Sacramento to Alaska and back

[randii]

July gave me Mon-Fri plus a weekend on either side, so I took a left turn out of my driveway and kept going north and west until I was at the Artic Circle. I had so damn much fun that I elected to store the moto in Anchorage and terminate Phase One in Anchorage and spend Monday in air travel back to Sacramento.

Phase One totaled 4676 miles, 28* latitude 30.5* longitude, 10 days, 126gal gas, 72 quarters at the self car-wash (I got MOST of it off), and no contributions to any constabulary in any country.

• Day 0: Sacramento to Seattle - 750 miles
• Day 1: Seattle to Prince George - 550 miles
• Day 2: PG to Fort Nelson - 500 miles
• Day 3: FN to Watson Lake - 325 miles
• Day 4: WL to Beaver Creek - 550 miles
• Day 5: BC to Fairbanks - 300 miles
• Day 6: Arctic Circle and back - 400 miles
• Day 7: FB to Anchorage/Alyeska - 400 miles
• Day 8: ANC to Seward - 150 miles
• Day 9: no moto miles - Kenai Fjords day cruise (no moto miles)
• Day 10: Seward to Homer to ANC - 400 miles

I won't do anywhere near the justice that Uncle Phil would, so that's the quick version.

 

[randii]

Mapped:

 

[randii]

I'm on the downhill slide towards Phase Two of Anchorage->Sacramento.
I can squeeze another workweek bracketed by two weekends in the last 9-10 days of September; I'm hoping for Parks Highway, Cassiar Highway, Hyder, Yellowhead Highway, PCH, and I-5 as time requires. I can work from the road or visit friends in Washington or Oregon on the way back if needed. The most dangerous thing on a trip is a calendar -- too many commits mean you have to keep moving when you shouldn't, and you can't overstay when you want to... so I try to be flexible. I hotel when I can, camp when I can't, and occasionally ride through the night if the scenery sucks (more a Cali Central Valley problem than a Yukon/Alaska problem).

As I'm thinking about the trip back, I could do without rerunning the stretch of the Alaskan Highway between Burwash Landing and Beaver Creek (it was worse than the mainline Dalton Highway other than the detour), but I'm not sure I can make that work with the ferries (Figuring out how/when/where these Blue Canoes connect is complex!). I'm sad for the fires in general, and have been actively praying for rain: primary benefit to knock the fires down, secondary benefit to let me get through the Cassiar Highway and down onto the Yellowhead Highway. If the roads close, it is a heckuva backtrack back to Watson Lake and around through Dawson Creek, or perhaps hopping a ferry out of Prince Rupert.

Not sure how hard I'm willing to work, spend, and schedule to avoid that particular 100 miles -- I probably need to just suck it up and re-run Beaver-Burwash. Maybe it will be smoother running the other direction? The bumps might just face one way?