This is Part 2 of a two-part series written by Stephan Cross, a New Zealand rider who joined us on our Prince William Sound Camp Tour the first week of August, 2002.

He wrote the article for a Kiwi-based motorcycle magazine call Bike Rider Magazine.

Part 2 appeared in the February/ March issue, 2003.

Northern Exposure Part 2

Motorcycle Touring in Alaska

- Story/photos by Stephen Cross

Next day, back on the Denali Highway. Not far from Gracious House we crossed a bridge over the Susitna River. A large, wide river, probably carries more water than the Waikato River, it's glacial melt water, milky from the silt it contains. Phil told us that the river was full of salmon. We continued down the highway, regularly stopping to take in the views and hydrate ourselves because it was hot and dusty riding. There is a lot of pressure from the "ship 'em in ship 'em out" tour companies to have the Denali Highway sealed to enable them to run their air-conditioned buses, no doubt hotel complexes etc would soon follow. Hopefully it won't happen - apparently funding is now unlikely as Federal monies are being diverted towards US internal security measures following 9/11. I can't think of better motorcycling than riding the Denali.
We left the Denali Highway at the settlement of Paxson, which is basically a roadhouse. We traveled down the sealed Richardson highway, towards Valdez. We stopped at one point to take in views of the Wrangell Mountains, these are volcanoes that soar to more than 16,000 ft in some instances. From our viewpoint we looked down at the Copper River, another large, milky coloured glacial fed river, we could see "fishing wheels" in the water. These devices can only be used by indigenous peoples living a subsistence lifestyle, and are a paddle-wheel like device turned by the force of the river. Each paddle has a scoop net attached, the base of the paddle net is sloped so that as salmon are scooped by the paddle they fall into the bottom of the net then slide to the side of the paddle into a receptacle. These paddles turn day and night scooping up fish. Locals fish the river by "dip-netting," they scoop through the water with nets similar to our whitebait nets. Spinning with lures is also used..
Heading down the Highway, at times catching a glimpse of the Alyeska pipeline - this is the crude oil pipeline running from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. We headed to a camping ground at Kenny Lake for the night, just prior to arriving there we stopped to gas up, the time was 6:30 pm, the sun was still blazing, and the temperature was 90 F (32 C). That day we covered 227 miles.
At the camping ground the "skeeters" were plentiful and annoying, we sprayed repellent on ourselves but they remained persistent although they didn't seem to bite too much.

views from the Denali Highway

I stayed up late that night hoping to see the Northern Lights, we had heard reports that people had seen them the previous night, though Phil was doubtful. The Lights can be seen 280 days of the year on average, but the sky needs to be totally dark for the effects to be seen. The sky slowly darkened, until at 1:30 am I could see some stars come out, unfortunately, at this point the sky lightened up again and I didn't get to see the Lights. I was a couple of weeks too early.
The following day we headed off into the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park to visit the abandoned Kennicott copper mine. The richest copper deposit in the world was found here in 1900 by a group of prospectors who mistook a green mountaintop for a patch of green grass where they could feed their horses. The deposit produced 70% pure ore which needed minimal processing, and much greater quantities of lower grade ore. Millions were invested by people such as JP Morgan who had railways built in order to ship the ore out. The mine closed in 1938 once the high grade ore had been exhausted. The road in is reasonably challenging ride mainly on gravel, quite narrow in places and sections of wash-boarding that set the bikes dancing. There are remains of the railway along the way, including a massive wooden trestle bridge and another riveted iron truss bridge crossing a deep, wide gorge. All the old mine buildings are still largely intact - the place was abandoned so quickly that some of the buildings still have documents in them. We ended up bathed in dust on the way back as we were forced to follow a few intrepid Winnebago's (motorhomes). These things took up most of the road and we struggled to get past them. We covered 187 miles that day, mostly dirt, and finished up back at our camping spot at Kenny Lake.
That evening I read the local newspaper which had a section of advice on dealing thin problem bears. The article contained the following advice: " If a bear gets on your deck and stars licking the grill, hit it with a rock." I couldn't stop laughing at this mental image of a bear licking the barbecue grill, let alone throwing rocks at it!
Next day we proceeded down the Richardson highway towards Valdez, where we were due to camp that evening. On the way we learned just how quickly the weather can change. In the space of a few miles we went from hot sunny weather to white-out conditions. As we neared the top of the Thompson Pass we rode into cold fog where we struggled to see the road ahead. It's freaky riding without any sense of perspective, grimly trying to stay between the road markings that were visible a few metres ahead. Even riding at low speed was unnerving, not helped by the biting cold as we were still wearing light-weight gear. I thought of the Winnebagos on the other side of the road, the amount of road they took up, and wondered how their drivers were coping. A few miles later we came to the turn off to the Worthington Glacier and we raced to the Chevy to get our cold weather gear. After visiting the glacier we continued over the Pass , the fog cleared and we could once again see where we were going.
That afternoon some of us went salmon fishing on the edge of Valdez harbour. The sea was full of pink salmon which were around 3 to 5 lbs in weight. They were heading to spawning streams at the head of Valdez harbour. In one stream (fishing prohibited) there was one seething mass of fish fighting for water space. The shoreline was littered with dead salmon which had spent themselves in spawning. We caught enough salmon for our dinner later that evening.
Later that day I took a trip into Valdez townhship itself. While walking around I spotted a KTM Adventurer parked on the side of the road. It had obviously been fitted out for touring, and the panniers had stickers from all round the world - Alice Springs, Darwin, Yukon etc. I also noticed a NZ flag, then say that the numberplate surround read "London to Takara". I didn't get to meet the owner of the bike but I'm sure there was a story there.
I wandered down to the docks where the fishing boats were unloading their catch. There were plenty of salmon being unloaded, along with halibut. This area is known for its halibut fishery, large flounder-like fish which can weigh more than 200 lbs. Apparently the big ones are shot before they are hauled on board as they are too powerful to handle.
It was with a tinge of sadness that we ate the salmon we had caught that day - we knew that this was our last night on tour. We were up at 6 am next morning to catch our ferry which would take us from Valdez to Whittier, a seven hour voyage through Prince William Sound. It was an overcast day, bur somehow that seemed appropriate as we cruised past icebergs - remnants of the Columbia glacier that have calved off into the sea. During the voyage we saw a sea otter and a colony of sea lions. When we say the shoreline the scenery was stunning.
After disembarking at Whittier we had to travel through a tunnel to get on to the Seward Highway that heads to Anchorage. The tunnel is one way and there are set times of the day for travelling in each direction. Not only if the tunnel narrow, it also has rail tracks running through it. The roadway for motorcycles consists of chequered metal plates laid between the rails. As a motorcyclist you have to break every "safe riding" rule you know when going through it. You must remain focussed on the very thing you are trying to avoid - the rails about 10 metres in front. You mustn't look up, down, or around. The whole thing is really claustrophobic and you start to become mesmerized by the rails. The 2.8 miles seemed to take an eternity.
A short ride from the tunnel and we reached Girdwood and the end of our tour. We had covered nearly 1,000 miles, with about 350 miles on gravel - all of it in stunning countryside.
So how would I sum up Alaska? Firstly, the place is huge. My overwhelming impression is one of the vastness and the sheer scale of the landscape - a bit like the South Island on steroids. You soon learn that this is not a country for wimps - this place is raw nature and hard. It's man's country, where men are men and where women win the Iditarod (four years in a row from 1985-1988). The motorcycling is fantastic and the people are great, not least Phil Freeman, who told us early on that he wanted to do everything possible to make the trip our dream trip, and he delivered. I had one of the greatest times I have ever had. The down sides are that our South Seas peso makes trips such as this expensive and it is an ordeal getting there. For anyone interested, details of Phil's tours can be found on www.akrider.com.