Day 15 - 17

Day 15 was spent back in Delta Junction getting ready to begin the trip back towards
home. The first thing we had to do was wash the bikes. They were really a mess from the Dalton highway with Calcium Chloride and mud.
It was partly cloudy all day Saturday. We took the bikes to the gravel pits with a couple of buckets and brooms. We got a lot of the thicker mud off so the car wash would bot be so expensive. The car wash cost us $4 a piece and did not
really get them that clean but the calcium chloride should not be a problem now.

We got a shower at an RV Park and some
groceries and said goodbye to Dan the
next morning.



Day 16, Delta Junction to Tok, 110 miles.

Leaving Delta we were getting gas and we started talking to a guy riding a 650 V-Strom
(Wee-strom) and he told us about being forced of the Dalton Highway about 100 miles from Prudhoe. He went down an embankment and was brought to a halt by a creek bed. He had a banged up nose and the bike had bent forks, bent front rim, broken windshield and a damaged radiator. He found a guy to take him and his broken bike to Fairbanks where he ordered all new parts from the Suzuki dealer and after a week and $2800 he was continuing his trip. Turns out, as those of you who have been paying attention know, we had heard about this guy in Cold Foot on our way up to Prudhoe on July 5th.

That was about the time the rain started. How wet was it? It was so wet that in that short ride we were soaked and not really enjoying the days ride. We decided to stay in Tok at the Thompson Eagle Claw Motorcycle Park. We got one of the little cabins to dry out in. Another young couple from Denmark came in on DRZ400s. They bought them in Minnesota two years ago. This was their second summer in the US touring on the bikes and they had ridden a total of
20,000 miles on them. They were soaked too. The owner of the campground
let us convert the sauna to a drying room. By morning everything was dry.

After getting our wet stuff hung in the makeshift sauna, we went in search of CJ who we had met in Gunnison last summer when he replaced the output bearing in his R100GSPD transmission in the parking lot. He was on his way to Patagonia where he spent 5 months touring South America (Yes, he is single). The lady at the info center knew who he was and said look for the house with the most junk cars in the yard. We found CJ building a 24 foot boat to run up the Yukon River with his 5 sled dogs to Fort Yukon in the fall to teach shop in a Native school. He invited us back later for dinner which consisted of Copper River Sockeye Salmon.

Day 17, Tok to Haines Junction, 309 miles
The plan was to take the Taylor Highway and then ride the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City. The rain that we rode in the day before brought up the river and took out a bridge between Chicken and Dawson City so it was closed. We ended up coming back on the route we went up on. We're staying in Otter Falls Cutoff campground for the second time.