Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Departure Day followed Saturday night in downtown Anchorage, which meant pumping music from the bar across the street, which was still going at 3am... hardly ideal preparation for a long day's ride... Whilst I was getting up I also missed the drama unfolding right outside our hotel, as there was a real life cop-car chase that ended when they rammed the villain's vehicle at the intersection just down the road, then chased the villain into the alley where the bikes were stored before arresting him... some of the Trans Am team were outside at the time, and saw the whole thing, Nick even getting some of it on video (coming to an episode of “Cops with Guns” sometime soon!).

That wasn't the only pre-departure drama either, as Edwin took the opportunity to throw his fully-laden bike at Kevin, who was innocently sitting on his bike stretching before the off... think of those occasions when you've been skiing and tried to get the instructor to fall and you'll get the picture (although I don't think this was deliberate!)... Like all good reporters, whilst everyone else rushed to help, I got my camera out. Well, I was already on my bike wired up to my music, and there were more than enough people helping already!





With the group finally assembled and ready we rolled out of the alley behind the Anchorage Historic Hotel (highly recommended) and into the damp streets of Anchorage, heading North at last. Riding as one big group we must have made quite a sight, 17 BMWs and one Suzuki (Jim's) riding in formation up the freeway towards Fairbanks and on (closely followed by a grey Ford Transit). Soon the surrounding buildings thinned out and we entered the countryside, with dense woodland on either side of the road, and the weather took a turn for the worse, starting to drizzle heavily (I wouldn't call it “rain” as such). Nothing could dampen my spirits, though, as the blues of the last couple of days (“homesick blues” brought on by missing Tracy too much) faded away as the miles ticked by. After 90 miles or so the group stopped at a roadside cafe for a pre-arranged drink stop, before we would split up into smaller groups and “do our own thing”. Initially the cafe was closed, so we stood around in the drizzle chatting like excited school kids on a field trip, let loose on the big wide world for the first time...





At 10am, about 10 minutes after we arrived, the cafe opened and we were able to get a warm drink inside us. And then it was off again. I wanted some “me time” so pulled out alone and rode that way for some distance, just me and the open road, riding my bike in Alaska and singing in my helmet. Happy? Oh yes...

At one point I noticed a lot of pretty pink flowers lining the road between the roadside and the forest, and it reminded me of Tracy's Lavender Fields (from out trip to Europe in 2005), so naturally I had to stop and take a photo...





The flower is called “Fireweed” and in mid to late summer it begins blooming in the middle of the stalk, with each successive flower blooming just above the one before it. As the last flowers are blooming at the top of the stalk, the earliest blooms seed and turn to cotton, as seen below. When the fireweed turns to cotton, Alaskans say there are about six weeks until winter begins. With no sign of the cotton, perhaps we'll have good weather further North...

As we rode further North to the left were some very large mountains, including the range containing Mt McKinley, North America's largest mountain at 20,320 ft (6194m) but it was obscured from view by the blanket of grey clouds overhead. A little further on we entered Denali National Park, and the weather started to improve, just as U2's “Beautiful Day” sounded in my ears... one of those moments...





At the next petrol station I stopped to top-up, because I'd seen another group there, including Kevin, Julia, Richard and Karen and Nigel, and joined up with them for the next stretch. When we reached the entrance to Denali National Park the group fragmented again, Richard and Karen following me into the park entrance whilst the others carried on. Rather than pay the $15 entrance fee just to ride up the road 13 miles further into the park and back again, we just grabbed a cappuccino and a packet of “Volcano Chips” (crisps with Jalapeño chilli flavouring), a really bad combination, before heading back out onto the main road.

A little further up the road we stopped again, this time to look over to a huge forest fire that was burning across most of the horizon, and to watch a helicopter carry a bucket of water over to it in a vain attempt to put it out. The smell of burning wood would be with us for most of the rest of the day, and when riding into Fairbanks later the bikes would get a light dusting with ash falling from the sky, despite being several miles from the fire.





Having by now shed my waterproofs as the rain had stopped, the temperature rose a few more degrees and it was time to stop again and lose another layer. Whilst stopped, Kevin and Julia rode past, so we quickly got going again and tagged along, enjoying the wide open road and sweeping bends. Soon after Nigel also joined our little group and the 5 of us rode together, swinging through the bends, in a fluid display with the grace of a ballet... with the sun shining, and roads like these, I didn't want the day's ride to end, but it did, as we pulled into Fairbanks, filled up with fuel and then arrived at the motel... 355 miles of truly enjoyable riding... perfect!

The room at the Super 8 Motel is large, with 2 double beds, and with Jim some way down the road, I took the opportunity to shower and wash my clothes, then decided I needed a way to let him know which bed I'd chosen (first in, best bed!). So I pulled back the covers and laid the pillows and my helmet inside, then put the covers back over, so it looked like I was in bed asleep... when Jim arrived some time later (after I'd gone to the restaurant), he thought I was in bed, so tip-toed around for a while before realising I wasn't snoring!

Whilst all this was going on, the rest of the group caught a taxi to a restaurant where Kevin had arranged to meet John Binkley, a local politician who ran against Sarah Palin for Governer of Alaska in 2006 (he polled 30% of the vote against Palin's 51%). But that wasn't the reason we wanted to meet him. Oh, no, he has a story that's way more interesting than that...





After hearing a story about a German couple who drove a VW camper van from Ushuaia to the then-northern most point in Alaska, and knowing that the oil companies were building a road right to Prudhoe Bay, he decided he wanted to be the first to complete the journey from the northern-most point to the southern-most point. On a motorcycle. In 1975. So he lobbied the oil company for permission to use the road (which wasn't opened to the public until 1994 and had been built specifically for the oil company to use as they laid the oil pipeline from Prudhoe to Valdez). Finally getting permission in December, he set off on 2nd December, in temperatures of -53 degrees Fahrenheit (-47 degrees C)... using a BMW R75/5 and wearing a helmet he'd adapted himself (with foam sealed to his face, and a curtain to keep the wind out, using a snorkel to breath to prevent his breath from misting up his visor).






As this was the depths of an Alaskan (and Arctic as Prudhoe is inside the Arctic Circle) winter, he also had to make some modifications to the bike, including hand-studding the tyres (125 studs in the front, 75 in the rear). With help from passing truckers, who radioed each other about his progress and helped him get warm by stopping and insisting he thaw out in their heated cabs when they saw him looking hypothermic by the roadside, he made it all the way to Portland before rebuilding the bike and then continuing the journey South.





With no visas and no support, he blagged his way across the borders, flew the bike from Panama City around the Darien Gap to Medellin, Columbia, then down to Santiago before heading across the Andes and on to Buenos Aires (the Carretera Austral, the road we're taking, wasn't started until 1976) and then down to Ushuaia, arriving on April 21st 1976.





To say he had us enthralled with his story would be an understatement. I've only included a brief summary of it here, as we were all pushing him to write a book about his adventure – after all, it was around the same period that Ted Simon was undertaking Jupiter's Travels (1973-1977), the book which inspired Ewan and Charley to do the Long Way Round, which in turn inspired me to be here... and what a book it would be!

The rest of the evening was naturally spent with us discussing John's trip and comparing what he went through with how things are today. All over a delicious seafood pasta dish washed down with rather too much Alaska IPA... What a 1st day, roll on tomorrow!!