Leaving Dawson City (6/17/23 Sat)

Dawson was a great place to spend time, but it was finally time to move on. My sprockets and chain tool both arrived on Friday and awaited me at a hostel in Fairbanks, AK. While I didn't get to sleep quickly, I did get some, and woke up about 0530. The Red Mamoth coffee & breakfast place opened the other day at 0600, so I showered and packed. Then went to find todays opening was back to 0700. Packed a little more and waited the extra time to eat. Had breakfast with another biker who was having radiator clogged cooling issues. I told him about the squeeze bottle and brush I had heard about and gave him my extra dish brush. Then watched as he cleaned his radiator out with squirts of water and the brush. It worked well.

Finally I was fed and backed and headed for the ferry accross the river. I was loaded the four other bikers almost as soon as I arrived. We then get released first ahead of the cars and larger rigs. Good deal for all. But I wanted that photo of the town from the road, so I lost my lead to a few campers while getting my town photos. It really didn't matter because with the dirt roads and hills it was really easy to move around slow traffic on a bike. Made easier by the fact there was a closed boarder 2 hours ahead, so no real oncoming traffic for hours.

The road was all dirt, and not bad. The views amazing. I stopped a few times and took photos with the phone, so I have some. Many more taken with the cheap camera. I have a lot of hopes for these shots because most of the ride was alpine, so nothing close up to blur. Snow along the roads at times and just amazing untouched valleys.

The boarder crossing was quick and painless. Oddly one of the two guards grew up in Mass and headed to NH next month. Alaska starts out paved and eventual degrades to some of the worst pavement I've ever scene. Massive rifts in the roads that could swallow a car tire. The painted some of the edges red with spraypaint to give you the best chance of avoiding it. The pavement also had section with pavement waves. Those are almost fun on the bike if see them. Trailers on the otherhand have an extremely hard time with the large sucken areas and waves. Making them very slow, and very easy to quickly overtake. I think both sides liked how breif these overtakes really are. We just zip around them, and they don't worry about us because they barely ever see us. Over the few hours a number of other riders from later ferries overtook my slower pace. So I know how nice it is to just see them in your rearview and wave them past quickly.

Many of us met up again in Chicken to refuel. After chicken I don't think I saw anyone else from the event. But I did drive into a black cloud, which I waited out in a gas station eating lunch. Eventualy driving into and through some light rain to reach the hostel just head of the rain. My amazon packages sat in a pile in the office. The hostel seemed more like a summer camp from the outside and the front yard. I decided to just tent but that turned into a tarp and hamoch once I saw the trees and it started raining.

Once gettig my tarp up, I went to the kitchen area to make myself some food. The kitchen building holds three picnic tables, fridges, stove, sink and microwave. That area was all french and spanish bicyclists making their meals. We all talked about our trips and updated our blogs. Very nice. I got two blogs done.

I loved a view just before reaching Chicken. Probably looking toward Eagle. It's going to be the image for this blog. I am not going to try to upload photos tonight.