After spending a day on my own to rest my ankle and do some writing, I left Fairbanks this morning and rode down towards Denali National Park, to hook up with the Prudhoe Posse again…

They had ridden the 200 km down there yesterday and had planned to camp out and wait for me to rejoin them…

I spent the day with my ankle wrapped in either ice packs or swathed in a pressure bandage to alternate between hot and cold…  Just as I had been instructed to, by “Mom”… (The term I use for Chenty when she is either advising or chastising me… It’s mostly chastising though…!!)

My ankle felt a lot better this morning and after lugging my gear down 5 short flights of stairs at the University of Fairbanks, I loaded up Skew Fella and made ready for the 600 km ride to Anchorage…

The road down to Denali wound its way through a thickly forested range of low hills, and warnings about Moose crossings were posted every few kilometres… Needless to say, not one of these animals put in an appearance during my ride…!!

Which was probably a good thing, because we have since heard that a biker recently hit a moose on this road and was killed when her bike veered into the path of an oncoming truck… She was the fifth biker that had been killed up in northern Alaska, that we had heard about during our trip…

I made a quick stop at a rather famous roadside bar and grill and took these photos…

Skinny Dick’s is a popular hangout for bikers making breakfast runs from Fairbanks…

The sign tells it like it is…!!

I met up with Trevor, Chenty and Mark, enjoyed a quick cup of coffee with them, before we made the last part of our ride down to Anchorage together… It was good to be seeing them either ahead of me, or in my side mirrors, again…

We had settled into a very good riding rhythm from the time we had left Vancouver, which, considering all we have seen and experienced, seemed like ages ago, and the day we had spent apart had not affected the way we rode together at all…

The highlight of our ride down to Anchorage, was the sight of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, and one of the sights we all wanted to see…

Mount McKinley…!! It reminded me of the Alps…. (Photo by Mark…)

To be continued…

Right now, we are about to go off on a tour of the glaciers near Whittier…

GB

Anchorage, Alaska.

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