5th of July - Day 14 of Alaska Trip

We left Haines, AK at 8am this morning heading for Tok, AK a measly 450 miles up the Alaskan Highway. Leroy’s shoulders and back were feeling a little better this morning after topping off with muscle relaxers, massive doses of Ibuprofen, and lots of rest over the past couple of days. This particular stretch of highway included the 159 mile stretch from Haines to Haines Junction where we caught the Alcan. The rolling landscape was lush low vegetation on gentle hills with countless sloughs, creeks, rivers, and lakes fed by snow melt. All this was surrounded by glacier covered mountains in the distance. Very nice! Once we got onto the Alcan, there were more spruce but also the damage from spruce beetles was extensive. It was sad to see so many millions of dead and dying trees. The permafrost is in constant expansion and contraction cycles, which buckles the pavement and creates huge potholes. Leroy said they were working on paving this part of the Alcan six years ago when he passed through here and it looks like it has been in a constant state of repair ever since. The so-called paved parts gave way to miles and miles of crappy gravel roads needing to be surfaced. I would rather have Frankenstein with a machete on my plane that hafta ride my bike on gravel roads – Seriously!!! It was about this time that I discovered the “Object of My Affliction”! I was poking along on my Geezer Glide doing about 40-45mph on slippery gravel and here comes Leroy on his Dual Sport just whizzing past. Yep, a dual sport is just what I need! Half the weight of the Wing and twice as much travel in the suspension, it just eats roads like this. Of course, everything in life is a tradeoff – If I put Ol’ Silver out to pasture, I would be giving up major creature comforts and carrying capacity. One minute I'm sure I want to buy a dual-sport motorbike, the next minute I'm sure I don't want to. It's a vicious cycle! (No pun intended, of course!) About 100 miles outside of Tok, the rain started so we high tailed it into town and found a decent motel with a restaurant next door. Tomorrow we decide whether to head west to Anchorage or north to Fairbanks – depending on how Leroy is feeling, naturally…