Continuing our story……..

Deadhorse to Fairbanks

Having achieved the goal of getting to Deadhorse we now had the return journey to look forward to. We decided to spend the remainder of the day sorting ourselves out and leave the next morning.

While the Beloved cleaned our bike clothing and luggage I cleaned up Kitty which took quite a while. We had built up a layer of caked on mud up to 2 inches thick across the front of the bike. The cooling fins on the engine cylinders and the exhaust pipes were solid with baked on mud. The rest of Kitty was a lumpy brown mess and the mud was incredibly sticky.

Part of the reason that the road becomes so slippery is that the road construction crew’s graders add a layer of calcium chloride. It has the advantage that when it dries out it becomes rock hard, binding all the gravel together, but when it gets wet it becomes very slippery and is very corrosive. I was starting to see rust appear so I was keen to get rid of as much as possible. This was the second time I’d cleaned Kitty I’d gone through the same process back in Coldfoot a day earlier.

The trip back to Fairbanks was nothing like the northbound leg. Even though we went back the same way it might as well have been a different road. Over the previous few days the sun had come out and dried the road out so that it was like concrete.

Sections of the road where I had crawled along in first gear I flew past doing 100kph or better. We couldn’t believe such a change in so short a period of time. When we travelled north bound through the notorious Atigun Pass the road was very slippery but coming back two days later it was fine.

The purpose for the Dalton Highway was to connect the oilfields on the shore of the Arctic Ocean to the rest of the continent. The oil was transported from Prudhoe Bay by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System that usually runs along the road. The pipeline itself is 1200mm is diameter so is quite sizeable.

As I mentioned earlier the southbound trip was fast and easy. I remember around this section of the road it was 4 inches  of mud. Today it was like concrete.

After getting back to Fairbanks it was more bike cleaning and after $20 and two hours at a car wash with a pressure wash and brushes Kitty was no longer muddy but was merely dirty. I’ll be cleaning the Dalton Highway off her for a long time to come.

The cleaning problem sorted we paid a visit to what is described as the worlds most unusual BMW bike dealership.

Trails End BMW is run by George Rahn, otherwise known as Grumpy George. George would be in his late sixties or early seventies and the “dealership” is off a small road down a long dirt drive to a ramshackle house with newish, old and very old bikes under plastic tarps with even older cars and other farm machinery that is rusting away quietly. There was a long wall of old second hand tires and around the house and work sheds were old BMW bike factory manuals, boxes of parts and other bike bits as well as all the other stuff a 70 year old bloke living by himself surrounds himself with.

For those of you who have seen the ABC series “Seachange” Georges place was like a motorcycle version of Diver Dan’s shed but George doesn’t look like David Wenham. It’s about as far from a “normal” pristine antiseptic BMW dealership as you can get. Although after talking with him for a few minutes I knew where I would prefer to take Kitty for any work. George is also the local Indian Enfield importer/dealer and he had several out the front (under some more tarps).

I arranged to visit him after our trip to Prudhoe for an oil change and to check out a minor bolt problem. As I mentioned he’s nicknamed Grumpy George by travellers who have dealt with him, but after a while he warmed up. He doesn’t like these new fangled, chain drive, fuel injected, high tech BMW bikes so Kitty was a bike that he approved of and since I had rebuilt Kitty I was able to talk to him without asking too many stupid questions. He offered to store our excess gear while we did the run up to Deadhorse.

He had his mechanic Eric around as well, with George sitting on a chair directing him

“Use the 10mm spanner”

“Now tighten it up, a bit more, more, that’s it”

After doing the oil change he went around the bike checking that everything was ok, adjusting cables, checking the gearbox and final drive oil levels, balancing the carburettors.

“I can balance carburettors better by ear than most people can with a gauge”

And generally giving Kitty the once over. I got a “present” from him he scrambled around in some boxes and gave me a Trails End number plate surround, I’ll be putting that on soon.

As I said he may be a bit cantankerous but I would trust him with my bike any day.

 

Fairbanks to Prince Rupert

From Fairbanks we headed east to Dawson City via the Alcan Highway and Top of the World Highway. Showers and rain continued to follow us and just to make it interesting the road changed back to dirt but it was nowhere as slippery as the Dalton.

In the end we rode the entire length of the Alcan and it was a good trip.

That night we arrived at a town called Chicken, according to local legend it started out as a gold rush town that was going to be called Ptarmigan, named after a local bird. But as no one could could agree on the spelling it was renamed as Chicken. All the accommodation was booked out so we ended up pitching our tent inside a half built cabin in the caravan park. It wasn’t the most restful nights sleep as I kept thinking about the bears in them thar hills and we knew they were there, we seen them!

Dawson City was gold rush boom town of the early 1900’s and gold is still mined in the surrounding area today. Most new buildings are built in the turn of the century style with many original building dotted around the town.

There was a lot to see and do, we would have stayed longer but we had the ferry booked so we did what we could before headed south.

While we were in Dawson the world gold panning championship was being held. There were about 20 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland and Norway. There were some very colourful characters amongst the competitors and the spectators. They take their gold panning very seriously.

From Dawson we headed south to Skagway via Carmack and Whitehorse (home of the sour toe) Since we were going on the ferry I needed to buy some tie down straps for Kitty as I very cleverly left the straps I had brought over from Oz back in Seattle. Zero out of ten for planning.

Things got interesting here. We got back on the bike, I pressed the starter and the dreaded sound of nothing happened. Bugger, dead battery.

This was not good.

I did notice when starting the bike that morning there was the slightest hesitation as the starter turned the motor over now it was completely flat. Getting out the multimeter I measured 10.6 volts across the battery, not good.

At this time I didn’t know if the battery had died, the charging circuit had died or if we had simply run the battery down with the extra load of the heated vests.

I love my heated vest

Kitty has a kick start, I might as well give that a try. What followed was 10 minutes of me giving my right leg some severe exercise and providing entertainment for the Beloved and several passers by. Now I’m getting somewhat concerned we have to get down to Skagway tonight to catch the ferry in the morning and I’m still not sure why we have stopped.

With so many pick up trucks around this part of the world I was sure that someone would have some jumper leads and sure enough the first person I asked had a set and we jump started the bike. I dropped the beloved off at a café and headed off to the run the bike for a few miles before checking in at a local bike dealership to see if they had a battery charger. They did, but it had died the other day so I was still on my own.

After riding around for a while the battery voltage was starting to creep upwards so I stopped the engine and tried to start it using the starter and it worked, just. It seemed that the problem was that we had overloaded the charging system over the last couple of days as we were running the vests and the heated grips flat out and the headlight has to be on while riding.

Why it didn’t happen earlier I’m still not sure, to be investigated when we get back to Seattle.

I rigged the multimeter across the battery so I could see what was happening while we rode down to Skagway and over the afternoon the battery continued to slowly charge.

Skagway was originally a port town where miners went overland to the Klondike gold fields, later on a rail road climbed over the pass which now takes tourists on a trip over White Pass. Today Skagway is a tourist town where the numbers of T shirt shops are only outnumbered by the jewellery stores. When we arrived in the harbour there were four large ocean liners berthed at the piers at the peak of summer up to six are in port at any one time.

I think we’ll have a break from the day to day travelling and tell you a couple of non bike stories before continuing the trip

If you do come to this part of the world after having a sour toe drink you will probably want something to eat. What I can highly recommend is the Alaskan King Crab, these crabs are up to six feet across and the meat is in the legs so is easy to get out. While moderately expensive (but very good) in the restaurants it’s much cheaper in the larger supermarkets at $10-15 per pound, crayfish and lobsters fall into a very distant second place. You will need to leave room for the local halibut or wild salmon and the clam or seafood chowder is a great starter. Finally if you are feeling carnivorous the BBQ ribs are fantastic, all this is washed down with local Alaskan Amber Ale or a glass of red. As I said earlier it’s a tough job but…..

One thing that did surprise us is the amount of Australian wine in this part of the world. The marketing guys have been working overtime, very often the size of the Australian wine section is second only to the local US wine and often greater than all the other parts of the world put together.

One sad thing, while I was in Anchorage in the refrigerated section of the liquor store a woman who had obviously led a very tired and emotional life carefully selected two large (and cheap) one litre cans of Fosters Lager. I did feel sorry for her, Fosters, the choice of Alcoholics worldwide.

Any story about this part of the world would not be complete with a section about guns and cars.

There is a lot of hunting around this part of the world and therefore things that go bang. There is a local chain of stores called Fred Meyer they are like a combination of Safeway and K Mart on steroids. They are huge. We were in one of Fred Meyers in Fairbanks I was searching for some tape in the automotive section. I passed the firearms counter. It was an education. Many years ago at K Mart in Australia had a small section like this but they did not sell handguns over the counter including some enormous revolvers. The only differences between canon and a Smith and Wesson X frame 500 mag revolver with a 10 inch barrel is that the canon has wheels and is not usually made of stainless steel.

I had a chat with Lou who was behind the counter, I asked what the licence requirements to buy one of these were and what they are used for.

Licensing was simple, none. Just be a US citizen with a clean prison record. They were used for hunting, or defence against bears but he personally thought they were a bit of overkill. Lou was a keen shooter and offered to take me out to the range that weekend but unfortunately we had to make tracks south before that which is pity. I’m sure it would have been an interesting day

The local pick up truck is king around here and some of the raised Ford F350 trucks are huge, I would have trouble climbing into the cab. The only thing larger are the RV’s (Recreational Vehicles) The biggest ones are the size and shape of a 44 seat bus except the RV is longer as buses don’t usually tow a 4WD behind. The surprising thing talking to the owners of some of these RV’s is that you don’t need a special drivers licence for them just a standard car licence, what you do need is a large wallet as they cost a small fortune to buy and with a fuel economy of around 6 miles per gallon (US) are not cheap to run. A lot of people can afford them as we have seen hundreds if not thousands pass us over the last few weeks.

Because of the high mileage people often tow their cars inside a trailer.

OK back to travels.

We were in Skagway waiting for a ferry to take us down to port of Prince Rupert in Canada. We met several guys travelling by bike including Dan and Lee who helped teach the Beloved about the joys of a Bloody Mary, or in this case a few Bloody Mary’s.

 

At least she is a cheap drunk as she doesn’t require many BM’s to achieve a state of altered consciousness. Also on the Ferry we met up with Werner, a Swiss guy who had travelled up from South America over the previous 10 months. We decided to ride together for the next couple days after we left the ferry but first we had to get through Canadian immigration again which took ages, they were very keen to check for weapons etc. Several cars and pickups in front of us had been instructed to pull over to one side and have everything emptied out, fortunately they ignored us and on we travelled. The journey south was uneventful (just wet as usual). I think the 10 months of riding solo had taken its toll on Werner he had us as a captive audience and was keen to talk. I think I got a word in occasionally.

After parting company with Werner and enjoying the sounds of silence for while we reached Vancouver and got on the ferry to Vancouver Island.

I’ve been to Vancouver Island a couple of years earlier so I suggested that we go back to a couple of places that I had been to before. The conversation went some something like;

“Let’s go to Goats on the Roof”

“What’s at Goats on the Roof?”

“Goats on the Roof”

What do mean Goats on the Roof?

“Exactly what I said, Goats on the Roof”

“But what’s at Goats on the Roof”

“Goats on the Roof”

“I don’t understand”

“It’s quite simple we are going to an establishment called Goats on the Roof”

“Goats on the Roof?”

“You got it, Goats on the Roof”

“I still don’t get it”

“Dearest one, I’m speaking English and I’m sure each word is clear, concise and accurate. You will just have to wait and see”

Alright, I admit I was being a tad difficult, but I was being concise and accurate just not very clear. If you want to see what I meant, have a look at the website on the Vancouver Island page.

Travelling down Vancouver Island is the town of Chemainus which is famous for the murals around the town. We stayed here for a couple of days before heading further south to Victoria

Also while in Victoria we outfitted ourselves with some new boots from a company called Viberg, my old boots were dying and I had lusted after these for awhile. In the end we bought a pair for the Beloved and now we are both well shod. They’ve been fantastic boots and I highly recommend them.

From Vancouver Island it was a quick trip back to Seattle where Simon and Co welcomed us back (thank you). We needed to do some work on Kitty and then it would be the big trip down south.

Ian & the Beloved

A few more bonus pictures