| Just returned a few hours ago from a whirlwind one week trip
through the Canadian Yukon Territory and part of south central Alaska. Total mileage
covered was 1,750 miles from Monday May 4th till mid day today. At
0415 hours I departed home for the 15 minute ride to the Auke Bay ferry terminal aboard my
'97 XX to catch the state ferry to Skagway, Alaska. We departed Auke Bay about 20
minutes late due to a larger than normal number of container vans having to be loaded and
unloaded from the ferry. After a short stop in Haines we continued on for the final hours
voyage to Skagway.
I arrived in Skagway on time at 1300 hours and was met by Mike Stevely from
Whitehorse who had ridden his Blackbird down to meet me so we could ride back to
Whitehorse together. After lunch we departed Skagway and headed north up over White
Pass and into British Columbia, we cleared customs and soon were in the Yukon Territory of
Canada. We maintained a brisk pace and aside from my Ventura luggage rain cover
bailing on me during a passing maneuver and promptly being run over by the cage the trip
was uneventful. (Thanks again Mike for stopping and belaying down that cliff to
retrieve my rain cover)
Once in Whitehorse Mike and family housed me for 2 nights and treated me like
part of their family. (THANKS!) It was great.... Tuesday evening we met with
the Whitehorse GWRRA club membership at a local eatery and I conducted some club business
over dinner with the members from Whitehorse. Mike was very patient and listened mostly.
It's hard to keep up when them Gold Wingers start telling bike stories! Most
of them have been riding since they started the two wheeled thing on motorcycles.
After dinner we set out to impress a few of the local LEO's and ran into a fellow CBR
rider from Whitehorse, Karen Andre, rides a CBR 1000. (Mike, you get Karen set up with the
CBR list info yet, so she can join us?) Things were a little slow that night in
Whitehorse so we adjourned to the local Mickey D's and set the bikes off to the side of
the parking lot with my Scorpio alarm set. Then we sat inside eating ice cream and
watched as the bikes drew one after another peeper only to warn them off when the lights
and siren began to flash and chirp. That was fun for a few minutes. We then
returned home so I could pack and get ready for an early departure to Fairbanks, AK.
Wednesday morning I was up at dawn and was off at 0530 hours. Fairbanks
waited 580 miles to the northwest along the Alaska Hwy. At 0650 hours I rolled into
Haines Junction. As Mike had forwarned me they don't rise early in Haines Jct.
Nothing was open. NO GAS, NO FOOD, Nothing! At one of the local
stations, 3 cages impatiently waited for gas so they could continue their journey to
points afar. Time for plan "B", continue on to the next speck of
civiliztion, Destruction Bay. This begins the part of the ride where the road comes
and goes from decent to broke up and puntuated with "Frost Heaves". Or in
dirt bike terms, The Whoops. Miles and miles of paved Whoops! I was about 30
miles north of Haines Junction when I was jarred back into remembering the survival game
one plays when driving and or riding on these roads. There are sections of road
where the paving is gone and a gravel pit has formed complete with large rocks, baseball
size and the edges of the pits are like curbs. Jagged curbs. In most cases
these pits do not cover the entire lane or both lanes and you can slalom around them and
continue on at a decent pace. But there are those areas where mother nature has
reclaimed mans attempt to tame the ruralness of the area and the road has evolved back to
its natural state.
After getting gas and breakfast at a stop in Destruction Bay I had thawed out
and continued on north. Their thermometer there said 40 degs F. With a 25 mph
wind and the entire bay still frozen solid it felt colder at the 80-100 mph pace I was
maintaining. Next obstacle were the two 10 mile stretches of gravel road just south
of Koidern. With little or no "Summer" traffic on the Alcan yet I managed
to traverse these gravel stretches at 35-45 mph without holding any 4x4's up or getting
pelted by rocks from passing semi's or the land yachts of the retired. On to Beaver
Creek for gas and just in time for cold rain mixed with snow. The snow had stuck
along the highway at a couple of the higher passes but was not a problem on the roadway.
At Beaver Creek I fueled up and was told by a south bound motorhomeist that the
rain would only last another 20 miles to the north. Ahhh a Carrot. An end to
the rain and warmer temps. Next stop Tok and back in Alaska. The roads
improoved once I crossed back into Alaska. After a short fuel stop in Tok I was
again on my way to Delta Junction. In Delta Junction I refueled the Blackbird and
myself with a 1/4 lb Buffalo burger and fries. Tastes like beef to me. I was
off and with only 98 miles to go to Fairbanks I stopped and paid Santa a visit at the
North Pole. From North Pole Alaska I called my new friend in Fairbanks, Juan Goula,
who was busy slaving away at work. "Juan this is George, I'm in North Pole,
Work ehh, okay I'll meet you outside your office at the Univeristy of Fairbanks at 5:00
PM. Time now, 3:00 PM. I completed the 20 minute ride to the University of
Fairbanks and set to washing the road grime off the Blackbrid while waiting for Juan to
get off work. 5:00 PM sharp we exchanged greetings in person and he led me to his
home so I could get settled in for a 2 night stay. After a couple hours of chit
chat, we decided large pieces of COW were on the menu for the night. We adjourned to
the Turtle Club and ordered their smallest cuts of Prime Rib and Lobseter for me, shrimp
for Juan. After pigging out we both got Turtle bags to go and rolled ourselves out
to the cage for the trip home. It was during this leg that I spotted the familiar
star of a Mercedes Benz dealer. My garage has been calling for one of their new M
Class Sport Utility vehicles so we made a point of setting aside time the next day to pay
them a visit. Upon our return home I called it a day after making a poor attempt at
making small talk through rapidly closing eyes.
To my surprise and enjoyment Juan had decided to take the next day off from
work so we started our day at 0850 hours. Off to ride some roads and look for
breakfast along the way. After an hour or so of sight seeing we stopped at a truck
stop north of Fairbanks along the road that goes to the "Haul Road" and north to
Prudoe Bay. After a few minutes of small talk the waitress arrived to take our
order. I listened to Juan and after a few minutes of listening to him recite the
menu to her I asked him if we were planning to stop for lunch or was he going to have both
meals and save the second stop. I ordered a simple ham and cheese omelet, not
wanting to gorge myself before a day of spirted riding. Minutes later our food
arrived by the plate full. Truckers sized portions. Both of us left food on
our plates. Not wanting to overload our mounts. Before we headed off to out
next destination, LUNCH, we had some unfinished business to take care of. Visit the
local Honda Motorcycle dealer and there was that Mercedes-Benz matter I wanted to follow
up on. We looked at new F-3's, 900 RR's, and a new '98 Blackbird that needs a
home. We then moved onto the Benz dealer and there in the lot was a demo White
M-class. After an hour and a half of chit chat and a test drive, I want one.
Currently an 8 month waiting list. Think I'll wait till the V-8 is available.
Next event of the day was a ride down the Parks Hwy to Nenana. We had
lunch at a nice bar in a log cabin. Good flame broiled burgers. We then
blasted back to Fairbanks to get home in time to drive to the airport and pick up Juan's
wife who was returning from a business trip to Anchorage. Bike mileage for Thursday was
201 miles.
A short note regarding the use of my new Garmin GPS III. I programmed
Juan's residence address into the GPS III using Delorme Street Atlas USA v 5.0. When
I arrived at Juan's house the GPS indicated I was 3-4 feet from my final destination.
I can live with this amount of error and generally can find my way from there.
Overall I was impressed with this piece of equipment.
Total trip one way from Whitehorse, Y.T. Canada to Fairbanks, AK. 580 miles,
total time 11 hours, average speed 58.5 mph. Stops, breakfast & lunch plus 3
additional fuel stops.
Friday morning shortly before 0800 hours I departed Fairbanks, clear skies, low
30's and began to retrace my trip south from two days prior. I had decided not to
make the trip to Haines, AK in one day from Fairbanks and spent the night in Beaver Creek,
Y.T. Since the tourist season is still a couple weeks away, most camp grounds and
many motels are still closed for the winter. I found one motel that was open
and was not impressed with the quality of my stay. No room phone, 2 TV channels,
gravel parking lot, with assorted boulders. Oh well, it was only for one
night. A south wind continued to blow, with the visibility down to 3 miles and
blowing dust at times off and on Friday and Saturday. The wind gets to whipping
across the sandy deltas and the air becomes filled with dirt.
During my trip up to Fairbanks and back I encountered, 1 Caribou, 1 moose, 1
LARGE sow black bear with 4 cubs, and 1 plain old black bear along the road, 1 fox and
several dozen rabbits and Marmots. Most heard I was coming and all came to the
roadside to get a look at the Blackbird in passing.
The wind continued to blow all day Saturday as a Southerly head wind, 40 km/hr.
At one time as I crossed Chilkat Pass I rounded a right hand sweeper in the 80's
only to find I was leaned to the left while turning right. Talk about a brain scrambler.
Birds turning right, Check, bikes leaning left, NO CHECK! Oh well we made it
through the turn and blasted up over the pass. This leg from Haines Jct. to Haines
is 152 miles, up over a couple passes and took 2 hours to complete. It was near
freezing at the top with several feet of snow along the sides of the road. No trees
and the area looks kind of like a white mountainess moon terrain. Unless it's
vertical it's white up there still with the exception of the plowed road surface. A gray
band winding across the white expanse of the area with mountains jutting up on all sides.
I arrived in Haines at 1:30 PM local time and checked into a local motel near
the Chilkat River Eagle Preserve. All that was left was to wait the 16 hours till
the ferry arrived the Sunday morning and ride the 5 miles to the ferry terminal at 0430
Sunday morning. Time to look for gas as the fuel warning light is glowing
orange. 4.7 gallons at $1.57 per gallon.
Ferry was on schedule and I arrived home at 11:00 AM this morning with 1,700
new miles on the Birds clock.
I took this trek north to evaluate the Blackbird as a touring machine and
wanted to compare it to my ST1100. I had prepared the Bird with an RKA tank bag, a
set of Ventura luggage and rack system, Valentine 1 radar detector and the above mentioned
GPS III unit. The only minor malfunction I experienced was with my Scorpio alarm
system when I stopped for fuel in North Pole, AK on Friday morning. The damn alarm
wouldn't let me near my Bird. The alarm had turned on me, it's owner and
installer. All attempts to disarm using the key remote met with more yelping from
the alarms siren. Starting the bike also set the alarm off but this could be
silenced using the remote, leaving the Scorpio quiet till the Bird needed another
drink. Two more stops I battled the Scorpio and announced my presence at two more
sleepy little towns. Yelp, Yelp, Yelp, Yelp. It was in Tok that the jig was finally
up. Off came the luggage, off came the seat and the power source was yanked from the
Scorpio, while the bike was still running so as not to alert yet another community that I
had indeed arrived with the Wailing Bird. After several miles of mulling this sudden
turning of the alarm against me I pondered the last several days of our trip
together. Hmmmm. It finally came to me. I had been carrying the control
fob in my Stich suit pocket with some other gear. >From time to time I was setting off
the panic feature when raising my leg or squating near the bike. I recalled reading
a portion of the alarms instructions which discussed setting the alarm so it would arm
when the bike was shut off and the key removed. This was the problem I was
experiencing. As I could not racall the sequence to arm or disarm this feature the
last resort was to cut power and reset the system. This done no further mutiny was
experienced from the silent sentry. It did chase off a meter reader in Whitehorse
who after citing the car next to us walked up to the Bird. Flash, Yelp, Flash,
Yelp. He moved on to easier prey. I chuckled at watching him and went off to
check out some local shops only to chuckle again when I returned to find the meter had
EXPIRED and realized that I had fed the meter for the car next to us and he had wondered
why I had walked away in his presence and not put any money in the meter.
Overall I would rate the Blackbird a very capeable touring mount. Comparable to
my ST1100 in comfort when ridden all day and still able to provide crisp throttle
responses even when loaded with rider and gear and for passing and cruising at triple
digit speeds for extended periods of time.
Well, it's back to work tomorrow. Have a great week.
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