Goto alaskamotobook.com to find detailed maps and routes, travel links, and to order the print book or ebook! The Adventurous The Adventurous Motorcyclist’s Guide to Motorcyclist’s Guide to Alaska Motorcyclist’s The Adventurous Guide to Guide Alaska Alaska AlaskaAlaska Put one of the most knowledgable motorcycle tour guides in Alaska in your pocket with this witty, fun book that brings to life the best roads and off-beat destinations in the state. This colorful guide lists all the road routes in Alaska with recommended dirt road excursions past mines, mountains and streams. The book includes ideal itineraries, the most interesting side roads, and great places to sleep, eat, and get off your bike to sightsee. Gear suggestions, motorcycle transport options, camping tips, and how to incorporate the Marine Highway System into your trip are also part of the package. The content focuses on the Alaska dirt and paved highways, but also includes the Canadian highways of interest as well as the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia Klancher to Delta Junction, Alaska. Created by author Lee Klancher and long-time Alaskan motorcycle tour guide Phil Freeman, this obsessively-researched book combines unsurpassed detail on the best with backroads in Alaska with first-hand recommendations for the best hotels, cabins, Freeman restaurants, and micro-breweries from a guide who has visited every corner of America’s wildest state. ISBN 978-0-9829131-2-3 Lee Klancher $29.95 with 978-0-9829131-2-3 octanepress.com Printed in China 7809829 913123 Phil Freeman Goto alaskamotobook.com to find detailed maps and routes, travel links, and to order the print book or ebook! Contents Foreword The Last Frontier 8 Six The Richardson Highway 124 Fairbanks 126 Prefaces Wild Places 10 Fairbanks Motorcycle Service 130 Riding Dreams 12 Delta Junction 132 Copper Center 133 Introduction Before You Go 14 Valdez 136 Using this Book 15 Cordova 138 Key to Icons 15 Copper River Highway 138 Getting to Alaska 16 Route Planning 19 Seven The Edgerton Highway 140 Suggested Itineraries 24 Chitina 142 Where to Stay 26 McCarthy Road 144 Bikes 29 McCarthy 147 Gear for Your Body 34 Kennecott Mine 149 Gear for Your Bike 37 Eight The Elliot Highway 152 One Base Camp: Anchorage 44 Fox 156 Where to Stay 49 Minto 157 Eats and Drinks 50 Eureka and Rampart 158 Motorcycle Shops 52 Manley Hot Springs 158 Motorcycle Rentals and Tours 53 Tofty 161 Books, Maps and Rental Phones 54 Diversions 55 Nine The Steese Highway 162 Circle Fairbanks Historic Trail 167 Two The Kenai Peninsula 56 Chatanika 167 Seward Highway 60 Circle Hot Springs 170 Whittier 64 Chena Hot Springs 171 Hope 66 Seward 69 Ten The Dalton Highway 174 Sterling Highway 71 Yukon River 183 Homer 74 Yukon River Camp 184 Kodiak Island 78 Coldfoot Camp 187 Wiseman 188 Three The Glenn Highway 82 Prudhoe Bay 190 Glennallen 92 Tok Cutoff 93 Eleven The Alaska Highway 194 Nabesna Road 94 Dawson Creek 200 Tok 97 Whitehorse 203 Haines Highway 204 Four The George Parks Highway 98 Skagway 206 Hatcher Pass Road 102 Klondike Highway 208 Talkeetna 104 Taylor Highway 210 Petersville Road 105 Chicken 212 Cantwell / Denali National Park 106 Eagle 214 Top of the World Highway 214 Five The Denali Highway 110 Dawson City 215 Gracious House Area 116 Dempster Highway 217 Valdez Creek Road Area 117 Index 222 Acknowledgments 224 6 The Adventurous Motorcyclist’s Guide to Alaska 7 Goto alaskamotobook.com to find detailed maps and routes, travel links, and to order the print book or ebook! Phil’s company has grown immensely since that time, and he now has modern bikes stationed all around the world. I traveled with him on Wild Places several additional trips in Alaska and beyond, and found our tastes in travel complementary. His company has grown, but his soul is that guy in the beat- By Lee Klancher up truck (and that’s one of his strengths). Phil loves funky, out-of-the-way places, hot springs, crazy smart people who live in backwater spots, and riding “We saw the beginning of the mountains today—huge valleys and wooded twisty mountain roads on two wheels. So do I and, now that I think about it, hills. It looks exciting. You want to hurry up the next hill just to see what’s on perhaps all of you who read this book do as well. the other side.” Phil and I discussed the idea of doing a book like this years ago. Phil —Paul Klancher, en route to Alaska on Monday, June 14, 1976 knows Alaska, and I know guidebooks and motorcyclists, so it seemed logi- cal. We finally decided to do so in the fall of 2010. I’m thrilled we did. Alaska embodies everything I love about motorcycle travel, and Phil is a great partner. I first saw Alaska in 1976, when I One of my favorite Alaska experiences happened when stopping for piled into a 1974 Ford LTD with my father, Paul, lunch at a restaurant in the middle of the interior. The waitress working the and grandparents, Paul Sr. and Frieda. We drove place was alone and melting down completely. The boss didn’t show up and north from Rice Lake, Wisconsin to Alaska pulling her babysitter flaked, so she had a small child to deal with and had to cook a pop-up camper. and serve the food. She complained to us when she took the order, and then We left on June 12 and returned on July 2. disappeared in the back. We heard shouting and pans clattering as they were Alaska’s allure is a powerful one, and it called my thrown across the kitchen, so I went in back and tried to calm her down. family to spend three weeks traveling more than While she smoked cigarettes and told me about her woes with love, life and 6,000 miles—including more than 2,000 miles her boss, I made some food for my friend and me. After we left, she flipped Prefaces of gravel on the Alaska Highway—to spend a few days staring up at the the sign to CLOSED and swore she was leaving the place forever, headed to mountains. California to live with her mom, soak up the sun, and forget about her crappy Nearly 30 years later, my fascination with Alaska led me to write a short job and jerk of a boss. piece about riding the state for my monthly adventure motorcycle column in Alaska is vast and wild, and it attracts those who long for a world where Dirt Rider magazine. I looked for someone to quote, and found Phil Freeman. waking up and deciding to move 1,000 miles is not terribly rare. The mountains Phil waxed eloquently about the riding in the state, and told me how he had are dramatic, lording over the landscapes like ancient kings. The streams run discovered motorcycling in Japan. He had returned to his home in Alaska, and swift enough to sweep men to oblivion, gorges plummet deep into the earth, saw the opportunity to run motorcycle tours. He scraped together a few bucks and mosquitoes plunder blood-bearing creatures without mercy. and started a company. I liked his courage, intelligence and spirit. I love the place deeply. I love eating the fresh fish, drinking Alaskan beers, When I was called upon to find a place to take theDirt Rider Adventures and meeting the vagabond souls who infest the place. Most of all, I love the cable television show, I suggested Alaska. The producers loved the idea, and a surprises. Life is short, and places where even lunch can be an adventure are crew of us flew to Alaska to ride with Phil. He directed our group to incredible rare beasts. Saddle up and go see for yourself. backroads and some of the best offbeat destinations in Alaska. His knowledge of the area was impressive, his love for the state unmistakable. At the time, his fleet was tiny and held together with baling wire and duct tape. His support Lee Klancher has chronicled motorcycle journeys on five continents for dozens of motorcycle and truck was a battered 1980s Chevy Suburban with a mural painted on the side. mainstream magazines including Men’s Journal, Draft, and Motorcyclist. You can find more of his His buddy painted the mural for a 12-pack. work—including the Motorcycle Adventure Calendar—at leeklancher.com. 10 The Adventurous Motorcyclist’s Guide to Alaska 11 Goto alaskamotobook.com to find detailed maps and routes, travel links, and to order the print book or ebook! Using this Book The “At a Glance” informa- tional charts at the start of each Before You Go chapter are designed to place cru- cial information at your fingertips. These are where you go to find out This guide covers all the easily accessible paved roads in the state what the road is like overall, un- of Alaska, and also many of the interesting dirt roads. Note that some of the derstand how long it might take to dirt roads in this book are hardcore off-road trails and should be ridden with ride that highway, and get an idea caution (or attacked with abandon, depending on your riding skill). of the ideal bike. We also give map This book is organized by the regions of Alaska, with each portion divided and guidebook recommendations, A great sentiment painted on an old car by highways. A guide to each highway is included, along with a chart to allow links to online maps and resources, door at Gracious House.