September 6, Atigun Pass to Hot Spot, AK - 180 Miles to

Today's ride started with the coldest temperature yet.  When we got up, it was 19^o F, and by the time we started riding it was 20^o F, and quickly went down to 16^o, then to the coldest temperature on this trip so far - 14.7^o F !!!  If we didn't have Kay driving the motor home and being our support, we would never been able to make this ride.  By stopping when our fingers and toes were frozen and painful, we survived until it gradually got warmer - all the way up to about 30^o F!

However, everyone survived, and we had a nice scenic day - until we got back into the smoke from forest fires again.  We rode along the same 25 mile stretch that had been burning, or was still smoldering.  We had stopped at the Visitors Center in Cold foot, and found that 2004 was the record year for Alaska forest fires since records began to be kept in 1950.  Hard to believe that there have been 649 forest fires this year, so far, for a total of 6.2 million acres burned, and with 83 burning now.

We retraced bad road down to the little store of "Hot Spot" and called it a day.  We're only about 130 miles north of Fairbanks, and will easily reach that tomorrow.

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