Alaska 2012
 
 

Day 12

July 16

 
   
 
 
 

As I am learning, doing over four hundred miles on these roads is a pretty big day. And today we need to cover over five hundred and thirty. So I get up early to do my walking and get after it. I figure I'll walk past the City Diner and back and maybe it will work out that they will open on the up trip. My timing is a bit off, but they finally get opened up. When I walk into the parking lot, I see a fairly new Ural with a sidecar. I figure the rider is inside and I figure right. I order a great breakfast and when I am finished, I strike up a conversation with the obvious rider - since he and I are the only ones in the place. He tells me -

"You can't get those things stuck anywhere. I've ridden through the marshes, the snow - just about everywhere. They just keep pulling. In fact, I pulled a four wheeler out of the mud one day."

As it turns out, his son is thinking about buying several of them and renting them out for people to ride on the haul road. I tell him

"He ought to go for it. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me."

The idea of riding up here, then renting a Ural to go to Arctic Circle sounds like a lot of fun. I wish him well and head back for the motel. I've been gone far longer than I intended to be, and now I'm the dog's tail. Even Mr. Happy is getting tired of waiting on me. I get my stuff together as quickly as I can, and we're on the road.

 
  
 A1 from Palmer to Glennallen is a real treat of a road. It has some great sweepers, decent pavement and some gorgeous scenery. Besides that, it has all of the modern conveniences for taking a much needed break ... 
  
 There's a glacier in the distance and ....  
  
 some beautiful mountains peaking out from behind the clouds.  
  
 We decide if we did this trip over, we'd skip Anchorage and Fairbanks and just overnight in Palmer. It seems like around very bend the scenery gets neater.  
  
 The sweepers are just a delight to ride and so is the road surface for a change until ...  
  
 we see this sign followed by ...  
  
 this sign.  
  
 And they are not kidding when they say 'loose' gravel. It's messy and rough but we soldier on through it with as little pucker as possible. 
  
 Since we have the road to ourselves, we can really enjoy the sweepers.  
  
 I'm amazed at the width of lot of the river beds since right now there is very little water running down them. I guess when the snow melts they must be a rushing, mighty flood.  
  
 And the rivers that do have a fair amount of water, are usually sort of a muddy brown - not exactly something you'd want to take a drink out of or go swimming in.  
  
 This area does not have very many snow covered mountains, just some mighty rugged looking ones.  
  
 But it does have it's fair share of pretty lakes which generally don't take on the muddy colors of the local rivers.  
  
 And every now and then, you see a bear crossing the road just to keep you awake.  
  
 When we reach the entrance to Burwash Landing, there is an old dilapidated building that fronts the gas pumps. Evidently the old gent that runs this place is fixing to leave but stops when we pull in. The gas pumps are the old style, reminding me of the ones I tended to when I was a teenager. He has a notebook that he handwrites all the transactions in just like it used to be. But he's got gas, we need gas, and it all works out. We head down the gravel road to the 'resort' and pull up near the front.  
  
 It's got a store and restaurant inside that looks like it dates back to the thirties. Once we get unloaded and check out room out, we head back down stairs for some grub. Once again, nice folks have held open the restaurant for us and we quickly place our order. An older Oriental man serves us who is easy to laugh. He's quite the host and makes the meal very enjoyable. We decide we need to be up by four AM and out by five, so we make sure we can settle up for the meal and the room tonight. The place is old, but it has a lot of stuffed animals and character - both humans and place. Knowing I don't do well on short rations of sleep, I head upstairs and get serious about nodding off.