AK Trip - Day Twenty Six - Wednesday, July 11th.,

Haines, Alaska

Monday morning we left Valdez early in a steady rain and thick fog climbing up over Thompson Pass. Once we cleared the summit the riding got a lot easier and the rain stopped entirely in about a hundred miles. We gassed up in Glennallen and then followed the Tok Cutoff back to Tok.

Wrangles St. Elias National Park

We picked up our third Wrangle Saint Elias stamp at the Salana Ranger Station. This road was majestic in places and well worth the time. In Tok we ate lunch at Fast Eddy's once again before heading south on the Alaskan Hwy to Beaver Creek, YT, Canada. We saw some of the heaviest rain of the trip on this section of the ride.

Tuesday we rode the worst section of the Alaskan Highway for the second time. The section between Beaver Creek and Haines Junction had more than 40 miles of chewed up gravel and 20 miles of dirt and construction. Water trucks were common. We encountered one hill, more than a mile up, that had just been sprayed with nothing but slick mud to neogoiate. The rest of that section was nothing but one frost heave after another. That said, the scenery was breathtaking and simply amazing. We made it into Haines Jct without any problem, staying at a hotel without Internet.

Wednesday, today, we left Haines Jct, YT and rode into Haines, Alaska, crossing the Canadian/US boder without incident.. This may well be the most beautiful paved road in Alaska. It crosses a mountain range and then follows a river between the mountains for 150 or more miles. At times you feel as if you're riding in the clouds. Once in Haines we did some mandatory shopping and stopped by the ferry terminal to confirm our tickets. We also made room for some more of the delicious halibut we are seeing on every menu.

Holland America has a big cruise ship in port, so the place is busy.

Tomorrow we leave on the Prince Rupert ferry at 1 pm for a two and a half day ride. We will not have Internet or phone service. I should be back online in two and a half days.

To date both bikes have held up well, with no failures of any kind, either bike or electronic. Miss Garmin has performed exactly as advertised and I could not be more pleased with our routes. All of our planning and pre work has sure paid off.

I will post more pictures as soon as I have a decent connection.

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect. ~Paul Theroux~