KS. Tok to Palmer

Sleeping in a tent is not that bad, it just takes a bit to remember how to set things up right to be comfortable.  Around 4am is when I finally remembered what that setup was, after that I slept pretty good.  It's kinda hard to wake up at daylight in Alaska,  since there's only just a couple hours when it's dark this time of year.  I could hear Chip talking in his tent, he had a work meeting he needed to be part of. Just serves as a reminder, you never know what's going on around the other end of the phone call, what you think is a quiet office, might actually be a quiet motorcycle camp in the backwoods of Alaska.  

After making coffee on my small camp stove setup, I started to break down my camp. Not long after that the other campers around started waking up and wandering about, some of them making phone calls back home as well.  After coffee and some food, we loaded up our bikes, wished the others well, and headed out for the next destination.  

 The road was smooth and riding was easy until after our first had stop when we turned south.  Heading into a valley surrounded by tall snow covered peaks the wind picked up. The gusts started to push the bikes around pretty good, and I had flashbacks of a previous windy situation, luckily today was dry and not in the middle of flatland, and most importantly, without lightning.

 Side note, many people tend to think it's the rubber tires of a car that protect you from lightning. It's not. That bolt of overly excited electrons has already covered a couple miles, it will easily jump the remaining foot of rubber en route to it's soon to be thermally reconfigured destination. The metal structure of a car that surrounds the passengers acts as a Faraday Cage protecting the occupants (look up what that is) and a motorcycle is severely lacking in that department, actually non-existent. 

 The wind died down as we got further into the mountains and by the time we turned we into the Denali Highway, it was no longer a concern. The skies were still cloudy, but maybe we would be alright.  

The Denali Highway is a typical highway here in the far northwest corner of the continent.  Single lane, maybe asphalt, maybe chip seal, maybe dirt, but definitely with potholes.  As we wound our way across the 130 mile stretch, dodging potholes, the views were typical Alaska, awesome. Snow capped mountains, glaciers, and open valleys scattered with lakes.  Some of the potholes had been patched, some skipped, with no rhyme or reason to the pattern, but it does make for an engaging riding experience.  I avoid brakes as much as possible, preferring to pick a smooth path while snapping the bike side to side in effort to dodge the craters.  After about a hundred miles of this, the pavement disappeared and was replaced with smooth gravel road. As usual, just because there is no pavement, doesn't mean you have to slow down. 

Motorcycles in general seem to be an insanely durable machine. Over the years we've covered tens of thousands of miles over some of the more hostile terrains around this planet, I've raced through the woods on smaller bikes, and haven't seen anything break yet that lead me to believe that bikes are fragile. Maintenance wise, I take very good care of my machines, but when it comes to riding them, I push them pretty hard and tend not to worry about it.

So our day ended in Palmer Alaska, just north of Anchorage.  We found the typical too expensive hotel, luckily with a place a couple doors down where we could find food and drink to finish the day. Our room was next to the hotel laundry, so we gathered up all of our worst smelling clothes and chucked them in the machine.  Tomorrow's plan is to ride to the motorcycle shop in Anchorage, where Chip's bike will be getting new tires and an oil change. After that, we'll meet up with my friends Jack and Rachael who live here in Alaska.  From there we will head to Homer Alaska, I guess we'll turn around there, and start headed back towards home. 

KS