After a day of rest and sightseeing in Fairbanks, learning one thing or two about building an oil pipeline in permafrost, about the gold rush and the struggles of the town when it all finished, we left Fairbanks today early morning in a steady pour of rain. Our plan was to move South to Tok and then turn North to Chicken and over the "Top of the World Hwy" to Dawson. But with the recent rain we learn in Tok that the unpaved portion of the taylor Hwy is in a really bad conditions and most probably not possible for a bike like ours to pass through. As we had heard similar stories from people with BMW's GS's who had attempted this road some weeks ago in similar conditions and their struggles or turnarounds, we decide not to risk the bike and waste time, and bite the bullet of making the same way twice i.e. continue on the ALCAN to Whitehorse. Our bitter decision is sweetened by the weather improving and giving us a nice afternoon and evening, thus providing us with a great view of the Wrangell Mountain Range with Mt. Logan in the distance, and some pretty wildlife like Bald Eagles and Moose. So not bad for a day which started not so well, and some good distance too.
The Alyeska Pipeline
Old houses of Fairbanks restored in Pioneer Park, Fairbanks, AK
Kluane National Park, YT
Kluane NP, YT
"There's a land where the mountains are nameless
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There's a land--oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back--and I will." - Robert William Service, Spell of the Yukon
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