Picto Diary - 21 June 2016 - Alaska trip final day
Day 14. McCall, ID to Salt Lake City, UT. 445 miles. 2012 BMW F800GS motorcycle. Solo ride today. Nice 100 mile ride along the raging, white water, Payette River from McCall to Boise, the rest I slabbed I 84 and I 15.
Above. Bishop at Subway/Chevron convenience store. Burley, ID. 21 June 2016.
My first overnight stop on a motorcycle trip....1998.. was at this Best Western motel, seen over my shoulder from my seat at the Subway at the Burley ID Chevron.
I was on my way to get my new, 1998 BMW R1100 GS motorcycle a 600 mile service at Big Twin Motorcycles in Boise. I stopped the ride early in Burley as, un prepared for riding in the rain, I got soaked.
BMW of SL couldn't fit me in for a service for over a month...and, I wanted to ride.
Above: Windscreen and head lamp of 2012 BMW F800 GS motorcycle. Maverick convenience store. Ogden, UT. 21 June 2016.
2012 BMW F800GS motorcycle.
Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and Alaska bugs.
Above: Bishop and 2012 BMW F800GS motorcycle. Harrison Eurosport Motorcycles. Salt Lake City. 21 June 2016.
4600 total ridden miles. 600 miles by Alaska Maritime Highway ferry. Park City, UT to Delta Junction, AK and return.
Alaska Trip Observations.
Harley. After panning Harley riders for so many years, I have to back off a bit. There were quite a few serious, hard core, Harley riders on the Alaska highway. Most rode Road King like touring bikes. The Chief, on our ride, rode a Dyna... the only one of those that I saw. Kudos to all Harley riders on the Alaska Highway.
Distances. From Park City to Delta Junction and back. About 4600 road miles. 500 ferry miles. Riding to Delta Junction and back would be like riding to New York City and back. You look out over the expansive forests, wide fast flowing rivers, and mountains you see and wonder, "has anyone actually explored in depth those places?" Along the Alaska highway, nothing (settlement, gas etc.) is within 100 miles of anything else.
Gas. The range of my 2012 BMW F800 GS motorcycle is, all things being equal, about 180 miles. That number could go lower with headwinds or sustained high speed riding. There are enough gas stops along the way to accommodate this range... but... gas availability is no sure thing. At one stop on the trip, power was out and gas pumps weren't working. Most riders carry auxiliary cans of gas. This is a good thing to do. I carried two liters extra gas (30 more miles at 60 mph) in my pannier... I didn't have to use it.
Bike knowledge. The F800 GS has tube tires. You should really know how to fix a flat if you take off into the wilds. That means, dismounting the wheel, extracting the tube, putting a new tube in if you carry one, or patching the punctured tube, using C02 cartridges or emergency pumps powered by the bikes battery, to get the tire inflated, and then, remounting the wheel. I don't know how to do this. My mates could have helped. But, I rode seven hundred miles alone in remote country. Had I had a flat while riding alone.... The bigger adventure bikes have tubeless tires. I know how to plug a puncture on a tubeless tire... but, the resultant fix is short term and unreliable for longer distances. The German rider we met at Toad River, in BC on the Alaska Highway had had a flat on his F800 GS and was in his third day of waiting, at Toad River, for a new tire replacement flown in to Whitehorse, 200 miles away. I was lucky.
Tires. The Hidenau tires I was riding wore well and had plenty of tread left on my arrival back home.
Accommodations. Most Alaska motorcycle adventure tourers are campers. Not us. I've tried motorcycle camping a few times... but, its not for me. Too hard to get up in the night and too many snoring people nearby. There are motels along the way on the Alaska Highway. Sometimes we booked in advance. Sometimes we didn't. Galt's judgement, having ridden the road several times, played a role in our accommodation decision making. Our one iffy time of potentially not having accommodation was in Whitehorse, Yukon...... a town of over 10,000 and several motels, including a Best Western. Because of our expectation of room availability, we hadn't pre-booked. We learned on arrival in Whitehorse that a Lufthansa jet had just brought in 300 German tourists. Rooms at our desired hotels were booked. We were lucky to get the last two rooms at a Ma and Pa motel. Best to book the day before since booking well in advance reduces flexibility.
Weather. On the Alaska highway we rode mostly in 50 to 55 degree temperatures, often in intermittent rain. The ride from Whitehorse to Haines Junction, 120 miles, was accomplished in sustained light to medium rain in 45 degree to 50 degree temperatures. I kept warm throughout with my KLIM, medium weight, Goretex riding jacket and a down liner/jacket worn underneath. I had a Gerbing heated jacket along, but, I didn't use it as I hadn't had experience using it with the smaller engine F800GS and didn't want battery problems. I'll test the Gerbing on the F800GS when I'm near home. In sustained rains I would wear waterproof pants over my kevlar MotoPort riding pants. I wore thin, deer skin, gloves the whole trip, which I couldn't have done without the magnificent heated grips of the F800GS. In sustained rains I wore waterproof mitts over the deer skin gloves. In hindsight, I feel I was well prepared for the inclement weather.
Alaska! I love being in Alaska. This trip was my fourth visit to Alaska in the last 8 years. Three of those trips were motorcycle related. The first, I joined a MotoQuest tour and rode a KLR from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay and back... about 1800 miles. The second, accompanied by Mr. Z3, I rented,a KLR in Anchorage and we rode a self guided tour of the Kenai Peninsula. Finally, a couple of years ago, TIMDT and Mwah (sic) joined FeeBee's family on an Alaska cruise. Distances, scenery, wildlife in Alaska are all outsized in every respect. The feeling, in Alaska, of being away from the hum drum, noisy, chaotic, "civilization" where most of us live is exhilarating.
Addendum:
Is this the dam we visited that he had a display area on how the dam was built etc..? We placed tires on Friday ended up getting almost 11,000 miles and the front wheel, probably had another 25% left. Tech commented that the tires were worn properly as I drive on the sides as much as the middle, you spend so much time on the highway it is difficult to achieve this on your bikes. Glad you had some interesting rides.
Mr. Z3
Ojai, CA
thanks Steve.