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Alaska Rider Tours proudly uses Aerostich gear. Of the highest quality,it is perfect for the diverse riding in Alaska!
Want to go to Alaska for a Motorcycle Ride?
By Chuck Sullivan
Want to go to Alaska for a motorcycle ride? That’s the question I
asked three of my motorcycle-riding friends back in February of 2006.
I know lots of people who ride motorcycles that have thought and talked
about riding up to Alaska, but with everybody I know, going to Alaska
remained just a thought. I had been to South Central Alaska some fifteen
or so years ago traveling the area using a rental car. The area around
Anchorage, Denali, Valdez and Homer offers huge servings of the most dramatic
scenery I have ever seen. You can travel for days at a time looking at
spectacular scenery while passing through the vast spaciousness it creates.
Many areas of Alaska feel like there is nobody around for miles. That’s
because there is nobody around for miles! Alaska has been described as
“A land of vast extremes.” Since my first trip there, I have
often envisioned returning and using a motorcycle to further explore the
“vast extremes” of Alaska.
Three of my motorcycle-riding friends, Ritchie Wood, Roger Whitsell and
Jeff Fulweiler, all agreed that a motorcycle adventure tour in Alaska
was a great idea. We had all occasionally thought about taking a motorcycle
trip to Alaska, but there were always some big obstacles to overcome.
The biggest obstacle was finding the time. From Sacramento to Anchorage
is about 4000 miles and would take at least a week of riding plus the
return trip. That’s two weeks of riding just to get there and back.
Then, I would want at least another week of riding in South Central Alaska.
At a minimum, that’s a total of three weeks. Trying to find three
weeks I could take off, then coordinating that with the time constraints
of three fellow motorcyclist, was an obstacle that seemed to be insurmountable.
Our motorcycles were another obstacle. I have a naked sport bike, an older
Honda four cylinder, an antique 250 Ducati and a small dirt bike. Ritchie?
He has too many motorcycles. Fifteen or so in a nice collection of various
makes and years plus five to ten Harleys at any given time, most of which
are for sale . Roger has a Yamaha FJR 1300, a very nice sporty-touring
bike. We own some nice bikes that would work fine for getting to and from
Alaska, but none of our bikes would qualify as suitable for off highway
riding. And the kind of Alaskan adventure tour I envisioned would entail
several hundred miles of dirt/gravel roads and seven or eight hundred
miles of pavement. None of our bikes were really suited for both types
of riding.
How about Jeff? Jeff Fulweiler owns and regularly rides a Kawasaki KLR
650. Having ridden Jeff’s KLR a few times, I knew his bike would
qualify as a good choice for an adventure tour in Alaska. Big gas tank,
good gas mileage, comfortable riding position, very reliable, lots of
low end torque, enough power from the big 650 c.c. single to easily cruise
at 65 mph, light weight, long travel suspension and a compact frame-mounted
fairing with a windshield. Good on pavement or dirt, take your pick. Actually,
the KLR seemed to be an ideal bike for Alaska.
I had given some thought to the idea of flying up to Alaska and renting
bikes in Anchorage. That’s what my wife and I did with a rental car
fifteen years ago. Starting a trip from Anchorage offers a number of ways
to make a big circle that ends up back in Anchorage. In the few motorcycle
magazines I regularly read, I had seen an occasional ad for Harleys for
rent out of Anchorage. Nothing against Harleys, but I wasn’t interested
in a pavement-only cruise. I had always wanted to go to McCarthy and Kennicott,
and they are accessible only by way of a single lane, gravel road that
follows an abandoned railroad for sixty miles. Not exactly a road suitable
for Harleys.
After reading an article appearing in the February, 2006 issue of City
Bike Magazine, some solutions became apparent for overcoming the obstacles
preventing an Alaskan motorcycle trip. The article told about three riders
who flew to Anchorage and rented Kawasaki KLR 650s. What? KLR 650s for
rent in Alaska? The riders in the article followed a route similar to
the one I had driven in a car, but they had ridden into Kennicott and
McCarthy and they had ridden across the Denali Highway!
As I read through the City Bike article, all the old obstacles preventing
a trip to Alaska were being eliminated one by one. Flying to Alaska and
renting KLRs in Anchorage meant that my dream adventure tour could be
accomplished in as little as a week. The reality of an Alaskan motorcycle
tour was now becoming very uncomplicated. Fly to Anchorage, rent the KLRs
for a week, then fly back home. Time required? One Week. Priceless!
The City Bike article directed me to Alaska Rider Motorcycle Tours and
Rentals (www.akrider.com). They offer a number of different ways to tour
Alaska and their website provided all the information necessary for me
to begin planning a trip to Alaska. At the lower end of the spectrum,
you can simply reserve a bike, show up in Anchorage and take off on your
own. At the upper end of the spectrum, Alaska Rider Tours offers fully
organized and escorted tours where they completely plan the itinerary
and make all the reservations for accommodations. I already had a general
idea about the circle trip I wanted to take out of Anchorage. But here’s
what I didn’t know: Distances and riding times for each day’s
point A to point B ride; Just how difficult the dirt/gravel roads might
be; How long would it take to cover the one hundred thirty miles of dirt/gravel
road going across on the Denali Highway; What about the ride into McCarthy?
I had read that this sixty mile, single lane, gravel road follows an abandoned
railroad and crosses over some narrow foot bridges. Rail road spikes were
supposedly a common discovery found stuck into flat tires. Just how difficult
was the ride into McCarthy and Kennicott? And where could we stay overnight
on the Denali Highway and in McCarthy?
Since I was the only one in our riding group who had been to South Central
Alaska, I was given the task of initially planning the tour. We all had
lots of question when I started putting this trip together using the Alaska
Rider website. Fortunately, Phil Freeman, owner of Alaska Rider Tours,
had most of the answers when I made my first phone call to him in Anchorage.
I described the general trip plan and itinerary to Phil and he assured
me that our adventure tour could easily be completed in a week. Phil and
his staff probably have ridden motorcycles on every paved road and most
of the dirt/gravel roads in South Central Alaska. They know exactly how
many miles and how much time it takes to go from point A to point B for
practically any itinerary you might come up with. They also know where
you can and should get gas, where to get a meal and where to sleep. So,
most of the variables and the wide range of options can be accurately
planned for each day of your tour.
We decided to use the “self guided tour” plan which means no
escort. Since I had been to Alaska, we didn’t really need an escort.
You choose the basic itinerary, if you have one, or the Alaska Rider Tours
staff will suggest a tour route for you. The staff then puts together
a preliminary itinerary. A few e-mails or phone calls back and forth and
your route and schedule will be finalized. Next is choosing where to stay.
At this point, Alaska Rider Tours’ Nicole Christensen became our
tour planner. Nicole called and asked me a few questions about our preferences
for accommodations, then she confirmed availability and placed a hold
on the accommodations. If your tour includes an Alaskan Ferry segment,
(ours did) Nicole will also make ferry reservations for each person and
their motorcycle. Once everything was planned and finalized, we locked
in the dates and made a deposit to hold the KLRs. Next, we made our airline
reservations. Once our airline reservations were confirmed and paid for,
we made a final payment to Alaska Rider Tours for the bike rentals and
our accommodations.
Roger discovered via the internet that Homer, one of our destinations,
is called “the halibut capitol of the world”. Well, Roger wasn’t
going to Homer without doing some halibut fishing. Nicole modified our
itinerary so we were in Homer for two nights instead of just one. She
then made reservations for Roger to go out on a half day Halibut run where
he caught his limit of two Halibut. Nicole also arranged to have Roger’s
fish air shipped directly to his house where he enjoyed grilled Halibut
a few days after getting back from our tour. If you have never had caught-that-morning
fresh Alaskan halibut, you haven't tasted real Halibut. The same goes
for salmon, crab and oysters. Restaurants in Homer, Anchorage, Valdez
and most of the places we stayed, serve the freshest and best tasting
seafood imaginable.
You might be tempted to save a few bucks by making your own reservations
and planning an itinerary yourself, but unless you have spent time in
Alaska and know your way around, I strongly suggest that you let the crew
at Alaska Rider Tours do the planning, especially the accommodations.
We stayed in a range of places that ran from remotely located wilderness
bungalows out on the Denali Hwy., to a rustic log lodge in Copper Center
that was built in 1898, to a nearly new, three story, three bedroom ocean
front condo located near the middle of Kachemak Bay at the end of the
Homer spit.
When we arrived at Alaska Rider Tours’ facility in Anchorage, they
presented each of us with a trip portfolio that had a cover page with
an overall map of our tour, a list of phone numbers for key Alaska Rider
staff, should we need assistance during our tour, and a list of the accommodations
and contact numbers for each place we would stay. Inside, we had another
eight pages showing a day-by-day listing of where we would be staying
each night, again with contact numbers for each accommodation and a map
of the day’s ride. A paragraph or two explained when and where to
get gas, made suggestions about pacing, listed road conditions and suggested
where to get lunch. There were several good recommendations about where
to get good homemade pie and the pie was yummy!
Phil and Nicole have been conducting tours of Alaska for several years
and they really know Alaska. When you begin the planning process, spend
some time on their website reading posts from their many satisfied customers.
All the stories about different touring experiences are worth reading
and will help you get an idea about the type of tour that’s right
for you. But, let Phil and Nicole make suggestions regarding where to
go and what to see. Since we were all experienced dirt riders, Phil added
some very nice optional side trips. These side trips were geared to our
collective riding abilities and were appropriate for us. Nicole is an
avid sports person and, as she did for Roger, she can steer you toward
some great fishing spots and fishing guides. Phil and Nicole really do
know what they are doing and will play a big part in making your tour
of Alaska a very memorable adventure. I’ve ridden motorcycles for
over forty years, but our adventure tour to Alaska was by far the most
memorable trip I have ever taken on a motorcycle.
The Following is a day-by-day overview of what we did during our adventure
tour in Alaska. At the end of this article you’ll find additional
information about what to take, when to go and how to pack your luggage.
Sunday: Arrival
in Anchorage.
We flew in a day early, arriving around 3:00 p.m., Sunday. A driver and
van from Alaska Rider Tours met us at the airport and drove us to the
Alaska Rider Tours’ office. We unpacked our luggage and began loading
our gear onto the bikes. Our goal was to get the bikes loaded and ready
to go Sunday afternoon so we could take off early Monday morning.
Each of us took one large suitcase with our helmet and riding gear in
one half of the suitcase and the extra clothes we would carry on the bikes
in the other half. Alaska Rider Tours had storage space for stowing our
suitcases until we returned at the end of our tour. The KLRs were equipped
with a middle sized tank bag, two saddle bags and a tail bag. There was
enough space to also tie on our small, carry on bags. We packed the bikes
Sunday afternoon with most of what we were taking, then changed into the
clothes we would wear starting out the next morning. We left our helmets
and riding gear at Alaska Rider Tours for the night, then headed to a
nearby restaurant for dinner before returning to the Holiday Inn for the
night.
Monday: Anchorage
to Gracious House, 230 miles.
By 9:00 a.m. the next morning we were ready to go. The bikes were loaded,
we got our gear on, fired up the KLRs, waved goodbye to the Alaska Rider
Tours staff and pulled out onto the street. Wow! We were in Alaska on
KLRs and wouldn’t be back in Anchorage for a week. We were on our
way as we rode out of downtown Anchorage in a northerly direction on Hwy.
3, the George Parks Highway, headed for Denali and Cantwell.
Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city. It had changed dramatically since
my visit of fifteen years ago. There are freeways, shopping centers and
all the other things you would find in any city of 250,000 people. Getting
out of town to where houses and stores began diminishing took about thirty
minutes. After passing through Wasilla, we were in “Alaska”.
No more buildings, just mountains and trees for as far as we could see.
The day was perfectly clear. As we rode north, we could see a huge, snow
covered mountain range looming in the distance. In the middle of this
distant group of mountains was Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in the
Western Hemisphere at 20,320 feet in height. We were fortunate to have
an unobstructed view of Mt. McKinley since it’s usually shrouded
in clouds and visible only some thirty days a year. After several roadside
stops for photos, we made our first long stop for gas and lunch at a restaurant/gas
station in Cantwell.
For the next segment of our first day, we turned off hwy. 3. and headed
east out across the Denali Hwy. We were now on our first dirt/gravel road
and would continue on it for the next 52 miles until we reached Gracious
House, our first overnight stop. The road surface was a little tricky
at first. Lots of loose gravel and lots of dust. We split into two groups,
each group riding in slightly staggered, side by side position. Our two
groups then rode several hundred yards apart to avoid the clouds of dust
that hung over the road as we rode along. A speed of 40 to 45 mph seemed
to work best on this loose, dusty surface.
The Denali Highway gently winds through an region with spectacular scenery. There are only a few trees, so the spaciousness of the area is impressive. The mountains here are very high and jagged like parts of the Alps in Europe. During our 52 mile ride to Gracious House, we came across just two cars. We saw no evidence of humans or human activity in all of the 52 miles. This was the Alaska we had come to see.
Around 9:00 p.m. we arrived at Gracious House. The sun wouldn’t set
for another hour and a half and it would never get completely dark. Gracious
House is just several buildings with maybe a total of twelve rooms, a
restaurant, a bar and a small landing strip. It’s best described
as “rustic”, but the owner, his wife and their cook provided
us with a genuine Alaskan wilderness experience since there were just
two other people staying at Gracious House that night. We got our rooms,
then headed over towards the restaurant for dinner, but somehow we ended
up in the bar which the owner opened just for us. The bar was a large
house trailer, which may sound very quaint, but I’ll tell you the
gin and tonics were as fine as any I have ever had. All the meals were
cooked on a big wood burning stove adding to the Alaskan wilderness feel
of the place. It was a great first day and night for our tour.
Tuesday: Gracious House to Copper Center, 180 Miles.
Up at 6:00 a.m., breakfast at 6:30, got packed up and headed off to Copper
Center. We had another 80 miles of dirt/gravel road to cover on the Denali
Hwy. After a couple of brief photo stops, the road got a little difficult
with some deep, freshly laid gravel. Because of all the glacial activity
in this area, the glacial dust became deeper, too. This gravel/dust combination
required that we pay close attention to our riding. I was going around
a long sweeping left turn at around 40 mph when the KLR became a real
handful to keep headed where I wanted it to go. And it just got worse.
I was soon down to about 25 mph and weaving all over the road. Well, it
wasn’t just the road surface.... I had a flat front tire!
Alaska Rider provides a flat tire repair kit with each KLR that includes
patches, CO2 cartridges and enough tools to remove the wheel from the
bike and the tire from the rim. All of us but Roger have spent more than
a few years in the motorcycle business, and we’ve all been riding
motorcycles since our teens, so we knew how to change a flat tire. First
problem? No center stand on a KLR. We were in an area that appeared to
be a glacial moraine, so there were lots of rounded, somewhat flat rocks
at hand. A big one was the right size to fit under the skid pan of my
KLR lifting the front wheel off the ground, a welcome advantage from the
KLR’s light weight. Not sure we could have lifted a Harley up onto
that rock. Probably not.
After solving a few more minor problems, the tube was patched, the front
wheel placed back on my KLR and we were just about ready to go. Just then,
two bicyclists came by. A young couple from Holland rode up on bikes loaded
with gear. We chatted for a bit and discovered that they had come from
Anchorage too and were headed along the same route we were taking. Their
final destination was Davis, California. That’s right next to Sacramento,
the area we were all from. Our tour on motorcycles suddenly seemed a little
less adventurous compared to what these two were doing on bicycles!
The rest of the day was filled with more spectacular scenery and a great
piece of rhubarb pie at the Tangle River Inn where we stopped for lunch
and gas. At this point the road turned into pavement and continued on
to Paxon where we headed South on Hwy. 4, the Richardson Hwy. Copper Center
was our next overnight stop. It was a nice paved road with great scenery
all the way to Copper Center. Looking out across the vast, flat areas
of land here, we would occasionally catch glimpses of a faint, silvery
line running along the base of the mountains. It was the eight hundred
mile long Alaskan Pipeline carrying 2 million gallons of oil each day
from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
We arrived at the town of Copper Center around 7:00 p.m. Our rooms for
the night were at the Copper Center Lodge/Roadhouse, a large log building
that was built in 1898. We had a nice dinner in the restaurant at the
lodge and relaxed in the big, plush leather chairs in the lobby before
calling it a night.
Wednesday: Copper Center to McCarthy & Kennicott, 94 Miles.
McCarthy and Kennicott were our next destinations, a fairly short ride
of about thirty five miles on pavement and sixty miles of dirt/gravel
road. We had plenty of time for today’s ride. Going out to check
my KLR before breakfast, I discovered my front tire was flat again! What
a drag. Good thing we had some extra time. We ate breakfast, got a milk
crate to put under the KLR and started to work. Close examination of the
inner tube revealed an lot of small cracks around the area of the patch.
I didn’t want to ride with multiple patches on the tube, so we asked
at the Lodge office about getting a replacement tube. After several phone
calls, it looked like Anchorage, at two hundred miles away, was going
to be the closest place to find a tube.
A Call to Alaska Rider Tours’ office had a replacement tube on the
way. Rob, one of the staff members was going to head out from Anchorage
and would be at Copper Center in about three hours. Spending a few extra
hours at the Copper Center Lodge turned out to be a nice delay. Tom Huddleston,
one of the owners of the Copper Center Lodge, let us use his four wheeler
to check out his fish camp down on the Copper River. Tom had a fish wheel
setup that was holding several very nice salmon. This was the only time
we encountered Alaska’s infamous mosquitos.
We hung out around the Copper Center Lodge and chatted with a couple that
had ridden a Yamaha FJR 1300 all the way from Texas. For Lunch we had
one of Tom’s hamburgers cooked up on his portable burger stand parked
next to the Lodge. Tom’s burger stand is kind of a social center
with the local sheriff, pipeline crews and various other locals stopping
by for lunch.
One of the locals at Tom’s burger stand asked us where we were headed.
“Out to McCarthy”, I replied. This local guy then proceeded
to tell us horror stories about old railroad spikes popping up all over
the place on the road to McCarthy. And then there were “the vans”
that carried tourists out to McCarthy. They would just as soon run you
off the road as not, and we would be lucky indeed if we made it to McCarthy
without a major incident of some kind. It seems that a favorite hobby
for local Alaskans is telling horror stories to non Alaskans about their
destinations . We checked with Tom. “Shouldn’t be a problem.
We had a guy through here yesterday on a BMW who said the road was fine
and he didn’t get a single railroad spike in either of his tires”.
Rob from Alaska Rider arrived a little after lunch and got my tire changed
quickly. With some extra CO2 cartridges and tire tubes packed in our bags,
we finally left Copper Center.
Forty five minutes later, we arrived in Chitna where we gassed up. After
another mile or so we crossed the Copper River and headed up a hill that
was now a dirt/gravel one lane road that would take us the sixty miles
to McCarthy. This first hill had a washboard surface with lots of loose
gravel and dust. After the first ten minutes, I thought getting to McCarthy
might be a challenge, but then we came out on top of a low ridge where
the one lane road leveled out and became smooth and fast. We were now
on the old railroad roadbed and could comfortably hit 55 and even 65 mph
in lots of places. Railroads, out of necessity, are fairly level and have
gradual turns, so most of the road to McCarthy was a fast and fun ride.
Passing through some more spectacular scenery, we rode across a few old railroad bridges that had been planked over and also passed by some abandoned trestles. Roger and I were back some distance trying to stay out of Jeff and Ritchie’s dust. As we came around a turn, they were stopped in the middle of the road. We pulled up behind them, but we couldn’t hear what they were talking about. Then Jeff and Ritchie started to move again, but very slowly in first gear while honking their horns. What was going on? As I pulled over to the right to look past Jeff and Ritchie, I saw a huge bear loping down the road about one hundred feet in front of us. He made a quick right turn and ran off into the trees. Jeff said the bear was “at least six feet high just sitting!” when he first encountered it "just sitting" in the middle of the road. It was indeed a very large Grizzly.
Only a few locals are permitted to take cars into McCarthy. Motorcycles are o.k. so we rode across two narrow foot bridges that were a short distance outside McCarthy. Another half mile and we arrived in “downtown” McCarthy around 9:00 p.m. A brief walk around town and a look at what remained from a town of up to 600 residents during the town’s heyday in the 1930s. After a visit to the bar and a nice dinner at the local restaurant, we stayed the night at Ma Johnson’s Hotel.
After breakfast Thursday morning, we headed out to the Kennicott Mine. Again, motorcycles are allowed, otherwise you are required to walk or take a local tour van. The mine is about five miles past McCarthy and is located on a mountain side. Most of the original wooden structures remain and are being restored by the National Park Service. A visitor center at the mine has lots of historical information and the Park Service staff is well versed in Kennicott Mine history. The main processing plant structure is huge and is the tallest wood structure in the United States. If you Google McCarthy, Alaska or Kennicott Mine, you will find lots of information about the area.
Thursday: McCarthy
to Valdez, 181 miles.
Our ride out from McCarthy was somewhat hectic. On the ride in we met
up with just two vehicles. On the ride back out, we met up with one of
“the vans” and five or six other vehicles coming towards us
going in the opposite direction. The difficulty comes from the fact that
the road is just one lane wide. When meeting an oncoming vehicle, there
isn’t a lot of extra road. The shoulder is a deep pile of loose gravel,
so just when you want the most control, you have a loose, deep surface
that limits control. That local guy back in Copper Center was right about
“the vans”. The one we met was hauling a group of passengers
into McCarthy and was driven by someone who was in a hurry. She didn’t
leave me much room to pass and her van was just a couple of feet or so
off my left elbow when we passed each other.
Coming out from McCarthy we got back on Hwy. 4, the Richardson Hwy., and headed for Valdez. During the day’s ride to Valdez, we crossed over Thompson Pass, then dropped down through Keystone Canyon and on to Valdez. This portion of the Richardson Hwy. has been described by many as “one of the most scenic drives in the United States.” Near Thompson Pass, Worthington Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska and can be easily reached by walking a short distance from a paved parking lot.
We stayed the Best Western located on the harbor in Valdez. The view from
the bar and restaurant was incredible. There’s a 180 degree view
out across a harbor filled with fishing boats to the snow covered mountains
surrounding Valdez. A great place to sit back and enjoy Alaska with good
friends.
Friday: Ferry ride from Valdez to Whittier, from
Whittier to Homer, 185 miles.
After breakfast we packed the bikes and headed over to the Valdez ferry
terminal. We were booked on the Chenega, a high speed ferry powered by
four gas turbines, for the three hour cruise across Prince William Sound
from Valdez to Whittier . Cruising speed? thirty five knots. The regular
ferry takes over five hours to cover the same route. We were required
to check in an hour before our 12:15 departure, so we arrived at the ferry
terminal with time to spare. After checking in, we rode the bikes to our
assigned lane for boarding the ferry. It was just the four of us, two
cars and another motorcyclist. The other motorcyclist was an older gentleman
who had ridden up to Alaska from Los Angeles on his BMW. We found out
that he was a retired pilot who specialized in helicopter camera work
and had worked in movies. He was 84 years old which meant that everybody
in our group could count on riding motorcycles for quite a few more years.
We rode our KLRs onto the ferry and moved to the front of the cargo area.
The ferry crew guided us to the spots where they wanted us to park the
bikes. They then tied the bikes down using large, adjustable cargo straps
that attached to fittings in the floor. After the bikes were secured,
we went up to the passenger level to settle in for our three hour cruise
to Whittier. The cruise through Prince William Sound can be very spectacular,
but its close proximity to The Gulf of Alaska means that the weather is
typically overcast or stormy.
An hour or so out of Valdez, we had a bite to eat in the ferry cafeteria, then settled into the big, airline-like passenger chairs to enjoy the cruise. We were really enjoying the ride until it began to rain and the wind began to blow. As the ferry approached the dock in Whittier, there was heavyduty wind and rain. We went below deck to our bikes, pulled out our rain gear and got ready to ride off the ferry into our first Alaskan rain storm.
Because of the severe terrain, there are no roads leading into Whittier.
Until a few years ago, the only way in or out of Whittier was either on
the Alaskan Railway or the ferry. You had to load your vehicle onto a
flat car in order pass through the two and a half mile long tunnel that
emerges on the north side of the Kenai Mountains leading to the rest of
the Kenai Peninsula. Several years ago the tunnel was modified so vehicles
could be driven through the tunnel on an hourly schedule. We purchased
our tickets and were assigned to lane #6 in the staging area. We would
be the first to enter the tunnel.
We sat on our KLRs for half an hour with howling wind and pelting rain
giving our rain gear a real test. Finally, the green light for our lane
came on. We started up the bikes and headed for the tunnel entrance. As
we entered the tunnel, we discovered the four foot eight inch wide area
between the tracks was filled in with what appeared to be diamond plate
metal. And it looked wet and slippery! Outside of the rails on each side,
there was a narrow strip of what looked like concrete. We were going to
ride our KLRs two and a half miles through this tunnel and were told to
stay between the rails. Never have I been so focused while riding a motorcycle!
The tunnel is straight, so eventually we could see “the light at
the end of the tunnel”, but it seemed to take us forever to make
it all the way through. None of us had a problem riding through the tunnel,
but we were all glad when it was over.
As we exited the tunnel on the otherside, we were literally blown across
the road as we entered a section of severe rain and wind. This lasted
for half an hour or so eventually dying down as we headed west across
the Kenai Peninsula toward Homer, our next destination. The ride to Homer
took us through several small towns as we passed through some nice scenery.
By now the rain and wind had let up and the ride along the Cook Inlet
was very spectacular with broken clouds and spots of sunshine.
Approaching Homer high up on a ridge, the spectacular Kachemak Bay came into view with the snow covered Kenai Mountains directly across the bay to the south. We could see the Homer Spit, a narrow strip of land that stretches out several miles into Kachemak Bay. A condo at Land’s End Resort located on the end of the spit was our destination and was where we would stay for the next two nights.
The Condo was a nearly-new, three story affair with lots of room and a
view to die for. Just off the front deck was a short beach followed by
a spectacular view across Kachemak Bay to the snow covered Kenai Mountains.
After settling into the condo, we headed off for dinner at the Chart House
Restaurant, just a short walk from our condo. What we got was a great
seafood dinner with a great view, a hard combination to beat in my book.
Saturday: Full day in Homer
Early the next morning, Roger headed off for his half-day halibut fishing
trip, all arranged by Nicole from Alaska Rider Tours. The rest of us had
breakfast and spent the morning enjoying the view through the two story
windows in the living room. If we were going to spend two days anyplace
on our tour, this was the place to do it. While Roger was out fishing,
Jeff, Ritchie and I enjoyed a long morning watching Bald Eagles right
off our deck glide back and forth on the incoming wind currents. A few
of the eagles caught fish right in front of our condo. That afternoon,
we rode back into Homer to visit the Bear Creek Winery, a small local
winery operated in a small facility at the owner’s home. We sampled
their unique rhubarb and blueberry wines, some of which are blended with
other grape wines. Blueberries and rhubard may not sound much like the
basis for wine, but we were surprised at how good these wines tasted.
I bought a bottle of the Rhubarb wine to enjoy that evening before heading
over to the Cart House Restaurant where we enjoyed yet another delicious
Alaskan seafood dinner.
Sunday: Homer to Anchorage,
221 miles.
After a quick breakfast in the condo, we loaded the bikes and started
out for Anchorage. We would hit light rain as soon as we started out of
the parking lot and would run into heavier rain off and on for the rest
of the day. After passing through Soldotna, we hit the coldest weather
of the trip. As we made a lunch stop, it was forty six degrees, according
to my digital thermometer. Too late, we were already cold. For some reason,
our inner clothing had become slightly damp even though we all had on
rain gear. A variety of opinions have been offered as to why our inner
clothing became damp, but it seems most likely it was caused by the constantly
high humidity we were exposed to all day and possibly some wicking of
moisture through zippers and loose cuffs. By the time we got back into
Anchorage, we were really feeling the cold.
We pulled into Alaska Rider Tours where we unloaded our gear, packed everything
into our suitcases, thanked the staff at Alaska Rider Tours and walked
over to our rooms at the Holiday Inn Express. I cranked up the heat in
my room, put on some dry clothes and got ready to go out for dinner. We
had our final Alaskan fish dinner at the Flying Machine Restaurant in
the Millennium Alaska Hotel, just down the street from the Holiday Inn
Express. An excellent meal with a great view out across Lake Spenard,
the major seaplane departure point in Anchorage. It was the end of what
had been the most enjoyable trip any of us had ever taken on a motorcycle.
We left Anchorage at noon the next day and were back in Sacramento around
8:00 p.m. What a trip! What an adventure! What a wonderful place Alaska
is for a motorcycle tour.
If you have ever dreamed about going to Alaska, you no longer have any
excuses. You can do it. Get a group of your friends together and head
up to Alaska for your own adventure tour. You will never forget your tour
of Alaska, “A land of vast extremes.”
Costs
$1200 - Eight nights lodging with separate rooms, $700 if doubling up.
$640 - Round trip air fare from Sacramento to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines.
Transfer in Seattle.
$1050 - 7 days rental, Kawasaki KLR 650 dual sport.
$75 - Gas for approx. 1100 miles of riding.
$350 - Meals.
$160 - Ferry. Motorcycle and passenger from Valdez to Whittier.
$3475 - Total per person
When to Go
The tourist season in Alaska begins in late May into early June. We went
during the first week in June and found very few tourists and no crowds.
Gracious House, our first overnight stop, had been open only a week when
we arrived. On the Valdez to Whittier ferry, it was just the four of us,
another motorcyclist and two cars. Later in the season this ferry is maxed
out and you probably couldn’t get on without a reservation.
For South Central Alaska, June averages the least rain. June also offers
the longest days with sunlight for all but four hours each day. The sun
didn’t set until 10:30 p.m. and there was an extended twilight. So
if you are going, early June has many advantages.
Physical Condition
I exercised on my stationery bike every day for several weeks before our
tour. I also exercised to strengthen my grip and my arms. I had no physical
discomfort during the trip, so I guess the exerxise helped. Roger and
I are in our late sixties and Jeff and Ritchie are in their late fifties,
but the KLRs were so comfortable that none of us experienced any significant
physical discomfort from riding.
Weather
Both times I visited South Central Alaska was during the first week of
June. High temperatures were in the sixties and seventies, lows in the
high forties to low fifties with rain on just two days. July and August
can have highs in the nineties with lots of mosquitos the farther you
go inland. July and August have more rain than June.
Clothing and Riding Gear
Under Clothing: Most days, I wore a tee shirt and a heavy, long sleeved,
cotton, zippered sweat shirt with a high collar. For pants, a pair of
Levis. For Sox, I wore medium weight 100%wool, knee length, cross country
sox. I still like wool better than all the techno sox since wool is adequately
warm and will still keep your feet fairly warm even if your sox get wet.
Outer Wear Pants: Over the Levis, I wore a pair of First Gear, partially
mesh pants with a zip in/out waterproof liner. I left the pants and jacket
liners in all the time for added wind protection. The pants have full
length leg zippers and can be quickly removed.
Outer Wear Jacket: I used a wind proof First Gear leather/nylon street
jacket with a zip in/out insulated liner.
Boots: I wore a pair of Cortech Solution waterpoof street boots which
cost around $125. They kept my feet mostly dry with just a little wicking
from my Levis the day of heaviest rain. I should have stuffed the cuffs
of my Levis inside the boot tops. The Cortechs also have a nearly flat
sole with rounded edges and just a slightly wedged heel. For occasional
foot-down riding on Alaska’s gravel roads, the Cortechs worked nicely
as dirt riding boots. The Cortechs are a very good, all purpose boot and
they are comfortable.
Gloves: I took three pairs of gloves: A pair of Olympia leather/nylon
waterproof, cold weather gloves which worked perfectly in the coldest
and wettest riding. A pair of middle weight Joe Rocket leather/nylon waterproof
gloves which worked fine when we were in warmer weather, but they weren’t
100% waterproof. I also took a pair of light weight Held gloves which
I wear all the time in California but only wore a few times in Alaska.
Most of the time it was just a little too cool for the Helds.
Rain Gear: I wore a two piece, vinyl coated nylon rainsuit I purchased
from Costco several years ago as my emergency motorcycle rain protection.
I had never needed the suit until Alaska. The suit worked fine except
that the vents on the front and back leaked some rain, probably from the
wind pressure of riding at 50 plus m.p.h. If I had thought about it before
hand, I could have partially sealed the vents with duct tape and reduced
the leaks.
Luggage and Packing
Each of us used one large suitcase with our helmets and riding gear packed
in one side and all our extra clothing in the other side. We first placed
our extra clothes in Hefty One Zip plastic bags. They are about 14”
x 16” and have sliders for opening and closing. The Hefty bags made
it easy to get everything into the saddle bags and the tail bag on the
KLRs. They also made it easy to pull out what we needed at each stop.
Hefty bags are also waterproof, so if you hit rain, your clothes will
stay dry.
Another advantage of the Hefty bags is that you can presort all your clothes.
All your sox in one bag, all your shorts in another and so on. I have
found that by rolling up tee shirts, then pressing all the air out of
the Hefty bag, tee shirts end up with few wrinkles. If you carefully fold
regular shirts, place them in a Hefty bag in a flat position and force
out all the air, shirts packed this way will need no ironing. Another
benefit is that if your suitcase is inspected, all your stuff will be
easier to handle for the security people and won’t get so messed
up. I use Hefty bags for packing whenever I travel and have found that
it is the best way to pack clothing for any trip. A box of twelve costs
less than $5.00 at a grocery store.
Bike Choice
We all chose the KLR, but Roger and I decided to use the 2 inch lowered
versions offered by Alaska Rider Tours. The KLR has a lofty seat height
which you should try out beforehand at your local Kawasaki dealer. I’m
six feet tall, but I was glad to have the lowered version since it made
getting on and off the bike easier. I would step back, take a quick step
toward the bike and then kick my right leg up and over the seat as I faced
the bike. The tail bag and my carry on bag were too high to get my leg
over. Jeff and Roger just stood on the left peg, then swung their right
leg up and over the tail bag, but my KLR felt very unstable when I tried
this technique. Ritchie used a style similar to mine for getting on and
off his KLR.
Visit the Alaska Rider Tours website (www.akrider.com) to read stories
about other people’s tours. Lots of photographs. You can also signup
for Alaska Rider Tours e-mail newsletters. Phil Freeman sends out the
latest information about new tours to new countries like Japan and South
America. Photos usually included.
For information and photos of the places we visited, enter the town name
into a Google search and you will fine lots of websites about Alaska.
Contact: For answers to your questions or for advice, Chuck Sullivan:
chucksul@cwo.com
No part of this article may be copied or reproduced in any way without
written permission from the author, Chuck Sullivan. E-mail address:chucksul@cwo.com
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