Well, we shall be leaving Alaska again tomorrow, after a week, it’s been very quick and pretty chilly!

Alaska is diverse, the largest U.S state, and is one fifth the size of the rest of the entire 48 States put together. We have travelled 1,200 miles here, and seen just a tiny amount of what is available.  So, we have decided that this is most definitely one place we shall return to by plane, and explore more in depth, with trips out by boat to various islands and whale watching.  It’s also a fantastic place for hunting, fishing and canoeing.

We travelled on another beautiful route today, where the scenery was green, forest, mountains, glaciers, and beautiful black top roads curving gently throughout. This road, Glenn Highway, Alaska Road number 1, ran through the stunning Copper Valley, where they hold a yearly Dog Sled race, and ended at the St. Elias Mountain range.  I think it’s fair to say that all the people we have met that live here permanently are full of the grit you would expect from people that have only 4 months of ‘fair weather’ a year, and the rest of the time must deal with freezing, icy tough conditions. This was especially true of Jeannie who sold us Reindeer Hot Dogs at lunch time, and had a different story for each of her customers at her little hut. Truly fascinating.

We shall be sad to leave tomorrow, but the trip moves on, and we with it, back, in a few days hopefully to warmer weather, and the beginnings of Going South.

Last night we were lucky enough to eat some freshly caught Salmon, provided by Linda and Paul who were also staying at our lodgings.  They were an absolutely lovely couple of around 70, from Mississippi who had been childhood sweethearts, married other people and got back together 24 years ago.  Paul had caught the Salmon in the local lake, whilst Linda ‘had to stand there for four hours waiting!’, they cooked it on the BBQ, and it was absolutely delicious.

Today we had an earlier start, and were packed and ready to go by 8.30, as we wanted to visit Seward and Exit Glacier, on our way to Palmer.  We had a clear run, for the couple of hours it took to reach the Exit Glacier, but just as we were stopped in some road works with half a mile to go, it started hoofing it down with rain.  We stopped and walked the mile round trip to view the glacier, and it rained harder, and harder.  In fact, we walked all the way with our helmets, bike jackets and gloves on.

The glacier was worth the visit, it is amazing.  Each year 70 foot of snow falls onto this glacier, although it was possible to see where it has receded. The glacier is called Exit glacier because it’s the end part of the Harding’s Icefield. Harding’s Icefield and 8.2 mile long field of ice, and is in Bear Country!  There was a sign on our way to the glacier stating that a defensive bear had been seen in the area yesterday, a Mum with two cubs.  Of course, this is really serious here, and we saw Bear Scat along the side of the path, so we were mighty pleased to make it back to the car park unmauled!

In the end we only went to Seward to get petrol.  The rain was so thick, we were unable to see very far at all.  For the next 100 miles we rode in this, until we stopped for lunch, back at Beluga Inlet with our teeth chattering, and desperate for Hot Chocolate.

Out the other side of the mountains at Anchorage, the temperature rose by 8 degrees Celsius, the clouds cleared away and we rode the last 40 miles to Palmer in relative comfort.

Leaving Talkeetna, it was overcast and chilly, so at our first stop, we used the drive-thru coffee hut, to buy warming drinks! Then, past Anchorage, we rode into more drizzly and misty weather, and what was a much busier area, with both traffic and tourists.

Riding alongside the Beluga Inlet was the first time we had seen and smelt the sea since New York, and it was great to see the Alaska Railroad following the coastline as closely as we were on the road. It all made for a very mystical ride, with cloud topped mountains and a lot of people stopping for hikes, and photos.

We chose to stay on the Kenai Peninsula, at a lodge by a lake, and have found ourselves the perfect lake to rest and recuperate at present. This suddenly seems more important than anything else, even if it means having to forgo any beautiful sights outside the vicinity, or looking for the brown bears that are apparently frequently seen in this area.

We've taken the opportunity to completely unpack the bike, and re-organise, plus using the washer, and the dryer, for washing our extremely filthy bike suits. I write this at midday, and can already feel the draw of the road coming, we'd love to visit Homer, perhaps we can summon the energy after all ......

Fairbanks is the most Northerly point in Alaska we shall be visiting, at latitude 64.84 degrees North, just a couple of degrees less than the Arctic Circle.  Our original plan was to visit the Arctic Circle and make it up to Dawson City and Chicken, but as we have discovered the roads are not great for us, we have decided not to this time.  We feel ok about this, particularly as we have visited the Arctic Circle before in Norway.

We have been amazed in Alaska by the distances between any services, fuel/food/restrooms/lodging. It has been the most remote place we have ever visited, whilst still being full of tourists.  Alaska is apparently the second most visited area of the United States.  The most popular type of lodging is for R.V’s, who can bring all their supplies with them. I can see the appeal.

As lodging is few and far between, it has been essential for us to book ahead again, which is still working out ok, but sometimes means we have to ‘push on’ when perhaps we don’t really feel like it.

Alaska has turned out to be the part of our trip so far requiring most endurance, when you wake in the morning and your entire body aches, and your head is weary, but you must press on through a lot of miles, and often the large areas of road construction following behind pilot cars. We had talked about these times often before coming away and truly believe that this endurance, these tougher riding days are the days that make the trip worthwhile.  The days when you have to dig deep, when all of you is screaming, can we just stop? But, somehow you find the willpower to keep going. I think this is rewarding because next time you’re faced with this challenge, it’s just that little bit easier.

Of course, if we had chosen to be camping as well rather than using motels, that would bring a whole other set of challenges, which we may choose to face later on.  For now, it is enough to be without all that is familiar to us, whilst experiencing an ever changing landscape. We find that we have already set up routines of what we do each morning and evening to breathe some familiarity into our day, no matter where we are staying. A clean room, bedding and towels is all we ask for to make this work for us.

We are staying tonight within the confines of Denali Park, in Talkeetna, which is on a spur road from the main highway. Denali park has the tallest mountain in North America at 6,194 metres. Talkeetna runs the last flagstop train in America, meaning that you can request to get on, or off the train with the wave of a flag, at any given spot along the route!

The peace and tranquillity offered here, by the river at this lodge, tonight is an ample reward for the toughness of today.

At the cabins we stayed in last night, among the other guests were a lot of guys who appeared to be there for the hunting.

That turned out to be very interesting later in the morning, when we had our first coffee stop at the Silver Fox Roadhouse, where we met the owner Dan. http://silverfoxroadhouse.com/ Dan was an interesting guy indeed, aged about 70 ish, and originally from Pennsylvania he had moved up to Alaska when working on the Oil pipeline in the 1970’s, met a lady and lived there ever since.

His little gas station was a treasure trove of Wildlife exhibits, the majority of which he had hunted himself.  He told us that in May each year he goes to the coast to fish for Halibut, where he hopes to catch enough to last all year, and then the rest of the year his family (wife and three sons) are fed by the hunting they do for Big Game: Caribou, Moose, Bears(!), Buffalo, oh and smaller critters too.  He explained about the licensing laws and the requirement of decent treatment to the animals, and how he and his family never need any meat from a butcher, just their own.  They eat it fresh, or preserve it in various ways, such as jerky etc. Dan explained the difference in sizes between Brown and Grizzly Bears, and told us this is because Brown bears only hibernate for three months of the year and get lots to eat, whereas Grizzlies sleep for at least six months. He also told us that bear meat can sometimes be inedible because it is so strongly flavoured by the large amounts of fish that they eat.  Although hunting is difficult to understand for us, it seems to make some kind of sense up here in this vast wilderness.  It was certainly fascinating; his website shows all about it (stay away if you’re squeamish).

The next milestone for us was that we reached the end of the Alaska Highway!  Mile 1422, at Delta Junction, and we have ridden the entirety of the roadway. The furthest North in Alaska we have decided to go is Fairbanks, which was just another 50 miles on from Delta Junction, on a different road, The Richardson Highway. We’re certainly feeling pleased with ourselves indeed. 

Now we will have time to explore the areas a bit more, and in a few days have some much needed time off, we are feeling pretty road weary, and fatigued for now.

Interstingly, we are now in another different time zone, Alaskan time, and are currently 9 hours behind British Summer Time. We are in the land of Midnight Sun.