Day 9: Top of the World Highway into Alaska

It rained most of the night and I had slept in. I went to the hotel diner to eat breakfast where I listened to locals talk about how much they hated working at a mine site where the show Gold Rush was being filmed. The locals just wanted to mine for gold and not have to worry about redoing things 3 or 4 times so the TV Crew could film it. I searched a few stores for Arctic Circle Post Cards, shot glasses or stickers and had no luck. Evidently not many people go that way for souvenirs. I couldn't even find a Dempster Sticker for the panniers.

The rain didn't look like it was finished so I went ahead and started the morning with my rain gear on. It was a smart move because as soon as I threw my leg over the saddle it started raining. I headed for the ferry crossing to take me across the Yukon river. The docking for the ferry was the equivalent of pulling your river boat up to any shore line along the bank. It was a mud pit and I was thinking in my head "When you transition from the mud pit to the wet metal ramp you are going to bust your ass and it's going to hurt" . Luckily , I made it up with out issue. I was hoping that the exit side was better but it wasn't . No issue there either.

Once I got off the ferry I continued down the "Top Of The World Highway". I had heard mixed stories about the condition of the roads. Every one said stay off it when it's wet but here I am. A mixture of rain , fog, and smoke from the wild fires limited my view but Not so much so that I couldn't see that the failure to negotiated a turn could end badly. I can only imagine how nice the view is when it's clear

 

 

 

 

I finally made it to the US border of Alaska, The most Northerly Land border port in the USA.  It was more of the same. Wet, foggy, and Smokey.

 

 

It eventually cleared up a bit but the road was still a wet mess. A few miles before I reached Chicken Alaska it started raining again. I saw some Goldwing riders headed towards Canada. I did my best to flag them down and tell them not to try it but they just waved and kept going. I had already seen a few ambulances with trucks following them. In the back of the trucks were wrecked BMW motorcycles. I really hoped the Wingers stopped or turned around because that road in that condition were no place for those bikes.

 

 

 

The road eventually turned to paved although it was filled with loose gravel. I bypassed Tok Alaska to the west and headed East back to British Columbia. I was pretty exhausted and again was contemplating a hotel rather than a tent . I found myself looking at a ram in the road in the middle of negotiating a turn in the loose gravel . I went for rear brake and came up empty. It was either hit the ram or use my front break on loose gravel. When I pulled my front break I thought for sure I would be finishing the turn on my back with the bike sliding beside me. Instead I almost slid into the rock wall . When I stopped I was a few inches from it. .  After I finished cursing and chasing the ram  I regained my composure and checked out the brakes. Not a pretty site.

 

I was defiantly going to have replace the rear brakes. Luckily I had read that the Dempster eats them up fast and was prepared. My original brakes were about half gone before the trip. I went ahead and changed them out anyways and threw the used ones in my pack, just in case. I pulled into the hotel /bar/restaurant for some dinner , a cold one and to work on the bike. I had planned on making a few more miles if I could do a quick brake swap. While I was drinking my beer the father and son from the circle pulled up on there KLRs. I invited them to have a seat. We ordered up some food and noticed $65 rooms. Everyone agreed it was a good place to stay the night.

 

I got a room and removed my gear from the bike. I put it on it's center stand to work on the brakes. The procedure was fresh on my mind since I had just done it a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't believe how worn they were. They had less than 6000 miles on them. When I was putting them back together I lost a safety plug that keeps the pin that holds the pads from backing out. They helped me look but I was working on gravel so no luck. I would just have to check the bolt regularly to make sure my pads didn't fly off the bike.

 

 

My bike was filthy and I was worried about my radiator and cooler being caked with days of mud . I had asked the waiter if there was a car wash around and he said we could use the water hose on the side of the building. After I washed the bike I went and showered and then headed down to the bar for some draft beer. Not a bad way to end the night. I took this picture before heading to bed. This is midnight up north.

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT DAY :Day 10