Anchorage to Fairbanks

We spent the next day sorting out stuff for the trip up to Prudhoe bay, we bought a heated jacket kit off Ebay which sews into the liner of a bike jacket and even with my dodgy wiring would finally work a treat. The temperature with the wind chill factor would touch minus 3 in a few days time.

We met up with Tony and Andy a couple of lads from the UK who were doing a similar trip to us but they have only six months to get to South America, in the evening a few of the local riders had arranged to take us out for a run down the peninsular for a pizza.

On the run down to Girdwood

Road signs are obviously fair game, and easier to hit than deer!

Our first leg of the trip North was as far as Denali National Park, we intended to have a nice easy run up, about 250 miles and camp the night either in the park or close by. On the way up we stopped at a diner/fuel stop in a small place called Cantwell, Sue got talking to a girl on a BMW F650 who was travelling down to Anchorage with a friend, the guy in question had run out of petrol about 20 miles down the road and was just filling a petrol can before going back to his bike. After chatting bikes and the trip etc. I offered to give him a lift back to his bike while Sue had a coffee and a chat with his friend, we eventually got his bike back to the truck stop and he kindly offered to pay for our lunch. I said he would have done the same for us and it was just one of those good deed, biker helping biker things.

Now I'm not one for all this good karma, what goes around comes around nonsense but the events a few days later would make me seriously think again. Travelling up to Denali we stopped at various viewpoints to try and get a look at Mt McKinley, North America's highest peak. Apparently the mountain is so vast it creates its own climate (usually cloudy) so we were told you might be lucky and see it if the conditions are right, they weren't! Mt McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest, although the summit of Everest is higher measured from sea level 29,028 feet (8,800 m). Everest's base sits on the Tibetan plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly a 2,000-foot (610 meter) plateau, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). hmmmm interesting, and impressive.

The picture in the foreground is what the view should look like, the view in the distance is reality


Here's some more mountains we passed earlier, that's Mt McKinley in the middle (it's not really but who'd know!)

We turned up at the Grizzly Bear campsite just south of the park and booked our pitch, I have no idea what sort of tents people use over here but the elevated gravel plot would not accommodate our luxurious 3 man home. This by the way, was my retirement present from all my work colleagues, thanks everyone it will get well used in fact it rained most of the night just to test the waterproofing.

Maybe we should just crawl into it and sleep.



This is what it looks like fully erect, Sue........fnarrr


The campsite carefully planned the location of the tents to maximise exposure to the f*^"ing mosquitoes!

The locals insisted we wear these devices to show who's dumb enough to camp in the first place, and with every campground pitch comes its own blood transfusion kit! The mosquito is apparently the State bird of Alaska. We took the bus tour round the National Park the next day as vehicles are prohibited past a certain point, presumably to stop people getting attacked by bears, Sue and I just made sure we sat next to an older couple who looked like they couldn't run much! The trip took around 5 hours and goes into the park about 50 odd miles, you get the usual running commentary and toilet breaks are free.

Please get out of the bus on the right hand side.



Isn't she pretty, What a guy!!

The scenery was as usual, stunning, from vast landscapes....

To the smallest detail (me being artistic)


A herd of Dall (mountain) sheep, I can just imagine our sheep back home saying "Ooh you wouldn't get me up there without proper gear on mi feet"

Our first grizzly sighting (or should it read our first sighting of a grizzly?)

As we said earlier the rain set in for the night but by the time we were ready to leave the sun was out and we were on our way to Fairbanks, Alaska's capitol. I had been in touch with people in Fairbanks through a couple of websites dedicated to motorcycle travel and they suggested we stay at the University where they rent out dorms for a nominal fee (40 dollars a night) apart from being good value it's also close to the city. We met up with Tony and Andy and went for a meal and discussed the benefits of travelling the Dalton Highway together, and hoped the weather would hold out for the next few days.