Phoenix to Anchorage
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From: Ak-Tenn
Phoenix to Anchorage
Whew, glad to be home in one piece! 4,400 miles in 7 days on my 97 dyna wide glide, with the first 3 in temperatures of about 100° and the last 4 in the rain. My last day I decided to go for it and made it from Watson Lake in the Yukon, to Anchorage, Alaska in about 20 hours. That last day I ran into rain about 12 different times, lots of construction but with real nice flaggers and other folks.
Just after crossing into Alaska I saw a brown bear, maybe a 3-year old and he looked to be a blonde, brown bear. Very cool. I saw a couple of bicyclists a few miles further up the road coming my way and stopped to let them know about the bear. Those were some seriously tough bikers!
This was my first serious (AND LAST!!) ride in the dark and just missed the back end of a baby moose by about 3 feet and thought I was in a Twilignt Zone version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - Construction and we followed a Pilot Car: Pitch Black, rocky & muddy detour, raining and the dust cloud from the cars in front of me. I couldn't see anything and felt like iI was in a tunnel. Naturally it was Labor Day weekend and every single car from Anchorage was coming my way. 951 miles that day and I was a tired dude.
I had two mechanicals and Dan at Bozeman Harley took care of my clutch adjustment and some guy at The Hub in central AK held the flashlight as I chased down an electrical problem which only turned out to be a loose negative lead at my battery. Both are working on some great karma - thanks!
Home is a nice place to be.
Just after crossing into Alaska I saw a brown bear, maybe a 3-year old and he looked to be a blonde, brown bear. Very cool. I saw a couple of bicyclists a few miles further up the road coming my way and stopped to let them know about the bear. Those were some seriously tough bikers!
This was my first serious (AND LAST!!) ride in the dark and just missed the back end of a baby moose by about 3 feet and thought I was in a Twilignt Zone version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - Construction and we followed a Pilot Car: Pitch Black, rocky & muddy detour, raining and the dust cloud from the cars in front of me. I couldn't see anything and felt like iI was in a tunnel. Naturally it was Labor Day weekend and every single car from Anchorage was coming my way. 951 miles that day and I was a tired dude.
I had two mechanicals and Dan at Bozeman Harley took care of my clutch adjustment and some guy at The Hub in central AK held the flashlight as I chased down an electrical problem which only turned out to be a loose negative lead at my battery. Both are working on some great karma - thanks!
Home is a nice place to be.
Thread Starter
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Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,812
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From: Ak-Tenn
Only the road work that I hit in the dark was really worrisome. Although a Pilot Car driver at Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory came up beside me as she turned around said, "I want you right behind me. We're going through some deep material." She was right although it never got deeper than maybe 3 inches of mud, it was...... interesting. My bike was a big, old mud-pie.
The last 100 miles or so on the Canadian side of the border has a lot of frost heave whoop-de-doos although I could have sworn that they were worse the last time I made this trip. You'll have a great adventure. Take your time, and DON'T RIDE IN THE DARK UP THERE.
PM me if you need some ideas, and AK_Hog_Herder here has done this trip more times than I have. This is number 5 I think. (3 south-bound and 2 north-bound)
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