Border Crossings

We had to cross the US/Canadian borders four times on our trip. I was a little concerned because I was carrying a firearm (the 12-Gauge Shotgun).

The first crossing from Montana into British Columbia was routine. I had filled out all of the paper work for Canadian Registration, on the Web, and I also had registered the gun with US Customs. The Canadians checked my record and found nothing objectionable so they let me through.

When we got to the Yukon/Alaska border the US agent there, when I reported that I was carrying a firearm, asked me if I had registered it in Canada. I said "Yes" and he said go on through. That took all of about 2 minutes.

The Alaska/Yukon border crossing was just about as quick. The border agent let Erica and me through without a second glance. I reported the gun but he had no need to see it or the paperwork and he let us through.

When we got to the British Columbia/Washington State border, at Sumas, I again reported the gun. The agent there asked if we (Erica, Ron and I) were traveling together. I said "Yes" and he asked if the gun was registered in Canada. I again said "Yes" and he said "All may pass". That took all of about 30 seconds.

I had my passport but was never asked for it.

Tok Again

We got into Tok and Thompson's Eagle's Claw Motorcycle Camp http://thompsonseaglesclaw.com/ in the early evening and had camp set up while it was still light. Of course it is still light at 11:30 at night at this lattitude. Ron stayed in the teepee and Erica and I stayed in the wall tent.

One of the most pleasant eating experiences was in Tok. We ate dinner at the local "Salmon Bake". This was a place where you order your salmon (red or white) along with some side dishes and they then cook your marinated salmon on a wood fire. Man was it ever good. Probably the best meal I had on the entire trip.

We took off for Whitehorse the next morning.

Anchorage

After Denali Erica, Ron and I went on to Anchorage to stay with a couple of friends of mine, Bob and April Hoffman, from Graduate School Days in the late 60's and early 70's. Bob had moved from Ohio out to Jackson Hole, WY and when that got to civilized for him, he moved to Anchorage.


Bob has just retired from being a hunting/fishing guide in Alaska and I hadn't seen him for 30 years. I decided to relax for a day and shoot the shit with Bob while Erica and Ron decided to go to Seward for the day.

Seward is on the Kenai Peninsula and Bob called me to give me some of the latest news on bear-biker interactions.

• This story is from the Anchorage Daily News, July 24, 2007
• Bear sends bikers flying
  The Associated Press
  Published: July 24, 2007 Last Modified: July 24, 2007 at 08:48 AM
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - This bear wasn't fazed by a few bikers roaring along on large, noisy motorcycles.
  
• 
  
• It paused, sized up the situation and made its move. The black bear darted through the group riding on the Seward Highway this weekend and sent some of them flying. According to several of the bikers, the bear walked onto the shoulder near Cooper Landing on Saturday morning and paused at the roadside while the first few in a group of eight bikers passed going south. But before Anchorage motorcyclist Randy Hames could get his own Harley Davidson past, the bear decided to run for it. "I thought it was a dog because it was not very big," Hames said. "It paused and then went zipping across the road, and that's when things got exciting."
  
• A biker in front of him veered and stopped, and Hames almost avoided a crash too until he was clipped from behind by Anchorage rider Michael Sweet's bike, he said. Sweet, 48, suffered injuries to his head, neck, arms and legs. Witnesses said he was wearing a helmet.
  Hames, Sweet and a third rider, Gilbert Wilson of Anchorage, all went flying from their bikes. One of those bikes ended up under an oncoming Dodge Ram pickup driven by Tim Lebling.
  
• Hames said he and Wilson were banged up but OK. Lebling said the bear got across the road unscathed. "Both my wife and I saw it ears-down and flying across the road," he said. Lebling's truck had to be towed to Anchorage. He was grateful things didn't turn out worse. "The biggest risk we take in Seward is driving the Seward Highway," said Lebling, an animal rehabilitation technician at the Seward SeaLife Center.
• The bikers were part of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's fundraising "Live Ride" from Anchorage to Soldotna.
  ---
  

Got the trigger lock on my 12-Gauge Shotgun fixed.

While in Anchorage I decided to get the trigger lock picked by a locksmith since the key went flying along with my trailer lock key. They were on my ignition keyring and went missing somewhere on the Icefield Parkway in Alberta. The locksmith fiddled with the lock for about 15 minutes but wasn't having any luck. Finally on of his co-workers looked up on the wall and saw the same model lock and, believe it or not, THE SAME KEY NUMBER . He opened the package and, sure enough, the key fit my lock just fine. He made two copies, I paid $4.59, and was on my way.

Lesson here, "Never put additional keys (or other junk) on your ignition key ring".

Oil Change and a Bath (and a new rear tire)

While in Anchorage I decided to get my oil changed. While changing the oil, the tech noticed that my rear tire had worn beyond its prescribed limits and that I needed a new tire. The tire plus installation would cost about $240. Jeez. I only got 5000 miles out of that tire probably because of the extra load that the trailer provided.

I also had them give the scoot a bath which they did. However, my Stebel Air Horn never worked again. I think the guy washing the bike must have sprayed a high-pressure jet up into the horn and destroyed the mechanism. The compressor would run but there was no sound from the horn. Then finally the compressor stopped. I still haven't fixed the horn. I'll get on it soon.

Cris' trials and tribulations - Broken Drive Belt

While at Bob's I got a collect call on my cellphone from Cris. The connection was not too good and we kept getting disconnected. After three attempts I learned that Cris was somewhere near the Alaska/Yukon border and had broken his drive belt. He was stranded somewhere near Beaver Creek about 240 miles from any help in Whitehorse. At that point the connection was lost and I was unable to raise him again. If we were going to help him, we all needed to get to Whitehorse (two days away) since I had a spare drive belt. I also had the sat-phone.

Cris will have some more details but here is what I remember from his tribulations. The Haul Road (Dalton Highway) is not a very good road in parts and it appears that Cris picked up a rock that punctured his drive belt. Cris was not immediately aware of the problem until he was heading back to the Yukon on the Alaska Highway. Just after he crossed the Yukon border from Alaska, the belt broke; He was dead in the water.

He managed to get ahold of the Roadside Assistance folks (after he couldn't contact me) and they agreed to come get him and take him and his scoot to Whitehorse. It took 4 hours for the truck to get there, pick up Cris' bike and head back toward Whitehorse but then the tow truck broke down. They had to hail another tow truck from Whitehorse and wait another 4 hours for the truck to arrive. They then had the tow truck tow the first tow truck and Cris and his bike back to Whitehorse. This whole thing took about 12 hours. When they got to Whitehorse it was Saturday evening and the Harley Dealer was closed and would not be open on Sunday. So Cris had to get a motel and sit.

We arrived with the spare belt on Sunday night but the tow truck operator had locked up Cris' bike and he wouldn't be able to get it until Monday morning. So we decided to get a room and wait until Monday morning with Cris. When the Dealer opened up on Monday, we gave them the drive belt, wished Cris good luck and we (Erica, Ron and I) took off for Watson Lake and Laird Hot Springs for a soak.

Well, the belt that I gave to Cris didn't fit his bike so he had to order a new one and he had to wait around another day or two before he could get his bike fixed. We also left the sat-phone with Cris so that he could contact us to say how things were going.

Here, I guess, the lesson is to carry your own drive belt and carry your own sat-phone, too.

Leaving for Tok

It was good to relax for a day before we headed for Tok. The ride to Tok was kind of wet for the first 200 mi. It wasn't an exceedingly heavy rain but it was steady. All three of us got soaked, even with good rain gear. My "waterproof" boots took on a load of water and I could feel my feet sloshing around in them as we rode. But by the time we got to Tok, everything had pretty much dried out.

Denali National Park

The ride from Fairbanks to Denali was pretty much uneventful. When we got there there was the main road into Denali which was about 15 miles long. At the end of the 15 miles there was a bus that could take you further into the park (for a fee). We opted not to take the bus.

When we got to the Mt. McKinley viewing area I was taking a bunch of pictures thinking I was taking pics of Mt. McKinley (see above). Finally someone said "What are you taking pictures of?" and I said "Mt. McKinley". Then they said "That's not Mt. McKinley, THAT's Mt. McKinley". The mountain was so big and so high that I did not even see it. It was shrouded in cloud and I actually mistook it for clouds when I first looked at it. I finally got out my 500mm lens and took the pics below.

July 12, 2007 Now we are three

Well, we didn't quite make it to the Arctic Circle yesterday. We got to the Dalton Highway, at Livengood, AK when Erica's throttle cable gave out and her engine just died. Erica, Cris and Lee managed to get her idle cable off and used it as a tempoary fix to replace the throttle cable but we decided it would be best to return to Fairbanks and let Harley do a proper fix.

Cris and Lee decided to continue to the Arctic Circle while Ron and I accompanied Erica back to Fairbanks. We have not heard from Cris and Lee since. They have the satellite phone so they can call us to let us know if they made it.

We heard from Dan "Screw Loose" last night. He's in Anchorage. I don't know if he'll join us for the return trip in a few days.

Erica's bike is all clean and fixed, I seem to have gotten rid of my electrical problems and Ron's Yamaha has had no problems, at all. We are going to head for Denali and then Anchorage today. I should have some pics in the next post. The folks at Fairbanks Harley Davidson were great. They worked on Erica's scoot and got it all cleaned up even after closing hours. Kudos to them.

Glacier, NP, Icefield Parkway and The Alaska Highway

One of our first fuel stops after Zimmerman was in Rothsay, MN. Rothsay claims to be the Prairie Chicken Capital of the World and they have this huge Prairie Chicken to prove it. Erica rode her scoot up to the chicken to say hi. That's Cris in the background checking out the information plaque.

After Minnesota and North Dakota, we went to Montana and Glacier National Park. We entered Canada from Rt. 93 in Montana and then continued up, crossed over the continental divide into Alberta and started along the Icefield Parkway in Lake Louise. Some of the pics that I took along the way are shown here.

Lake Louise at the beginning of the Icefield Parkway.

The beginning of the Alaska Highway is in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, just West of the Alberta line.

During that stretch, I began hearing strange rattling noises and finally deduced that the air cleaner was the source of the noise. Upon further investigation I noted that the Screaming Eagle Air Cleaner had kind of disintegrated. But none of the pieces ended up in the engine (remember Screw Loose's experience). I was able to repair the cleaner with Duct-Tape and that held together until we got to Whitehorse, the capital of The Yukon Territory.

We managed to get my Air Cleaner replacement parts in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. I had to pay $150 for the full Screaming Eagle conversion because the Harley Dealer in Whitehorse did not have just the filter element.

The pic shows two of us (Ron and I) working on installing the new air cleaner and Lee working on the Voltage Regulator. I had been getting check-engine codes that indicated an Over-voltage condition. Lee thought it was due to dirty contacts on the Voltage Regulator and he decided to clean the dirt out. In the end it did not help and the problem was eventually traced to a short in the trailer wiring.

We crossed over into Alaska on July 9 and spent the night in Tok, AK. We stayed at Thompson's Eagle's Claw campsite which was VERY nice.

When we got into Tok, AK and were trying to figure out where the Eagle's Claw camp was we stopped at the visitor's center on the Alaska Highway. When I went to start the bike, a bunch of sparks shot from under the seat and everything quit. No electricals, no nothing. We checked fuses and everything else. When I checked the battery voltage with a frame ground, it measured about 4 volts. When I checked directly on the battery, I got 12 volts. This pointed to a bad ground connection from the battery. We pulled the battery and found that the (-) terminal was loose and had arced and then the bike shut down. When we tried to re-seat the connection, we found that the terminal bolt had been cross threaded and it was impossible to get it to go in or get it out. When I tried to back it out, the bolt broke. I tried to use a bolt extractor to get the broken piece out but then the extractor broke.

By this time we had made contact with Brian of Thompson's and he came out with a truck full of tools. I was able to drill out the lead contact and then using a large, self-threading screw I managed to get the contact securely fastened. Then everything started up ok, again.

I think the guy at the Dealership that installed my NEW battery just before we left managed to cross-thread the terminal bolt which accounted for the loose connection. I am going to take it back to the dealer and see if they will install a new battery for me. We'll see.

Today, July 10 we spent the day riding to Delta Junction (the Northern Terminus of the Alaskan Highway) and then on to Fairbanks. Along the way I got a pic of a cow Moose and her offspring.

Well, we made the 1422 miles across the Alaskan Highway. The road was pretty muddy/gravely in some spots. A lot of the mud ended up on my scoot. It is not just mud, but it is mud mixed with Calcium Chloride that the highway workers spray on the road in order to keep the dust down. Only problem is that the stuff hardens on the bikes and it is as hard as cement.

We will be heading for the Arctic Circle tomorrow. I have decided NOT to bring the trailer so a little packing will be in order tomorrow. We will leave the trailer in Fairbanks and just take the bare (think Bear) minimum of supplies and clothing.

We are now down to five participants. Dan "Screw Loose" Cunningham decided to break away from the group and head for Anchorage. We may hook up with him on the return trip but for now he is travelling solo.

It's July 7, 2007. It's 6:30am and I am updating this blog with the few minutes that I have here. The formatting may not be too good and I won't get the time to straighten it out until later.

The six of us are plugging along (Tom bugged out in Montana) . We've had a few minor mishaps but no big problems. Mechanically, the bikes are all running well. Cris' bike doesn't seem to like the rain and it misfires when wet.

I keep getting a "check engine" light but we can't find and Codes to indicate that something is wrong, so I haven' t been able to check for a problem. I did add some oil and this may have eliminated the problem; we'll see during today's ride to Muncho Lake, BC

Well, we are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. This is Milepost Zero for the Alaskan Highway. Everybody was tired, hot and short-tempered and sniping at each other so we decided to get a Motel and chill for a while.

Yesterday we were awakened at our campsite by a herd of Elk that came walking through. They did not seem to be afraid of us, nor we them. One female was even nursing her young (see pic at left).

One of the mishaps that I spoke of was that my keychain went flying apart somewhere in the Icefields. Lost were the key that locks the trailer hitch and the key that locks the trigger of the gun. We solved the trailer hitch lock problem by cutting the lock off (see pic of Lee and Dan cutting the lock while takin a ciggarette break). We haven't figured out what to do about the gun lock. I hope we figgure it out before we see our first grizzly bear, close up.

Trying to organize pictures for this blog is like trying to herd cats. I don't have time to fool with them now but here are a few pics of the shots that I took along the Icefield Parkway in the Canadian Rockies between Lake Louise and Jasper.

I guess that's all for now. I'll fix it up when I have more time.