June 15th, 2014 – Anchorage, AK to Fairbanks, AK ~360 miles
Worst part of the trip – Vy has to head home.
That giant black bag ready to be checked in? A lot of that was extra stuff we decided we didn’t need anymore, freeing up some space and weight on the bikes. I guess Vy was our gear mule.
Despite the fact that I was sad to see her leave, I’m always a fan of seeing helmets as carry-on luggage.
Even my bike was upset by Vy’s departure – as soon as she left, my GS started throwing a warning for the brake light. Odd thing was, the brake light was working just fine.
When the going gets tough…I have no idea what the tough do. Why suffer through the cold when you’ve got a heated liner?
Wal-Mike’s in Trapper Creek, a quirky tourist trap.
In our rush to get to Fairbanks, we decided that we’d blast right through Denali and hit up the Denali highway on the way back down.
Felt like I was about to run out of gas, so I dumped my extra tiny fuel bottles.
Even with the extra 2 liters, I ran out. I guess there are less pretty places to run out of gas. Thankfully, Bui had a Rotopax which was plenty enough to get to the next station. When you research this trip, everyone tells you to get gas at every station. I ignored that advice, and felt like a fool for doing so! Don’t make the same mistake.
At the next gas station, we encountered two guys on brand new KLR’s who had just taken 2 days to do the Denali Highway. They camped overnight and said it was rainy and muddy the whole time. They were also open carrying Glocks, which caught me off guard at first, but they turned out to be military guys.
Got lunch in Denali – this is the oddest looking crab rangoon I’ve ever seen, though it tasted just fine.
Finally, we start getting to some dirt. Too bad it was just road construction.
I’m currently attending UCLA’s “Fully Employed” MBA program part-time. Oddly enough, UCLA’s business school is called Anderson, and UCLA’s mascot is a Bruin. It’s like this sign was created to represent the school.
We had been told in advance that when we get to Fairbanks, we should stay at the University. Cheap rooms, motorcycle friendly, and they allow you to store some stuff if you want to shed weight before you go off-roading. Bui and I took advantage of this, so we spent some time emptying all of our luggage in the parking lot and re-organizing.
There were a few other motorcyclists taking advantage of the University as well.
Apparently, I had managed to kill a bee in an interesting manner.
Bui spent some time near Fairbanks as part of the Air Force, so seeing the outlets used to power engine block heaters makes him all warm and fuzzy with nostalgia.
Apparently Reddit is everywhere.
Speaking of Bui’s nostalgia, we went to Little Saigon Restaurant, a Vietnamese place just a mile or so away from campus. As soon as we walked in, Bui realized that he had ate here some 30 years prior! He just couldn’t remember the exterior because it was covered in snow the last time he saw it. The same lady, named Mai, has been running the restaurant all this time. However, she’s about to call it quits and is now trying to sell the restaurant. We got some great home-cooked food, and then headed back to the dorm to get some sleep before we made our final push to the top.
Go to Day 13
June 16th, 2014 – Fairbanks, AK to Happy Valley, AK ~410 miles
Go back to Day 11
June 14th, 2014 – Tok, AK to Anchorage, AK ~320 miles