Today was a short day due to the conditions we had to travel through.
The day started out perfect. I visited the little known bakery in Haines Junction and had one of the most scrumptious sticky buns you have ever tasted. It was “to write home about”.
We traveled from Haines Junction to Tok, AK. Our main problem today was rain, which started about an hour after leaving Haines Junction and continued all the way to Tok.
The next problem was the construction zones. Really slow going and moderate gravel and mud due to the rain. I am still not able to reach any semblance of a Zen state when approaching gravel. Maybe I’ll never get there. And when you have constant rain on your face shield, making it more difficult to see the road, it just makes it worse. One of today's construction zones had a long period of fairly heavy gravel and that was not good. The front end of the bike started into a “wobble” several times before I reached the end. From my research, I’m told that this wobble can often times end up with a “face plant” if it gets too radical. I believe it. Let’s just say the “pucker factor” was rather high several times today. I wonder if a GPR Stabilizer would help in this case?
The third problem today was “frost heaves”. The road freezing and thawing many times during the winter, causes the roadway to develop big “speed bumps”. I was testing the GS suspension quite vigorously a few times today. It passed with flying colors.
The forth problem today was the fact that some form of motor home tour group was on its way to Alaska at the same time we were. So you have a seemingly endless stream of big ocean liners on wheels going real slow because of the frost heaves and Lyle and I trying to pass them one by one. At the same time, trying to contend with the frost heaves and the road construction. All while trying to see through rain drops on our face shields.
There was one very upsetting event today. We were running along at a nice clip (we can speed, now that we’re out of Canada) and all of a sudden a guy on a Gold Wing, pulling a trailer, went whizzing by us like we were standing still. Well, maybe not that bad, but he went by us pretty fast. Then I could see up ahead where there was another long stretch of gravel coming up. So, I’m thinking “we’re on BMW GSes and he’s on a Honda tank. This is where he gets his comeuppance”. I have to tell you, this guy did not even slow down for the gravel. I was totally amazed. He is either a multiple winner of the Dakar Rally or the Gold Wing was a trike. Since I didn’t see three wheels on that bike, I have to assume he was one good bike rider. Any way, it turns out that we were out GSed by a GW. Humbled I am.
We arrived in Tok, Alaska and immediately tried to find a room. Well, as usual, there was something going on that made rooms in short supply. In this case, it was a bunch of Bentley owners driving to the big event in Anchorage. They were coming from all over and they were ALL driving their old Bentleys to the event. These were cars made in the twenties and thirties mostly. Now, you may not find this too amazing except for the fact that the majority of these Bentleys do not have tops. They might as well have been on motorcycles. When it rained, they got wet. Maybe three or four of them were models that actually had tops on them. The rest were just open “roadsters”. The drivers and their passengers were dressed just like Lyle and I. Some of them were wearing attire more suited to a Nor'easter but they seemed to be having fun.
Since this was such a short day, we may try and make it from here to Coldfoot, Alaska tomorrow. Normally, we would stay in Fairbanks a day and then head to Coldfoot the following day. It all depends on the weather tomorrow and the forecast for the following three days. It the weather is too bad, we’ll just go to the Arctic Circle and come back to Fairbanks.
This is another place without internet so this post won’t go out until we can find an “open” hotspot.
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