BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Midnight Sun

I have to admit that I'm looking forward to being south again, if for no other reason than that I won't have to fall asleep every night in the broad daylight. You'd think that hotels this far north would have wartime blackout curtains, but no. I'm learning that my level of tiredness is inversely proportional to the amount of ambiant sunlight, so I'm almost never tired here. That sounds good until about 3am. :)

Monday night was the Solstice, so we all went to Fairbanks' Midnight Sun street fair. It was pretty cool. We panned for gold (unsuccessfully), ate fair food, looked at arts and crafts, and just loitered around with hundreds of other people late at night.

In Fairbanks, the sun sets around 1am and rises around 3am this time of year, so there's technically a sunset, but as you can see, it's not really all that dark. ;)

Lounging around in Fairbanks

oday is our Lazy Day in Fairbanks (tm). I'm playing on my laptop and drinking beer while my sweetie is sitting across the hotel room, also drinking beer and playing on his laptop. Life really could not get much better.

Speaking of beer: it's too bad that I've been trying the local microbrews along the way, as I don't think our local grocery store carries Yukon Brewing Company's Chilkoot Lager, or Silver Gulch's ("America's Most Northern Brewery!") Copper Creek Amber Ale. Hrm.

We all slept in this morning and then spent a couple of hours walking around the touristy section of downtown Fairbanks. Peter and I came back and did a first pass at bike cleaning -- mainly finding a hose to chisel off the top layer of bugs -- and I cleaned and lubed the chain. The bike has held up remarkably well; the main "damage" was dead bugs in odd places (including the underside of the windscreen, and inside of my handguards, and mud caked on the radiator, exhaust header pipes, and oil filter. The oil filter was impressive. There was actually a huge dead bug caked into the mud that was caked onto the oil filter. So we rinsed all that off and used a rag to, well, pretty much just smear the rest of the mud around a bit. But at least you can tell again that the SVS is red.

Yesterday, the four of us went to Barrow, which is the northernmost city in the United States (maybe in North America? I don't recall). It was really pretty interesting. It took a little over an hour to get there, on an Alaska Airlines 737 -- it's about 500 miles north of Fairbanks, right on the Arctic Ocean. I've been above the Arctic Circle before (my parents and I went to Norway in 1991), but everything about northern Alaska is different than what I remember about northern Norway -- it was much colder and rainier in Barrow, and the landscape was barren.

We were on a tour bus with 20 or so other Americans, which to me, ranks right up there with a sharp stick in the eye, but we all had fun regardless. Peter and I now have a photo of us together at the Arctic Ocean (complete with icebergs) to put on our wall next to the photo of us together at the Caribbean Sea (complete with palm trees and a sandy beach). We'll soon be able to fool people into believing that we're interesting and trendy jetsetters or something.

Barrow is a really interesting community, aesthetically, in that all of the buildings look as though they've been lifted right from a third-world slum: peeling paint, rusted cars on blocks out front, unpaved muddy roads, shifting foundations, trash everywhere. Yet, the interior of every building we went into was clean (how, I don't know, given how muddy it was outside), well-decorated, and actually very classy-looking. Granted, we probably primarily saw tourist attractions, though the random Chinese restuarant where we killed time before the plane left was the same way.

It intrigued me how Barrow has set up multiple ways to keep the residents from going utterly insane. There are no roads leading to Barrow -- the only way in or out is on an airplane to Fairbanks/Anchorage -- it's freezing cold almost all year 'round, and there's no sunlight at all for 84 straight days in winter. Yet everyone we saw looked sane and happy. The high school was impressive, with a full gym (including a 2nd story swimming pool), extensive science and computer labs, and an athletic program which flies the kids on sports teams all over Alaska to play other high schools. There's a similarly impressive recreation center, serving the entire community, with running tracks, basketball courts, pools, and more. I mean, it's not like you can go outside for a jog in winter, unless you're extremely dextrous in your parka at -50F.

We happened to visit on the day of a blanket toss festival, where three whaling crews were throwing a party to celebrate catching a whale. Our bus driver and guide, Joe, was a 29-year-old native who enjoys whaling every season (Barrow has 2 whaling seasons per year), and he gave us a rundown of whaling and the festivals. The community is given a quota of 22 whales per calendar year (not per season), which feeds the entire city of 4500 or so people. The first shot at a whale removes one whale from the quota, even if the shot doesn't kill the whale, so the crews have incentive to be good shots. ;) Joe told us that the crews use sealskin boats (we saw one later) and harpoons, though modern-day harpoons have a nitrogen firing system which, essentially, explodes a bomb inside of the whale to guarantee that the whale dies. It sounds harsh, but when you lose a whale from the quota if you shoot the whale but it escapes, you want to make damn sure you can catch and eat that whale. Joe said that he eats whale every other day or so.

At any rate, the whale meat is brought to the festival, where it's divided up amongst the families and cooked/eaten in a big party. There were a few hundred people there already when we wandered by towards the beginning. We saw some whale meat being unloaded from a pickup, but no one had started eating yet. At the end of the festival, there's a huge blanket toss as part of the festivities. Our tour group did a small one at the Heritage Museum, and even that was pretty fun.

Fairbanks, AK

Woo, we're in Fairbanks!

I'm literally on my way to bed -- for a whopping hour of sleep before Peter gets in -- but we all made it to Alaska safe and sound.

I updated the trimmed-down pictures page, too. In chronological order:
- Hell's Gate on the Fraser River, British Columbia
- Riding north on Hwy 97, south of Cache Creek, BC
- Steph putting on rain gear in the first hail storm, The Chasm between Cache Creek and 100 Mile House, BC
- Rainbow between Quesnel and Prince George, BC
- Alaska Highway Mile Zero, Dawson Creek, BC
- Alaska Highway, north of Fort Nelson, BC
- Stone Mountain sheep in Stone Mountain Provincial Park, BC
- Liard River Hot Springs, BC
- Black bear, south of Watson Lake, Yukon Territories
- Rancheria Falls, north/west of Watson Lake, YT
- Steph at Swan Lake, BC
- Kluane National Park, YT
- At the Alaska/Canada border, AK, USA

My current wildlife count:
- 4 bears
- 2 moose
- 1 bald eagle
- 1 marmot
- countless mountain sheep

Pics of cuddly things that will kill you

OK, you vultures, I managed to steal a high-speed internet connection long enough to upload two pictures of our new buddies here in the north.

http://www.bluepoof.com/motorcycles/trips/alaska/pics

Before my mom has a heart attack, both of these used mega zoom. ;)

OK, off to breakfast.

Whitehorse, YT

Not much time to write right now -- I'm in the hotel lobby, waiting for Steph and Tony to finish showering -- but I wanted to update everyone that we're still alive despite not having service for two days. ;)

We're currently in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, and have had a great past couple of days. Well, today was kinda boring again, and my cold/allergies/Canadian death ick is back, but other than that, things have been great. We saw two more black bears yesterday, and I got a couple of good pictures before the bear turned to us, made direct eye contact, and took two steps directly at us. Tony and I vaulted back onto our bikes like nobody's business and hightailed it the hell out of there. :)

Fort Nelson, BC

Once again, our hotel has free internet access to its guests, disproving once and for all this whole notion of "the wilderness". ;) Unfortunately, my hiptop (finally!) has no signal, so I can't attach any photos. That's OK, though, I didn't take many with the hiptop today anyway. Neener neener.

Today, we rode from Dawson Creek (mile 0 of the Alcan) to Fort Nelson (mile 300). Mileages are, of course, theoretical, as the highway changes length every time there's construction, which is pretty much constant.

That said, we haven't had a single problem with roads yet. Before this trip, people asked me if I was nervous about bringing a street-only bike (as opposed to a dual-sport) to Fairbanks; I said "no", but the truth was that I didn't know. Let me tell you -- as far as Fort Nelson, at any rate, a Vespa could have done this trip. We hit one section of under-construction grooved pavement between Cache Creek and 100 Mile House, and a couple of short sections of frost heaves today, but that's it. I ride worse roads on my commute. Course, I just jinxed myself and tomorrow, we'll ride through the Amazon River Basin or something. But up til now, it's been smooth as anything.

I'm going to tell you guys a secret. There are huge sections of the Alcan that are Really Frickin' Boring. No one wants you to know this: not the tourism departments, not the other adventurers, and not even me, since I want you to keep reading this blog. But today, we rode through at least 200 miles of flat, straight road, surrounded on both sides by forest that'd been clear-cut for about 50' on either side of the road. That's it. Every once in a while there'd be a river, or maybe a bend in the road. Otherwise: road cut through forest. It is mind-numbingly boring. The only thing to do is ride at around 100kph and scan the roadsides constantly for interesting animals. I didn't see a single one today -- every time I thought I saw an animal, it turned out to be either a log or a blown 18-wheeler tire -- the closest I came to a Real Live Wild Animal was a large deer on the side of the road which was immediately frightened away by a retarded tourist who drove their RV right up to it.

People, tourists on this road are amazing. I have, so far, seen tourists scare away two animals; three, if you count myself. As Steph said, when they tell you to stay in your car for safety, they're talking about safety from the other tourists. I was nearly run down two separate times yesterday by a car full of old people while walking from my bike to where Steph had seen a bear (yes, mom, I was still plenty far from the bear). The old people just kept veering into me as I was walking, over and over. I had to physically jump out of the way of their car twice. These people are crazy, I tell you. Each time we've seen an animal, we've been alone out on the highway; within 30 seconds, there are RVs parked from here to San Francisco. I swear. Once one RV parks on the shoulder of the road, look out; soon there'll be twenty. It's unreal. I've been stuck behind so many RVs by now that I'm started to have the major manufacturers memorized.

I can't wait until I'm old and can buy an RV and drive it at 45 MILES AN HOUR across the globe. Wheee!

Today's ride was slathered in "caution: moose" signs, but, as I said, I didn't see a one. Instead, I took pictures of the signs. Hey, close enough.

We stopped for the night at a hotel with the world's largest attached liquor store. My college town didn't have a liquor store this well stocked. It was amazing. I didn't buy anything; merely walking through the door gave me an alcoholic contact high.

After perusing the booze, Steph and I went into the hotel's hot tub. Mmmmm, hot tubs. It felt really super good. We ate dinner at Dan's Pub across the street: more steak, beer, soup. I eat so much better on vacation than I do In Real Life.

Our colds are subsiding. We still make disgusting noises, especially in the mornings, but I don't feel nearly so much like I died last week and just forgot to lay down. We all went to bed at 9:30pm last night, being the party animals that we are, and I think it did everyone a world of good. Now I'm just always dehydrated and have a scratchy throat. This town is pretty much LungInfectionsville, though, with all the mud and dust and diesel trucks going through. I've been holding my breath since we pulled in around 5:30pm. Fort Nelson's city motto is "The Resourceful Fort Nelson!", which you know is never a good thing for the environment or for the squishy pink bits inside of you.

Tomorrow should be a great day: Fort Nelson to Watson Lake has the AAA "scenic route" little dots all along it on our maps. Yay! I'm about ready for some spectacular scenery.

An idea whose time has come

If this whole "software programming" thing doesn't work out, I'm going
to invent a nose bib for motorcyclists who get colds while touring, and
I'm going to make a million bazillion dollars.

Calamari Quest 2004

We're on a mission to find the best calamari appetizer in the great
north.

Heartland Family Restaurant, Cache Creek: very good garlicy sauce. Both
rings and little squid bits. Spelled it "Kalamari", which has now
prompted a debate on "c" versus "k" spellings.

Moxie's, Prince George: garlicy sauce was pretty good but too thin.
steph thinks it was chewier, but tony disagrees. Only rings; no squid
bits.

Lily's Stopping Place, Dawson Creek: very clearly frozen calamari, but
as steph points out, at least it's not rubbery. Came with very
horseradishy sauce.

Shirt photos

I keep forgetting to attach the photos to the entry.

Cheesy touristy shirts

Steph and I bought "Mile Zero" Dawson Creek shirts. We're wearing them
tonight because, well, they're clean. ;)