Sunday, August 30th 2009
9:30pm, Beak Creek Hostel, Haines AK.
The ferry!
Lot's of days to fill in. Best to keep it short.
Decided to take the Marine Highway(the ferry) out of Alaska! Called them up to make the reservation because the web site is complete crap. Sent the same search into the engin three times. It gave me three different interaries ranging from 4 days @ $500 to 30 days @ $2,500.
The lady on the phone was nice. I asked when the next ferry leave from Homer to Bellingham was. She replied, "Let's see...well, there is one leaving in 3 hours....could you make that? Oh your in Fairbanks...you'll probably not make it then. The next ferry is Sep.29th"....
!?!?!
Seriously, apparently it catches lots of people off guard. The ferry from Homer only leaves once a month. Damn. Turns out the ferry from Haines leaves every Monday at 6pm. So I booked a ticket for me and my bike, and rode out of Fairbanks.
Took four days ride to get here. It rained some. Saw some glaciers. Met some of the coolest people so far on the trip. Seems the only motorcyclist left in AK are the hardcore ones(me NOT included!). In Wasilla at the Kawaski Powers ports shop(hate my new tinted but cool looking face shield), I was told about some dude who had just passed through attemping to get to Prudo bay, but was snowed out....
In Tok I met some guy riding for an organization trying to ban the use of cell phones while driving. He was going to Prudo bay....told him about the snow reports. He seemed prepared. Even had an extra tire with him on his awesomely modified KLR650.
Later that day I met the guy who was trying to get to Prudo bay. Mike. Met at border city and rode together for a day. In the pass from Destruction bay to Haines Junction there are a lot of frost heaves. I'd never ridden with anyone before, and despite knowing better, I was leading, and pushed my little blast harder than I should have to 'keep up' with Mike's triumph street triple. Well, I hit one bump really hard at 60+mph, and my back tire rubbed against the tie downs I'd been wrapping around the back seat to hold everything on the bike.....melted right through those puppies. My gerry can fell off, and nearly everything else. It was embarressing and hysterical at the same time:)
As it happened, besides the extra set of tie downs I had in case any of them broke on the road, I had a third awesome ratchet set I'd purchased in Fairbanks for the ferry(You have to bring your own tie downs for the ferry). We had that bike re-outfitted in about 20min. This was the 3rd 'set up' I'd gone through with strapping all my crap on the bike. But it was easily the best, and will probably not change it again.
Haines is beautiful. It was a long stretch sans gas. 160 miles or so. Used the full gerry can of gas. Scary! Rode through this cathedral of a high altitude valley. The clouds hanging around you. Like being in an airplane. Epic to the point of being spiritual. The journal entry was rather sappy, but for friends and family, I'd be more than happy to indulge face to face.
Nice to be staying at a hostel. Even though there was parking down near the proprietor, I rode my bike right up to the cabin. Fuck it.
The ferry leaves at 6pm tomorrow. Will take 5 days and 4 nights...I think. Either that or it's 3 nights and 4 days. Eh. I can't remember. I'll loose some street cred for taking the ferry part of the way out(was 1,200 miles ride from Fairbanks to Haines!), but I'm told it's a 'once in a life time' sort of things. We'll see:)
