Mike's Alaska Motorcycle Odyssey 2011

Saturday, July 30, 2011
Day 37
7,139 mi / 11,422 km ridden so far

Breakfast with Pat, sharing his favorite: coffee spiked with cardamom. Last night's rain had stopped, at least for the moment.

There's been a gravely noise from the bike's drivetrain ever since Deadhorse (go figure, 1,000 miles on dirt road in the rain on a sportbike?). That's worrisome. My religious every-day chain maintenance has turned almost fanatical in hopes that I can keep it together until I can find a new one. That's part of today's quest.

So a quick ride back down the hill into Whitehorse to Wally World to get more chain lube, been going thru it at a fanatical rate -- then on to Yukon Yamaha for a new chain. Common item for a bike dealer so I was disappointed when it was not to be had there. But the dealer tech looked at my chain and proclaimed that it still had thousands of km left to go. Made me feel for an instant better about the chain, then I began to wonder if it was then a deeper problem...like something in the tranny. Murphy has a way of revealing the answer in his own good time, which for me will probably be at the worst possible time.

So it was on down the road.

beautiful clouds over river

"Scarecrows" such as this often are found adjacent to openings in the forest thru which narrow gravel lanes depart the Alaska Highway, as if to be an individualistic marker for the residents beyond? Creepy.

Crossed over the Continental Divide, now looking east of what is the northern extreme of the Rocky Mountains

View looking east of the divide...can you guess?
Hammered again by thunderstorms, this one was pretty ugly, fortunately going 60-70 kph thru them they don't last too long. Time to get boots bagged again.