Trip Recap #2

Here are some more randomly ordered memories of our trip i thought everyone would enjoy.

Sign custom made for Dan..














5 amigos getting ready to do the Denali hwy.





Large male moose swims across pond on Denali Hwy. (click on picture to zoom up)

Dan and scenery - Denali Hwy

Paul checks out an old Cincinnati planer.. Many left over machines and metal parts like this all around AK.

Mark makes a few friends @ our cabin in Gakona.. they loved him! For the record Mark, get a couple o' St. Bernards!

Paul and Dan (Master mechanics) tooling on Brian's bike just so i could have heated gloves..

Thanks guys!

Oil drilling bit at the front door of the Arctic Caribou Inn in Prudhoe Bay.

Our digs in Prudhoe Bay

Jim Carrey.. I mean Dug up to his usual tricks!

Leo and Brian up in Leo's tree house.. i was only allowed on the "front porch".. no adults allowed in the tree house!

Bernie (proprietor of the Arctic Cabin B&B) entertains us with Stories of Alaska for hours - after enjoying a delicous breakfast of Sourdough pancakes and eggs over easy from Uta.

Dug at the end of the road in Deadhorse. The building was a combination Gift shop, General store, Auto parts and Post office!

More to follow.

Brian

Uhh, Jamie. We lost Mark

While riding on the Top of the World Highway (which is very cool in a differnt way than all the other icredble majestic scenery we've been driving in view of. This stuff you're acually riding on top of the same incredible scenery you were looking at a while back.) I saw a perfect opportunity for a little side trip down a 4 wheeler path. All went well until we tried to turn around in the perma-frost off th trail. Eventually we got it and Dan and I were satisfied with the adventure but not Mark. At the next rest spot he sees a hillclimb in the distance he wants to try. Our discouragement didn't work. We told him we'd watch him tumble down from our comfy little spot where we were.

what we didn't plan on is that after 15 minutes of not seeing him come out of the treeline we couldn't even find the trailhead we thought we would when we proceeded down the road to the spot where we figured he'd still be trying to pick his bike up out of the ditch.

No trailhead. No Mark. Just ditch, so we figure he just went in search of the next trail. We searched and searched the next 20 miles all the way down to the ferry. No Mark. Did he beat us to the ferry and cross on his own? You would think not but then you haven't been traveling with him for the past few weeks or hadn't spent the previous day driving an extra 110 miles looking for them.

So we go back searching (only because I promised Jamie and a few others I'd do my best to get him back alive) for any spot he may have turned off until we see a pile of rocks and boards piled up in the ditxh to signal us of the trailhead. There was the giant RV parked in the middle of the road with an old lady in it too. Mark had flagged them down and convinced the old guy to hike up the hill to help him pick up the bike he had dumped, just like we told him would happen, and he wouldn't be able to pick up on his own, just like I've been telling him he wouldn't be able to since I dumped my bike over in Houston the day I bought it. But luckily Mark is smarter than we are and the story doesn't include the old guy dropping dead of a heart attack or of us missing the last ferry and having to all spend the night on the wrong side of the river crammed in our only tent (the one I brought) or, oh yeah, us having to tell Jamie that we lost her husband somewhere in the Yukon.

Trip Recap from Brian and Dug

Well, we made it back safely - I guess we said all the appropriate prayers along the way because they were certainly answered.

The whole trip was a bit surreal, terrific life experience. The remoteness of the wilderness, friendly people along the way and sheer beauty of the surroundings were just incredible.. not to mention we had perfect weather for the 4 critical days of the Haul road.

Some notable highlights - not necessarily in chronological order:

On the day of Mark's 50th birthday heading north, we met a guy and his dog at the intersection of the Elliot and Dalton highways - hitching to Manley Hot Springs. He was waiting for a ride and as we got to talking with him, he pulled out a set of bagpipes that he seemed to produce out of nowhere and played a song. We found out that we shared the same Scottish heritage when Mark mentioned that He and I were "Campbells" (from Mom's side). Once he found this out, he proceeded to play the following tune on his pipes entitled "Campbell's Farewell to Red Castle":

It was awesome - Mark and I really appreciated it - and a great gift to Mark on his birthday. Not to mention Mom will love this!

Here is Dug (below) at a restaurant in Healy doing his best Dumb and Dumber impression:

I think it was the bourbon and coupla IPA's ..

While we are at it, here is what Dug had for dinner that night:

Nice.. luckily Paul had to room with him that night!

Here is a picture of me standing in the Artic ocean right after I took the polar bear plunge into the water along with Dug and Paul. Notice the ice in the water on the horizon.. it was incredibly cold - and i have my special "Head of the Tomahawk" crew shirt on.. Go Glastonbury Crew!

Dug and I had a picturesque ride on Saturday - when we parted from Mark, Dan and Paul - 370 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage. It tooks us about 7 hours and made it back to the motorcycle store to drop off the bikes for shipping. Had a great dinner in Anchorage and flew home Sunday AM.

Great trip and a lot of work and concentration to be as safe as you can be. Will post more re-cap pictures in a bit.

Brian

Tok

The only town we had to visit twice except for the out and back legs. It's hardly a town. More like a truck stop but we have a nice clean motel with a decent restaurant and even a little grocery and place to get fuel that isn't the gas station that looks like it burned down a few years ago and hasn't been touched since they put out the fire.

Hopefully I can find some aspirin to keep the ticker working and a razor that doesn't shred my face and maybe some fruit before we leave. Fruit and veggies aren't always available up here and you know how I likes my fruits and veggies.

Today we head to Dawson City, YK thru Chicken, AK. Don't know about cell service or internet for the next few days again. It's tough to tell where they'll have it. Surprisingly some of the dinkiest little places are hooked up and others aren't. Then we head to Watson Lake thru Ross River. Fort Nelson after that, where I take a left, peeling off a couple days early of the original destination of Jasper.

I want to explore northern Canada on my way home. (I know it's not really northern Canada but you know what I mean) I've been across most of southern and the parts I haven't are supposed to be miserable down there so I'm gonna try to stay in the land of trees and lakes as I head East.

If I can keep up the blog, I will. I know Jim's a little bored with my updates unless Brian and Dug are here to stir things up so I may have to rob a bank or save a drowning baby or skin a bear with nothing but my nail clippers to keep him reading. Otherwise I might have to make some stuff up.

Just so nobody's too shocked when tthey catch sight of Mark. I think he's prepping himself to be a contestantt on The Biggest Loser or thinking about becoming the next Jared for Subway. He says his metabolism has shifted now that he's 50. Maybe I'll see if they have any Dexatrim whileI'm at the store.

Chena Hot Springs

We took a day off and only rode 60 miles from Fairbanks to the springs. We figured we needed some recovery time after the teary send-off of our trusted Prudhoe Bay compatriots.

The place is a bit cheezy but the concept is good. It's all off grid and self sustaining regarding energy. They're working on providing all their own organic vegetables and meats eventually. They currently have some good size greenhouses growing some of their veggies.

The interesting thing is that they're making electricity out of relatively low temp water,which everyone told this guy couldn't be done. The turbine needs to be turned by steam but this geothermal water is only 165 degrees so instead they use a refrigerant as the medium and it boils at a much lower temp. Simple concept but I guess not so simple to make happen practically.

They have a couple of United Technology turbines in this giant shed that looks like plenty of room for expansion. There's no solar as it seems they have more than enough juice. The rooms are all heated with geo water running thru them. They use a lot of recycled parts for building stuff around the property. Old oil drilling pilons for steel columns, the heat dissipaters from the pipeline I think I talked about earlier are used as radiators in some spots and so on.

I thought I had pictures of the rock lake pool but they must be on Mark's camera. The water was nice but probably too hot and not all that sulfury smelling like many hot springs are.

gay cowboy/trucker look

Mark showed up in Seattle looking scruffy. It felt like someone had used my razor to scrape gum off the carpet and Liz was leaving so I had nobody to look presentable for so I quit shaving a while back. Couldn't stand it any more so I decided to give Brian and Dug a departure treat by showing up for breakfast with a new look. I couldn't pull off the mutton chops but left the stache and soul patch for the above described look, which of course almost got Golden Grahams and milk to come out their noses as well as pee their pants.

Figured I'd wear it for a few days but when I was getting a massage at Chena Hot Springs the therapist (some chick with a made up exotic name that lived in Maui and on a boat off Catalina Island and...and...and...(of course all I'm thinking is 'when the hell is my massage gonna start?')). Anyway, during the massage she's asking me if there are any females in our group or if it's just a bunch of guys traveling together but it didn't seem like a pickup line it was more like 'what the hell is up with that stashe?' Being as secure as I am in my sexuality I went back to the room and pulled out my rusty razor.

pipeline bridge

we could see the top of this bridge from a distance and we were all wondering why it was necessary to have a parallel bridge. Another road? A railroad?

It had been a while since the pipeline had been in our mugs every minute of the day so we forgot about it.