Picture Perfect…
And another peculiar thing up here… Sunrises and sunsets… Where I live, the sunrises produce direct light on one side of the building and sunsets do the same on the other side… Up here, as with my room last night in Tok, I could stand in front of my door and see the sun setting off to my left at about a 50-60* angle… This morning, I went out to have a look around, and the sun had just risen off to my right also at about a 50-60* angle! No shade for this row of rooms morning or evening!
I took a picture of the sun setting last night… at 11:02pm!!! I didn’t get to see the sunrise, surprisingly, even though I got up around 4:30am… it was already up!
This morning was unlike any other recently… hardly a cloud in the sky! WOW! No need to dilly-dally, but… I had a story to edit, pictures to upload, and a post to make. We didn’t get on the road until after 8am… Oh well… We only had about 350 miles or a little less to do down to Anchorage… but… I’d been told there was plenty of road construction going on, and I could expect many delays… That did come to pass… A word…
I hope nothing I’ve said about the roads hereabouts has come across as criticism or carping… that has not been my intent. Nope, I’m just trying to fairly convey my experience and to let future travelers know what it was like on this particular ride…
Actually, I tip my hat to the highway department folks in Canada and Alaska, and I commend them for the obvious and huge advancements in both technology and techniques being employed today… They surely have come a long way, and I’m very much impressed. Frankly, I’ve encountered worse conditions in the lower forty-eight before than anything I’ve run into up here on this outing so far!
I turned around and went back to take this shot of an innocent looking frost-heave…
Road work…
More road work…
A couple of frost heaves snuck-up on me and launched my weary rump several inches above the Ultimate Big Boy seat, bottomed-out the shocks, and bounced my skid-lid in weird, catawampus positions on my noggin! In fact, if I hadn’t had the chin strap securely fastened, I’d have lost it on a few of those!!!
Those sinister boogers can look so innocent from even a few yards away (like in the picture above), but just before impact, if you’re actually looking that is, there is just enough time for the old sphincter muscle to draw really tight and for your teeth to clinch! It only takes one or two of those and any newbie will become a seasoned veteran… It does not pay to try to make time in ‘rough zones’… there will be time for that when you hit a particularly good stretch or road… and there are some of those, too.
Nice, smooth pavement on this stretch
I’m reminded of another quote… by Mae West this time… I paraphrase, ‘When they are good, they are very good… But, when they are bad, they’re really bad!” Winters are harsh up here, and roads unavoidably built over permafrost and tundra are bound to have heavy damage when sub-zero temperatures occur.
Another thought: All of the road work we encountered this time was child's play compared to what we found last time. That might have to do with the 'cycle' of work... We were a couple of weeks later in the cycle than before, so things might have been more difficult earlier in the process... I do believe late July is better for this sort of thing than June or early July...
All day long riding down from Tok to Anchorage I had to see these sights… Anybody feel sorry for me yet? Oh, and another caveat… The views are unbelievable, but it is risky to focus too much on them… That’s when those nasty frost heaves will bushwhack you and make you utter naughty words like poopie-doodle and dadgumit…
I took a lot of pictures on this leg, but I finally just had to stop… If I wanted to make Anchorage at a reasonable time, all that stopping would have to cease, and some miles would have to be logged at an increased pace… Too bad, really, because this is a perfect place for photographers, even unskilled ones, to ply their trade and hone their skills… There truly is an award-winning photo opportunity every few feet...
DDT
