The other two pictures are from our campsite, looking out over the rest of the campground. I’m guessing that most people considered it too early in the season to be out. We only saw, not including ourselves, and Joe the other rider, 6 people. We also lucked out on the bug front. I didn’t have to use toxic bug repellent a single time I while I was there. I think that was the most shocking thing about the trip.
A little background on my BFF Lori:
She rode bikes when were in High School start of College. She had small little street bikes and then bought a Harley that she had for a few years. She says that in all that time she maybe racked up 5K miles. I got her back on my lil’ TTR last summer when she came to visit. She went back to AK after that trip and bought herself a XT250. She’d only put 200 miles on it before this trip. She is pretty much one of the reasons I started to ride in 2005.
This trip was really odd for both of us. We’ve now switched roles, in that she is no longer the experienced rider and I’m not the noob. (I’ve ridden over 100K miles on street) It was hard for her to stop trying to be the mother hen and for her to let me ride sweep. It was my take that the less experienced rider on the smaller bike should be in front, unless you need to scout road conditions and there were spots along the Denali Hwy I wanted to go first so I could see if she was going to struggle. It also took some doing to convince her that she didn’t need to stop with me every time I wanted a picture and that I would indeed catch back up to her without any problems. Well, for most of the trip anyway.
After setting up the tents, cooking dinner, we were in the process of cooking up Smores when a guy on another F800 rode through the camp ground. We of course waved, like fools at him. We must not have looked to crazed he stop, came over and talked with us about the campground. We offered him some curried lentils and kale. He seemed shocked by that and I think it was what made him decided to stay in the spot next to us. This was the Joe I mentioned earlier. I’m pretty sure by the end of the night he was wondering about our sanity. :rofl: Our case wasn’t helped by the beer he brought over to our site or by the bottle of Bourbon we had already consumed. How he fit all his gear, and three six packs of beer into his saddle bags I’ll never know. He did have one leak all over his tent though.
After we finished off all the marshmallows, we told tall tales, found out Joe was a Lawyer from CA who had just ridden up to Prudoe Bay and was on his way to Valdez to catch the Ferry. He had been riding for two weeks already and had another 3 weeks of riding planned. Now that is a trip I’d like to take.
We all walked around the campground and checked out parts of the lakes. John noticed fish jumping, so he decided to go fishing. In retrospect, not the brightest idea. But since we were all kids, none of us was ever accused of exercising good judgement all the time.
He did manage to catch a rather nice size Grayling about 1 am. Again, it’s still daylight out… none of us were paying attention to the time. We grilled that thing up as soon as we could and ate it right from the pan. That was a new experience for Joe, he’d never done anything like that and couldn’t believe just how good that fish tasted. I have to admit it was dang tasty. After polishing off the fish and the last of the firewood, we all decided to hit the sack. I was pleased that it really wasn’t cold, I was only wearing underarmour, a tee shirt, a sweatshirt, a hat and a jacket to stay warm. Really, that isn’t bad given there was still ice on the lakes and it was 95 when I left home.
