Starting to head home

I left Denali National Park on the way to Palmer.  The scenery in Alaska just really never quits!  It was beautiful.  A bit down the road, I got a great view of Denali!  She really is a gorgeous mountain.  My words to describe the exquisiteness of Alaska are far to small to adequately express it, but here area a couple of photos.

Denali from the Parks Highway

Although it rained the entire time, the ride to Palmer was uneventful.  I will say one thing I noticed in both northern Canada and Alaska, the driveways and areas around the gas pumps are horrible.  They are dirt, potholed, mud pits.  And I pulled into two of them to get gas on the way to Palmer.  I didn’t get any photos, but you’ll have to trust me, crazy places to ride a motorbike.

While on my way to Palmer, the Alaska Ferry emailed me and told me they had a spot for Kymani.  My BFB was checking my email for me, as my reception was terrible, and she had my credit card number.  She accepted the invitation to take Kymani on the ferry, and that was it.  I wouldn’t be riding home from Alaska, I’d be taking the ferry.  The fires were still filling the air with smoke and closing the road home.  This would change things quite a bit and I was both sad and happy about this development.

The Air BnB was really nice.  There were beautiful grounds with trails for walking, a very sweet German Shepherd, and a gracious host.  I emptied all the wet stuff from Kymani and draped it all over Kymani, a railing there and all over the room to dry.  It didn’t rain for about 15 minutes, and that was enough to get my ground cloth dry.  There was also a ton of laundry to do.  I usually do it every day, but it had been raining for 3 straight days, and I’d not been able to hang any of my clothes to dry.  All the laundry, including my base layers got washed as soon as I got checked in.  The room wasn’t super warm, so it took quite a while for all the laundry, particularly the heavier wool clothes to dry.  I did go out and walk the trails around the beautiful house, but it was raining, so my camera stayed inside, nice and dry.

My room

The grounds.  Look at that rain!

After a couple of nights drying laundry and burning time, I saddled up Kymani and headed back to Tok.  The day started off cold and rainy.  I was lucky enough to pass by the Matanuska Glacier.  Dang, it was incredible.

The Matanuska Glacier

Mountains along the way

I made it back to Tok River State Park, where my time in Alaska began.  The camp host here had become friendly with me on my last stay here, ran into me as I was checking in.  She was glad to see me.  She was also from California and spent her winters near the Central Valley and her summers in Alaska.  It was nice to see her again.  It had been a nearly 300-mile day, but the weather had gotten nice later in the afternoon.  I even got an alert that there was a “extreme heat warning” for temps expected to be 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  I’d have given a lot to experience something so nice, but I was headed out tomorrow, back to Yukon and eventually to Skagway to await my ferry home.

Extreme heat warning on my phone

I got an early start in the morning because the road in was terrible, and I expected more of the same.  Also, while there was the extreme heat warning in Tok, it was supposed to be terrible weather for the next week at my destination for the day, Haines Junction.  I had some mobile signal, so I checked for a room.  The only thing available was a backpacker’s hostel with tents available.  I booked myself in, then checked if there was anything available in Skagway.  The rain was supposed to continue for the rest of my time in Alaska and honestly, I was really tired of camping in the rain and being cold and wet.  It’s not fun to ride in the rain, but it is so much worse when you ride in the rain all day, only to set up your house in the rain and then take it all back down in the rain.  I found a room in Skagway and booked myself in.

The road that had been dirt on my way into Alaska was now paved.  I may have misjudged how bad the ride would be.  Alas, the road in Yukon was even more dirt than on the way in.  Oh well, I was getting better at this dirt stuff and also a lot more confident.  At one point, I was the only vehicle I’d seen in either direction in at least half an hour when I came upon a construction stop light.  I stopped the bike and looked around.  There was nothing around.  I got off Kymani and took off a layer of clothes.  Still nothing around.  I put on some sunscreen, chapstick, and drank some water.  Still nothing around.  After about 30 minutes of sitting in the middle of the road by myself, I got my jacket and helmet back on and decided to just run the light.  No point in just sitting here, right?

Jumping on Kymani, I turned her on and looked up.  Far in the distance, I could see a dust cloud approaching.  Could this be the pilot car?  I shut Kymani off and waited to see what would happen.  Sure enough, it was the pilot car with a long line of cars and trucks behind it.  I was still alone, but the pilot car picked up only me and took me to the end of the construction, about 35 minutes away.

Miles of gravel later, I saw the biggest grizzly of the trip, right on the side of the road.  Given his size, I didn’t really want to stop, and he was right near the trees, so a photo wouldn’t have come out.  But he was huge and so pretty.  Eventually, after about 125 miles of dirt, I hit the pavement again and then came to Haines Junction, my destination for the night.  My GPS took me up what looked like a hiking trail!  I was too tired to be nervous.  I got to the hostel, unloaded my stuff into the tent and the skies opened up!  At least I had made a whole day riding without any rain.  I was so thrilled about that.

The inside of the tent at the hostel

Tomorrow I’d be headed to Skagway.