Conclusion??????

[Cue Arlo Guthrie's "Motorcycle Song." Click here to listen.]

I apologize for the lack of updates, fast and free internet in northern Alaska eluded me even in Fairbanks.  Hell, in Fairbanks I had a tough time getting a reliable cell phone signal half the time.  I'm in Anchorage now and the flop house I'm staying at seems to have a decent internet connection, so more photos and detailed trip reports are forthcoming.

For those of you who aren't following me on Facebook, I didn't make it all the way to Deadhorse.  On August 19th, I turned around on Dalton Highway near mile marker 230, which is less than 200 miles from my intended destination.  It had snowed the night before and the surface of the haul road resembled wet clay. After slipping and sliding for over an hour at a speed of 15 miles an hour in light rain, I made the decision to turn around since it seemed pretty likely that I wasn't going to make it to Deadhorse before midnight.  A close friend made me swear "not to die" on my trip and since I was over 300 miles away from the nearest hospital in one of the most remote places in North America, turning around seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

Here are my key stats as of yesterday (8/22) at midnight:

• Days elapsed since I left Seattle: 26
• Total miles traveled: 4169
• Wildlife observed while riding:
• Grizzly Bears: 1
• Brown Bears: 1
• Reindeer: 4
• Foxes: 1
• Caribou: 3
• Moose: 2
• Number of collisions with moose: 1

I wish I wasn't kidding about the last statistic, I'm lucky to be alive.  I was riding back into Fairbanks after aborting my mission to Deadhorse, it was really late - around 11pm.  I was on the Elliot Highway (state route 2) and I was a mile or two from Hilltop Truck Stop where I was hoping to have a hot meal after 300+ miles of incredibly difficult riding, much of it over mud covered hills. (Aside: a bonafide Ice Road Trucker effectively called me a crazy SOB for wanting to ride up to Deadhorse at the Hilltop a few days earlier.)  Since it was dark and I was tired, I was only traveling around 35 miles per hour.  It all happened really fast, the moose came out of nowhere. All I really remember is seeing the moose approach from the right side of the road, hearing hooves as they made contact with the pavement, and a blur of fur and antlers on my immediate right. To be honest, I'm not sure if there were one or two moose - I think there were two.  I lifted my right foot of the peg without even thinking, I might have been trying kick/push them away - my foot did make contact with a moose torso before my saddlebag knocked the poor thing on its ass.

I was really lucky to ride away with minor bruises and the moose ran off so I presume it/they survived. My saddlebag probably absorbed most of the energy of the impact, I have soft luggage (Wolfman bags for the win!) and most of the narrow nylon straps that held the bag onto the panniers either detached or snapped, although I did drag my bag for a bit.

So I am done with my trip?  I honestly don't know.  I blogged earlier that I'd do this until I was either broke or bored.  I'm not broke and I'm definitely not bored, but I am pretty exhausted and I've been fighting off a cold for about a week now, so a change to a warmer clime would be most welcome.

So my plan is to rest for a few days here in Anchorage and mull my options over.  If I want to ride back to the lower 48, I'll need to do it relatively soon.  I was chatting with a guy yesterday at an ice cream shop just outside of Willow, and in his estimation the mountain passes in the Yukon will be covered in snow in the next couple of weeks.  This seems somewhat credible since the leaves are starting to change here in Anchorage.

So stay tuned! It ain't over yet!

Lots of photos to come and I don't think I'm done riding - although I don't know for sure.