Day 5. Alaska Ride 2017: Coldfoot, Alaska
I wake from the hard sounds of rain on the top of my hotel unit. It is 3:00 am and I am starting to fear the worst: that the rain is intensifying. I lay in bed until 5:30 am and then start getting ready for the days ride. I am worried that the bike may not start since it is been sitting out in heavy rain for two days: I decided not to put the bike cover on it when I parked it, because it was not raining hard at the time: really bad
decision. I decide to get some of the oatmeal out of my camping gear and heat up some water using my camp burner on the hotel steps, in order to save some money. I will stop at Yukon River and get a mid-morning breakfast and lunch. I start loading the bike and two young guys come up to me, which is weird in that it is 6:15 am and I am off on the side and out of the way. The two guys looked to be in their early 20s. The older looking one says that three of them came Southbound over Atigun pass last night on their bikes. There was no snow on the North face, but the snow was deep at the top and on the South slope. He says that one of the guys chain broke, and a guy in a pickup truck took his bike down to Coldfoot. The old one says that he ended up pushing his KLR down the pass because it was too difficult to ride. He said that they never would have been able to go up the South slope the way it was last night. He then asks if I have a chain link to fix the broken chain. I tell him that I did not, and they turn around and abruptly leave.
The bike starts right up, and I am on the road at 7:00 am, and it is raining hard and about 45 degrees. I head South for the next 2.5 hours while the rain slams through the crack at the bottom of my face shield. I found that the face shield was fogging up badly. Often, I could not tell if there was real fog or it was just my faces shield fogging up. Throughout the morning there would be patches of heavy fog, with alternating patches of high winds. The area was socked-in with low rain clouds just over my head. The kind of rain clouds I have seen in the Coastal areas and at time in the desert in Southern Arizona. Although it was very difficult riding, I found that I was going about 10 miles per hour faster going South, then I had done going North. It was just easier, maybe because the rain had smoothed out the road? What was really weird was the piles of gravel where now gone. Maybe the construction crews leveled the piles out? I stopped at Yukon River for breakfast and gas. You get breakfast and
about 3 gallons of gas for just over $30. I make some repairs on the bike, as a number of parts have come loose due to the intensity of the road, and then I am off up the Yukon River bridge. I watch an eighteen-wheeler take on the bridge at about 80 miles per hour. He probably needed the speed to make the incline. I sure did not want to be on the bridge when a truck comes from either direction: there will be nowhere to get out of the way because I sure will not be going 80 miles an hour up the bridge. I had been dreading the bridge ever since I came Northbound on it. The bridge is made of wooden planks, and with the rain the ride is like being on ice. I size up the length of the bridge, look at the top and behind me to see if there are any trucks coming, and then I take off up the bridge. I am doing pretty well going straight up the bridge, but I can feel the handlebars start to wobble as I get half way up the bridge. I downshift, relax and focus on a nice even speed. I make it to the top and feel a huge relief come over me. The road becomes worse the more South you go. You just never know what is over the next hill or around the next bend. There are changes in road types, where it goes from asphalt to gravel or mud. You might suddenly find that there are many potholes filled with water. There are washboard conditions, and then there Is the dreaded thin layer mud road. I was going about 60 and crested a hill only to find that the road had turned in to a smooth mud slope. I handlebars suddenly start to move back and forth, I downshift but the hill is steep and the slope is slick. I finally get control of the bike, just when a truck comes toward me. At the bottom of the
is a worker with a road scrapper, which accounts for how the road got to be so smooth and slick. I get to the Elliot highway and about a mile into it run over a small wood plank bridge. The bike immediately goes sideways, but the good news is the bridge is so small that it is all over in an instant. There should be a law against wood plank bridges in Alaska.
I arrive in Fairbanks without going down, but with a bike and gear covered in mud. I take the bike to the car wash and then check in to the hotel. I see that the bike still needs more cleaning, so I take it back for a second go at mud removal. The weather is just beautiful in Fairbanks. The sun is out and it is about 70 degrees. The weather changed when I left the Dalton. One minute it is pouring rain on the Dalton, and then it is nice in Fairbanks. It is nice to be out of the rain, as it had rained every minute since I originally left Fairbanks going North days ago.
decision. I decide to get some of the oatmeal out of my camping gear and heat up some water using my camp burner on the hotel steps, in order to save some money. I will stop at Yukon River and get a mid-morning breakfast and lunch. I start loading the bike and two young guys come up to me, which is weird in that it is 6:15 am and I am off on the side and out of the way. The two guys looked to be in their early 20s. The older looking one says that three of them came Southbound over Atigun pass last night on their bikes. There was no snow on the North face, but the snow was deep at the top and on the South slope. He says that one of the guys chain broke, and a guy in a pickup truck took his bike down to Coldfoot. The old one says that he ended up pushing his KLR down the pass because it was too difficult to ride. He said that they never would have been able to go up the South slope the way it was last night. He then asks if I have a chain link to fix the broken chain. I tell him that I did not, and they turn around and abruptly leave. 
about 3 gallons of gas for just over $30. I make some repairs on the bike, as a number of parts have come loose due to the intensity of the road, and then I am off up the Yukon River bridge. I watch an eighteen-wheeler take on the bridge at about 80 miles per hour. He probably needed the speed to make the incline. I sure did not want to be on the bridge when a truck comes from either direction: there will be nowhere to get out of the way because I sure will not be going 80 miles an hour up the bridge. I had been dreading the bridge ever since I came Northbound on it. The bridge is made of wooden planks, and with the rain the ride is like being on ice. I size up the length of the bridge, look at the top and behind me to see if there are any trucks coming, and then I take off up the bridge. I am doing pretty well going straight up the bridge, but I can feel the handlebars start to wobble as I get half way up the bridge. I downshift, relax and focus on a nice even speed. I make it to the top and feel a huge relief come over me. The road becomes worse the more South you go. You just never know what is over the next hill or around the next bend. There are changes in road types, where it goes from asphalt to gravel or mud. You might suddenly find that there are many potholes filled with water. There are washboard conditions, and then there Is the dreaded thin layer mud road. I was going about 60 and crested a hill only to find that the road had turned in to a smooth mud slope. I handlebars suddenly start to move back and forth, I downshift but the hill is steep and the slope is slick. I finally get control of the bike, just when a truck comes toward me. At the bottom of the
is a worker with a road scrapper, which accounts for how the road got to be so smooth and slick. I get to the Elliot highway and about a mile into it run over a small wood plank bridge. The bike immediately goes sideways, but the good news is the bridge is so small that it is all over in an instant. There should be a law against wood plank bridges in Alaska. 
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