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This segment took me on the
Richardson Highway from Fairbanks to Valdez. The Richardson was the first
highway in Alaska, and is one of the most beautiful to ride. On the way down to
Valdez I took a side trip on the first 40 miles or so of the Denali Highway.
That was also a beautiful ride - all of it in the Arctic tundra, and all of it
quite remote.
Day 24 - Sunday, June
24
- Fairbanks to Denali Highway
I rode south of Fairbanks
this morning on the Richardson Highway to where it intersects with the Denali
Highway. The Richardson was beautiful, but stretches of high, gusting headwinds
added some interest to the ride.
| I wanted to ride
the first portion of the Denali Highway to see if I could find the place
where we took a fishing trip when my family drove up in 1958. Then we took an
amphibious vehicle back off the road several miles to a glacial lake
that looked much like this one. We could see big lake trout swimming 10
feet below the surface, and managed to hook several. It was one of those
memorable moments of that trip. |
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At about 20 miles
down the road I came to the Tangle River Inn. It had a familiar look to
it. This was about how far down the road we had gotten before deciding to
bail on the Mt. McKinley trip and take a fishing trip instead. |
| It was a little
early to stop, but I decided to stay to see what I might find out. It
turns out the present buildings were built in 1970 after the original
building burned to the ground. |
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Inside I met Jack
Johnson and his wife Naidine. Jack's father had
homesteaded here in 1953, and had erected a lodge and bar near here.
Jack verified that they were doing fishing tours in 1958, and they probably
took us to Swede Lake. I can't be absolutely sure it
was Jack and his dad, since there were several other lodges in this
vicinity, but this one rings a bell with me. Here's Jack with the
grizzly he killed a few years ago - the grizzly was after the moose Jack
was hunting. |
| The inside of the lodge looks very
much like the one I remember from 49 years ago. |
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This turned out to be quite
a day! It all seemed so familiar around here, although it could just be my memory
playing tricks on me. But in any case Jack and the Tangle River Inn brought back
some very pleasant memories. Tomorrow on the way out the Richardson
Highway I'll take several more photos of the area...
Day 24 - Monday, June
24
- Denali Highway to Valdez
Based on the enthusiastic
recommendation of Steve and Andy, two BMW riders who rode the Denali Highway
yesterday, I decided to continue on west today. Before that, however, I noticed
this view outside my window at 5 a.m. this morning. It was almost other worldly.
By 9 a.m. the sun had burned the fog off.
I caught this reflection in Tangle Lake as I left the lodge.
| The Denali Highway
is gravel west of the Tangle River Inn, and rather narrow, closely
following the contours of the land. I found this one of
the most enjoyable roads of my trip thus far. It was alpine tundra, I
was pretty much by myself, the relatively undeveloped road put me in
close contact with my surroundings, giving me a feeling of solitude and
peacefulness, and awe at the grandeur of it all. |
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These two bikers -
the only other ones I met on the road - were
heading east.
I soon got to a place where
a crew was working on the road
and it was muddy - very slippery. So I turned around and go back to the
Richardson Highway to Valdez. But not before stopping for lunch at the
Tangle River Inn. I began to feel like a "regular."
|
On my way east to the Richardson Highway I
saw this expansive view of the mountains in the Alaska Range. The views
in Alaska just go
on and on...
 |
As I
neared Thompson Pass before going down into Valdez I had some
spectacular views, like this one of Worthington Glacier. Thompson Pass gets an average of 500 inches of
snowfall a year, which is one of the reasons so many glaciers are in the
area, some of them still growing. |
Day 26 - Tuesday, June
26
-
Valdez
Today I took a 9-hour
glacier cruise on Prince William Sound to see the Columbia Glacier and the
Meares Glacier. We also saw a variety of wildlife and learned about the Exxon
Valdez oil spill. Fortunately, most of the effects of the spill are no longer
visible, although it will take another 30-50 years to get completely back to the
way it was.
 |
Columbia Glacier,
in the distance where it meets the water, is a retreating glacier.
Ice breaks off it in many smaller pieces, and
prevented us from getting closer than several miles. The ice in the
water makes popping sounds as it melts, like stepping on bubble wrap, as
it releases gasses trapped in the ice.
|
| This was a
particularly beautiful iceberg. The ice was crystal clear, with a
beautiful blue hue. |
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These harbor seals
were relaxing atop this iceberg. |
| Meares Glacier is
an advancing glacier, increasing in size. The snows high up in the
mountains add to the glacier, which then moves down the mountain and
into the ocean. Chunks of ice fall from the face of the glacier (called
calving), creating sounds much like thunder. The face of the glacier is
about 200 feet high above the water. |
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 |
Here we are about
a half mile from the face of the glacier. Alaska has 30,000 square miles
of glacier ice that covers 5 percent of the state. |
| We saw a lot of
animals and birds out on the Sound. Bald eagles are very common. |
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Another common
bird is Puffin. I believe this is a Horned Puffin. |
| Stellar Sea Lions
were also a common sight along the shore. |
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We were
particularly fortunate to catch this humpback whale swimming along. We
didn't see much of the animal, but they are big, weighing 35-40 tons! |
| This is an Orca, a
member of the dolphin family. This one happens to be a female. |
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This larger Orca
is a male. Here he had just exhaled. |
| We saw lots of
these cute little guys - sea otters. This is a very common pose, as they
float on their backs with their paws out of the water to try to warm
them. Sea otters are part of the weasel family. |
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On our way into
port we saw this large tanker taking on oil from the terminus of the
Alyeska pipeline. All of the oil from the north slope comes through the
pipeline to Valdez and is then shipped south to refineries along the
west coast.
This was a
fantastic day - the 9-hour cruise was fun and informative. Being out on
the water gives one quite a different view of Alaska than riding the
highways on land. I'm glad I took this cruise, and the flight-seeing
trip to Mt. McKinley, to give me a more complete perspective of this
marvelous land. |
Day 27 - Wednesday, June
27
-
Valdez to Tok
| Today was mostly a
riding day. I worked on my web site this morning, but couldn't find
internet access in Tok.
I stayed in this cute little cabin, part
of a B&B, tonight. The color matches my bike exactly. The mosquitoes are
voracious! Eight bikers from Texas are staying here also on their way to
Prudhoe Bay. They are all riding GS's. |
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