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.
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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.