Well, I leave Anchorage tomorrow! The bike is loaded, fueled and checked for the trip. My first stop will be Tok, Alaska, which is 320 miles from Anchorage. It is the first village for fuel and food that travelers from the lower 48 hit after they cross the Alaska/Yukon border. The road splits southwest to Anchorage or continues west to Fairbanks at Tok. My second night will be a hotel in Haines Junction, Yukon, which is another 300 miles from Tok. Monday, September 4, I have to ride 150 miles to Haines, Alaska, to catch the ferry, the COLUMBIA, to Bellingham, Washington. The ferry is a  three and a half day trip arriving on the morning of Friday 8 September. Then, a 2100 mile ride to St Louis, Missouri, to meet my sister and her partner and ride with them to Utah. I need to put a few thousand miles on my Harley Road King before continuing south to Mexico and beyond.

I have to say as I write this I am both scared and excited for the upcoming trip. I assume these are not uncommon emotions for anyone about to set out on a trip or adventure like the one I am starting. I am scared about eaving the familiar:  friends, family and a comfortable home environment. I am very excited about seeing new people, cultures and places which is what traveling is all about. And motorcycling is one of my favorite means of transportation. It provides enough excitement for the adrenaline fix but also covers ground fairly rapidly. But the emotions are pretty overwhelming at the moment. I figure being gone from 4-9 months depending on the turn around point being the Canal or Tierra del Fuego.

Temperatures here have already turned cooler and fall is in the air. The weather prediction is for scattered showers and temperatures in the upper 50's to lower 60's over the next three days all the way to Haines. I have elected not to camp simply to save on the gear I have to haul. Hostels and hotels are pretty cheap south of the border and at 70 I have elected to travel in comfort.  

I have sailed on the COLUMBIA south a couple times. I do not have a stateroom nor do I plan on camping on the fantail of the ship. The observation lounges have recliners which provide a great job of substituting for a bed. Additonally, there are showers, cafeterias and a bar (with slot machines if memory serves) on the ferry.  The ferry  will spend a few hours in Juneau on the way to Bellingham to unload/load vehicles and providing a chance to stretch your legs on dry land and stock up on snacks. Again, if memory serves, there is a big supermarket a couple hundred yards from the ferry dock.  The scenery and wildlife viewing along the Inside Passage gives cruise ship passengers something to do in the 1500-2000 mile cruise so I will take advantage of it as well.

I will be posting photos from along the ride. The road to Glenallen parallels the Chugach Range and the Matanuska Glacier. And there are some great views of Mount Drum and the Wrangell-St Elias range between Glenallen and Tok.  .  The COLUMBIA will also offer some interesting photos. But scenic views and photographs depend a lot on the weather and the lighting. I was in Vietnam for 30 days last December and it was monsoon season. I took a lot of photos with the iPhone but a post card would have done as well. And Vietnam was some of the scariest motorcycling I have ever done but that is another story.

My oldest friend (met in 1970 at Indiana University) is a woman named Melissa Farlow.  She and I were both journalism majors.  We worked on the college yearbook together, I as a photographer and she was an editor.  Anyway, I taught her photography and she went on to become a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographer.  Back in 2002, GEOGRAPHIC wanted her to do a book on the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska so I ended up as her guide, assistant, and chief cook and bottle washer.  We drove all over Alaska and I remember days she did not take her camera out of its case and I asked her about it.  She was looking for "god light" for landscapes.  She explained "god light is the streams of light coming through clouds or great lighting at sunrise or sunset".  Check out any good landscape artist and you will see what she means.

Her husband is also a NATGEO photographer so if you want to see some great photography from all over the world, google Olson/Farlow for their website.  And Melissa did one other book for NATGEO on the Pan American Highway called THE LONG ROAD SOUTH:  THE PAN AMERICAN HIGHWAY.  And I will mention one other source of photos and riding information.  Look up Alex Chacon at Modern Motorcycle Diaries.  He is a young man from El Paso, Texas, and after graduating from college jumped on a motorcycle and rode south and then north and then all over.  He does presentations here at Horizons Unlimited but will impress you with his videos and photography while flying a drone one handed while riding his motorcycle. I am not going to attempt matching his versatillity, yet I  promise to stop to take photos.

For a bit of budgeting as of Sept, 2023, premium fuel in Anchorage is $5.00/gallon, a hotel room in Tok was just under $200/night and a hotel room in Haines Junction, Yukon was $99 US/night.  The ferry from Haines to Bellingham was $1300 for a senior and a motorcycle.  Prices are obviously higher if you book a cabin or take a larger vehicle.