The Dalton Highway...Day 2

After a well deserved sleep, me BJ and a few other nutters joined the tour bus around an oil refinery. To be fair, as oil refinery tours go it was a little interesting but the main highlight was the swimming session. BJ's thing is swimming. At any opportunity on this trip he's swum when possible in lakes, rivers and seas. This was no exception and even I didn't realise this was on until he whipped out a pair of swimming shorts once finally on the stoney beach! Once he'd finished and I'd laughed at how stupid he was I was getting down to my pants and getting in! Ooooohhh. C-O-L-D it was, so quickly I returned to shore with no towel to put on my dry clothes to make them wet. Much to the ammusement of the other tourists including Sam and Franca (and little Aiden) from Australia who were on a work exchange with a Canadian firefighter and his family.
Once back in the accommodation block, showered, fed and warm we prepared for the 250 mile ride back to the half way point of Coldfoot. So it was off down the Dalton Highway then but this time with time on our side we kept an eye out for wildlife and took loads of pictures and generally larked about. Saw the Muskox, Caribou a little arctic fox and some other stuff that I don't know and made Coldfoot. Coldfoot is basically a truckers stop with a resturant and so with the opportunity to camp within the arctic circle still on out came the tent...Before then though a quick meal and few beers and on the short walk to the tent we observed the Northern Lights which I can only describe as weird. I was a little cold in my $13 sleeping bag but I survived then night. In fact most of the morning as well, as we woke up at 10.30 am!

The Dalton Highway...Day 1

Here goes the best bit of my trip so far...
Left only the odd hour or two late from Fairbanks for the 533 mile ride into the unknown ride north. After a fuel stop and stocking up on essentials such as Werther Originals, Muffins, Chocolate, oh and water, first up was the tourist 'Arctic Circle' sign. As for me and my muppet comment in BC...it was lovely weather, sunny and warm!
Twenty minutes later and we were off again, meeting fellow riders Walter (New Jersey), Paul and Scott (UK) at various points along the way either coming or going. This was a monster ride. Not as savage as my 800 miler on the Trans Siberia Highway as on this occasion we had a tent and sleeping bags and as each corner/mountain passed each view was more spectacular than the last. Very few other vehicles were on the road, only truckers (think Ice Road Truckers, which series two was filmed there apparently) and 'hurnters' in their pick ups out 'hurnting' the local wildlife, Muskox, Caribou and Moose. All under license though and for food so we were told. The road was 50% OK tarmac, 20% loose gravel, 20% hard packed mud and 10% slippery mud. The weather changed from nice and warm/sunny to major fog, rain and once over the Atigun pass minus loads for the last 150 miles!! The last 80 miles saw me and BJ chasing the very odd sunset that I guess you only get in places like these at high speeds, totally frozen, finally into 'Deadhorse' which is as far as anyone can go with the Prudhoe Bay leg only possible by way of an organised tour by the oil refinery companies within the compound. $50 each for a room in a workers accommodation block but we drunk about half of that each in hot drinks! Knackered, still not quite warm and into bed.

Searching for adventure. Anchorage and beyond...

Yet another great 350 mile solo ride to Anchorage got me thinking about a BJ offer I'd received the night before. Behave yourself. His offer was a 1000 mile round trip up to the very top of Alaska, Prudhoe Bay. I'd half been interested in the 250 mile version to the tourist 'Arctic Circle' sign that actually isn't as far north as it should be as there's trees everywhere. After hearing stories about -4 degrees, snow, danger, a complete waste of time etc (from someone who'd been before) my mind was made up. New tyres for the trip purchased and an early(!?) 11.30am start on the first leg (350 miles) to Fairbanks followed. Despite BJ running out of fuel in Denali National Park all went to plan. Well, after I'd sold him a few litres of 'gas' from my tank at $10 a litre! ;-) We even mananged to service the bikes/change rear tyres the night before. Crappy motel, bed.

Whitehorse & Beaver Creek

Two beautiful days riding here firstly to Beaver Creek. Once there though, there was nothing at all to do except lounge around in my own little beautiful apartment whilst everyone else stayed in what looked like an old asbestos prefab shack! That was until BJ decided to fill his fuel tank with diesel and so the evening's entertainment switched to having a couple of cans of beer whilst watching him and Verner trying to fix his bike.
As for Fairbanks, well it's a medium sized town and pretty grim. Ended up in a nasty (nasty) local bar that on the outside looked like a down and out's refuge place. Here I met what are known here as 'First Nations' which is basically the name for Canadian Aboriginals/Maori types. And just like all most of those it seems that they recieve money from the goverment and other perks and with it just get drunk all day. Avoided having to get some stiches after a big bear of a 'FN' named Dennis was intent in starting a scrap with either me Grant, BJ, Tim or Dental. Fortunately though, rather than him calm down we just got nearer to his level and plenty of manly self chest punching, drinking and story listening followed. After all that though he still offered out me and Dental after we dropped him off in a cab. Nice place!

The inside passage and British Colombia, Canada

With Victoria Island behind me I headed north onboard a new and shiney ferry along the famous 'Inside Passage.' I quickly ticked off whale, sea lion and more stunning scenery and got on with reading my new book 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' as well as relaxing to ASOS 405-407. Fifteen hours later I was back on Canadian Soil and the following morning the 2000 odd mile ride north west to Anchorage began. I stayed in a few small settlements including Stewart and Watson Lake but there was so little there to do I just ate, read and slept. Made me wonder why these places are there at all? Maybe something to do with the gold rush? Two things of note though were firstly managing to tick off bear as one was in the road whilst I was riding! Only a little one though and as I slowed and got within thirty meters it wandered off into the bushes. The second was a ride up to 'Salmon Glacier.' This was a 30km ride up a dirt trail that eventually gave a great view of the glacier. Bloody cold though! In fact, the next 600 miles or so since then have been freezing! Currently running at three lower layers and five upper... Oh, and I'm so pleased that I sent my waterproof fleece and wooly hat home yet kept my shorts and flip flops! What was I thinking? Muppet.

Spending the night in Victoria...

A nice easy ride alone up to one of the many boat options to Canada's Vancouver Island completed and with minutes to spare (had the wrong ferry schedule) I was aboard. The sail (or whatever it is, seeing as it had no sails) took three hours through some spectacular scenery with loads of little islands outside the boat and some whale watching available inside amongst the passengers! It's funny, as beautiful as it was my picture count has really fallen now and I'm less impressed about these sort of things. I think if I was there for a two week holiday then I'd've (why do we say that but not type it?) stood outside and taken a million pictures but I think I've reached the point where I've seen so so much over the 16,000 miles that I'm less impressed by these things than I was at the beginning. Anyway, I finally entered Victoria at around 18:30 and hooked up with the others for a few beers on what was to be a nice easy Monday night. Er, except that after three pubs/a club/I don't know how many nasty North American beers including a truely fowl Hoegaarden replica drink with a chunk of lemon in it/ a Jägermeister and little sleep it was time to withdraw from Victoria and head 300 miles north to catch another ferry to Prince Rupert, Canada...

Seattle, WA

North America. For a change my seat aboard Korean Air 019 wasn't next to a big fat bloke/infront of chair kicking kids/within screaming baby range so all in all, all good. Decided on a final bit of Korean food for breakfast which turned out to be a mistake. Smelling matey next to me's omlette/sausage/mushroom and beans offering while I chewed on some bland rice/milk/green tea leaves stuff wasn't so good. To be fair though the Korean food did grow on me and I found some fantastic dishes. Occasionally.
Got through US immigration despite quite a bit of questioning over my Iranian visa. Resisted the temptation to explain that I didn't go there as they wouldn't let me at the Iranian border as I had a US stamp from a few years ago. They just don't get it do they? Stayed at an airport 'Best Western' which is very Travel Lodge. What else? Well, oh my god...how fat are these lot? I read somewhere that the national statistic for obese people here is something like 40%. Wrong. Seriously, I'm not sure what the level is for obese but of the hundreds of people I saw there I reckon only about 10% max were not carrying 'more than a few pounds.' Unbelievable. And I soon found out why...during a few meals out I had they were all horrifically calorific. There must be a big eat out culture as well as all the roads are the same - McDonalds, Wal-Mart, closed down second hand car dealers, Pizza Hut, Petrol station and a 'Joe's Diner.' Then the cycle starts again with Burger King replacing McD's and 'Bob's Diner' replacing 'Joe's Diner' and so on.
Des arrived on time and undamaged which was nice seeing as only three of the fifteen bikes arrived on time with the rest arriving the following day. I reassembled him and apart from feeling like I have a giant 50p coin under his front forks and needing a clean it's all good for the long haul to Anchorage, Alaska...