Day 27 - Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Start: Anchorage, Alaska
End: Tok, Alaska
Trip Miles Today: 317
Total Trip Miles: 5902
Once again, the game is on! I departed Anchorage this morning under partly cloudy skies on the first leg of the trip to home, to Malvern, PA. Ordinarily there is something distinctly anticlimactic about a return trip. That’s doubly true in this case as the first three travel days will be exactly the reverse of my northbound journey. So, today’s leg was Anchorage to Tok, AK via the Glenn and Richardson Highways and the Tok cutoff. Tok is my entry point for the Alaska Highway southbound. Despite the lack of scenery surprises (I’m seen it all before) there were several very unexpected highlights to this day. Sure I got another look at the Wrangell-St Elias Range and also the glaciers on the North side of the Chugach Mountains. In many ways the scenery looked were better than 1 ½ weeks ago because as I went along today the weather only got better and better. By mid afternoon it was mostly sunny and 70 degrees (F) so I actually did get more really good photos this time through the area. However it was those unexpected elements that served to make today special.
So how often do you see a Bentley Automobile? I’d have to say not very often and I’d wager that anyone who is reading would say much the same thing. Bentleys - stately, expensive, rare. So all that being said, who would have expected to see over 30 classic and vintage Bentleys cruising along my route today? That’s exactly what I got. Over 30 Bentleys being driven to their overnight stop in Tok, AK as part of the 2009 Bentley Drivers Club Canada-Alaska Tour. Some of the cars date to the 1920s, there are a number from the 30s and the newest that I’ve seen “only” date to the 60s. The event started in Vancouver several weeks ago and I’ve tripped over the group as they make their return from Anchorage. It looks like we’ll be on the same route for the next couple of days….Tok to Whitehorse….Whitehorse to Watson Lake, YT. I’ve personally spoken to entrants from England, Australia, and Switzerland and I’m told there are others. The Bentley Drivers Club is an International organization that stages several International rallies like this per year. Seems the members just ship their cars to wherever in the world an event is being staged. This is obviously an avocation for the “Leisure class.” To read more about this event go to http://www.bentleyalaska.com The cars are WAY COOL and these people drive then pretty hard!
The other unexpected highlight today was aviation related. First, let me back up to last weekend. Over the weekend, on TV and radio, we kept hearing about some substantial military exercises that were being commenced in the South Central Alaska area. Mostly the PR was to make people aware of the potential for sonic booms (Cool!), lots of military aircraft activity and the like. OK. This morning, about mid morning, while still following the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska River Valley, I happened to look up just in time to see two Air Force C-17 Transports flying the river valley, directly toward me, and not 500 feet in the air! Those suckers look huge at that altitude! Of course, they were gone before I could dig the camera out of the tank bag and fire it up. Nonetheless, a very neat sighting – right up there with seeing bears (which I did not today!)
Several people have asked about my return route. As mentioned, I’ll take the Alaska Highway at least as far as Watson Lake, YT. At that time I’ll make a decision whether I’ll go south to Prince George via the Cassiar Highway or continue on The Alaska Highway to Dawson Creek, BC and then go south to Prince George from there. I’m mostly waiting to seen on weather and road conditions, though the fact that this Bentley Group plans to take the Cassiar complicates things a bit as they have the ability to absorb nearly all the hotel rooms in some of these tiny towns. I’ve got a couple of days to sort that out. In any case I’ll get to Prince George, and then continue southbound to re enter the US near Seattle. After that I’ll be headed for Oregon and only then begin to head East via a, as yet, mostly undetermined route.
I’ve also had inquiries regarding the stalling issue with the bike. The bike was in the BMW Dealer in Anchorage (The Motorcycle Shop) for a week while I traveled with my wife and friends. Upon my return and following pickup the bike has performed flawlessly. The idle is stable, as it was when new, and I’ve had no stalling issues in the first 500 miles of riding. The dealer was pretty evasive about what they did but talked about lines to the vacuum canister. The fact that there is a 40+ page thread on ADV Rider regarding a whole of litany of issues as I described makes me believe that there is a real issue and apparently dealers know what to do with it. In any case, the problem is fixed – at least for now.
I’m in kind of a reflective mood tonight as it’s my last night in Alaska (for this trip!) but tomorrow, in any case, it’s off to Whitehorse. That will be a nearly 400 mile day through the crappiest (and most construction intensive) portion of the Alaska Highway so I’ll be glad to get tomorrow behind me. I hope the weather holds! Thanks for looking in. More soon.
Jack
As always, more pictures from this entire trip are available to see at http://jackb1.smugmug.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment