Alaska Bound By Sea & Cycle
ALASKA BOUND BY SEA & CYCLE
The Northland Awaits Two-Wheeled Adventurers
HERBERT E. MC LEAN
"IT'S SOMETHING I had to do.” And do it he did. From Eureka, California — on a brand new bike, with only a week’s road experience — 24-year-old Merrill Palmer had two-wheeled it 1600 miles northward to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. His destination was interior Alaska — “as far as I can go!”
There may be nothing new about the lure of Alaska or about people like Palmer who have always wanted to head North.
But there is a new way to cycle there. This Palmer discovered next morning when, from the colorful Canadian fishing town, he wheeled his Honda 305 aboard the Alaskan ferry ship Taku.
With the brand new British Columbia ferry, Queen of Prince Rupiert, Alaska ferries now make it possible for “stateside” motorcyclists to travel to Alaska — incredibly — in as few as 284 road miles from Seattle.
The route via Vancouver, B.C., includes a short ferry run over to Vancouver Island and Nanaimo, thence through the coolness of Canadian forest country — much of it on newly-paved roads — to Kelsey Bay. From there, it’s an overnight run on the Queen to Prince Rupert. Total cost for the cyclist on the two B,C. ferry runs (including 22 hours of unforgettable Inside Passage scenery) is $48!
From Prince Rupiert, the Alaskan ferry system takes off on a six-hour run to Ketchikan for an additional $13, or the 30hour full trip to the north end of the Inside Passage at Skagway for $60, which rates include transport for the bike.
No matter how a cyclist looks at it, heading north — via ferry — is the motorcycle sensation of the year!
Palmer’s urge to see Alaska — he’s scouting out some land and hopes to bring his wife and two sons — is typical. But there are a dozen other reasons why Alaska is a winner on anybody’s travel list. Among them are the fascination of new' places (stops at any of seven Alaska towms on the way north), employment (some high-paying fishing and lumbering jobs during summer — but write for a job first), and good, cheap transportation for any reason once there (gas sells for about 45<* per gallon in southeastern Alaska).
The biggest fallacy of all — the thing that keeps most motorcyclists away from the place — has to do with the weather. Throughout southeastern Alaska, summer and early fall days are pleasantly warm — in the 50s and 60s. If there’s rain — and, of course there is — it usually is light. Thanks to the L).S. Forest Service, the State of Alaska and other agencies, there’s no shortage of camping facilities.
Palmer planned to go all the way to Haines, thence onto the Alcan for the run to central Alaska, but his experience to Ketchikan should be helpful to anyone w'ho contemplates the trip.
With $450 for the entire trip, Palmer was doing pretty well at Prince Rupert — about $20 spent for everything. That’s just a bit more than a penny a mile (food included) for the trek up from Eureka, Calif. However, instead of riding the Queen of Prince Rupert, he had taken the 950-mile road loop from Vancouver to Prince Rupert.
Savings were due mainly to some intelligent planning of gear, which outfitted him both for touring and a little living off the land. Here’s what he brought: Primus one-burner portable kerosene stove, Coleman two-man pup tent. Fly rod, 7-mm magnum rifle for bear protection (not really needed for normal touring, but advisable in the interior), heavy parka, down sleeping bag, dehydrated food to use with fresh food bought along the way, leather jacket, wool shirt, set of long-johns, extra gloves, one change of basic clothing, and waterproof boots. Together with an emergency tire pump, tube repair kit and a few spare parts, the load amounted to just under 100 lb.
Considering that Palmer was strictly a novice cyclist when he started (he’d had his bike — his first — only days before he took off), he had handled his Honda well on the first leg to Alaska. Only once, some 70 miles east of Prince Rupert on the Skeena River, did he have problems. A patch of loose gravel on a construction project threw him at 20 mph. Thanks in part to his safety helmet, he was uninjured.
His gear, packed in two saddle packs and on a backside rack, gave him a reasonably low center of gravity plus some good back support.
Owners of Seaport Outboard in Prince Rupert, the local Honda dealer, report that motorcyclists by the score, like Palmer, are discovering the water route to Alaska. “There have been a lot of them, though, both overland and off the Queen of Prince Rupert," they affirm.
Recent national publicity has pretty well pegged southeast Alaska as a place of incomparable mountain beauty, with roadside glaciers, spacious campsites and the promise of fantastic sport-fishing. King salmon and lake trout top the list.
Lest the stalwart cyclist be forgotten in all of the publicity, here are a few twow'heel suggestions, gathered over 40,000 miles of Alaska travel in recent years:
Plan on rain. This is the most beautiful country in North America, but it does rain. So figure on shorter hops between showers. And don’t go moping around when it drizzles. In most B.C. and Alaska towns, there are immensely interesting fish processing plants. Most welcome visitors — and a buck in most towns will buy a delicious cracked crab or a king salmon to barbecue back at camp.
When the weather is wet, take it easy. A heavier load may provide a bit more traction, but some maneuverability is lost. Compensate for this by reducing speed.
Next, get full information on campsites and ferries before starting out. Write British Columbia Government Travel Bureau, Victoria, B.C., Canada, for a British Columbia road map, campsite and fishing guide, and also the excellent folder. Provincial Parks on Vancouver Island.
Contact Alaska Travel Division, Juneau, Alaska, for a road map and U.S. Forest Service camping map of Tongass National Forest. For ferry information, write B.C. Ferries, 816 Wharf St., Victoria, B.C.; and Department of Marine Transportation, Juneau, Alaska.
Motorcyclists will be pleasantly surprised to find that some Alaska camps offer overhead rain shelters. Some of the best are at Ketchikan (Ward Lake campground, a few miles north of town), Wrangell (the city camper park, about two miles south of town), and Petersburg (at Sandy Beach).
For sheer scenic beauty, but no overhead shelter, nothing compares with Mendenhall Glacier Campground near Juneau. A Forest Service facility, it is located on a lake shore opposite towering Mendenhall Glacier and the Alaska Coastal mountains, about 15 miles north of Alaska’s capital.
Palmer found that the Prince Rupert campers’ park, located on a hill overlooking the harbor — the world’s third largest — made a fine bike camp. It was close to the Alaska Ferry terminal, food and maintenance facilities, and near enough for members of the Prince Rupert Cycle Club to come up and welcome him. They toured him around like a visiting VP.
While Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka and Skagway can be entered only by water or air, each has up to 30 or 40 miles of roads that are ideal for cycle exploring. But don’t expect many off-road climbing hills and the like. Vegetation is so lush in Alaska, motorcyclists usually are in “jungle” any distance from the road.
In addition to the fish canneries, two excellent totem parks are ready for exploration in Ketchikan. A tour of the world's largest pulp mill, close to the camping spot at Ward Lake, is available to cycle tourists.
In Wrangell, a sleepy fishing-lumber hamlet some distance up the Passage, there is excellent trout fishing along Pat's Creek and in Pat’s Lake, 15 miles south of town. Just north of town, on the beach, are scores of beach-side rock Indian-carved petroglyphs. An extra $15 will buy a float plane flight over massive LeConte, a fantastic ride with Chuck Traylor, a top Alaska brush pilot with Stikine Air Service.
Want to see that same glacier from the water? Get off the Alaska ferry at Petersburg and take the Blue Star’s $10, sevenhour cruise up to LeConte. This includes dinner and a sparkling ride across the fabled Passage.
The Alaskan ferries have hot showers for 50r — a good place for a motorcyclist to freshen up as he moves north from town to town.
To sample the small town life of a Norwegian fishing village, the traveler can headquarter at Fort Magill camper park for reasonable rates. Good camping facilities and showers are found here.
Swimming in Alaska? Sure! Right outdoors, at the Juneau city park pool back of town. And a lot more. too. An old Arctic melodrama. “Hoochinoo and Hotcakes," is presented in the mess hall of an abandoned gold mine. The superb Mendenhall Glacier visitor center is at Juneau. The bridge from Juneau to Douglas Island offers a look at some true virgin Alaska territory. Try the new road leading around the island at the north end of town.
The story's the same throughout Southeast Alaska — plenty to do, lots to see.
What’s more, the people are friendly, eager to welcome travelers into the Northland. A few years back, down in Wrangell, a chap named McKibben came out to camp one morning and offered everybody a piece of homemade blueberry pie. That’s Alaska-style hospitality!
So why not saddle up?
The wide, robust land of Alaska is ready and waiting. And it just happens that a motorcyclist can float there most of the w'ay. Who’s complaining?
