August 31, Dempster Highway Junction to Dawson City -        25 Miles

Momentous Decision Day! (and Cleanup Day)

Last night as we were savoring our fun and good fortune in riding up and down the Dempster Highway, Deane said "Now if we could only ride up to Prudhoe Bay, we'd make a sweep of the most difficult roads in Canada and Alaska".  (Prudhoe Bay is actually oil company property, and the town outside the oil company fence is Deadhorse, Alaska.)  As we discussed it, we agreed that "it's only 1,000 miles roundtrip from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Deadhorse, on a nasty gravel road, and we just completed 920 miles roundtrip to Inuvik on a nasty gravel road".

That planted the seed of thought in each of us.  So this morning at breakfast we discussed it again and agreed we had just enough time to do it, and right now we were well equipped and seasoned enough to do it!!  We wouldn't have this combination of gravel road riding motorcycles and a motor home following, again.  So, the decision was sealed. - We'd go to Fairbanks and then on to Prudhoe Bay!!!

We had all been to Alaska two or more times, by various modes of transportation, and this could substitute seeing something totally different rather than see some of the same sights again.  The time factor was set by Deane's already-booked flight from Anchorage to Boise, Idaho on September 9th.  Oh, didn't I tell you about that?

Since early this year, Deane has been signed up to go to his 50th High School Reunion, in Boise, Idaho, September 10th - 12th.  Because this current long motorcycle / RV trip would overlap that time, Deane had agreed with Norm and Kay that he would go on the trip through Anchorage, then fly to Boise, and fly back to Anchorage to continue the "Big Trip".  (That should win the prize for the longest distance to get to the Reunion, shouldn't it?  Or the craziest person?)

So that is what is driving our timetable right now, and we calculated that we have time to ride/drive up the "Dalton Highway" (used to be commonly called the "Haul Road"),  from Fairbanks to Deadhorse and back and still meet Deane's date for the 50th Reunion!!

Now, we had to clean up from our Inuvik trip, so we spent most of the day cleaning up four motorcycles and a motor home.  While the Gold Wings had been in a covered garage during that trip, they were quite dirty from the ride getting to the starting point.

The trailer had an enormous amount of dust from the trip up the Dempster, so we had to take everything out and dust it off, as well as borrowing the air hose from the garage people and blowing out the trailer.  Then came the repacking and reorganization of all of our "stuff" and putting the V-Strom and the Pacific Coast back in.

During this time Kay was also very busy, cleaning out the dust that had gotten into the motor home through every crack or little hole, and doing some laundry.  The dust was fierce, even in all parts of the motor home.

Finally we rode the 25 miles to Dawson City, the gold rush town of 1898, treated ourselves to an excellent dinner of Salmon, and went on to see "Diamond Tooth Gertie" and the Can Can girls give a really fun show.

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