AKHuff - Ridin 'Round Alaska - 1200 Miles - 5 Days
(I'll be able to upload the viddys by next Tuesday... 1 hour of video split into 5 parts, I'll link'em in at the bottom when their up. Went through 100gb's of video at 2.7k res... btw when your watching the video, it'll help to put a fan in front of your computer and have somebody throwing dirt into the fan... it'll help get you the real experience, just like you're there mann...) Well, here's a link. I've only got two up so far, I'm traveling now so it'll be about a bit before I get the rest up... https://www.youtube.com/z9arctic.
Now grab a six pack and enjoy my tale...
June 21st'ish 2013
Sadly my trip was only 1210.2 miles... I originally planned to ride AK to Washington when I had this chunk of time off work but I ended up getting a new job that's delaying my plans of being a traveling motorcycle bum for two years straight. - Nonetheless, I was prepared to ride so instead of my planned trip I rode around the state. When the trip was at it's end I was wishing I had more time to ride the ~2,400 miles more to Bellingham - I was so ready to do it, I didn't want to stop riding...
For this trip I rode- Big Lake > Denali > Fairbanks > Paxson > Valdez > Glenallen > Big Lake - about 1,000 miles on the road. I was trying to take my time but at an average speed of 73.3mph it's easy to cover some ground when you're in the zone. I spent five days on the road, riding only in the afternoon - Riding in the land of the midnight sun, I could ride till 1am and it would still be light out...
My
Bike Info.
Route:
Pre Trip Preparation: Let's break some stuff... - when I got off work and was getting prepared for the trip, I installed a Flatland Racing skid plate and attempted to put on the radiator guard... uhmm yeah ... I had a full tank of gas and had the tank unbolted, not secured while I was putting on the radiator guard - yeap tank slid off the bike and snapped the hose connection off the fuel pump *sigh* lol, as soon as it happened I knew how much it was going to cost. I was on the phone 30 seconds later with the dealership ordering a new pump. Yeap - stupid mistake... 5 days later when I was picking the part I was waiting in line talking to the guy who sold me the bike. He was like, Yeah the offroad bikes have straps that hold the tank up... lol 'yeah we're going to have to order the part,' I told him the parts already in that's why I'm here. So he went and got it out of the back, standing at the counter he looked at the receipt and said 'I'm sorry man' as he was handing it to me looking at the price of 330 bucks. I was just laughing - completely a result of my own stupidity, oh well... I do have to say it was worth every penny...
The TripI've been on the 'Parks' Highway dozens of times in my truck, the highway starts in Anchorage and ends in Fairbanks about 360 or so miles north of the big city. I've always enjoyed that road it's nice and long - straight and beautiful views. Riding this road on a bike is a completely different experience and much better, especially with 85 degree weather. It was just blowing my mind riding on the open road, it was so much fun. I left my house mid-afternoon and headed 'North to the Future' towards Denali. I worked up there for two summers awhile back so I headed up there to start and to hang out with a bunch of my seasonal worker friends.
Denali Viewpoint South ~30 miles north of Trapper Creek.
The 'High One' 100 or so miles away still... - Elevation: 20,320 ft
Once I got to Denali I picked up a mini bottle of Jack to stick in my camping gear and headed over to the Denali Salmon Bake Restaurant, one of the main bars for the seasonal workers - I've shut it down countless times when I worked up there: last call 4am on a good night. Wondered in there and saw about a dozen people I knew and hung out for a bit then headed towards Healy less than 10 miles up the road. Just before town there's a trail I use to 'live' down (spent about 3 months living in the woods there). So I checked out my old spot down a 4 wheel trail. Got down there in the thick trees by one of the three lakes on the trail - as soon as I stopped I was completely cover in mosquitoes, so F-that I knew another spot elsewhere on top of a hill where it'd be nice and windy so I headed up there and setup camp.
About 2.30am
The next morning I threw on my swim shorts and closed toe sandals and rode up to otto lake and took a 'shower' went back got my gear and headed into Denali Park and rode the 15 miles in, anything past that you have to take a park bus in. The park road is about 93 miles long - During the two summers I worked up there the furthest I went in was 30 miles and that was at the beginning of the season when you can drive your private vehicle in that far: Can't have fires in the park can't go wheeling = I don't care.
- Now taking a bus into the park is great for people who have never seen the type of terrain and the wildlife that Alaska has. Beautiful mountains, caribou, wolfs, lynx, bear, moose, doll sheep - whatever - you'll see it all on one of those tours. btw I think only a third of the people who come to Denali see the mountain because of the weather systems the mountain creates...
So I did the park thang then headed to the 49th State Brewery in Healy, afterwards I decided I'd head down the Stampede Trail. This is the trail where the dude in the 'Into the Wild' book/movie ended up... I've done this many times in my 2000 Blazer that had a winch and last summer on my bike a few times with dirt tires. I usually make it to the tundra about 8 miles past the end of the road and turn around cause you're in the middle of nowhere, no cell service and it's going to be one hell of a walk if something happens. The first river crossing isn't much further from this point anyway... And once you hit the tundra even if its dry out it'd be a slight challenge, I'll do it someday when I find somebody with a capable rig to head out with me...
Into the Wild
So with street tires and most of my camping gear on the bike, after a few drinks at the 49th things didn't go to smooth on the trail but it was still a good time. If you watch the video I drop the bike right at thestart of the trail... I went to put my right foot down and it didn't find the bottom of the mud I put it in so I dropped the bike... watching the video it sounds like I may have been in second gear or just not rev'n it up enough going through that section... Anyways, I eventually came across two four-wheeler/rhino groups of tourists coming the other way and then a Jeep group. I went about 3.5 miles then I got into loose gravel and nearly highsided, after that I figured I've already seen, I've been, time to turn around I've still got 800 more miles to ride.
It's just the angle of the picture... the bike's not really on the ground...
Once I got back to the start of the trail I was airing my tires up a bit and talked to this dude from Sweden. He and his wife drove their rig (it looked like a 4 door landrover) to Germany then shipped it to... I wanna say New York, then drove around the US and Canada. So we talked a bit, he was asking about the Into the Wild bus and where they filmed and I filled them in a bit. His English was a bit broken but I could understand him pretty well. I've talked to a lot of people from North Carolina so that helped in this situation a lot ...
Back to camp then out to the Lynx bar at Princess hotel to catch up with a cheeka I use to work with.
The Strip of Denali - Princess Hotel across the street with Denali Park in the background.
My ugly mug, for some reason I have a really content look on my face.... 
Windy Bridge... Some people make a 'swing' with climbing gear towards the right side.
Easily a 80ft++ drop down.
The following day I started out with my last shower for the trip in otto lake, ate some grub and headed up the highway. 4 miles past Healy there was construction. There was a side-dump truck coming down the road towards me before I hit traffic, we were both going about 45-55mph and it threw about a 3 inch rock up headed straight towards my face, I ducked to the right a bit and that thing literally skimmed the top left of my helmet, it barely felt like I got hit - very lucky it hit me at just the right angle, left a slight scratch on my Icon Variant. For those street bike riders who don't wear a full face helmet if any helmet- you may not crash, you may not get hit by a truck - but a rock might break your face - lol the Icon Variant is sucha fricken sweet helmet it's worth the investment. It looks good, rides good at 75mph on the WR, lots of air flow and works pretty good in the rain if the temps are above ~40 F
Exhibit A - Badass Helmet. A trip down Turnagain Arm a week earlier.
From here the story gets a little sparse, blew through Fairbanks and Delta Junction and headed towards Paxson. I camped about 40 miles from Paxson. I decided to stop since I didn't want to cover too much ground and make my trip shorter than I already knew it was going to be... This night I explored a few roads and trails looking for a camp spot, there were quite a few trucks and campers hidden out in the woods so I eventually camped on an access road for the Trans Alaskan Pipeline. I figured it'd be good enough, people wouldn't glace down that road if their bombing down the highway. That night - I took a shit on the pipeline.
I've always worked in the oil biz, so it just makes me crack up when I think about that...
30 or so miles south of Fairbanks, looking north-west.
Further up the road looking south.
Maybe a hour past(east) of F-Town.
Further into the unknown...
Just a wee bit past Delta Junction starting to head south, I'd call that the Alaskan Range...and a forest fire
Crazy mischievous clouds, fortunately I made a 90 degree turn right before I hit the rain. At this stop a truck full of guys pulling a trailer pulled in behind me dumping beer cans in the dumpster... to quote them "Don't worry we got another full case in the truck" lol
Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)... 800 sum miles across the entire state - Prudhoe Bay to Valdez - this provides Alaska with about 56+% of its money that it blows on useless stupid projects that fail that should have never even been thought of... 66% of the jobs in Alaska deal with the oil industry (33% oil company related and 33% are federal jobs dealing with the oil industry...) The pipeline though - a good idea, we'd be nothing without it... and I'd be a poor bastard without a badass motorcycle... Exhibit B & C:
Had about 630 miles on the odometer at this point and 480 on the GPS that hadn't been on the entire trip. Just before I reached my campsite that night, the drive coming out of Delta Junction is pretty sweet. Awesome views of mountains in the distance then a short time later - BAM your in those mountains. Very cool views going through the valleys.
In the morning
Keeping the GoPro charged at this point was a pain. If it was in the tank bag 'charging' I didn't know if it was really charging and I was missing out on getting footage. Right before the trip I was about to chuck the Go'Pro' into the woods, it killed two class 10 SD cards a PNY I had before, and a kingston I bought just for the 'pro' I ended up with a Sandisk Ultra 64gb - this thing made the camera work right and not freak out all the time, I picked up another one for the trip ($50) at radioshack). So I've got two 64gb cards and three batteries, this worked out really well for this trip, I just need to find an external USB charger for the batteries then I'd be set.
How do you charge a battery with a RedBull? Zootfresh Baby. Uses a battery tender connection to USB. I use the battery tender conect while I'm stopped and I ran another connection into the tank bag that's only on while the bike is running. Also shows my double A usb charger I got off ebay, I had enough rechargeable batteries I didn't really test it out...
Next I headed out, arriving at Paxson pretty quick. I never recall going east of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway since I've lived in Alaska (21 outta my 28 years born and raised) so at that point everything was new to me which is reason I wanted to do this route. I got to Paxson and their gas pumps were ripped up and I didn't know where the next gas station would be, the gas light was just about to come on so I dumped my 1 gallon rotopack in so I wouldn't have to stop latter if I needed to. Well about 5 more miles down the road I found a working gas station and topped it off with a 1.5 gallons of regular - yeap that sucked the bike ran like crap but whatever...
Few miles before Paxson
Heading south to Glennallen the wind really picked up and was blowing me around - it felt like the bottom of the bike was going to come out from underneath me. The wind blew for awhile then stopped as I arrived in Glenallen. Filled her up and started heading home... got about 12 miles out of Glennallen, I was looking south toward Valdez- clear skies, no wind. I originally planned to make it to Valdez but the wind was suck'n to ride in... Looking around I was like - Hey weather looks good - so I turned around nabbed some food and went for it.
My abort mission home turnaround point
And went for it I did... heh ... I went back to the gas station and topped the tank off again just in case. This time I talked to three guys going fishing on the Copper River. They were all surprised as hell I was on a 250 and how far I've gone. One of'em asked me about five times what type of bike I was riding... and he was like - Hell, I wish you lived in Fairbanks so I'd have somebody to ride with - A good group of guys... so we talked, then I ended up on the road right in front of them.... Well it turns out I didn't secure the excess strap on my dry bag for my tent/sleeping bag & pad... I was getting ready to pass the people in front of me and those guys came up beside me waving for me to stop... So we pulled over and they let me know that strap was flying around back there (bout 3-4ft extra length of strap) and it could have got caught in the chain... They all three jumped out and tightened the crap out of the straps for me, then jumped in their truck and took off... could have turned out bad if they didn't notify me like they did... good stuff...
The green strap could have brought me to my demise...
Showing my confugualtion of straps
Wrangell-Saint Elias Moutains
Camped about 70 miles north of Valdez on a river, the road I went down to camp looked like another pipeline access road but with some off shoots that weaved around trees that got me down by a river. I parked my bike in the woods to be out of sight of the trail and if anyone was riding on the river. As I was collecting firewood, coming out of the woods I saw a truck that just parked a bit up the trail. I yelled 'Hey Guys' just so they knew I was there and I wouldn't scare the crap outta them or get shot rummaging through the trees, they took off a bit latter... The mosquitoes were bad here. I was swarmed till I got a fire going.
Here's me blowin up my gear all over the place... and you can see the potentially evil green strap
The drive Glennallen to Valdez has very nice scenery- big mountains (Wrangell & Saint Elias) and 6,000ft tall mountains right by the road and glaciers in the distance. Dropping off the mountain going down Thompson Pass (2,800ft) to Valdez/sea level was cool. There was still snow on the side of the hill still trying to melt in June. Once I got to Valdez I cruised around town found some expensive food and was like, yeap this sucks I'd rather be on the road so off the way I came. Just from the hour or so I was there it seemed like Seward, Alaska would be a more exciting place to hang out...
On the way to Valdez
Down the Pass and through the hills we go
Don't know why this is sidewaays
By the ferry terminal, the end of the pipeline is dead ahead across the inlet.
Funeral in progress.. Opps excuse me, a wedding in progress...
Now let's look the other direction... That's Valdez - you've seen it all no need to visit now right? Do yourself a favor if you make it there, turn around immediately after you find some food...
282 miles to the house and the 70 miles I rode in the morning made this the biggest distance I covered during this trip in a day. 352 miles in a day is pretty easy... I still want to do some endurance rides this summer to see how can I go in a day.
Just a couple miles south of Glennallen
About 80 miles east of Palmer heading home...just west of Eureka Lodge, my favorite snowmachine'n spot and the best burgers in Alaska.
This trip really makes me want to do the AK to WA trip, I'll probably be able start the moto-bum life next summer... I'll have a 3 week on 3 weeks off schedule again sometime... 3 weeks of work, 3 weeks of riding around the US... ride till I find somewhere I like throw the bike in storage when I go to work, then get off work pickup the bike n'd ride wherever I want then do it again and again - two years of it is the plan... 4 corners, anything in between maybe even ship the bike to a warm island somewhere so I can ride during the 10 month long Alaskan winter...
AND BAM! Next week I'm off for another adventure... Flying into Washington to trailer a Jeep Unlimited on 37's to Colorado for a week+ long Jeep trip and also hit up Moab for a few days...
Enjoy Everybody... Live Life Love Huff
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