Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Today is a rest day, so I had a lie in and got up at 7.30, then showered and ate breakfast in the hotel's “toaster museum cum café” (yes, it really was a museum to toasters, but at that time in the morning, I couldn't be bothered to take pictures). I then went back to my room and wrote the blog, before going back out the front of the hotel to connect to the one working Internet connection and upload it. I planned to stay online all morning, to give me the best chance of catching Tracy online. Whilst I did so, I also took the opportunity of some down-time to spend time cleaning the bike, checking it over carefully and generally showing it some TLC. If you've ever read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” then this will make complete sense. If not, then just put it down to signs of oncoming senility. It was really therapeutic, seeing the gleaming silver reappear from under layers of dead bugs and grime. She also needed a little oil too, having covered 3,000 miles or so since arriving in Anchorage. With me checking the internet every few minutes to see if Tracy had come online, the cleaning took longer than it would at home, and the end result was nowhere near as impressive, as removing all the dirt with just a bucket of luke warm water and a sponge was impossible.

With the bike done, and still no sign of Tracy coming online, I broke out my book and sat in the sun reading a page, then checking the internet again, then repeating the process. This went on for several hours, until my stomach was rumbling and the other guys were asking if I was contemplating eating. Tracy did appear to be online at one point, and finally responded to my MSN Messenger posts only to explain that the Internet at home was not working and she was having to use her phone. So no Skype, and no happy smiling face; just a few short text-like message exchanges. Still, it was better than nothing.

One thing we should have been doing today was riding up to see the Salmon Glacier, but unfortunately the road got washed away 2 weeks ago, and wouldn't be open again for another few weeks. There was a tourist bus that was taking people up to see the glacier for $45, but it involved spending 3 hours in a bus, and I just didn't fancy that. Over breakfast a few of us had arranged with Jeff to try and sort out a helicopter flight to the glacier, and as a result there were 16 of us going in 4 lots of 4 up to the Cambrian Icefield for $100 each. Much better value. At 3.45 we wandered down to the far end of town to meet up with the helicopter pilot, who took our money and made us sign a waiver form, then gave us a safety briefing. As there were so many of us, we arranged for him to fly the groups up in relays – taking the first group up and leaving them on the icefield before fetching the 2nd group up, then bringing the 1st group down and so on. Normally, passengers get to walk on the ice, but with the helicopter waiting to take them down again, which wouldn't have been half as much fun...

I was lucky enough to go in the 1st group, with Aaron, Nick and Nigel, and we clambered into the tiny helicopter and strapped ourselves in. Then we were off, flying up the valley before climbing and rising steeply up the cascading river, the forest dropping away below us in spectacular fashion, as we followed the path of the river right up to the glacier head, past an old mining settlement perched precariously on one of the high ridges. The views from the bubble windows were beautiful (so much so that the pictures didn't turn out very good, dammit!), and then all of a sudden we were flying over the cascading ice of the glacier, with great big dark blue crevasses slashed into the ice.





Soon we were flying over pristine snow, blown into ridges like sand on beach by the winds and completely devoid of any human (or animal) marks. Gently the helicopter touched down and we clambered out onto the fresh snow, our feet sinking in slightly as we moved to a safe distance, and then the helicopter took off, leaving us stranded in eerie silence in this most beautiful of settings. It seemed only appropriate to celebrate this remarkable place by stripping off and dancing round like a loon, whooping with sheer exhilaration. So I did...





I promise I won't keep posting pictures of me naked on the blog, but this was one of those moments when my inner child just screamed at me to go for it, to dance naked on a glacier in the sunshine. Aaron, Nick and Nigel had the good grace to simply laugh at me. Feel free to do the same...

Dressed again (and with life returning to my frozen feet), we stood around in amazement taking photo after photo. It was a stunningly beautiful place to be.





Sadly it had to end sometime, and after we'd been there for about 15 minutes, the helicopter returned and deposited another group on the ice, and we clambered aboard for the journey back down.





The journey down was much more spectacular than the journey up, as the pilot took us skimming over the icefield and then right out over the mountain plateau, the sight of another small abandoned mining settlement, and then right over the final ridge with a huge drop-off down to the glacier below. At that point I remembered I was scared of heights, and think I may have said an expletive of two... Being sat in the front and by the window, I had a great view right down as the world dropped away from us, and I was left seemingly dangling my feet a few hundred feet above a glacier below...





The rest of the flight was just as wonderful, as we skimmed the tree-tops and dropped the 4,000ft or so in seconds, causing our ears to hurt. We touched down safely and climbed out of the helicopter beaming like kids with money in a tuck shop, and handed over to the next group for their turn. What a brilliant experience...

Back at the hotel it was time for our “team briefing” as tomorrow is long riding day (over 400 miles) and we also needed to celebrate Edwin's birthday (today) and Al's for tomorrow. A tradition on Globebusters trips is that those with birthdays are bought something to wear in keeping with the country we're in, and in Ed & Al's case, this was a natty little “Harley skull cap” made from vinyl with flame logo (Ed) and maltese cross (Al). They now have to wear these for a full day, including the evening meal...








They also got some sensible presents, including a baseball cap and tee-shirt, and some lovely matching boxer shorts and socks with bears on...

Which reminded Nigel, Andy and I that we wanted to head back up to fish creek to try and see some bears eating salmon. So we rode back across the border into Alaska once more and took up camp on the walkway, watching the salmon spawn and chatting. After about an hour, Aaron turned up, followed by Kenny, who started to talk to us and then said “And here he is now” and a bear emerged from the bushes to our left, walked down and across the stream, grabbed a salmon and disappeared again in the bushes further down to enjoy his meal. Cool...





We wandered a bit further down the walkway to see if he would come back out, and after a few minutes, he did. He then walked towards us, scaring the salmon who frantically splashed about like a shoal of piranha trying to get out of his way. But this was a hungry bear, and he was going to have fresh salmon for tea. So he jumped up and with an enormous splash caught on, pulled it out and bit right through it. He was so close we could hear the crushing of bones as he sank his teeth in...





With the fish in his jaws he sauntered over to the far bank, turned his back on us and ate. It must have taken him a good ten minutes to finish the fish, and every now and then he'd turn round to look up to the huge crowd on the walkway across the stream, watching him and taking pictures (I have plenty more, but don't want to clog the blog up with them). Then, as a final encore, he answered that question that always seems to crop up when bears are mentioned...





And so with our “bear necessities” taken care of, we headed back to the hotel and our beds...