Crossing on the Yukon River Ferry. Yes, that's us in a car. A rental car, to be precise. Three of our four tires were destroyed, beyond repair. The closest tires we found were 8 hours away in Fairbanks, Alaska - a far cry better than the 8 DAYS it would take to have tires shipped to us in the Yukon. The trade off for time was price - this car only came with 100 free kilometers (about 60 miles). When our little trip was complete, 25 1/2 hours and 1,407 kilometers later, they hit us for almost $600. Talk about painful... |
Alaska was having a little wildfire problem of their own, although thankfully farther from the road. You'd think that a place that spent half the year covered in snow and the other half of the year slogging around in melted snow would be low on fire danger, but that's clearly not the case. |
The view from the Top of the World Highway was impressive, but not quite as impressive as the Dempster. This road was also dirt, and better maintained than the Dempster, but we have to admit that if we had to be on it, at least it wasn't on the bikes. We've done enough dirt riding on street bikes to last us a while. |
Entering Alaska for the second time. We look happy because we think our troubles are over. We're so gullible. |
OK, the sights WERE pretty, and the faux sunset WAS spectacular, but still... It wasn't $600 worth of spectacular. |
WOW! OK, this was also pretty amazing. We also got a chance to actually talk, which we can't do on the bikes. I guess it wasn't so bad, but still... $600? |
We left Dawson City at 5pm and arrived in Fairbanks at 3am. We couldn't find a campground or a reasonably priced hotel with a vacancy, so we did what any completely insane person would do - we slept in the parking lot of the motorcycle shop. Mike slept in the driver's seat, and I slept with the rear seat down, half in the trunk and half on the seat. Not a real restful night sleep since it didn't get dark, but you gotta do what you gotta do. |
BUT LOOK! IT'S A MOOSE! A MOOSEY MOOSEY MOOSE AND HER MOOSEY MOOSEY BABY! Now THAT makes it all worth while!! |
We finally got a picture of a moosey moosey moose! |