It was another 5 layer day and Mt. McKinley was nowhere in sight. How could the largest mountain in North America, standing at 20,320 feet be eluding me – after coming all this way! I decided I would put my mind to the road and worry about all that later. Butch & Carol threw down a cowboy spread for breakfast and I chowed down, realizing I needed all the energy I needed to finish out the Denali Highway, sans heated vest. I have never ridden with heated gear but I’m telling you, I’ll have it next time.

Once breakfast was finished, I thanked Butch and decided to go check out the car graveyard. A lot of things hang around in Alaska because of the -most of the time horrendous weather and remoteness, and of course money plays into both of those. That being said there is something cool and mysterious about car graveyards. I snapped some pictures and then went and got my gear sorted out of the Super Cub hangar. Folks were straggling and everyone was on their own today. I decided real quickly that I would be upfront chasing MotoQuest owner Phil Freeman for the rest of the Denali highway if I was to continue battling Jack Frost. I wasn’t going to wait for the weather to turn any meaner – and if something happened I would have the chase van and other folks well cushioned behind me for rescue and support.

Phil and I took off around 0930 with a little hole of clearing in the sky but still gray. We had about 70 more miles until we reached asphalt and I was thrilled that it wasn’t raining but it was quite chilly, especially at 70mph as we blistered down the road. I could smell the hunters campfires in every turn, a smell I wish I could bottle and where as cologne. And just when I was getting comfortable a Elk hunter pulled to the right shoulder, brakes came on and acted as if he was giving us the right away to continue by with our dust storm, but then he yanked back left and completely came across the road and in an instant I saw Phil going to the hospital had it not been for his cat like reflexes. It was a very close one as his front tire nearly missed the back right bumper by about 2 feet. He had locked the rear wheel up for about a 15-yard skid and managed to bump his way ungracefully around him – left my gut in a knot. I don’t think he would have died but he definitely would have been injured and the bike would have been toast, and we were hours from any medical support. When this happens, you have to keep your wits about you, stay alert, not lose your confidence and press on. We slowed to about 60-65 and scanned the road obsessively for any more hazards. We had almost made it to the end and the rain came and so did the mud! We had a hellish 10 miles to finish the Denali Highway – the hardest being the mud spray from Phil’s bike. i let it cake up to almost zero visibility on my visor and then went for a one handed glove swipe and nearly blinded myself with mud smear -that did not work. So I raised my visor, slacked off a bit to keep my yellow lens smiths sunglasses somewhat clean, waited for the pouring rain to wash off the visor and then pulled back down and gave a clean swipe. I did this at least 5x in the last 10 miles, which was a difficult balancing act in the slick mud. With the mud you had to stay on the throttle, or became too greasy but going too fast was a challenge as well – 50mph seemed to work the best. I might also mention the yellow lens sunglasses I use for low light – flat light when snowboarding – were huge in this weather and I recommend to anyone motorcycling in these conditions.

Finally I felt the grip and thud of black top – O how I love thee. You love going on dirt just as much as you love coming out of it. And if you think about it, there are many philosophies in motorcycling that can be applied to life, I think its all in the simplicity – larger things are discovered and epiphanies happen hourly. Once we were back on the tarmac, we only had about 10 miles to a refuel spot and then we would head into the boundaries of Denali National Park.

After a hectic refuel – we had an irate Eskimo that seemed to be selective with his selling of gas. One thing you do not want to do is mess with a motorcycle guy because he’s basically ready to battle; helmet, head protection-check, full body armor-check, eye protection-check, steel toed boots – check, gloves-check etc. Needless to say I got my gas. The group decided to split up, so Nate, Paul and I headed up to the Park. Nate is a gear tester for Twisted Throttle. Checkout some of their products at http://www.twistedthrottle.com

The 3 of us ran up the highway about 30 miles to the park entrance, the temperature steadily dropping, and the whole time being shadowed by a dark cloud. However when we arrived the sun was out – finally! This was great, and the kaleidoscope of Fall colors seemed to pop out around every corner. http://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

It seemed that with all my picture stops, Nate and Paul had lost track of me and vice versa, but no worries this is what’s great about motorcycle travel; you can be with your friends or alone and its still wonderful and eventually you will all sync back up. Every morning Phil and I discuss the days route, pull out maps, talk about gas stops, scenic vistas etc so everyone knows ahead of time where they are going, where to rendezvous and where we are staying that night.

I decided to check out the Alaskan Railroad being obsessed with trains. I had missed it but the info booth was nice and I welcomed the hand warming session and foot thawing, as well as picking the train employees brains. After 30 mins or so I was back on the bike looking for Mt. McKinley but she was still playing hide and go seek with the other mountains, seemed I was now on the back of the range facing South and needed to be more East, facing West – its a huge place. This is where the end of the road runs out and the kid from Emory went “Into the Wild” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek

In fact, not sure if I mentioned it already but if you cut Alaska in half, each half is still bigger than Texas! Texans do not like hearing that:) And, and Alaska has over a million lakes! One Million I say – Bush Pilots land there Float Planes wherever the hell they want! No one owns them! The population of Alaska is 720,000 with 300,000 of those in Anchorage, and Alaska is over 6,000,000 square miles!!! You do the math. People are scarcer than the wildlife. And definitely outnumbered by the fish!

I gave up on McKinley, and even though it was sunny and blue, I had gained elevation and the sun was dropping. I had become awfully respectful of Natures temps and decided to head on to Talkeetna.

And when you’re on the road, you have so many thoughts – I almost wish sometimes I had a dictation mic in my helmet to get everything down because you eventually get into your Zen space, minutes turn into hours and you forget, but your mind runs through so much, and so many great thoughts, ideas, clarity; I imagine its kind of like running a marathon – maybe.

I saw some rafters on my way and a giant igloo! I slowed down a bit to yield for wildlife and still passed several Harley’s. About 30 miles outside of Talkeetna near Trapper Creek I ran up on two clients, one who had run out of gas. Judy was riding a bike with a much smaller gas tank than the rest of us, an XT 250.

http://www.yamahamotor.com/sport/products/modelhome/574/home.aspx

And had not had as much luck as I with the angry Eskimo, or maybe she just got intoxicated with the scenery and forgot? Either way, I love a good rescue. I pulled up and they were happy to see me, as Joe wasn’t fond of riding 2 up. I quickly stashed Judy’s XT in the woods, locked the steering and let her jump on with me. Time to think, we were all tired, cold and wet and of course the rain was beating down us again in this moment – of course, with no shoulder and huge, massive trucks whizzing by. I knew that the Chase Van could come back and get the XT. Clients have paid, they don’t want to deal with this, and shouldn’t have to. Service to the clients is first and foremost above all else. Judy and I had fun riding together and we made Talkeetna in no time, Joe chasing us. I was actually able to run about 80mph as the extra weight grounded the KLR more and made it more road worthy.

We pulled into Talkeetna around 1800 with 260 miles chipped away on the odometer, and sent the Chase Van to get the stashed bike. I decided to get unloaded, help the others and get checked in to the Swiss Alaskan Lodge. Once I got the lay of the land, and my chores were complete, and I had settled in the room, I had about an hour before dinner, and decided to call my mother. Mom was doing well at it made my heart thump to hear her voice. I have grown to appreciate her more in my 30’s and miss her more than I did in my 20’s, though she would never know that. We were able to catch up as I walked into town on the nature trail. And as I get off the phone, almost as if a token of love, there sat the train I had so eagerly pursued earlier in the day. Thank you Mom.

I still had about an hour to explore the small frontier town of Talkeetna before meeting the others for dinner. Talkeetna, in the Indian language means, “the joining of rivers” which is what established this town as a crossroads for trading and trapping, and it was evident by the relic of bear traps that lay on the general store floor and the furs that hung from their rafters. A sups cool town, and I indeed, enjoyed walking around, intoxicated by the smell of Mountain High Pizza Pies.

A met up with our motley crew around 2000 at the Denali Brew Pub and had one of the best beers of my life – a sour beer! These are fermented longer in Oak and then somehow champagne is tweaked in? Delicious, I’ll have two! It was called the “Louisville Sour” and they were about 6.1% in alcohol content.

http://denalibrewingcompany.com/?page_id=433

These beers would then help me wash down spaghetti and meatballs – no problem. After this we tucked the clients in and Phil and I headed over to the Fairview Inn for a little boot stomping and dancing. The band, about 8 embers with two mandolins and violin complete rolled out an orchestra of Southern tunes, being so far from the South, and hearing some jokes not quite polite about my Southern roots – this made me smile and made me proud. Those who get it – get it. And those musicians playing to a dedicated, rowdy crowd knew and their fans loved them. I had a good time dancing, and kept my eyes on the grizzly bear mounted to the ceiling in between swirls. After a failed attempt to the teepee (Phil could not find his ID) he closed the Fairview down 0330 and made our way back down the path to our lodge, but not without some train surfing. I was amazed I was able to pull this off without any local authorities telling me I couldn’t. Like a kid I climbed all over the locomotive and it wasn’t long until I was dreaming about being a Train Conductor – what a life that guy must have!

Songs that were influential on this day!

Lynyrd Skynyrd “Railroad Song” circa 1975

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bxIuX8I2Mg

Ryan Bingham “Bread & Water”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoFwQnHFeYM