Not Every Day is Smooth Sailing

Ok...so the story continues... this is where it gets really exciting...

After our exciting rest stop watching the helicopter land in the road, we finally arrived in the cute river town of Talkeetna.

 

The campground was at the end of town but felt like we were right in the middle of town haha. Lots of people around. We walked out to the Sustina River where you can sit and have a beautiful view of Mt McKinley. Mt McKinley was almost fully visible.

Just the very top of it was in the clouds. Jason stayed awake long enough to eat supper and then crashed hard to sleep off his sickness. I didn’t feel like going to bed at 7pm, so I stayed up to type some more blog stories. While I was sitting there, a guy, named Chris, stopped by to chat about our bikes. He said he was riding a BMW 1200GS from California. We met so many nice riders during our stay in Talkeetna.

From Talkeetna we cruised up the Parks Highway (stopping at all the viewing points for Mt McKinley) to the Denali Highway.

Mt McKinley was hiding under the clouds the whole time.

The Denali Highway is a very scenic, beautiful dirt road.

It cuts straight across Alaska from just south of Denali Park to Paxson on the east side. We were a bit shocked to see tour buses on this road though. Those poor people had to have been bouncing all over the bus haha. We tried to take a side road to an old abandoned town; however, not too far down the road was a nice sized river crossing. Of course Jason was all about it and zoomed right across but I wasn’t going to follow this time.

I just got a brand new exhaust and didn’t want the freezing cold water or hidden rocks to destroy it; so we turned around and started to look for a spot to camp. We came across a campground in a little town called Tangle Lake. It was getting late and we were starving, so we threw our camp together and cooked up a delicious salmon meal with the last bit of salmon we had caught in Soldotna. That was when all hell broke loose.... not only did it start pouring rain during supper but we noticed Jason’s water pump seal had broken! He has a see-through clutch cover so we could see a cloudy mixture of oil and water in there and his whole coolant container was empty. We didn’t want to deal with it in the rain and wind, so we ditched our dinner plates and hopped in the tent. It was so windy Jason had to reinforce the tent with more ropes. We used our pannier boxes as weights to hold the tent down haha. On top of the rainy nasty weather, my air mattress started leaking air. I had to blow it up 3 times during the night just to stay warm.

Morning rolled around and we were both miserable. Jason was pissed about his bike being broke down and I had caught Jason’s cold at full force. At least it was sunny outside. We talked about our options for rescuing Jason’s bike and made a few phone calls (thankfully our phones had signal out there). We even talked with 3 other fellow riders to get their opinions. One guy offered to tow Jason’s bike with his own bike to Glenallen. Our final game plan was for me to stay and watch our stuff at camp (so I could sleep and get rid of this cold) and Jason would ride my little bike 100 miles to Glenallen to rent a UHaul, throw my bike in the back, and then drive 100 miles back to the campground to load up his bike and me.

We needed to haul his bike back to Anchorage to get the water pump fixed. Jason had the kit to fix it already but needed a dry, clean garage and some oil to fix it (half the engine has to come off). Jason drove us as far as he could toward Anchorage after driving all day but decided to stop and sleep on the side of the road after almost hitting a mama moose and her 2 babies.

 

We set up our pads and sleeping bags in the back of the UHaul and slept as much as we could. It was soooooo cold!! It was the worst nights’ sleep ever.

We drove the rest of the way to Anchorage in the morning. The Motorcycle Shop was closed because it was Monday when we arrived (most moto shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays), so we unloaded Jason’s bike and locked it up. We were so thankful Jason’s friend, Josh, was still in town. Josh helped us out big time. He let us drop off my bike at his cousin’s house, we returned the UHaul truck, and hung out with Josh the rest of the day.

 Josh and his family are so nice! His cousin had a pop up camper set up in their yard, so they let us sleep in that for a couple nights. She even had a bottle of wine and 2 wine glasses in the camper for us. It was so sweet!

We got a great nights’ sleep after freezing our butts off in the UHaul truck the night before. Josh took us to breakfast and then dropped us off at the Motorcycle Shop to see what the verdict was for Jason’s bike. Jason was more than ready to buy a brand new KTM 1190 if he had to. Since he had the water pump seal kit already, the shop said they could get it in right away and fix it that day! These guys are the best. I highly recommend The Motorcycle Shop to anyone riding a bike through Alaska. Josh decided we needed to go do something fun while his bike was getting worked on, so we all went to a small town called Hope. That was the only little town we hadn’t seen on our south Alaska trip so it was perfect. We had a great lunch there, saw the sights, and then had to haul ass back to Anchorage before the shop closed. We made it there with 5 minutes to spare haha! They were just finishing putting it back together so it was perfect timing. All went well. Fingers crossed this new water pump seal holds til we get home or at least up to Prudhoe Bay and back! Jason has replaced his water pump seal 5 times on this bike.

Josh’s cousin let us spend one more night in their pop up camper so we could sleep well and hit the road in the morning. We grabbed one last yummy breakfast with Josh and then put the pedal to the metal heading North. Jason’s break down was a blessing in disguise. It gave us both time to get over our colds before heading into the cold and as we drove passed Mt McKinley this time around it was super clear. We could see it from top to bottom and I guess that’s a rare occurrence. Not too far down the road we saw a huge moose grazing in a swamp.

We stopped to take some pictures and then kept truckin for Fairbanks. It was raining by the time we reached Fairbanks; so we stayed at the Best Western, ordered pizza, and did some laundry. 

Bright and early (just kidding we never leave bright and early... more like 10am) we hit the road. We had to swing by Northern Powersports for Jason to pick up some parts he ordered. They only had half of them in; so we grabbed what we could, changed his oil, and continued North by 2:30pm. The goal was to make it 200 miles to Coldfoot (the midway point to Deadhorse) and then set up camp.

We were quite surprised how much pavement there was on this road. From everything we read and people we talked to, it sounded like the whole route was dirt like the Dempster Highway. Half of the road to Coldfoot was paved and half was nicely packed dirt. We had beautiful sunny skies the whole way which made the traveling easier.

We rolled into Coldfoot around 8pm and fueled up. They had a buffet at the truck stop restaurant until 9pm, so we enjoyed some good food and good company of 4 other motorcyclists. 3 of them were older guys from New Zealand and the other guy was traveling alone from Vancouver. We had great fun chatting with everyone but hit the road again to find a spot to camp. We could have camped in the yard at Coldfoot but it was noisy with semi engines running all night long. There was a campground down the road, so we quickly set up camp and went to bed. We were going to have a long day of riding to Deadhorse tomorrow.

And the Adventures Continue

Hello again!

I forgot to talk about a few things in the last blog. The most important one is...... Yay we made it to Alaska!!! :) We have gone 10,000 miles so far! We took the long way to Alaska haha.

Lets see... from Copper Center campground we drove all the way up to Anchorage. Our bikes needed oil changes again and a few other parts and pieces. I had to buy a new chain and sprocket already and a new air filter, so I just let the mechanics at The Motorcycle Shop do all the work for me. The emulsion stuff they spray on the dirt roads in Canada and Alaska to keep dust down really takes a toll on motorcycles. We have probably gone to the car wash 5 times already just to wash that stuff off. It is solid once it dries. Overall our bikes have been running well (knock on wood). We’ve only had a couple minor issues. For awhile whenever I would accelerate in 4^th and 5^th hear it sounded very airy (like it had an exhaust leak). Well I finally found the problem. I was on my hands and knees inspecting my bike before we arrived at The Motorcycle Shop and there on the very bottom side of the exhaust above a metal protector plate was a huge stress crack. There was no impact point or dents. Just a fine line about a couple inches long. The guys at the shop sent a picture of it to BMW headquarters in Germany because they had never seen that before. Thankfully BMW mailed a new exhaust rather quickly so she’s good as new. Jason put a new chain on his bike but is still trying to find new sprockets. We are hoping the moto shop in Fairbanks can get them. He also needs a new speedometer cable. It randomly stopped working a couple days ago. We are hoping the connection at the back of his dashboard just jiggled loose from too many bumpy potholes.

With all the maintenance we had to do on the bikes after riding so far, we ended up staying in Anchorage for 2 days. It’s a pretty city. Mountains everywhere with the ocean right there too. We had fresh yummy sushi for the first time since we left Maui. We had the hardest time getting a hotel room though. We stopped at 4 different hotels to see if they had rooms available before we finally started just calling them. We thought maybe they were turning us down because we were dirty bikers haha. We finally found one at a place called the Inlet. It was nice to be able to do some laundry and shower. 

We tried to get one more night there but they were sold out, so we packed up and stayed at a Super 8 motel. We got all our parts and pieces put together and were ready to go again.

Two of our Maui friends (Shaun and Natalie) were flying into Alaska for vacation, so we planned to meet up with them in Seward. The drive from Anchorage down the Kenai Peninsula is so beautiful. We took a detour to drive through the Whittier Tunnel.

It is a 2.5 mile railroad tunnel that they allow vehicles to drive through too. It’s the only way by land to get to Whittier. There are scheduled times when they allow vehicles to be in the tunnel. The rest of the time is for trains to go through. It was a crazy experience! Motorcycles used to be allowed to go first before cars and buses, but now they have to go last. Supposedly some guy crashed his bike in the tunnel and got ran over by a bus so that is why we go last. It’s $13 per vehicle round trip to go through the tunnel. Once the scheduled time for vehicles rolls around, cars are allowed to start going through the tunnel (they are spaced out by red and green traffic lights). The tricky part for motorcycles is that you have to cross into the railroad track at the beginning of the tunnel and stay on the striped pavement between the two rails for the whole 2.5 miles. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard; but it’s kinda like when you are in an MRI machine and they tell you not to move the entire time... all you think about is moving! It’s hard not to gravitate towards the rails haha. Once we got out the other side, there was a train waiting to use the tunnel. It was pretty cool.

The town of Whittier is tiny but worth seeing. A lot of people chose to take a ferry from Valdez to Whittier to see glaciers in the ocean and then drive through the tunnel (which we might have done if we knew about it before we got there). This tiny ocean side mountain town has beautiful blue water, big glaciers, and beautiful waterfalls.

 
We had an hour to kill before our scheduled return trip through the tunnel, so we grabbed a coffee and watched some local kids fish. Whittier is a huge hub for seafood processing so I’m sure it’s a great place to eat it. Unfortunately we weren’t there over lunch or dinner time. We safely cruised back through the tunnel and went down to Seward. Our friends were out on a fishing charter, so we cruised around every part of town to find a good fishing spot. We were unsuccessful at finding a spot. Seward is extremely busy with tourists. Even the campgrounds were over packed with people. We decided to explore Exit Glacier Road and found a tent only, free campground just down the road from a huge glacier.
 
It looked like it could rain again so we quickly set up camp and cooked some backpacker meals. Shaun and Natalie stopped by to say hello! It was so great to see them. We talked story for a little bit and made plans of where to meet in the morning to head to Homer.

It was kinda rainy in the morning; but we packed up, met up with Shaun and Natalie, and hit the road.
 
The plan was to camp at a super secret amazing camp spot that night in Ninilchik and then go into Homer to catch a water taxi (aka an awesome boat) to a secluded cabin for fishing and relaxation. It rained most of our drive to Ninilchik, but it wasn’t freezing cold at least. We arrived at the turn off for our super secret camp spot and it was a muddy, rutty, gigantic potholes full of water mess.
 
I was determined to sail through the mess gracefully. The first section was great and then we turned the corner again. No matter which line you chose you were just gonna have to hang on and go for it. I decided to stop and let Jason get further ahead, so I wouldn’t have to stop in a bad spot; however, when I put my foot down, it just kept sliding outward in the mud. I couldn’t stop it so my bike took a nap in the mud haha. I was so pissed.
 
I did fine in the gnarly terrain; but when it came to standing still, I fell over. The camp spot was amazing though. We were on top of a bluff, so we had an ocean view with mountainous volcanoes across the ocean and a waterfall to the right of us. We cooked up a great meal of fresh salmon (Shaun and Natalie had caught it the day before), rice pilaf, and pasta salad. It was a fun evening catching up on things. We hadn’t seen them since we all left Maui.

The next morning we had to rush to catch the water taxi by 10am. As we packed up our gear, I came up with my game plan for riding out of that gnarly road again. All I could think of was to pick a line and keep the throttle on.... and it was successful! The whole process of repacking our gear at the docks for a night out in the woods before the boat left was a blur but we all made it.
 
The boat ride out had amazing scenery.
 
 
They dropped us right at the front steps of the cabin with our kayaks and fishing poles. The only way to access this cabin was by boat (amazing)!
 
Natalie and Shaun kayaked away to go hike a glacier while Jason and I kayaked close to the cabin to try and break our fishing poles by fighting a big salmon (we have tiny break apart poles with 8 lb line). We had such a great time!
 
 
While we were fishing, we saw a bald eagle swoop down and catch a fish and then a black bear came out of the woods and caught a fish in the same spot. (It's hard to see in the picture unless you zoom in but Jason got a picture of the bald eagle with a fish in his claws sitting on the mossy rocks!)

We decided that was the perfect spot to catch a fish haha. Not too long after we paddled over there, Jason’s line took off! We thought this was the end of his little fishing pole. The line was just zinging out of the reel and the fish was going nuts!
 
It eventually tired out and Jason brought him over toward me. It was my job to flop him on shore and try to bop him on the head somehow. We finally saw what it was and it was a huge salmon!! Yay our first salmon! After the huge fight, Jason’s pole survived to fish another day.

The night in the cabin was wonderful. There was a wood burning stove that stayed lite long enough to warm up the cabin and then it rained early morning, so it was perfect weather for sleeping in. The sun eventually came out and we went back out to kayak fish again. Shaun said it was my job to catch dinner, so that’s what I did.
 
I caught a juvenile silver salmon! The meat was so red and perfect when we filleted it, we wanted to eat it raw haha (sushi style).
 
Around 4pm, the water taxi was back to pick us up. It was such a great trip. Thanks to Natalie for planning it!!

 
We were starving after we arrived back on the Homer Spit, so we grabbed a drink at the Salty Dog (a famous fisherman’s’ bar). The whole bar is covered ceiling to floor with dollar bills that people have written on. The Mommer name will forever be on the ceiling of the Salty Dog! :) 

 
 
 
We grabbed pizza at a restaurant that I can’t remember its name and experienced quite an earthquake. At first we all thought someone had heavy feet while they were walking but then the whole place started swaying haha! It was insane. We just sat there starring at each and then it stopped. I guess it was a 6.2 quake caused by one of the volcanoes not too far from us.

Shaun arranged with his cousin to let us all camp on his property in Soldotna that night. Huge thank you to Shaun’s cousin! They are big time fishermen, so they took us to their favorite river fishing spot to get in on the action of the red salmon run. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. People were shoulder to shoulder throwing their hooks around to “catch” a salmon. When the salmon are spawning, they don’t feed on anything which means they won’t bite your hook; so you have to snag them through the mouth. It’s quite interesting but lots of fun. I think we are addicted now. The morning we went out to fish the DLNR raised the catch limit from 3 to 6 per person, so there were a lot of fish caught that day. Jason and I grabbed our tiny collapsible rods and joined the madness. We didn’t have waders, so we found a spot off the boardwalk to throw our lines in. It was kind of a combination of fly fishing and dragging your line quickly through the water. One of the locals next to us was leaving and asked us if we liked salmon. We said “Of course!” and he gave us one of his salmon! That was super nice of him. He even filleted it for us. He didn’t think we would catch anything on our tiny poles, so he felt bad for us haha. Little did he know... Jason caught a fish shortly after that guy left haha! We didn’t have a net to grab the fish before it broke loose, so we dragged it into the weeds and threw a rock at its head to knock it out and pull it up onto the boardwalk. It was a nice sized sockeye salmon! Unfortunately we forgot the camera in the tent so we don't have pictures of this event on our SmugMug page, but we took a few with our cellphones which I'll post in the near future. Since we already had a cooler full of salmon, we gave the fish Jason caught to Shaun and Natalie to take back home with them. They had a bunch of halibut and salmon filleted and frozen to ship back to the East coast.
 
That night for supper we cooked up some of the fresh salmon with cornbread stuffing and mixed veggies. It was delicious!

Jason and I absolutely needed to start heading North again to make it to Deadhorse before the weather gets too cold. We had an amazing time hanging out with Shaun and Natalie! We all said our goodbyes and hit the road for Anchorage again. We had to stop by The Motorcycle Shop again to see what the Germany BMW people had to say about my cracked exhaust pipe. On our way up there, a mama moose and her baby ran out in the road in front of us. Thankfully we saw them coming and were able to stop in time. The rest of the ride was smooth sailing. We rolled into the moto shop and before they even talked with me I saw my brand new shiny exhaust laying on the counter. BMW decided to completely replace that section of exhaust for me for free (warranty stuff). The Motorcycle Shop boys were super helpful and got my bike in right away to put the pipe on. My bike is back to a quiet purr. :)

We camped that night for free at the Anchorage Harley Davidson store. We didn’t actually camp in the store but they have a hidden grassy lawn right in town where they let moto travelers camp a night for free. They even have a restroom with a shower available for us. All the campers that night were adventure dualsport riders. One couple had my exact bike. He was the only other Sertao I’ve seen on the road so far. They were from Canada and heading down to Homer for a little vacation. Another guy there was riding a BMW 1200. We didn’t say much besides “hello” because he didn’t speak English. The last guy had been camping there quite awhile. In the morning before we left, he told us his story. He is from Brazil. He started his trip in Argentina on a Harley and drove the Pan American Highway all the way up to Deadhorse, Alaska. On his way down from Deadhorse his Harley engine imploded on him. It was going to cost him $7,000 to get a new engine; so he decided to sell the bike to Harley Davidson cheap and fly back to Brazil. That must have been quite a trip.

Our plan for todays ride was to get to Talkeetna from Anchorage through Hatcher’s Pass. Hatcher’s pass was interesting. I didn’t know what to expect at first. It ended up being a beautiful gravel road. It was very well traveled and amazing mountain views.
 
Jason’s plan was to take one of the side roads off Hatcher’s Pass to come out closer to Talkeetna area instead of going down the touristy highway. Well... we took a right turn where we thought this side road should be and didn’t get very far. There were gigantic potholes filled with water (almost could be considered small ponds) which soon turned into a very rocky path (softball sized rolling rocks).
 
If we would have had lighter weight dirt bikes, we would have been all for it; but our fully loaded heavy bikes weren’t going to make it in one piece if we kept going. We turned around and the road was still fun with lots of curves. Almost forgot to mention... Jason woke up with a bad cold this morning. He was so stuffed up with runny nose and headache I asked him if we just wanted to stay and sleep all day but he wanted to push on. He road all day today barely able to see through his snot and then went to bed early once we reached Talkeetna. One interesting encounter on the way to Talkeetna was the road being closed right in front of us for a helicopter to land. Someone in an ambulance needed to get to a hospital quickly; so the fire chiefs closed off a section of road to transfer the guy from the ambulance to a medical helicopter.
 
Prayers to that family! Hopefully all went well for them.

Well we have to hit the road again but I have a lot more stories and pictures to catch up on. Will hopefully have internet available in the next major town we come across.

Link to our pictures:  https://mommer.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Alaska-2015/49948984_NtmPzL#!i=4257366414&k=db6hF8G