Sunbathing in Alaska

NO PICTURES AS THE MACDONALDS NETWORK AS A SLOW AS A SNAIL IN A COMA!!!

4^th, 5^th and 6^th July, still at Sven’s hostel

I decided I would have 4 nights sleep at Sven’s. During which time I just chilled and met with other travellers, there was motorcyclist and pushbike travellers, as well as a couple who had shipped a car over and drove South to North.
It was great to chat and swap ideas and routes, I have now found out that I can ship from either Houston or Miami to Columbia, so that now gives me another option.
I even rode with a guy called Pete to see Santa Claus at the North Pole, I also sent my Mum a postcard because it gets franked with the North Pole stamp.

Sunday 7^th of July : 300 miles. Fairbanks to Willow.
I took route 3 to Anchorage, it was quite a late start as I said my goodbyes to all the good people in the Hostel. The route was stunning and had some fantastic mountain views but the weather was getting wetter and wetter! Around tea time I hit a pretty big storm and seeing lightning in the distance I decided to stop at Willow about 70 miles short of Anchorage.
Putting up the tent in the rain wasn’t much fun! But I was not paying $100 for a cabin! I did treat myself to a nice cold beer and a huge cheeseburger with fries.
It was still damp and miserable in the morning but I packed up and headed towards Anchorage.

Monday 8^th July : 70 miles, Willow to Anchorage.
It was a short ride but as I set off the clouds started to disperse and lovely warm sunshine started to break through.
My Tomtom sat nav was playing up, I think it was the downpour yesterday that broke it. It wouldn’t do any new routes and I was looking for a Stenard road where there was a free campsite for motorcycle travellers.
As luck would have it, just as I was about to turn around and give up on the campsite I found myself on Stenard Road. Within 10 minutes I found the campsite and was set up and busy drying all my wet gear off.
There is a couple of other travellers here so I have decided to have a 2 day break here and just chill before setting off South.

Tuesday till Friday  9^th to 12^th Motoquest campground Anchorage.
Peter the pole from Fairbanks Hostel turned up so we spent a few days just chilling and hanging about. Did some shopping at REI, got some new egg holders to replace my old ones as the latch had broke and the eggs keep falling out.
Peter and I managed to get a bargain flight for $200, this was a 2 and ½ hour trip and took us out to a glacier and then we saw some whales on the return leg. We swapped seats at the halfway stage and I was allowed to hold the flightstick!

Friday 12^th July 340 miles : Anchorage to Tok
The weather was beautiful on the ride out to Tok, my 9 year old satnav decided it didn’t want to work anymore, so it was back to paper maps.
I managed to catch up with Bill a guy from Texas who had rode to Alaska to find work but sadly for him there was no jobs so he has decided to return to Texas. I followed him to a cheap motorbike only campsite just outside Tok. We had been set up long and Peter the pole arrived. He had received bad news, a friend of his had been killed in a motorcycle accident so he was cutting his holiday short to get back in time for the funeral.

Saturday 13^th July :340 miles : Tok to Haynes Junction.
I had tried to make Whitehorse my finishing point but the roads were that bad I simply ran out of riding time! They have laid so much more loose gravel since I travelled up this road 2 weeks ago. The worst is the loose small gravel, where the front wheel wobbles from side to side and you just have to keep some power on to try and force your way through it!