AK Trip - Day Eightteen - Tuesday, July 3rd,

Healy, AK to Bird Branch, AK

Ted and I both woke up early (4 am, left by 5 am) and decided to hit the road with the intention of arriving in Wasilla around 9:30 am. Large patches of mountain fog and drizzling rain hindered our 200-mile ride. We also encountered three large moose playing in the middle of the road in one low hanging fog bank.

My new rear tire was supposed to be waiting for me at Abby Motors in Wasilla and I was anxious to check on it. As it turned out, my tire was there but, after more consideration, I decided to put off the installation until after we ride down the Kenai Peninsula. That will put slightly more than 6,000 miles on the rear tire. It should work out just about right to make it home on the replacement.
While in Wasillia, Ted and I visited the National Headquarters of the Iditarod Trail Race.

Leaving Wasilla, we continued on to the Honda dealer in Anchorage to pick up some soft ties for Ted’s upcoming ferry trip. While in Anchorage we ate lunch and did an ole home tour of downtown, a place Ted once worked. Ted commented repeatedly that there was very little the same after 20 years of growth. Forty-three per cent of the Alaskan state population now live in the city of Anchorage.

We departed Anchorage and traveled the 27 miles south down The Seward Highway to Bird Ridge, our motel for the next week. As it turned out, we were early and the room was not yet ready. That was all the excuse we needed to continue on to Whittier, AK.

In order to get to Whittier, you must first traverse a two and a half mile tunnel under a mountain. This tunnel is shared with train traffic on a rotating basis. The fee to use it both ways is twelve dollars and auto’s go first. Motorcycles ride between the rails on wet steel decking after all the traffic has cleared. Large fans continuously blow exhaust fumes out of the tunnel.

Motorcycles are required to wait beside this building until everyone has cleared the tunnel. We were told by the tunnel attendent that many motorcycle accidents occur when pulling trailers. Apparently the trailer tires get caught between the tracks. When visiting Whittier it might be a good idea to leave the trailer at the motel.

The tiny A frame building in the center is the entrance to the tunnel.

Arriving in Whittier
While in Whittier we checked on our ferry reservations.

An Alaskan Ferry about to depart for Kodiak.

The Whittier AK Harbor

The mountains around Whittier are covered in waterfalls.

The Portage Glacier

Upon the return to our motel at Bird Ridge we found good news and bad news. The good news was the package from Mike & Rhonda J. containing Ted's new foot peg had arrived. It was a quick, piece of cake installation. I am amazed the part got here in under two days.

The bad news was the motel room. No telephone, no Internet, no TV. Well, it had a TV but no channels. Instead it had a DVD player hooked up to it and two 1920 era movies laying beside it. Unfortunately, this was not a place I could put up with for a week so we quickly made plans to check out tomorrow morning.

We will either find a motel in Seward or return to Anchorage.

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice." ~Meister Eckhart~