Its been 18 days since we started and a while since we were in Dawson Creek. We ended up staying another day since we were both exhausted and could not resist the thought of resting in a clean warm dry mosquito free hotel room for a while.
We eventually did start out on the Alaska Highway. It was a great ride that reminded me of a two lane rural road in Blue Ridge. We passed through many towns that were not much more than a gas station or an intersection. Many had closed buildings but it was hard to tell how long it had been since they were occupied.
The highway was being repaired in a lot of places so we rode through lots of loose gravel. One section in particular had some very deep loose gravel and that was tricky to ride through. Not sure what the best strategy is for gravel. Sometimes you feel like you are about to lose control of the bike and are not sure if you are going to fast or two slow.
We've also had to cross several steel grate bridges. These too take a little getting used to but are not nearly as bad as the deep gravel.
We've seen lots of bears, a flock of elk and a giant moose on the road. Several bald eagles.
At Watson Lake we had the entire campground to ourselves. Which was somewhat creepy.
In White horse we went to the sign post forest and I looked around for a bit for a good one to take a photo with.
We rode the "Top of the world highway". which is 100+ mile dirt road high in the mountains where you can cross into Alaska. The view was good but obscured by smokey haze.
In Valdez we walked around the small boat harbor and saw the peter pan processing plant. They take the salmon there to be processed and packaged and they have small store where you can buy fresh, canned, packaged, and smoked salmon.
From there we took the ferry to Whittier which was awesome and slow but gave us time rest and to take pictures from the boat. Saw a bunch of otters and some icebergs
Went to Seward where we went sea kayaking in Resurrection Bay and then on to Homer where we met up with a friend and then went out to the Salty Dawg.
Today we're off to Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks and then we start heading back home.
