Snowcapped mountains (6/22/23 Thu)

I wanted to stay in Talkeetna awhile and enjoy the cabin. But really I messed that up by arriving so late. So making a note to arrive early in really nice places.

A review of the local restaurants revealed one odd duck. Breakfast Candy. I'm not a candy lover, so that sound horrible, and worth a second look. Turns out it had great reviews and no mention of candy. So I figured it was weird enough for me and off I went. First I dropped off the cabin key, then found Breakfast Candy. The woman running it was as cheerful as you can get. She made me a breakfast taco, and coffee. Then a desert toast with peanutbutter and condensed milk. All good. She came out and looked over the bike, and wanted to know where I've been and headed. She told me her favorite mountain view was along the Seward Highway just past Anchorage riding along the sea, to Girdwood. That added about 3 hours to my planned ride so I did it.

The weather threatened rain but mostly held all day. I got a little wet but always dried out before long. Riding through the city of Anchorage wasn't ideal, but it was nice along the water just like Breakfast Candy's owner said. Once I retraced my steps back to my original path, I wasn't sure when I would stop. Everything was new until I would reach Tok. So I picked a self service campground in Tok and started north.

Riding north along this route was suggested by the german guy who started his 6 week canoe trip earlier this week. He liked this stretch of road and now I know why. It's an endless collection of snowcapped and lined mountains. With a glacier or two thrown in for good measure. It was overcast and clouds made dark and light areas on the mountains. The sky was wonderful, as was the lighting. Every dirction you looked something cool popped out. I stopped so many times I had to refrain from it or I would never cover an distance.

Because I left Talkeetna around 1130, I had shifted my travel day later. Then added 3 hours to ride along the ocean. So reaching Tok wouldn't occur until 2230. At times I wondered why I continued on to Tok because I passed campgrounds in crazy beautiful places. But the mountains always look great and kept me too excited to get tired of riding. There was almost no trafic on the road at this time. One sign really worried me because it said road closed ahead from midnight to 0600. It wasn't that late, so I figured I was ok, but I didn't know how far ahead the closure was. Within an hour I had passed the bridge to be closed and was more than safe. I also passed a moose that had been hit and spun off the road into the ditch. Very odd to round a corner and see moose legs poking up into the road from the ditch. I snapped a very likely blurry picture with the cheap camera. I took a lot of pictures with that camera, hopefully some come out.

After a very long day I approached Tok. I was on a section of road that was straight for 5 miles. Off in the distance I could see emergency vehicle lights in the road. So I slowed down, and approached them forever. It was a single Alaska Trooper parked on the other side of the road. I drove by an odd accident scene with a pickup and motorcycle that all looked burnt. Everything overturned in the ditch and painted lines all over the road. Clearly something bad had occurred.

A few minutes later I drove into the campround and found two Harley guys walking around and another guy trying to help them. I pulled up and asked if there are campsites left? The helper asked iif I was with them, I said no. He said there are sites, just drive around and pick one then fill out the form and payment. So I circled once and parked at the next campsite to the other adventure bikes. Seems 5 or 6 others people from Dust 2 Dawson also stopped here. I talked awhile with one group from Ankorage & Fairbanks. They told me of a wonderful stop in British Columbia that I should stop at on my way through. This was ideal because I didn't really have a destination.

They described a wonderful little town on the water about 60km down a spur. They also talked about an odd desert nearby that didn't seem like it belonged. The deseart had dunes and little pine trees, and was located in Carcross. The wonderful little town is Atlin, BC. They also described a wonderful cabin, but said was more than I would need by myself. Given my recently learned lesson I want to try to get to Atlin earlier in the day so that I can enjoy it.

One of the guys really like my new strom. I told him all the things I loved and what I didn't. When I said the headlight on high beam doesn't reach around corners far enough, they looked at me funny. For the Alaska riding season it's nearly almost always daytime. They never use their headlights for more than being seen. That sounded so odd to me, even after I've been living it for weeks now. No headlights and no flashlights.

So I didn't get my tent setup and stop talking until well after midnight. It was still very light out. There was plane traffic leaving, the guys said two bikers where in the accident, and only one plane left in a hurry. They suspect the other died. Planes flew out of the runway between our campground and the gas station. Planes are everyplace in Alaska.