Travel Log Week 11

Monday 11.9.00 Jasper to Prince George, British Columbia (GPS N53.51.39.8/W122.48.41.4) The weather forecast is for an Indian Summer for a few days. However there was quite a lot of cloud around and although we loaded up in warm sunshine, there was a brisk north-easterly blowing more cloud along. We tried to find the Italian breakfast recommended by Rita without success, so ended up back at the Greek place, no problem, "country" breakfast with potatoes was good. While we were pulling off some more Brits stopped for a chat; Helen, Gay and Joyce had noticed our number plates and also insisted on giving us a Down's donation, once more many thanks to them. We went back down Main street past the massive old steam loco they have on display to fuel up the bikes and of course got talking to some more people there. A guy on a Harley pulled up as we were leaving, and said he thought he'd done well on his trip around Canada till he saw our stickers! We picked up 16 and headed out over the Yellowhead Pass towards Mt Robson, at 3954m the highest peak in the Rockies. Quinto had said it was spectacular, but was cloud free only a few days of the year and the cloud was thickening if anything. Once again, the road was great, smooth pavement sweeping up and down the gradients, plenty of time to look about and take in the scenery while travelling at a good pace. We passed into "Beautiful British Columbia" as they say on their number plates; like "New Mexico, the Enchanted Land" it's true, fresh air and more fantastic scenery. We climbed the over the pass and started dropping around the mountain foot and suddenly saw the pull over for Mt Robson. It really is quite big, an almost sheer cliff snow covered and disappearing up into the clouds, it must really be something on a clear day. Once again we attracted attention, this time a coach party from Frankfurt and had a good chat with them before their coach hooted and they had to run. So, our last "scenic" bit done, we buckled down to riding, and the Africa Twins purred along at 100kph no problem, the cool air making them run really well.

We had tossed up whether to do an oil change at Calgary, but the Castrol Magnatec we put in at Arequipa is still really clean and since we will have to empty all the oil anyway at Anchorage as part of the shipping preparation, we decided to leave it in. Certainly, the motors and gearboxes feel really good now, probably just run in nicely! We pulled in for fuel at McBride, where John got outdone for once by a guy who kept him talking about his weird philosophies concerning the animal imagery of Countries, and how it all interrelates to show that Bavaria is the Eagle (but we may have got that wrong, we were really confused after 15 minutes of it). The bad news was that it had now started to rain and it looked set in, so we just buttoned up the Rukka gear and got on with it. Actually apart from not being able to film it was a nice ride, we were very thankful for our new tyres as there was quite a bit of standing water about, but we kept up a good speed no problem. The pine trees started to show tree lichens, the first we'd seen since Terra del Fuego and the air smells so clean its' wonderful. The deciduous trees have definitely turned and Fall is here, somewhat early by all accounts. The colours are lovely, yellow and red, with flowers still in bloom on the verges, though we have not seen any Maple trees yet, they do not grow this high it seems. We also saw late barley ready to harvest, though it looked pretty wet and some winter barley had already been sown, it has got to be difficult farming up here.

There are snow marker poles beside the road and we started to pass signs showing Cross Country Skiing runs and a full downhill resort. The rain did not let up, but showered more or less heavily depending on the surrounding mountains; the Rukka suits did their job and we stayed dry, finally coming down into Prince George on a big bridge over the Fraser river. A couple of big timber mills work right beside the river and the town itself is the biggest we will see until Anchorage, 3000 miles further on. We fuelled up in the rain, and found the main road out of town towards Prince Rupert for our next leg tomorrow, but pulled over at the Bon Voyage Motel to warm up and have dinner. Our waitress Dana was very concerned that we should know that puddings are bad for you, however her advice on the Baked Alaska option being the nicest certainly looked about right and we soon felt a lot warmer! Tomorrow we will soon go through the 10,000 mile mark and incredibly, we will then be further North in Latitude than we were furthest South in Terra del Fuego, and we still have a long way to go after that!

Tuesday 12.9.00 Prince George to Kitwanga, British Columbia (GPS N55.11.54.5/W127.41.53.8) The weather was still bit grey in the morning but at least it was dry, and we popped round for breakfast early, as we had a long run to come, over to the bottom of Route 37. No sign of Dana to advise us on the health merits of the various offerings so we went with our stomachs' demands. On the way back to the room we stopped at the Office to pay and were slightly overwhelmed when Chuck & Dorothy waived the charge, we were really touched by their generosity, plus they gave us excellent advice on how to tell Black Bears from Grizzlies and what to do if we encountered any. It seems Black bears are not too much of a problem but Grizzlies are just plain unpredictable and extremely dangerous! Someone was mauled not too far away from here a few months ago, so they are definitely about and if it is a Grizzly coming at you the best option seems to be the foetal position, as you can't out stare, out run or climb faster than them. Hopefully it will not be a problem but now we know. Just as we were pulling out, we asked one of the maids what the electrical boxes were, hanging down outside each room. She told us they are power points for plugging in the engine block heaters fitted to vehicles here in winter, it goes as low as -40c overnight and with wind-chill, the lowest she could remember was -74c!

The road was beautifully smooth and we ran out past more huge lumber mills with the massive fork trucks for picking up log piles. Following our pencil line on the map through Vanderhoof and Fort Frazer; lovely lakes and forests intermingled with farmland, the Fall colours were wonderful now that the sun had broken through, excellent riding conditions again and we really enjoyed the change from yesterday. There were plenty of birds about, particularly Magpies, Bluejays and the biggest Robins ever, about the size of a thrush, but definitely red breasted! We had done 170 miles and stopped for fuel at a single pump roadside station, the guy on the pump asked us for our Indian Number, we told him we were English and did not have a number? While he was filling us, he asked us to explain the phrase "do you do". When we asked why he said that Indians say "How" for hello, and the English say "How do you do" so what does the extra bit mean? This threw us a bit, but when we asked him what the Indian was for Bye Bye, he said "Adios Amigos" and grinned. We'd been had again! We rode on to Houston, which was very different to the Texas version and stopped for lunch at the Landmark restaurant, where we got talking to some truckers who were surprised we'd not seen any bears yet and gave us lots of gruesome tales about meetings with wildlife in general. The Waitress overheard our conversation and told us her dog was barking it's head off yesterday and she'd gone out to see what the fuss was about, only to find a bear in her back garden!

We pressed on after this leisurely break and followed the Bulkley river down past Smithers and just as we got to Moricetown we noticed a wonderful set of Falls cutting a narrow gorge through a limestone bluff. We pulled over for a look and a sign told us this was a traditional Indian fishing spot. Indeed we now noticed a group of guys out on the rocks with long handled nets and they were literally netting salmon from the rocky overhangs. There was also a covered salmon run providing an easier path up the Falls, but far from taking every fish they could, they were being highly selective, in the 15 minutes we watched, they must have caught 20 fish, and kept about 2, one they let go was huge, but they actually walked it up above the Falls to release it, a hen fish maybe? Downstream there was a sort of water/fishing wheel which seemed designed to scoop up passing fish and drop then into a chute, but we didn't see this catch anything. Fascinating and as we carried on, just down the road John saw our first live bear, wandering through the bushes, a Black one fortunately.

We eventually got to the junction of 16 with 37 at Kitwanaga and fuelled up, again two prices, the cheaper one for Indians and also we now found, on cigarettes. We spoke to some people about campsites and there was one just over the river, so we had a quick bite and went off to find the campsite before it got dark. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed, so we had to decide what to do next. The road we were now on runs through very remote countryside and the next settlement was 1 hour up the road, so we decided to backtrack to a B&B we'd seen about 20k before. The Seely Lake was being looked after by two young guys who said no problem as long as we did not want breakfast, which sounded fine to us. We settled in and chatted to the lads, it seems most young Gitksan Indians are not so much into tradition, focussing more on Rap music, but the Elders are working hard to re-establish activities such as Berry Burning which were stopped by the Government in the '60s in a misguided attempt to limit wildfires. It sounds like a formidable but worthwhile task and hopefully will help people get more in touch with their environment in this region. We went off to bed early to prepare for what would be a long run tomorrow with few fuel stops or settlements up to Route 1, the Alaska Highway which would take us to the border.

We'd dropped off and were well asleep when Adam woke with a start to hear the sound of claws scrabbling at the frame of the window, which was open, and there was a dark shape trying to push the flyscreen back. "Christ, I've still got those Mars bars in my jacket pocket, we really should have thrown them up a tree" he thought in panic, its amazing how fast your heart can beat! Fortunately as he woke up completely, he realised it was not a Grizzly after a snack but the family cat trying to get in! Panic over, he let the cat in and out through the bedroom door and went back to bed. John of course had snored through the whole incident.............

Wednesday 13.9.00 Kitwanga to Dease Lake, British Columbia (GPS N58.26.22.0/W129.59.21.3) The guys had gone early and no sign of the cat either, so we let ourselves out and went back down to the fuel station for breakfast and a top up, as we'd heard there was not much fuel on this stretch and we put an emergency supply in the jerrycans too just in case. The pies which were fresh baked last night were now ready to eat, so we tried blueberry, and apple, both excellent! Feeling suitably fortified, we set off, it was very cloudy again and we kept getting intermittent bursts of rain and mist, but the ride due north through the forest was wonderful, some of the biggest trees we'd seen so far, small lakes with bulrushes and lilies on them and the shrubs all a lovely Fall red colour. We'd been going about an hour when we stopped for a refuel, a small one pump station again whose claim to fame was that the actor Ernest Borgnine had refuelled there in June this year, they'd photocopied his credit card ticket and put it on display, that's as close to Hollywood as we've been this trip!

Continuing on, the rain was coming down pretty solidly and just as we went round a corner what should we see but a bear on the road, he looked back at us and wandered off into the bushes, so we slowed down for a look but kept moving just in case; he just stood there with an irritated expression on his face waiting for us to get a move on so he could carry on with what he had been doing, and flicking his ears at us! Up close, they really do look just as you'd expect, quite cuddly really; we could tell he was a Black bear now we knew what to look for, so no worries really, but we did keep moving! It was quite a thrill seeing him close up, as with the Buffalo in Yellowstone, you are right on the same level as them and if they take a dislike to you, look out.

We continued riding along in the rain, the views would have been spectacular in the dry and it was still something special in the wet, you have no idea how big this place is till you ride it, and if you hike off the road you could go miles without seeing another soul. Or maybe not, as we kept coming across little groups of tents and RV trailers hidden away, they seemed to be Mushroom collectors and dealers, not open for retail unfortunately, or we'd have stopped to see what their wares looked like. Very mysterious! We'd been expecting some dirt road and sure enough we hit a long section, which compared to what we'd ridden in South America was a doddle, flat and smooth, evenly graded gravel surface, almost as good as the asphalt surface in fact. We came up to a set of roadworks where they are widening the carriageway and had to stop for a while. The Stop/Go lady (most of the lollipop people we have seen in North America have been ladies) said the big trees were probably Poplars, with Quaking Aspen, Larch and Cottonwood; this is her favourite time of year as the leaves change colour for Fall. The roadworks were well organised, none of your piles of spoil to ride over here unlike Bolivia, the only problem was being wet, the muddy spray was getting everywhere, and apart from making the bikes even dirtier, our goggles were getting filled in too. Weird sight of the day was a pair of ankle boots and a fresh orange placed neatly by the side of the road?!

We cleared this section and got back to tarmac for a while and refuelled at a half finished roadhouse, then carried straight back on to another section of dirt and roadworks, this time it was a bit more testing as we had to ride over newly laid gravel still being rolled and graded, but with the new tyres on, despite a bit of high speed wandering and some spongy sections it was no problem to keep the bikes wound on. Coming the other way we saw a full on BMW overland bike complete with enduro lights and faired in Panniers, but he did not stop so we've no idea who he was or where he's going, that's the first overland motorcyclist we've seen the whole trip, perhaps we should have chased him to find out what he is up to! We had to stop for some horses on the road and also saw a black fox crossing at the same time, then all of a sudden it stopped raining and we were drying out at last. The bridge over the Stikine river was impressive and we stopped there for a break, but another batch of rain set in and we decided to press on. We had hoped to maybe make it all the way up 37 today, but with the weather so wet, we decided to stop after 300 miles, at Dease Lake, a hamlet with a couple of filling stations, food, auto repairs and the Northway Motel, which was just the job to dry ourselves and the gear out. It was still raining as we unloaded and with the dirt all over the kit as well we could have done with a pressure washer to clean everything off first. After getting washed and dried, we found a restaurant over the yard and had a well deserved dinner, while also trying to cheer up the waitress who was having a personal crisis, same problems the world over, and no-one seems to have the answer! So, despite the constant rain a good days riding and we had come almost due north, to within reach of the Alaskan Highway which crosses the last border on our trip, between Whitehorse and Fairbanks Alaska. We hoped for a dry day tomorrow, to see the view as well as ride comfortably...............

Thursday 14.9.00 Dease Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon (GPS N60.43.24.6/W135.03.24.2) We awoke to the sound of rain again and it was not feeling good for that "sightseeing" day we had in mind. We got ready to set off and fortunately the skies started to clear. The guy behind the desk had the latest met office printout and the forecast did not seem too bad for the next few days, but he said all the weather here is governed by what happens in the Alaskan Gulf and for sure it had been a wetter summer than normal. It does not seem that anywhere we have been on this trip has had its "normal" weather, indeed watching the TV news last night the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic is now the biggest its ever been and we saw another news item showing Gauchos in Argentina helping clear yet more record snow falls. We thought again of Daniel and Gloria at Garayalde, no doubt more busy times for them in those conditions! We also saw a brief clip of Tony Blair appealing for calm in the UK, we'd read in some of our emails from home about the fuel problems there, people here are also complaining about fuel prices which have gone up by almost 100%, but the tax percentage on a litre is only 46% and it is still way cheaper than in Europe. Hope its all sorted in time for us to get back!

We skipped breakfast as we wanted to get going, before fuelling up John had a quick look in a hunters pickup which had just pulled up complete with a huge Moose in the back. We'd seen a couple of groups checking in last night, all with very large rifles and we heard that a lot of Germans come over for the sport here. This guy was being checked over by a Game Warden, who was not happy about the fact that the hunter had already gutted the beast, but apparently he had not made the major mistake of taking the antlers off as well. It seemed quite technical, but the guy did have a permit so all was in order. We pulled off in what was now bright sunshine and as we thought, the scenery was magical, more dirt road but again dead smooth and we rode up past Dease Lake itself. The view back towards the opposite shore was fantastic, with the yellow and orange leaves of the broadleaf trees contrasting beautifully with the conifers, the blue sky and water, and the snowcapped mountains, wonderful. We must admit to taking it very easy, just looking at the views all around, which was probably no bad thing when we went through a cutting and came upon a live Moose, who went shooting up the embankment at full speed charging through the small trees, you certainly would not want to crash into one of those things! We just wandered along nice and steady, past the Jade mines which are a feature of this region, through yet more lakes and rivers, Indian settlements and eventually came up to the Alaska Highway junction. Time for a refuel and lunch and we had a great bowl of soup in the restaurant there, with another huge Moose head on the wall. Apparently the Caribou, and they had a head on the opposite wall, are pretty common around here as well, but the Elk are now becoming quite rare and difficult to see.

After a short break it was out on the Alaskan Highway, which we read was first completed in the early 1940's and has been constantly upgraded ever since. The section we started on ran straight through the hills and plains like a motorway and we made excellent time as the scenery had flattened out a bit, though still plenty to see. For the first time since Argentina we noticed medium sized hawks about in some numbers, patrolling the wide verges either side of the pavement surface. Teslin Lake was the midpoint of our run. The lake here was again superb and we stopped for fuel and to admire the view once more. Just when you think you have seen the best bit of scenery of the day, something better comes into view and we could see ahead more massive snow capped mountains, and the road turned west and headed over Johnson's Crossing and went straight for them. It is quite intimidating as apart from this trip we don't often see mountains, let alone jagged ones covered in snow and with the cloud starting to reappear the thought of a real snowfall was never far from our minds. We got over this pass with nothing other than twisted neck muscles to worry about, and dropped down into the Yukon river valley and on climbing the other side, we actually joined up with the famous Klondike Highway which was the route the prospectors took on their way up to the goldfields in the 1860's, what a trek that must have been in those days.

The town of Whitehorse was our target and we pulled off the highway to look for somewhere suitable to stay and settled on the Stratford Motel which was pretty central. The light up here is really deceptive, it was quite late now but the sun was still up and we'd been travelling 9 hours, how different from Terra del Fuego when we were lucky to get 6 hours full light. We'd passed through the 11,000 mile mark and had done over 400 miles today and still had enough light to check the bikes for tomorrow. We'd both been thinking the chains were a bit notchy and Adam found that the split link on his bike was badly worn, so we decided to replace both sets as a precaution; just as well, as the pins were wasted very badly. The O ring chains themselves, original Honda equipment, were still in good order so we were soon ready for tomorrows action. We went looking around for a hotel with a modern phone system to allow us to download our emails but despite much help, no success, and after John got out talked again while looking at T shirts, it was time for a Chinese and bed after a long day. We'd really enjoyed the ride today, the scenery was wonderful and the road a pleasure to ride. If all went according to plan we should be able to comfortably make the Alaskan border tomorrow and start to finish the trip off, which was starting to feel like a bit of an achievement.

Friday 15.9.00 Whitehorse to Border City Lodge, Alaska (YES!) (GPSN62.40.02.3/W141.03.21.1) We were just getting loaded up when we noticed that one of the Ventura headlight protectors on Johns bike had a big lump missing from it, but the glass was fine, so another bit of kit which worked! We've seen a lot of cracked windscreens around here, just as down in the South, those dirt roads again. Just then another guest wearing Rollerblades went literally flying past our door and tripped up, no harm done fortunately. Laurie had only been trying to stop to give us a Downs donation but she was OK, and once again we were very touched by people's generosity. We had a good chat, then said cheerio to move on out of town in more lovely sunshine.

The Paddle steamer "Klondike" is on display down by the river so we had to stop and see her. She was run by a British company between 1937 and '56 to transport silver ore and passengers along the Yukon river and she must have been quite a sight in steam. They are renovating her but unfortunately no plans to sail her again. As ever this took longer than anticipated by the time we'd chatted to some more folks, but we got going and found highway 1 again and stopped to fuel up for the long run over to the border. As we were filling, another BMW GS overlander pulled in. He turned out to be a Brit as well; Michael Allen who is working in the US for American Airlines as an Avionics technician, and had finally found the money and enough time (sounds familiar!) to take his first tour, from Seattle up to the Arctic Circle. He was now going south and had done the roads we were going to be on for the next few days and gave us much useful advice; the Dalton Highway which heads due north from Fairbanks across the Arctic Circle to Prudhoe Bay is mostly dirt, but the main dangers are the weather and speeding trucks. He'd got well into the Circle before deciding he'd achieved all he wanted to. Michael most importantly recommended a burger stop on that road (best he's ever had anywhere!), plus valuable info about fuel stops on the way.

Somewhat later than we'd intended we hit the road, but with the weather good it was not a problem, although a large patch of high level cloud was coming up from the south and looked a little threatening. The run over to Haines Junction was again superb, more wonderful colours, mountains with snow on top etc, though now we being overtaken by the cloud cover so the peaks were up in the clouds. We passed more forests under management, according to the signs most seem to have been logged in the late 60's and it is surprising that they have not yet reached maturity, probably because the growing season is short up here? So the trees we saw the other day are still the biggest so far. Another fuel stop and we stocked up on Cadbury's, being a bit indecisive we could not decide which flavour to pick, so we came out with all three; Milk, Hazlenut and new Gold, a honeycomb filled one. Never mind, breakfast, lunch and tea taken care of!

We were looking straight at the St Elias mountains and the road then turned sharp right and ran north along their foot. We crested a pass and were looking at one of the most spectacular views ever, the snow capped mountains stretched dead straight for maybe 75 miles into the distance and we were looking along Lake Kluane which follows them, a brilliant blue reflecting the sky, quite remarkable! We just stopped and took it all in for a few moments, in complete solitude. The road ran down to the shore of the lake and followed it round, crossing a long trestle bridge to hug the shore on the mountain side, it was a bit like riding along a Scottish loch, but on a grand scale and we nearly went off the edge a few times as there was so much to see! We passed Destruction Bay (silly roadsign of the day "No Name Creek"), another hamlet with Gas and an RV park, like most places we've seen in the last few days all shutting down for the winter now and we rode on past the head of the Lake.

The old Alaska Highway is being upgraded here, and we hit another section being regraded, the new road is a lot less twisty than the old and has huge cuttings to eliminate the contours. An Anonymous poem much repeated around here goes "Winding in and winding out fills my mind with serious doubt, as to whether the lout who planned this route was going to hell or coming out!" We had to stop a couple of times at lollipop ladies to wait for heavy plant to come through and got talking to a Tennessee Oilman behind us who was driving up to Prudhoe, the 37th time he'd done the run, which he reckons takes him 4 days. He says every time he does it the road improves, but he's not sure if that's a good thing, as in summer it is now bumper to bumper with RV's all fighting for parking spots by 4pm! Apparently Bear attacks have increased recently, 5 hikers have been mauled this year, but it is not obvious whether this is something to do with the Bears, or the fact that there are more hikers about? He reckoned we were doing the road at the best time, not much traffic now and the best views with the Fall, but he said when it rains, the mud gets knee deep in places.........

The next few gas stops we tried were all out "gas truck tomorrow, sorry", but we had enough to get to the Border, and suddenly, there it was! The Canadian Control does not stop outward traffic and we carried on the 20k to the US Customs Post, and soon came on a big wooden sign which said "Welcome to Alaska". We pulled over to take some pics and only then realised that we had actually crossed the Border already by about 10 feet! It was quite an emotional moment, OK, not the end of the trip yet, but we had reached "Alaska", something which in the snows of Tierra del Fuego or the horrors of the road to Potosi seemed next to impossible to achieve! We took some pics and gave ourselves a break for more Cadbury's; It seems like such a long time since we started this trip, we think this is because each day has been different to the last, coming with new experiences, and so time seems to extend itself rather than being the same old flash of a daily routine where one week blurs into the next. We will ponder this a bit more over a few beers in the pub when we get back home!

The US Customs guy was very speedy, just a quick check on our Passports and made sure we had outward Air Tickets and that was that, the easiest Border crossing yet. We actually had to ask him to stamp our Passports for the record, or he would have just given them back! The map marked Border City Lodge as a place, but when we got there 10k down the road, it was simply 2 gas stations, though we'd been told that one had Rooms and sure enough the Texaco did. It was homely and we felt very welcome, they had one room left, perfect. We unloaded and went down for dinner with the crew who were working on the place, it felt similar to our stop in that unnamed restaurant in Patagonia way back on the 9th of July, there was only one thing on the menu but as before it was lovely, a huge Valdez salmon steak with salad and rice followed by fresh pie, great! We chatted to the other guests, a retired couple from Berkeley who had earlier this year taken the Antarctic cruise from Ushuaia down to the Weddell sea via South Georgia and the Falklands, they said anyone who does not believe global warming is happening should go and see for themselves, the southern ocean icefeilds are disappearing fast! They'd tried to drive up to Pudhoe themselves to complete both Poles in one year but the road north was too bad.........

So, a major milestone passed today, we were in "Alaska" and we toasted Paul who we hoped was still in Anchorage, but with no payphone or data line to contact the outside world, we'd have to wait till later to pass on the good news!

Saturday 16.9.00 Border City Lodge to Fairbanks, Alaska (GPSN64.50.44.8/W147.46.07.4) The sky was overcast and grey again after yesterday's glorious afternoon, and we heard some rain coming down for a while. However the one thing we know for sure is that the weather up here changes really fast and is highly localised, so it can be raining on one side of a hill and sunny just around the corner. Breakfast was eggs over easy with hamburgers & potato, which felt like it would keep the heat in, spot on. Neil the owner was hard at work outside with the crew arc welding up steelwork footings for the new canopy he is building over the fuel pumps, apparently they bought this place about 3 years ago and have really turned it into something, a lot of hard work especially when you realise that the whole region shuts down in October and they have to lock up and leave until spring as the weather is too severe to stay.

We were told that in Yukon the extreme cold made it illegal to lock your house doors until the law was changed recently, as a locked door could cost someone their life. Even now it is illegal not to pick up a walker on the road in winter. As we got ready, the cloud lifted a little and it looked brighter, but we still thought we'd get wet at some point between here and Fairbanks. The road in the Alaskan sector was again superb, although the winter frost does damage the surface and also causes big areas of subsidence, but it really is almost a privilege to ride it. They have to have a sense of humour to live here and on top of one cutting someone has carefully laid out a complete bedroom suite complete with bedside table & lamp and a vase of flowers, right in the middle of nowhere! A little like the water shrines in Argentina, except here the truckers reckon to drive 1000 miles a day, so maybe they value sleep more than water up here?

We took it at a steady pace alongside big floodplains and over more massive bridges to Tok Junction where we fuelled up again; once more we really appreciated the scenery in Autumn colours, but in springtime when the meltwater comes off the mountains it must be something else! The rain came and went in showers and then cleared up but in turn it became very cold, the worst its been since Patagonia and -25c back in July, but still a lovely ride, and now we were getting further and further north a lot of the trees had actually already lost their leaves. We have gone from summer in Idaho to the end of Autumn in 10 days! The scenery was now much flatter than we have been in for a while and looked like a tundra forest. Suddenly out of the firs at the side of the road we saw a Moose and her calf thinking about crossing over, but fortunately they just started eating grass and as we got nearer rushed back into the forest. They still look very big and people are surprised we've not seen more of them, but it is now the hunting season and just like pheasants at home, they seem to know what time of year to disappear.

We stopped for fuel again after 200 miles at Delta and were told that it was sunny in Fairbanks but they are forecasting snow anytime now, so who knows what may happen. The road we were on now had just been resurfaced and was like a billiard table, crossing over more washes, and we saw a porcupine, unfortunately dead on the tarmac, but another one for the record. We've also seen little squirrel like things zooming across, maybe chipmunks of some sort? Now we began to see many more houses and scrapheaps of '70s yank cars, so you could tell we were getting near to a city again, but first we went through "North Pole, Alaska" which is fully kitted out as Santa Claus's grotto, a town entirely devoted to the Christmas industry it seems, not too inspiring now but probably very picturesque when covered in snow. Again, someone with a sense of humour had put red noses on the roadsigns warning of deer crossing!

We entered Fairbanks town on the freeway, and looked about for a motel with a decent phone system and got directions from a biker on the pumps at the Chevron Station. It was pretty cold but there were still people riding away from the Harley shop with bare heads! The Comfort Inn is new and fitted the bill for phone technology and we settled in. The plan is to download all our news and then, weather permitting, have a go at the Dempster Highway up to Prudhoe Bay tomorrow. It is 400 miles up mainly dirt roads but as long as the weather is OK it should be fine. We phoned the weather centre who say it should be much the same as today, but...........

That gets us as far inside the Arctic Circle as it is possible to ride, the places further north are only accessible by plane and if we can get there we'll consider it a more than fitting end to our Trip. All we have to do then is get back down to Anchorage, but we don't care if we have to load up on a truck for that bit!

Sunday 17.9.00 Fairbanks to Arctic Circle, Alaska The bad news as we woke was that it was raining again, and looked like it was set in. We had breakfast (exactly the same as the Sleep Inn in Houston, even down to the type of pastries!) and hoped it would let up, but no joy. We wanted an early start to give ourselves as much time as possible, so we decided to go for it anyway and loaded up. One theory was that if the weather had settled in, there was less chance of being caught out by a sudden storm but that did not reassure us much!

Highway 2 turned into the Dalton Highway and led us up past another dead Porcupine towards Fox and Livengood and we resisted the temptation to turn right and head for Circle where there are Hot Springs apparently, but continued on in the rain, which was now starting to look like snow. After about 30 miles the pavement turned into dirt, which we expected thanks to the advice from Michael Allen; but now it really was snowing and quite hard too. The road climbed a few hundred feet into Birch woods with the trees covered in snow, they looked fantastic with the orange leaves showing through, but we were not in the mood to stop for pictures. The dirt road was wet and slushy, but had plenty of grip so we just kept going at a steady 45mph and after another 15 miles or so the skies started to clear and a few blue patches showed through. We were now in the White Mountains and when the road dropped down below the snow line things improved so that we were actually riding on a dry dirt surface and able to do over 60 on some wide sections. The trucks coming the other way did not have chains on which we took to be a good sign, although they were covered in dirt.

Just when we were starting to feel confident and enjoy the conditions, we started another climb and this time it went a lot higher and we ended up on packed snow slipping about just like the bad old days in Patagonia. We got to the top carefully and stopped. We knew the mountains ahead were much higher and we'd only done 110 miles out of 450! A big pickup coming the other way stopped and told us it was fine ahead, a bit of ice on the Yukon Bridge decking but certainly no problem for the next 100 miles - it looked really warm and inviting inside his cab with the stereo on! Reassured, we felt it was OK to continue as we were now at the furthest point fuel wise that we could go and still return to Fairbanks without running out. So, we pressed on up and down more big gradients, pretty soft in places but rideable, all the while following the Trans Alaska oil pipeline which is mounted on stilts to stop it melting the permafrost, quite a piece of engineering. We made good time until we hit the last fold of the White Mountains, a couple of long uphill grades which got progressively snowier as we climbed.

The trucks had turned 6" of snow into 1" of ice and sure enough we gradually lost momentum until we slithered to a halt, haven't we been here before, about 11 weeks ago? It was all horribly familiar, just like trying to get to Ushianal and the Start. Here we were 12,000 miles later with the same conditions trying to get to the Finish! We remembered all the hard won ice riding tips we'd learnt, but there was so little grip the bikes just could not move and indeed we were sliding back downhill with both wheels locked at one point. The only way up was to get off the ice and into the deep snow on the road's soft shoulder to get some drive, but because the front wheel would not roll in snow that deep it had to stay on the ice and we ended up going uphill sideways footing it while the spinning back tyre cut through to the dirt underneath. Forget all the delicate clutch control for now, you just had to keep those rear tyre treads clear of snow and digging through, any other way and we just stopped again. It took the better part of an hour to climb the hill; John was convinced it was the last big rise before the river, but of course as we struggled round the final bend, there was another half mile of hill in front, great!

Seriously pissed off now and wondering if we had better call it a day here, we gave it one more shot and with the help of a short flat to get going we were able to revert to the more subtle technique of building up good speed in 2nd gear to 25mph and ever so smoothly driving up the gradient. It worked a treat, but just as in Patagonia, you could not make any sudden or wrong moves or you would be straight off and upside down. It is not nice knowing you are only just in control and the only thing keeping you upright is the speed, too slow and you will get crossed up or spin on the slipperiest bits, yet the faster you go the more it will hurt if it all goes wrong. We then had the next problem; Yes it really was the final crest, brilliant, but now we were rolling nicely on a downhill sheet of ice, with a steeply cambered right-hander coming up; the best grip was high on the outside, but that was were the oncoming trucks would be and it was impossible to see what was coming, so mid to low inside it had to be. There was no way we could even touch a brake and we were now going too slow to stay up the camber, so it was a slither down into the bottom of the corner. John's shorter legs were a problem as he could not reach the ground to take a dab and he all but highsided out. Adam lost the back end simply on engine braking but had just enough time left to get some throttle back on and the bike straightened out, then somehow we were both down without coming off. We took a breather, and decided to get over the river to the fuel station and see just what lay ahead before we went any further!

The Yukon is a big river here as it has come a long way since we last saw it at Whitehorse and the bridge is pretty impressive, nightmare slippery wood planks to ride over though and we pulled up at the one pump station the other side. The man on the pumps was helping two other guys who had gone off the road in a 4 wheel drive - Their advice was to go back to Fairbanks and hire a truck! We filled up and went to the restaurant for lunch, which was badly needed by this time. Outside there must have been over 100 pickups with boat trailers, it seems that people park up here then go down river hunting. We spoke to one group who had been 250 miles downstream for 16 days, they'd come back with 2 Moose and enough meat for the winter & summer, and most of the other people were doing similar things. We had a light lunch an chatted to Ellen and Robert who had come up from Fairbanks for the day. It was their 4wheel drive which had gone back to pull the other one out of the ditch. They gave us some special Alderwood smoked salmon strips to try, lovely.

We checked the "Milepost" highway guide and the big contour maps in the restaurant which seemed to show that there were only a couple of hills about the same size as those we'd climbed already between us and the Arctic Circle, but after that the Brooks Range of mountains gets very high and the Dalton Highway goes over a Pass there which was certain to be snowbound. So, all things considered, we decided it was worth trying to cross the Arctic Circle another 60 miles further on and if we could do that, it would be a fitting point to call the Finish of the Trip. We set off again in good sunlight and sure enough the road was fine for the next 20 miles, we passed 5 Mile Airport (If the Lights are Flashing Stop, a plane is about to land!) which was incorporated into the road and another No Name Creek, then for some reason the road surface changed to a black wet sludge and although not as bad as the Ice, we were at times in a 2 wheel drift at 50; once again speed was the key and keeping her wound was the best way forward. The tyres were great on loose or dry gravel, but this sludge just made you aquaplane until you'd skimmed over the wettest bits, not nice. The other problem was that most of the traffic recently had been southbound so the best lines were on the wrong side of the road, fine until you could not see over the next crest and so had to go into sloppy section all crossed up just in case there really was a truck coming, and every so often one would come along, spraying dirt and stones around like a muckspreader.

The road improved again after 5 miles of this, then we did hit the next range of hills we'd expected but the subtle high speed roll did the trick again and we made it up to the top of Finger Mountain no problem. We stopped, partly for a breather and partly to take in a fantastic view of the snow clad Brooks mountains about 50 miles away, with a clear blue sky above and nothing after them except the North Pole! We were on course for the Arctic Circle and a truck grinding up the hill towards us reached the top and stopped to ask what two nutters were doing up here on bikes. When he found out he took a pic of us, but he did say there was no way we'd be able to do the Pass and get to Prudhoe Bay, the snow was 8' deep over there but the good news was that we were almost at the Circle. We carefully dropped down the hill and it was only a short ride until we saw the sign "Arctic Circle" and we pulled over not quite believing we'd made it.

The feeling of fulfilling the task was quite something and a solid marker to point at and say "We rode there!", we got quite excited and emotional with it all! As luck would have it the only other people there were also Brits, Kirsten and Carl kindly took the pics for us to capture the moment, then whipped up a cup of tea and some raisin bread, fantastic! The GPS said N66.33.33.1 so it was official, we were inside the Arctic Circle and what a beautiful spot it is too, tundra and few trees here but very atmospheric, a memory which will stay with us forever. Our lunchtime friends also showed up and although they did not have any champagne on them, gave us a couple of 7Up's instead, so we did in fact get some "Bubbly" . With a last look around, we got back on our filthy bikes (the Ventura protector on Johns bike now completely shattered and the chains sounding like a bag of nails) and headed south for the first time since we rode down to Ushuaia from Punta Arenas, how long ago that seems. Actually, it really did feel like riding downhill, it appears that the world is quite flat at the top, but we only made it as far as the first (only) Giftshop, about 2 miles back down the road. There John bought a Tshirt (but no Hat thank goodness) and they stamped our Certificates of Achievement to prove we've been there, and with a real feeling of achievement, we rode back in the dusk to the Yukon Bridge to stop for the night after a very tricky days riding.

What a buzz, to think we've actually achieved our aim. It is difficult to describe how we feel, but in the gift shop they had a Globe, and it really brought home to us just how far we have travelled. Over dinner we tried to list the special moments but there have been so many wonderful sights, countries and people it is impossible to pick any one thing as a favourite. Just look out those of you who get asked to watch the uncut video, we now have about 25 hours of tape, and all Johns relatives are stocking up on earplugs before he gets back! All that remains now is to get back to Fairbanks and then down to Anchorage to pack the bikes. We hear from Paul that there are sights to see there too, so we look forward to being able to report more cultural experiences on the homeward leg of the trip. It sounds like they do Very Hot Curries there as well, which could be worth a visit. Wow, what a great day in the end, 250 miles of the most special motorcycling miles we'll ever do!

Link to next update: Week 12