DEPARTING FAIRBANKS AND HEADING SOUTH
We got up and loaded up and ran a few errands before finally hitting the road about 10:30 am, far later than I like but we felt like we had time to relax a little. After all, it was ONLY 350 miles or so down to Anchorage...
We rode out of town in a low, cool overcast and rode into a low level fog, drizzle, and temps down in the 50's. Pretty miserable for 50 miles or so until we got out of the hills. It was a nice ride through the mountains with snow-capped mountains visible in the distance to the west. Crossed some pretty big rivers that were very full.
At one point a dark gray mottled colored fox ran out of the side of the road and paused to look at me. I hit the air horn quickly and he turned a scurried bank into the brush. That was the third fox I have seen now.
I had to stop for gas and a butt break down just north of the Denali National Park. While we were drinking a cup of coffee I noticed a little shop called "Denali ATV Adventures." I asked the girl sitting there what the deal was. She said it was a 2.5 hour tour on a single seat 4 wheeler (Yamaha Grizzly 350) or a larger side-by-side 4 wheeler (like a golf cart). The tour went back up into an old coal mine beside the Park and it was $95 and the bus was leaving in 10 min. I asked Sandy what he thought and he said what the heck (he wasn't too excited since he has several ATVs in Montana on his farm).
So we got on the bus and met the other people and got on our ATVs and headed out. It was a blast! We went up and down small hills, over rocks and tree roots, muddy potholes and rode along several creek beds full of running water! What a hoot! It really was a welcome break from the bikes.
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| I was following Sandy so these pictures are all of him. |
But that cost us about 4 hours out of the day and we still had several hundred miles to get to Anchorage. I had no idea about where we would stay or eat. We stopped for gas in Wasilla about 20 miles north and a guy at the gas station recommended a restaurant with good seafood and not too expensive and a pretty decent campground. So we were off and riding again.
At some point we stopped for gas and noticed a bird wedged in the front of Sandy's bike. He said he never saw or felt it.
We finally got down to the restaurant and it was about 10 pm (still VERY light out). We had a great dinner called "A Taste Of Alaska" for $20 which had a plank of Halibut, some salmon on fettuccine, 3 snow crab legs, and a piece of reindeer sausage. It was great!
Then we went to find the RV park and pulled in about midnight. The office was closed so we just rode thru and found a large grassy field and parked by a picnic table. We set out tents up and just died. It was the end of a looooong day.
