Peenie Wallie: Day 18 - Anchorage, AK to Fairbanks, AK (Tue 8/5/14)

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August 5, 2014

Day 18 - Anchorage, AK to Fairbanks, AK (Tue 8/5/14)

Above: Driving north from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Alaska Highway 3.

Additional Photos in the Extended Entry.

(Tue 8/5/14)

Update: I am alive and well and resting peacefully in Fairbanks, Alaska, on the banks of the Chena River, in the interior section of the state.

Starting Odometer: 20,544
Ending Odometer: 20,931
Miles Driven Today: 387
Miles Driven This Trip: 6,278

Here's a map of my ride today.

Hmmm. Today. Today went like this. Ben and i stayed in a hostel in Anchorage last night. Anchorage is a dreamy little town with mountains, parks, and rivers flowing into the bay.

We checked in, and then went rolling around, looking for the old downtown Anchorage. We found the port, and lots of people fishing for silver salmon. This is also where the rail line ends. They have this train with a glass ceiling that probably takes people on a tour through Alaska. This would probably be a better way to see the state, as you don't have to worry about moose, mosquitos, rain, cold, snow, etc.

This morning, Ben and I are in the parking lot of the hostel getting ready to leave when I
notice that my cigarette lighter on the bike has come apart. There are little pieces inside of there. I gingerly extract them, only to drop a piece which I can never locate. I think it was some type of a spring. Great. So now, this means that I don't have any way to recharge my electronics while on the bike.

Now, I start up the bike, and the digital instrument cluster isn't functioning. So, I don't have a speedometer, a tachometer, a odometer, a temperature gauge....all of that is gone. Poof.

I'm majorly disappointed. I'm starting to think that KTM is not ready for prime time. I see a BMW GSA1200R in my future.

We drive down to the KTM dealership in Anchorage, but they don't have my chain and sprockets in stock.

This is not good, but they do have them in stock back in Fairbanks. I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Like, I never really had a plan for what to do if I actually made it to the Arctic Circle, because I wasn't sure that I'd even make it. I figured I'd probably hit a moose, or be run down by a trucker on the Dalton Highway.

But none of that happened. So, I'm really not sure what to do. I think that I'll probably just drive the bike back, but the chain and sprockets are ruined. I'm not even sure I can make it back to Fairbanks. Plus, now that I lost my instrument cluster, I can't tell how fast I'm going, or how far I've gone.

I decide to tackle the problem of the instrument cluster failure. It has to be a fuse. That's the only thing that makes sense. The fuses are in a little glove compartment on the bike that are easily accessible without tools. There are two rows of fuses. I figure out that the one row of fuses is just spares. They're not plugged into anything. The row of fuses that seems to be in use has two labeled ACC something or other. "C" might be cluster. So I pull the first one, no dice. It's fine. I pull the 2nd one. it's blown. Bingo. So, I replace the fuse, start the bike, and my instrument cluster returns. So, that's a huge improvement. The bike is now drivable, at this point. As long as my chain/sprockets don't give out on me, I should be able to make it to Fairbanks.

So, I tell Ben to head on. He's going on a ferry to the Kenai peninsula, I think. I'll try to meet up with him in a day or so. Ideally, the plan is to meet up and drive back down 37, the Stewart Cassier Highway/Dease Lake Road. Then, down through Prince George to Cache Creek, then through Hell's Gates, down Canada Highway 99, the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Vancouver. From there, it gets kind of sketchy, but cross back into the United States and wander back to Colorado.

So I take off, hell-bent-for-leather at about 11:30 a.m., heading north back to Fairbanks. The drive is something like 360 miles, and it seems like, in theory, I can get there before they close at 6:00 p.m.

I stop at the same gas stations we stopped at yesterday. The general plan is to drive 100 miles or so, get gas, and move on. At Cantwell, I stop, and it's kind of cold, so I roll back to where I washed the mud off the rims yesterday so I can add on some riding gear. As luck would have it, some guy was refilling the underground gas tanks when I pulled back there. He started freaking out like you can't imagine. He's screaming at me at the top of his lungs about what an idiot I am to be near the gas fumes while he's refilling the tanks. But, it's not like my bike is running. It's dead. So, it's not likely to spark a Hollywood-type of explosion. But, this idiot is screaming at me at the top of his lungs.

When I leave, I just flip him off.

I drive like a bat out of hell, and get a ticket for going 93 in a 65. I made it into the KTM dealership just about closing time, but they tell me to come back at 9:00 a.m. and they'll set me up.

Also, I managed to leave my credit card at the gas station in Coldfoot, and they flew it in to Fairbanks, if you can believe it. So I'll go pick that up also.

Hopefully, I'll be able to start winding this adventure down tomorrow.

Photos in the Extended Entry