Alaska 2014 - Part 4

[Charles Scappaticci]

Monday morning Paul and I said our good byes and I hope he made it to South
America and back.  I'd still like to be able to ride as well at 72.  My
goal today was to make it back to Dease Lake so I gassed up and headed east
on Highway 1 towards the  turnoff to the south, just before you reach
Watson Lake.

I had a nice and uneventful ride until I got to Teslin and that spooky wire
bridge.  I made it across the bridge only to realize I had forgotten to get
gas and there was none on the other side.  I mentally blew it off thinking
there would be another gas station somewhere and I definitely did not want
to go across that bridge again if I didn't have to..  Wrong...  Twice I
came across nice new signs telling me there was gas/food/lodging two
kilometers ahead only to find they had been closed for years.  I was past
the point of no return so I kept going figuring I would be hitch hiking
soon, especially since I was on reserve and 240 miles from the last time I
had gotten gas.  My luck so far this trip held and shortly before I was
about to run out, I found a gas station and restaurant with gas and more
than a few other bikers there.  I filled up, got a snack and had a
conversation with a Brit on a KLR 650 and two of his Turkish friends who
were headed west.  I warned them about the roads and went on.  I headed
south and stopped at Cassier, home of some of the biggest Jade mines in the
world that sit up at very high elevations.  I picked up some trinkets for
the girls and then made it down to Dease Lake where I got a room at the
same hotel we'd stayed at on the way up.  I was really starting to worry
about my tires as they were getting pretty square and I sill had nearly
2,000 miles to go, this worry would get worse the remainder of the trip.
Total Mileage: 435

Tuesday morning I awoke to cool and misty air and a wet motorcycle from the
nights rain.  This off and on rain pattern would continue most all of the
way back to the junction at Kitwanga.  The stretch from Dease Lake south
requires several gas stops and they are fairly evenly spaced about 150
miles apart, miss one and you are screwed if you're on a GPZ.  I stopped at
a gas station along the way and made a huge mistake.  Filling up in a heavy
downpour, I put about a gallon of diesel in the bike before the smell
alerted me to my mistake.  Having no way to get it out, I topped the tank
off with gas and took off.  Actually, other than not idling well, it ran
okay and once I diluted the remainder of the diesel with gas at Kitwanga it
was fine.  I eventually made it on a town called Burns Lake where I had
stayed in 2012, cleaned up and went to get some food.  Another long day,
Total Mileage:  485.

Wednesday morning I awoke to sunny skies and was looking forward to the
ride through Prince George and back to Jasper.  This was the 4th time I
have ridden that road and I've yet to have any rain, nothing but sunny
skies.  About 40 miles out of Prince George I saw two animals run out on
the road a ways in front of me.  As I got closer I realized it was two
wolves, so I slammed on the brakes and went for the camera.  Unfortunately,
all it was was a moment of eye to eye contact and they were gone into the
woods.  Still this was a very cool thing to see on the highway.  The rest
of the ride into Jasper was uneventful and I finally got to camp out at a
campground near Jasper.  I set up the tent and gear, washed my hair in the
shower, and rode into Jasper to my favorite Italian restaurant.  Not only
does this place have good food, but they have an amazingly hot group of
waitresses, LOL!  That will make your food taste better!  I stopped by a
gas station, fueled up and picked up some food for breakfast then headed
back to camp.  I did some more worrying about the tires then headed to
bed.  Total Mileage: 398.

Thursday turned out to be another absolutely gorgeous day and a great day
to ride back through Jasper National Park and Banff National Park.  I got
an amazing picture of perfectly still water reflecting off of the glaciers
in Banff and just had a great ride before heading through Calgary and the
slab south and back into the US.  I took a few back roads and found a nice
KOA campground on the edge of Glacier National Park, set up my tent and
took a badly needed shower.  When I came back, three Aussies had set up
next to me, two brothers and a sister traveling through Canada.  They were
in their mid 20's and we had a pleasant conversation.  They were very
interested in shooting firearms and had stopped at several shooting
ranges that they had come across.  When I told them what I have at home in
my gun safes they groaned loudly as they would have loved to shot a few of
them.  I grabbed something to eat at a local BBQ place, had some ice cream
and headed to bed.  In the middle of the night, I came down with severe
stomach cramps once again and had to go running to the bathroom at 2:00 am
in the morning.  It finally dawned on me that both times I had gotten sick,
I had ice cream which confirmed my theory that I have inherited my mom's
lactose intolerance, bummer.  Total Miles: 448

My last day on the bike was relatively easy, I headed south through some of
the roads Chuck and I had come up on, sweating every mile on the worn
out tires.  Outside of Glacier National Park were some very twisty roads
and the wobbles the bike made when leaned over didn't exactly help my
confidence any.  Still the road and weather were good and the tires ended
up making it after all, though not without a lot of stress on my part and I
made it to Chucks house around 2:00pm, IIRC.  We pulled my truck and
trailer up to the little hill by his garage so I could ride the bike onto
the trailer ramp, started to turn... and fell over on the right side badly
scratching the right lower and cracking the little gray plastic piece that
fits between the engine and lower.  Damn#$@%*#* was all I could say, but
there was nothing I could do at that point.  I had ridden safely nearly
6,000 miles, including some genuinely frightening roads, only to fall over
loading the bike.  I got cleaned up and Chuck, his family, and I headed out
for some dinner and had a nice enjoyable evening before heading off to
sleep.  Total Miles:  234

The next morning we said good bye and I headed out on the last leg of the
trip, 1,000 miles of southern Montana and a lot of boring Wyoming
interstate back to Denver.  The trip back was uneventful and I arrived home
on Saturday night safe and mostly sound except for my butt which was
partially numb for the next week.  All in all, the trip took 15 1/2 days,
8,000 total and almost exactly 6,000 miles on the bike.  I averaged 453
miles per day when I was on the bike, 516 per day including the time I was
in the truck.  I was very impressed with the Pilot Road 2's and was
fortunately able to find another set as they have discontinued the rear
tire size.  I've heard the Pilot Road 3's suck, but the 4's are supposed to
be as good as the 2's, so we'll see when it comes time again.  I lucked out
and found a clean, but expensive used right side lower and got the bike
looking good again.

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat, given the time and money, though I'd
prefer either a KLR650 or BMW GS.  Bruce's son Danny is already planning a
2016 trip to Alaska, he wants to ride to Prudhoe Bay.  I wanted to do this,
but time didn't allow and the old GPZ isn't the right bike for it, so we'll
see.  Maybe next time I'll fly into Anchorage and rent a GS to go north to
Prudhoe Bay.  That will keep me dreaming this next winter.

Charles S.