn't do it. If it was just a job in Anchorage I would have called in sick but it effects my grade for the rotation so I couldnt' risk it. I'll get back up there and do it again.
Anyway.. the washing part. I hadn't planned on washign mine but the mud was throwing the wheels out of balance so I took a pressure washer to them. The windshield got cleaned a few days later and headlights.. I was bummed when I saw the smiley face I drew in the Dalton mud was gone off the back fender a few days ago.
At any rate, the site is all up to date and I'm leaving AK tomorrow to get back to Virginia. Will try to update when I have a wifi.
AK to VA in 9 days. - Home
Could be. We were doing 80mph on mud in a thunder and lightning storm. You're right, the 'mud' when it's just wet dirt, is not bad at all. The slime is NASTY. 35mph, steering twitching every which way, both tires sliding, I did not have a second of confidence on that stuff, that I wouldn't be on the ground in half a second. I still don't know if it was luck or skill.
Nope, didn't hit Hatcher pass. The Dalton was almost entirely good, but the parts that were bad scared me to hell. We did the top of the world highway and it was beautiful and sunny and dry, which, it sounds like, is a VERY rare event.
Good luck getting home! I did the pressure washer back in Fairbanks, yeah.
After 5 weeks home, I FINALLY broke out the bucket and wash mitt and tried to wash my bike. Depressing. The dirt on the black plastics just turned to mud smear. It looks good when wet, but when it dries, it just looks like that goop that's left behind when you peel stickers off. I 'll need to wax/polish it. The rough black plastics (like the backs of my mirrors) look as dirty as they did the day I got off the Dalton. Short of a toothbrush, nothing will clean in that pitted plastic stuff. I'll probably just replace them.
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Alaska
LeBoeuf: You're lucky to be traveling in a place where a spring is so handy. In my country you can ride for days and see no ground water. I have lapped filthy water from a hoof print
and was glad to have it.
Rooster Cogburn: If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies who says he had never drank water out of a horse track I think I'll shake his hand, give him a Daniel Webster cigar.
LeBoeuf: You don't believe it?
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, I believed it the first twenty-five times I heard it. Maybe...maybe it is true. Maybe lappin' water off the ground is Ranger policy.
I feel the same way about people who say they have ridden 80, 90, or 100 miles an hour on a muddy Dalton. :yesnod:
When it is bad it is a very bad place. I know first hand.
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Very much enjoyed your blog.
LeBoeuf: You're lucky to be traveling in a place where a spring is so handy. In my country you can ride for days and see no ground water. I have lapped filthy water from a hoof print
and was glad to have it.
Rooster Cogburn: If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies who says he had never drank water out of a horse track I think I'll shake his hand, give him a Daniel Webster cigar.
LeBoeuf: You don't believe it?
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, I believed it the first twenty-five times I heard it. Maybe...maybe it is true. Maybe lappin' water off the ground is Ranger policy.
I feel the same way about people who say they have ridden 80, 90, or 100 miles an hour on a muddy Dalton. :yesnod:
When it is bad it is a very bad place. I know first hand.
Very much enjoyed your blog.
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