Sept 26, 2005 - Monday
Anchorage, AK to Homer, AK
Video
Riding along the Chickaloon Bay & Turnagain Arm
2005-09-26.mpg
MPG, 7.6 MB, 0 min 58 sec
John (I hope I recall your name correctly)
and I at the Spenard Hostel. He has / just obtained his private
pilot's license - plans to fly about the area tonight. Also has
plans on doing a long distance motorcle tour. Nice to meet you!
Leaving Anchorage - houses and such up in the hills. Mostly clear skies.
Riding along with the Chickaloon Bay & the Turnagain Arm
Running low (150 - 200 ft MSL) along the water we turn towards dark
clouds. The mountains closed in as I drove on and I ended up
making a wide, right U-turn to come back down the other side a bit
before curving to the left to head down another canyon. Uphill
stretches had nice two lane sections for slow vehicles - I think the
road went up to about 1200 ft..
Some type of construction going on. The odd thing about this
stretch of road is that I'd see "Leaving Avalanche Area" but I never
saw a single "Entering Avalanche Area" zone - odd.
Let's look back towards Anchorage
Unfortunately a bunch of pictures today turned out fuzzy.
I think this was near the junction to Kenai
(
click for a larger size)
The bike is getting a bit more character
- after the mud dousing of the
Dalton, and a hose cleaning just before leaving the Old Chatanika Gold
Camp, things, electrically, have been acting up a bit. Nothing
too major - but something's up. The first to act up was the horn
switch (left hand controls) - it would start sounding on its own - I'd
hit and wiggle the switch a bit and it would stop. Now the horn
won't
start - like the switch is packed with mud. For several miles
after leaving the camp the motor was not running on all four lungs -
perhaps down to only two. By the time I left Fairbanks all
cylinders were running smoothly.
A couple nights ago,
at a fuel stop near Talkeetna (where the lady at the office helped
by calling about to find me a room), I went to start the bike but
after hitting the starter switch (right hand controls) the starter just
kicked a little bit and the motor backfired and stopped.
Successive pushes of the switch did nothing. Dang
- did I run the battery too low with the jacket set too high? I
didn't think so - I've been monitoring voltate via the GPS and it's
been up at 13.9 to 14.3 vDC. At least the office is open with
maybe some jumper cables if need be. With the bike in gear I
rocked it back and forth a bit to jostle the motor - just in case the
starter motor was somehow jammed (it uses an overriding roller
engagement style and not a gear that engages / disengages). After
some rocking and pushing of the switch it sparked to life.
Voltages look right as well. Looks like it's the switch
acting up. Hmmm. For many starts after that the switch was touchy.
The third thing (they come in three's ya know) is that this afternoon -
about 14 miles before hitting Homer an oncoming vehicle (overcast
skies) flashes lights at me (all vehicles are supposed to run with
headlights in Alaska but many don't) so I thought it was a "police
ahead" notice - after not seeing anything for several miles I took a
look down to the headlight - dark. Toggle the high-beam switch
(left handlebar controls) - still dark. Looks like I'll have to
take the controls apart tomorrow..... (should be a simple task)
Perhaps when I'm done the horn and starter will be reliable.
As an aside - this bike has electromechanical / electronic turn signal
cancel control - that basically never worked - guess what - it works
pretty well now!
Getting closer to the Kenai Lake and Cooper Landing
Roads get more twisty, scenery gets nicer
Kenai Lake
This was a wonderful area - a place to stop back and rent a place to
stay. Rafting excursions. Fishing guides. Nice lake.
Sweet.
Kenai Lake
(
click for a larger size)
After that area we head towards Sterling and Soldotna - the views flattened as the mountains disappeared / the valley widened.
Down near Ninilchick the road neared the water - running high on the
bluff most of the time. I could just barely see to the other side
of Cook Inlet. Somewhere in the clouds where these two mountains.
Over there somewhere...
Large ship, mountains in the mist, horses
(
click for a larger size)
Last pic - rain's starting to fall.