Doing the Loop - Part 9

It is a little past 3 pm when I take off and it doesn't take long before Tok is in my rear view mirrors.  I am confident that should I have some sort of trouble along the way (like a flat tire...) that Chase and Greg will be behind me and we'll find some way to load my Electra Glide in the back of the truck with Greg's bike.  There is some really nice new asphalt on the way out of Tok and it makes very smooth riding.  I am hoping it lasts all the way to Anchorage.  I find out it only lasts 13 miles.  

The old roadbed is not terrible but there is a real difference between the new and the old.  I am able to keep a cruising speed of 65 mph easily.  It has been many years since I have traversed this part of the highway.  It is hilly and has some nice curves.  Since it is still considered spring time, the roads are still in the condition they were post-winter.  I begin to encounter "road snakes" that are a little scary.  A road snake is a wide crack in the pavement that should your front tire fall into it, it would take control of your bike and most likely wreck your bike and you at the same time.  Road snakes can bite.  And yes, there are cracks that wide.  I have several miles of these things to avoid by swerving constantly to avoid certain misfortune.  In a vehicle with four wheels you would hardly even notice such things, but on a bike, it is a real concern.  It is said that there no snakes in Alaska but now you know different.

This is really what I have longed for since day one.  A far destination as a goal for the day and uninterrupted riding except for fuel which is few and far between.  I pass the rare car now and then being able to take my time and not risk danger.  The smoke from the Kenai fire is still hanging heavy against the hills and the view is limited, but I am having a great time.  

I begin to encounter some very broken road sections.  I have to slow to 25 mph or less to safely navigate these sections.  A typical section is about 100 yards long or so and just when you get up to speed again, another one appears.  I am pretty remote and far from help here so I don't want to risk damaging my tires or my bike so I just deal with it and keep going.  My next goal is Glennallen Junction.  

An hour or so goes by and I haven't seen Greg and Chase behind me at all.  The terrain begins to flatten out and the vegetation becomes a little more lush.  A few beautiful clear water streams follow or cut under the highway.  I am beginning to encounter a few more homes, I figure I must be nearing some kind of civilization.  I am, of sorts.  There is a little community that is a community for who knows what reason - why would people live so far out here?  There is a little general store a single gas pump and an airstrip, since I don't need any of those services, I ride on.  

I ride pleasurably until I reach a junction at Mentasna.  There is a beautiful little campground there where the road to Paxton and Delta Junction meet with the road I am on coming from Tok.  I turn left and keep going.  I decide I need to do this trip again sometime soon and hopefully without incident as I am having too much fun.

If you don't get it about bikes, I probably can't help you understand why riding motorcycles is such good therapy.  If you do get it, I don't need to explain.  I am in the sweet spot of motorcycle riding.  It just doesn't get much better than this.  

I see road signs that tell me I am not far from Glennallen.  Good, I will need fuel.  Glennallen is also a junction with the highway that goes to Valdez, another trip I really want to take.  

Glennallen is pretty much a gas station, a school and a Alaska State trooper detachment.  

It is wide and spread out all over with houses lining both sides of each branch of highway that forks out from the center.  I get off my bike, take off my helmet to fuel my bike.  I am instantly consumed by mosquitoes.  They must have been waiting for me as I am mobbed by them.  I flail away with one hand while trying to program the gas pump to put gas in my tank.  I duck inside the gas station to use the restroom and to get away from the bugs.  It is somewhat better inside.  Nobody else is flailing their hands like I am.  Maybe they have some kind of immunity.  

I step outside again just in time to see Greg and Chase drive up in the pick up.  I chuckle as they step outside the truck and begin to flail their hands at the mosquitoes.  We exchange a little conversation and then I put my helmet on, take it off, remove the mosquito from my ear and put it back on.  I am anxious to leave Glennallen and the mosquitoes behind and on to Anchorage.

Once again, I have new pavement to ride on as I leave town.  Glennallen has grown up a bit since I was a kid.  There is still the "Cracker Barrel Store" we always stopped at back in the day.  It is a little older looking and a bit shabby.  So much is new since I was here last, the little Assembly of God church looks to be doing well, nice building and freshly painted.  I am proud to see it.  

I soon come up to speed once I leave city limits and am on my way again.