Axel Essbaum's insane trip to the Arctic



This is a travelog I kept of a motorcycle road trip I took in June/July 1996. It was transcribed daily from answering machine and voicemail messages I left my roommate, Paul Labuda. Thanks Paul!!! - Axel


Welcome! Below, you will find a chronological listing of Axel's answering machine messages. He took approximately three weeks to ride his Honda CBR600F2 from Austin, Texas to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and back to Austin.
- Paul Labuda, Axel's housemate

96Jun28, 1:40PM Austin, TX:

Hello, this is Axel Essbaum. As of 1:40PM on Friday, June 28th, I am out the door to ride my motorcycle to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Uh, if you're interested, look on a map, find Fairbanks, and look about 400 miles North. Um, should be back in maybe three weeks or so. Uh, leave a message after the tone.

96Jun28, 10:40PM Roswell, NM:

Note: Axel updated his machine before I could get this message down verbatim, so here's an approximatation of what he left (thanks, Jill, for helping with the reconstruction!):

Hello, this is Axel Essbaum. As of 10:40 Mountain Time, I'm in Roswell, New Mexico. 200 miles to go to Santa Fe. My bike's still doing that "wobbly" thing. I'm going to have to fix it when I get to Todd's. Mark, my RF-700 tries to fly off my head at 110 miles per hour, too. [CUTS OFF]

96Jun29, 11:00AM Santa Fe, NM:

Hello, this is Axel Essbaum. As of 11:00AM June 29th, um, Mountain Time, I am in Santa Fe at Todd's place. I got here at about 1:30 in the morning last night. It's raining here and Todd lives on a dirt road, so I get to slog through the mud to get back outta here. Uh, we're going to, uh, Boulder, Colorado today. I rode about 800 miles yesterday. Bike's runnin' good. We're going to work on the bike, try to fix the wobble we [CUTS OFF]

96Jun29, 10:30PM Boulder, CO:

Hello. As of 10:30PM June 29th, Mountain Time, I am in Boulder, Colorado, um, at Laszlo's house, after conquering his driveway, although I don't know if I'm gonna get back down. Um, stayin' at the Sloans' tonight, and, uh, that is all. Leave a message after the tone.

96Jun30, 1:28AM MDT Boulder, CO:

Okay, we've now changed how we're going to update this Web page. Axel's answering machine only allows him thirty seconds of outgoing message, so he's leaving me messages on my machine to allow longer, more detailed messages. Here's a detailed listing of the roads Axel has taken so far:

Um, out Friday at like 2, as you know. I took 290 Westbound out of Austin to I-10. Um, at Junction, got on I-10 and took I-10 to Fort Stockton. Um, most of the way, I was able to run triple digits up to like maximum speed of the bike, which was pretty cool. Almost ran out of gas once. Um, the bike was running amazingly strong, given the heat. It was like 100 or so degrees, um, but I was still gettin' near redline in top gear. Um, I made it from Fort Stockton to Pecos in like 23 minutes, which is, uh, pretty good time. Um, in Fort Stockton, I took 285 Northwest, um, through Pecos, into New Mex-i-co-oh, and in New Mexico, um, I went 285. I stopped in Carlsbad for gas, got gas in Roswell. There was a huge electrical storm just West of Roswell. Looked like some UFOs or somethin'. Um, and then went the rest of the way to Santa Fe. Stayed at Todd's, left Santa Fe this morning. Um, left Santa Fe Northbound on 285 and took 285 through Ojo Caliente. Um, took 285 Northbound into Colorado. Let me find the Colorado map. And then where? I'm gonna have to start guessin' because Todd was drivin' the map. 285, 285 to Alamosa. In Alamosa, we took Highway 17 North, which was like totally straight and really cool because there was a mountain range that was off to the right as we slowly gained altitude, and it was pretty cool to see that. At this point, we're getting up around like 7000 feet altitude. Got to, like, Poncho Pass near Celeda, which is like 9000 feet altitude. This is back on 285. 17 North to 285 North. I believe then, oh, yeah, we stayed on 285 Northbound, um, went over Trout Creek Pass. A bunch of passes, a bunch of high altitude stuff. Bike, of course, wasn't running very well. Got up as high as Hooter Pass, which was 11,500 feet. That was cold. No weight[?] crap. Um, took 285 North to 9, and took 9 from Fair Play to Frisco , and then we got on the Interstate, and, um, what'd we do? We took the Interstate to 6, and then, eh, somehow we ended up in Boulder. I'm not really sure how. But, so, we're in Boulder right now. We stayed at Laszlo's place. A bunch of people from the Denizens of Doom, the DoD, were there for the Ride and Feed, so I met a bunch of people there. There's a bunch of people there who are interested in the URL, so post it to rec.moto. [Did it! - Paul]

96Jul01, 1:02AM MDT Rock Springs, WY

It turned out we didn't stay in Boulder last night. It was Arvada, near Denver (just West of Denver). Uh, me and Todd left Arvada on Highway 72 Northwest, um, and then took 72 North to Raymond and got on Highway 7 North to Estes Park. Estes Park, uh, we got onto 34 West into Rocky Mountain National Park, um, got a new altitude record for my bike. The highest I had been before was 11,000 feet, um, on Highway 212, on the Wyoming-Montana border. There's, uh, Bear Tooth Pass there, was 11,000 feet, and we went across a place a little farther down 34 than Milner Pass, and it was 12,020 feet altitude, so that was pretty cool. I guess this is the highest paved mountain pass in North America we crossed today, so that was cool. Um, went took 34 to Granby. Pretty cool road to Granby, except we were following a bunch of fuckin' slow traffic. Then we got on Highway 40 to Steamboat Springs. Um, did one lap of the race track at Steamboat Springs. They run a road race course on the streets there once a year, and Todd knew the track, so we did one lap of their little track thing. Um, and then took 40 to Craig, which was pretty cool, um, actually, comin' into Steamboat Springs was cool, a bunch of like hundred-mile-an-hour sweepers and stuff, and then going to Craig was kinda sucky, um, 'cause I was tired and losing concentration and riding into the sun. Bike's runnin' okay, given the altitude. It's like 7,000 feet all around here, so the bike will only go about a hundred-twenty miles an hour, which is kind of annoying, and it like doesn't accelerate at all below seven grand. Once we got to Craig on Highway 40, we went North on Highway 13, um, which was pretty much deer city. There were like, deer everywhere. Todd counted 44 in the last, like, third of the trip up to the Wyoming border, so, um, that was a lot of deer. Uh, they're pretty much fuckin' everywhere. So, um, uh, Highway 13 North to Wyoming. 789 we got on in Wyoming and continued North as the sun set. Where's my Wyoming map? Do de do de do... What's Wyoming start with? W? Is that after Wisconsin? All right, entered Wyoming, uh, yeah, 789, took it straight North to I-80, and then just took I-80 West to Rock Springs. Um, not a terribly interesting ride, just 85 to 100 miles an hour down the interstate. Stayin' in Rock Springs tonight. My rear tire is almost, well, it's not gonna last to Alaska, that's pretty damned clear, so I'm gonna try to get a tire in Montana tomorrow. Looks like we've got about 650 miles to ride tomorrow. We have to get to Missoula, Montana tomorrow, is the plan, and Todd's gettin' a tire there Tuesday, and so maybe I'm gonna have to, like, Federal Express myself a rear tire to Missoula, Montana tomorrow. Um, so, there you go.

96Jul02, 12:26AM MDT Missoula, MT

So, uh, left Rock Springs, Wyoming this morning. Looks like it might not have been such a hot idea to use like a race tire for the rear of the bike. Um, the tire was starting to get kind of squared off, and so, um, I was thinking this morning that I would maybe call Street & Competition and have them, like, uh, Next-Day UPS me a tire to Missoula, Montana, which is where I am now, but of course, Todd told me not to worry because he was sure I could just buy a tire here. Uh, so, so I trusted him, um, and we shall see how that goes tomorrow. So, left Rock Springs this morning, 191 Northbound, um, took that all the way to Jackson. Um, didn't quite as far as Jackson Hole, but took a picture entering Jackson, so, uh, say "Hi" to Jim and Andrea. Um, out of Jackson, took a left on 22 across Teton Pass, which was pretty cool. Um, comin' down the other side of that was some good, like, hundred mile an hour sweeping curves and shit. Uh, into Idaho, um, on Highway 33, Northbound, and then onto 32 Northbound. Uh, those roads were very Wisconsin-like. They were a lot like the roads just East of the Mississippi in Wisconsin that I used to ride on when I lived in Minnesota. Um, and then, uh, got onto Highway 20 Northbound in Idaho. Uh, somewhere along the line there I got a wasp in my leathers, so that kind of sucked. Um, took Highway 20 into Montana to West Yellowstone. Um, North out of West Yellowstone on 287/191. Um, that cut back into Wyoming a little ways. We saw, um, some guy had flipped his pickup truck into the ditch and he was sittin' there waiting for help with his, like, pickup on the side, um, and he was just sittin' in the cab talkin' to some woman, so he didn't appear to be hurt, although the windshield was smashed right where his head would have gone if he didn't have his seatbelt on. Um, so me and Todd headed North on 191 out of Yellowstone, and on the way Northbound, we saw, like, an ambulance on its way Southbound, presumably to go help the guy. Uh, saw a couple moose. Took some pictures. Um, they weren't on the road. Didn't, like, almost hit 'em or anything. Um, and then what? Then we're in Montana. Montana was pretty cool because, like, um, because [to Todd] What does the sign say? It says, um, that, like, speed limit for cars and motorcycles is "reasonable and prudent." Huh ha heh heh heh heh heh. So, yeah, yep! Prudent. You can stretch that pretty far. So we were very reasonable, um, the whole time we were in Montana. [Todd says something] Um, [chuckling] we-hoouh, we just ran a nice, prudent hundred-twenty miles an hour. It was pretty cool. It didn't really affect our speed as much as just, like, we stopped worrying about whether, like, that oncoming car is a cop or not, and on three occasions [starts laughing] it was! Heh heh heh ha huh! And they didn't seem to care, so, that was cool. So, we took 191 Northbound in Montana, um, to, um, 85 North to Belgrad, which was on the slab on I-90. Um, went West on I-90 a little ways to, where the hell did we get off? Exit 274, which is right where 287 intersects I-90. Um, gassed up. Uh, took 287 Northbound to Helena, and in Helena got on 12 Westbound to I-90, again, in Garrison, and took I-90 to Missoula. The last stretch on I-90 was pretty bad. There were, like, last time I rode through Montana, I had one incident where I was trying to outrun a storm, and I had, like, a ridiculous amount of bugs on my helmet, and very nearly hit a deer. And this time, was, like, I could barely see enough through the bugs to tell where the white dashed line was, and then, I, I just, like, tried to stay near that on the freeway while Todd followed me, and Todd, I guess, could just see my taillight. So, that was pretty funny, [Todd chortling in background] um, just doin' the, like, hundred mile an hour "I-Can't-See-Anything." If somebody had done the, the Roadrunner "Paint-The-White-Stripes-Into-Like-The-Side-Of-A-Brick-Wall," we both would've driven just right into it. Um, so we are now in Missoula, Montana, and, uh, tomorrow, Todd gets a tire for his bike. Hopefully, I get a tire for my bike, um, and then, we go Northbound. Maybe we get to Canada. We're gonna go through Glacier National Park. I've been through there. Um, Todd hasn't. Gonna do "Going-To-The-Sun-Highway" or whatever. So... So-so, that should be pretty cool. My bike's running extremely well. I'm, like, constantly amazed that it puts up with the abuse I give it. Um, 'course, I haven't checked the oil since I left Austin, I guess. Um, but other than eatin' the rear tire, the bike's runnin' real good, so, that is cool. Except, that at, like, these altitudes, it won't go more than, like, a hundred and thirty miles an hour, unless I'm goin' downhill. Um, [makes 'clicking' sound twice] So, that is all. I shall... Talk to you later. Bye.

96Jul02, 12:29AM MDT

Note: I lost one of Axel's messages from the morning of 96Jul01, so I asked him to try to recreate the message. Here's his recollection:

Uh, okay, here's another thing. So, the thing I left this morning, okay? Todd and me are, get, like, occasionally worry about different things. Like, Todd's really, like, uptight and paranoid about going extremely fast when you can't see and there's a lot of deer. Um, so, uh, so I was givin' him shit yesterday because as we were comin' up 789 into, um, into Wyoming from Craig, in Colorado, he counted like 44 deer, right? So, it's like you can't see, it's dark, and there's a bunch of deer, and he wants to go slow. So then, like, I'm concerned about my tire, so I'm, like, "Well, I should just UPS a tire ahead of us to Missoula," and he's like, "Ehh, don't worry about it." So he was bitchin' at me, saying I worry too much about tires. So, um, it looks like I will be able to get a tire tomorrow, but that remains to be seen. Uh, Todd's still kind of a wussie when it gets dark and he can't see, but then I kinda have this habit of, like, if I can't see, then I assume it's okay, uh, so like if I can't see through a corner because it's dark, then I assume, like, there's good pavement and good traction and stuff. Uh, Jeff and Mark are probably both familiar with that riding style of mine, where I like go faster as it gets dark. Um, not a hundred percent, like, safe, or anything, but I haven't hit anything yet. So, 'course, Todd points out that everybody who's hit something, up until then, they hadn't hit anything yet, either. So, well, whatever. Um, there you go. Bye.

96Jul02. 11:41PM MDT

Okay, so, uh, West Glacier, uh, stupid chicks in the truck, uh, the guys with a good eye for motorcycles in the car. Um, left West Glacier Northbound. Went into Glacier National Park. Um, the guy at the, at the like entrance gate only charged us for one motorcycle, 'cause he liked us, I guess. Um, took "Going to the Sun Road" through Glacier National Park, which I've taken before. That was pretty cool. Um, took that to St. Mary. Um, from St. Mary, took Highway 89 Northbound to the border of Alberta and Montana, um, where we got interrogated by a couple of chicks for like a half hour about, like, where we were going and what we were doin' and our Social Security Number and how much money we had and whether we were seein' anybody or not. Um, and, uh, then on the other side of the border is Highway 2, and so then that was Canada, and we took that North to Fort [to Todd] What? What is it? Uh, Fort Muh... [Todd says Fort MacLeod] Fort MacLeod. Yeah. Fort MacLeod is where we are now, on Highway 2, in Alberta, Canada. Um, so, they have all their mileage things in kilometers per hour here, which is a pain in the ass, and when you buy gas, it's like, cents per liter, um, and they have a lot of bugs here, um, and, uh, there was a big storm South of us. We just like got out of Montana Northbound as a big storm front swept across, so... [Todd reminds Axel] Oh, yeah, they have good calamari and escargot at the, uh, heh, little crappy place next to our crappy little motel. Um, so that was today. Pretty much a lame day, except for Glacier. We only went three hundred something miles. Uh, we gotta start making some time here 'cause we have to like, get to Alaska, and like get back and shit. So, uhm, that is all. Bye.

96Jul04, 1:43AM PDT

Okay, so today was much cooler, earlier today, than it was these past couple hours. Uhm, after gettin' that ticket this morning, we rode to, where the fuck did we ride to? Where was the first major city? [Todd says "Banff... No, Calgary!"] Eh, went to Calgary, hung a left on 1, uh, went to Banff, and, uhhh, there was a bunch of major construction on the way there. Saw some pretty hard-core construction equipment. That was pretty cool. Also, stopped and got gas there, and had a busload of Japanese tourists, uhm, all very interested in my bike. Pish, like standin' around, lookin' at me and my bike, like they'd never seen a fuckin' F2 before. Uh, I guess after I loaded up and rode off Todd said they pretty much all burst out laughing. So, I guess that gets me back for those guys who thought my bike was [chuckling] cool in West Glacier. Of course, forty Japanese tourists with, like, about ninety cameras between all of 'em. Aah, whatever. fuckers. Um, uh, so then what did we do? Then we headed up 93? Is that right? [Todd: "Mmm-hmm!"] Highway 93 North to Jasper. And that has to be, that is the, that is the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. The mountains along there is like, West, like, like Glacier National Park has some cool views, most every mountain pass I've gone over has had some cool views, but going up this road, going up 93 to Jasper, is just the most amazing... Like, every corner you come around has either another beautiful mountain view, or a, or a view of this awesome valley, or, along the side of the road, there's a sheer rock wall that goes up 3,000 feet, and just has waterfalls up, like, you need a zoom lens, like I use a 300mm zoom on my camera so I can see the waterfalls way, way the fuck up in the sky. And then, 2,000 feet above that is the snow melting that's causing the waterfall. And glaciers, like small glaciers, like between you know, two mountains, there will be some ice and glacier formation that hasn't moved for thousands of years or whatever. Um, and I burned off so many rolls of film of all this crap, but I know all of this stuff is gonna pale again when I get to Alaska and get to see, like, glaciers for real, and it's just totally amazing. Like, it's the best road, the best scenery, the best terrain, that I have seen in that space, for, you know, the hundred and fifty miles South of Jasper was just amazing. Then there was supposed to be this, then we saw this storm off to the West where we needed to go, 'cause we were gonna head towards Prince George. So we suited up in our rain gear. And by the time we had suited up and headed out, the storm had completely dissipated. It had gone from black sky to clear sky. So we rode for a while, no problem. Then we cruised along and ended up in a place called McBride, and, uh, on Highway 16 West. And so we end up at McBride. And it's about 9PM, and, uh, no, it's 10PM, but then we crossed into British Columbia, so we set our watches back an hour. And so, Todd's like, "Uh, maybe we should stay here." And we look around, and there's like three motels with vacancy signs, and, uh, and two, like, family restaurants, and the weather's nice. And I'm like "Neah, fuck it. Let's, uh, we can make it to Prince Goerge. It's only 125 miles, right?" Of course, it's 125 miles with absolutely nothing between Prince George and McBride, just like, desolate wasteland wilderness, right? Well, not wasteland, I mean, trees and shit, right? So now, so then, Todd's, "Oh, okay." So, we go, we get about ten miles before it's like freezing cold. Then the sky, which had been blue, over the course of three minutes turned from blue to black to "Oh, there's a fuckin' monsoon." So, then we got to ride, like, we put on our rain gear, and rode, like, 40, 50 miles an hour through driving rain, and after about 30 miles of that, when we're still 70 miles from Prince George, and just soaking wet, and freezing our asses off. Todd wasn't freezing his butt, but I didn't hook up my electric gear. So [Todd says "Elk and deer"] [To Todd:] Yeah, I know. And so, well, Todd claims there were elk and deer. I didn't actually see any, but then I was leading, and Todd has the [chuckling] bright high beams. So, I was just riding along, not being able to see very well, getting blown around by the wind, and struggling not to fall down on the slippery road, while Todd was behind me with his super-bright high beam, noticing, I guess, all kinds of deer and elk and shit on the sides of the road. I didn't actually see any of 'em, so I guess that was all right. Would have made me a lot more nervous if I'd seen 'em. Um, and there's a bunch of moose, too. I'm not so worried about hitting the moose because they're like big, lumbering [CUTS OFF]

96Jul04, 2:43PM PDT

Okay, here's the deal. Uh, we came up Highway 97 from Prince George this morning. Uh, we're almost to Chetwynd, which puts us about, I think we're about 100 West of Dawson Creek. We're gonna take Highway 29 North through Hudson's Hope, and to the AlCan Highway. We'll hit the AlCan Highway North of Fort St. John, and then we're going to go to Pink Mountain, North on, that's also Highway 97 still. Yeah, the AlCan is 97. So, uh, Alaska Highway North from 29 to Pink Mountain, which is where we're going to stay tonight. We're gonna try to get to bed earlier, and get up earlier in the morning so we don't have to do the, you know, riding in the freezing cold monsoon shit. Um, so, there you go. See yuh!

96Jul04, 3:34PM PDT Chetwynd, Alberta

Hey, Hey, we're just West of Chetwynd, in Alberta. It's near, um, oh, shit, what's it near? If you take 93, or something like that, we're a little bit aways from some other town I can't remember the name of, but it's pretty, pretty pretty here. Um, saw some bear today. Uh, bears, Like, a mother and her cub, sittin', chillin' out in the ditch. I kinda spooked 'em when I went by, I guess, maybe with my loud pipe, because the mother sort of reared up when Todd went by. So, I didn't get to see that, but Todd did, so that was pretty of cool. Uh, bike's kinda periodically running on three cylinders. Uh, at full throttle, it's okay, but at, like, around idle, it doesn't like to idle, and at parked throttle, it kinda coughs and sputters a lot. Um, so hopefully, that will heal soon. Uh, other than that, the bike's doin' okay. The rear shock is doin' good on the road, and not so good when it's, like, totally unpaved and just, like, rocky, which we've had some stretches of. The front fork pretty much doesn't do any damping any more at all, which is good over that rocky shit, but, the front end bobs and weaves around a lot on the, like, road. [to be cont'd]

94Jul04, 9:02PM PDT Pink Mountain, British Columbia

Okay, so what we did yesterday, 'cause I don't remember what I told you and I'm thinkin' this was yesterday, is we left, ungh, Fort MacLeod in Alberta, rode to Calgary, got a ticket on the way to Calgary, took Highway 1 Westbound to Banff, then took Highway 93, uh, Northwest to Jasper. That route, 93, is the most amaaazing scenery that I've ever seen. Like, Glacier National Park has some cool views. Um, different parks I've been in have had some cool views, and I have not been through, like, the Grand Canyon, so maybe that rivals this, but that road is the most amazing view after view after view of glaciers, and mountains, and three thousand-foot cliffs with waterfalls at the top and snow feeding the waterfalls and just amaaazing views. Um, from Jasper, uh, we went Northwest on 16, um, to McBride, and in McBride, heh, in McBride, it was about 9PM, and, uh, Todd's like, "Uh, I think we should stay there." But our plan was to get to Prince George, right? So, we're in McBride, we have 125 miles to go to Prince George, and, um, and uuh, and we stop at a gas station, kinda look around. There's like three motels that all say "vacancy" and there's like two restaurants, and it's, like, starting to get dark. And, so, uh, so we're like, "Eeh, let's gas up and go for it." So, like I put gas in my bike, notice that it's on reserve, and the only time I put it on reserve was, like, back in Colorado, which explains why I've been getting such good mileage out of, like, not paying before I have to go on reserve. Heh. Whoops! Um, and so that's when we decided to go from McBride to Prince George. And ten minutes out of McBride, the weather got horrible. We got to slog through the fuckin' monsoon and go to Prince George. So today, remember? I called you today from Chetwynd, we left Prince George Northbound on 97. Uh, I called you from just outside of Chetwynd, and out of Chetwynd we took 29 North, got about two miles, got our second speeding ticket, um, actually, only got a warning, but both me and Todd got clocked, once again, at 120, this time in a 90 zone, instead of a 100 zone. That's all kilometers per hour, by the way. Uhm, and the guy just gave us warnings. Told us slow down or we'd hit a moose. Uh, took 29 North, and then Northeast to the AlCan Highway, the Alaska Highway, which is back on number ninety, like highway 97 in British Columbia, heading Northwest. Um, headed Northwest for about an hour and a half to a place called Pink Mountain, which isn't even listed in my damn road atlas because it's too far fuckin' North in British Columbia, and of course the Yukon also, like doesn't have its own page. So, we're in the boonies, though, basically. Like, for example, I'm calling from a payphone at a gas station. Pink Mountain has TWO phones. They are both, um, calling card or collect-call only phones. Heh. I'm at the one that is outside. The one that is inside has a line of people in the motel, So, yeah, it's raining on and off, it's fuckin' cold. It's like 40 degrees or something. Um, tomorrow, we'll probably get into the Yukon a ways. So, um, yeah. There you go. Bye.

96Jul04, 11:01PM PDT

Never... In... My... Life... Have I heard anyone... Snore... as loud... as the guy who's stayin' in the room... Next to us. Never. Ever. Ever.

96Jul05 1:51PM PDT

Uh, got up this morning at Pink Mountain. 40 degrees, heavy rain. Bike's running on three cylinders, except at wide open throttle. Uh, I don't how old the spark plugs are. (Mark: did you ever change the spark plugs?) Uhm, just outside of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Speeding ticket number three. Uh, going 121 in a 90 zone. Ticket, not warning. 100 bucks. Cop was friendly. Looked at my bike and said "You obviously know what happens when you fall down at those speeds." And then, um, we talked to some people, and it looks like we have about 250 miles of mud construction ahead of us. That's it.

96Jul06, 1:12AM PDT Watson Lake, Yukon

Hey, dude! It's, like, one in the morning, uuuh, Pacific time. Um, Watson Lake, Watson Lake, Yukon. Made it to the Yukon -- Yewooo... Um, Drunk. Uh, drinkin', dancin', um, married women buyin' me drinks. Mud, and rain, and lots and lots of rain today. Um, uh, my wet-weather riding is improving a lot, though, because it rains all the time here. Uh, gonna try to make it to Alaska tomorrow. Uh, um, I'm very drunk. Um, goin' to bed. Good night...

96Jul06, 2:27PM PDT Teslin, Yukon

Dude, we're in Teslin in the Yukon on the AlCan highway. Stoppin for some food. We oughta be able to make Whitehorse on my next tank of gas. Um, let's see, yesterday... Yesterday, um, it rained... No, let's see, what happened... Did we get a ticket yesterday? - I think we got a ticket yesterday and then it started to like rain pretty heavily. Then we hit some like really evil construction that was like soupy mud shit - uh, this motorhome in front of us got stuck in the mud and they used an earthmover to pull him out and then it was like our turn to go through the mud, heh, kinda sucky. Um, so my bike is basically just a big like vaguely red ball of mud right now. Um, this crap up here, like the dusty, muddy, gooey shit is like calcium carbonate or some shit like that. Um, it's this gray stuff that's really, uh, really, um, what's it called... um, not acidic... really, um, corrosive! Yeah. And you're supposed to like wash it off your vehicle if you get it on your car or whatever and we're like breathing this stuff and I've got it like all in my mouth and my nose and eyes and shit. Tastes kinda like chalk. Uh, what else... Um, the pavement here varies from like really coarse pavement to gravel to sometimes mud and, uh, the cool thing about the coarse pavement is it's like really super sticky so even yesterday when it was raining moderately hard I could still get some good lean angles at some pretty high speeds going through the twisties so that's pretty cool. Uh, Todd doesn't go quite as fast but that's ok. Um, today it's been drier. The roads are kinda half the time wet and half the time dry. When it's dry it's really bad because it's dusty so every time like a truck goes by or something there's this massive dust cloud of this calcium carbonate or whatever dust shit. Um, and like no visibility for like 20 seconds while you go by the truck - that's kinda sucky. Um, last night was kinda strange. We were in what, like, Watson Lake or something like that and there was like a decent live band playing at this one club which was kinda funny. Like a bunch of people there drinkin, dancin. Um, kinda cool. Kinda cool to be doing that in the _Yukon_. Um, uh... what else, what else... Oh I figured out why my bike was running poorly at part-throttle. Uh, had the choke on. Oops. Hadn't been using the choke at all while it was warm and, um, I used it to start the bike once a few days ago and I guess never took it back off. Um, tires are looking good. Should make the Alaska border tonight. See ya!

96Jul07, 12:08AM PDT White River, Yukon

Dude, it's a little after midninght. I guess it's now Sunday morning the 7th? Um, it's fuckin still daylight here, like, like, you don't need a headlight yet to drive and it's like 5 after midnight or whatever. Um, we're just inside the Yukon, um, on the AlCan highway - highway 93 in a place called White River. I think we're like 30 or 40 miles from the Alaskan border. Didn't quite make it into Alaska but there wasn't any place to stay on the other side of the border so we're staying here. Ah, did some more construction today - some more mud - nothing too horrible. Um, let's see what did we see today... We saw some more amazing scenery at this one big lake that I can't remember the name of. Um, which was where like the AlCan highway met when they built it in like '42 or whatever. They started from Alaska and they also started from like Dawson Creek and they met and held a ceremony at this, this big lake and pretty fuckin cool... Um, what else happened today... I dunno, good riding, um, my wrists aren't sore anymore, my knees don't get sore, I can ride in like a scrunched up position pretty much indefinitely now which is pretty cool. The sky here is amazing. It's like always daylight and, uh, lights... Like the sun after 9 or 10 PM does these amazing things with the clouds - it's really fuckin cool. Um, had some more rain today, kinda sucky. Um, will definitely make Fairbanks tomorrow so we still have a 150 miles of construction to deal with tomorrow morning like as soon as we cross the border into Alaska we get 150 miles of dirt and gravel. I guess I hope it's not raining too hard, uh, see ya.

96Jul07, 1:00PM ADT Tok, Alaska

Dude. We're in Tok, Alaska. Um, just had lunch. We're about 200 miles from Fairbanks. Make it in a few hours - no big deal. Uh, I think we've hit most of the construction, none of it was too horrible. A little bit ball bearingy in sections but not too bad. Um, ran into a guy here on a Harley from Mississippi who knows Patrick Ludwig. Um, Patrick's a racer. Um, I dunno if he's from Mississippi or Alabama but um, he's a pretty fast guy and, uh, this guy said he knew Pat and his wife so that was kinda interesting. Um, this guy we talked to races a Hawk, a Honda Hawk. And he had an F2 for a while. He's raced Texas World once - he races mostly in the SE region. It was kinda funny to run into a racer here, heh. So, uh, Fairbanks in a few hours. We're on Alaska time now so I believe that's 3 hours behind you. So, uh, see ya!

96Jul09, 8:00AM ADT Prudhoe Bay, AK

They made it!

Axel and Todd made it to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, at approximately 7:30AM Alaska time. Their poor protective gear and the cold weather messed them up a fair amount. The F2 looks like a big grey mud ball. Axel isn't taking pictures right now because it's snowing heavily, and he and Todd are exhausted. The last 40 miles, he says, were pretty horrible. Todd ranks this as the stupidest thing he's ever done. Axel ranks it in his top three. It was 5,500 miles up there. The F2 took zero maintenance, aside from one chain adjustment. Axel is totally amazed that Honda can make a bike that can put up with this kind of punishment.

Google Map of route to Prudhoe Bay

Me upon arrival at Prudhoe Bay after 20+ hours of riding on gravel/dirt/snow with a sportbike.

Me on my bike at Prudhoe Bay the day after arrival. It was about 30F degrees when I took this picture.

96Jul13, 2:00PM ADT Tok, Alaska

Whoops, forgot to update the message there for a couple days cuz nothing too much has happened. Got back from Prudhoe Bay... day before yesterday? Is that right? It's Saturday today so whatever day that was. Um, trip back was totally uneventful. Um, serviced the bikes yesterday. We're in Tok, Alaska right now. We're gonna cross the Canada border in about a hundred miles and then head straight for home.

96Jul14, 4:00PM PDT Toad River, British Columbia

Ok, 4pm, I believe it is Sunday. We're in Toad River, British Columbia. Um, went through the Yukon yesterday. Hopefully we'll make it to I think Dawson Creek is the name of it, but whatever's at like the southeast end of the AlCan highway is our goal for tonight. It's about another 400 miles. Um, then a couple more days to the US.

96Jul16, 10:42PM PDT Spokane, WA

Uh, the last hundred and fifty miles in Canada were a nightmare of slow traffic and city crap, so it took us longer to get out than we thought, and Todd blew his rear tire, so it took us, like, fifteen minutes to fix that, and we ended up just staying here in Spokane, and we're both gonna get new rear tires tomorrow. So, uh, s[CUTS OFF]

96Jul18, 12:03AM MDT Bozeman, MT

Okay, a little after midnight, Wednesday night, we're in Bozeman, or just short of Bozeman, in Montana. Uh, didn't get, well, we got, actually, reasonably far today, considering we left Spokane at, like, uh, 4PM. I got a new sprocket, new chain, new rear tire. Todd got a rear tire, and then we just boogied down the no-speed-limit Montana Interstate. So, seventeen hundred miles I have to do in the next two days [CUTS OFF]

96Jul18, 10:30PM MDT Denver, CO

All right, 10:30pm mountain time, Denver, Colorado. Um, I managed to eat this chain I bought in Spokane so I get to buy a couple of sprockets and another chain tomorrow and then ride 850-900 miles to Austin and hopefully hit Austin tomorrow night. Uh... that is all.

96Jul20, 6:40AM CDT Austin, TX

Ok, uh, 6:40am Saturday morning, Austin, Texas. Uh, rode 950 miles last evening, last night, for a total for the trip of about 10,500 miles. Uh, bike's running good. No problem's coming back, just a long ride - 16 hours on the road. So... everything's cool.