Deano to Alaska via D2D June 2012

Love the Rock Shox sticker on the front fork!

Classic.

Freudian slip? I think you meant presence... I think.

Nice! I caught the typo, but didn't originally get the double entendre

Nice RR. Keep up the great work :) have done this ride 2 times so it brings back good memories!

Ride Safe!

Mark

I heard he once ran a marathon...just because it was on his way.

Nice RR

Hey my dad and I talked to you briefly at d2d. I am in Fairbanks if you need a place to crash or work on your rig. Only requirement is to bring the one from the lost herd...haha. Have a safe trip.

Crash!!!

Tombstone provincial park pic....graduated filter??? The contrast difference top/bottom is huge, but you got it all? What am I missing? Thats not easy to do....

Ken

Ken, Goooood question. The mountains were a little too bright and the foreground was too dark. I used Adobe Lightroom in Develop mode to crank Highlights to -100 and Shadows to +50. now the image is as I saw it.

Question of the day! You will be recieving my used oil filter in the mail for mounting on any wall of your home! Please allow 4-6 months for delivery. Some restrictions apply, if your erection lasts for more than 4 hours please see your doctor and congratulations!!!!

...........on the Erection............or winning the filter???? (Both??)

Too funny here! That young specimen makes me want to mount my Conti on the front and a Heidenau on the back.

Great to see you living the dream. Look forward to following your trip. BTW, some of the photos earlier in your post looked very familiar.

great frikken shots! Beautiful part of the world!

Thanks Dean...I am planning on the western TAT come August 1st and your photography is along the lines of what i intend to do. I am very leery of taking my DSLR as i dont want to trash it. I will likely be taking a good Compact, as shallow depth of field wont generally be needed. The remote shutter is a nice touch, but i will have to take turns with my buddy "riding thru the scenery" so to speak!

Great pics...you can tell when someone has alot of photographic experience...it shows.

Thanks for taking the time to post/answer our questions etc.

Ken

That ain't no eskomo!!

Yo Dean! I see you figured it out.
Next time you're out at the atom smasher, we need the full debrief.

Cheers
Mike

Rain and more rain ... hey did you see a ziplock bagged sleeping bag on the 37 somehwere north of Dease Lake (the last time I checked my gear) and Watson Jct. ??? I rolled thro' there on June 3rd in cold heavy rain that hung with me near all the way to Whitehorse. All the locals were telling me that this is the wettest spring they have seen in decades ... I AGREED !!!

Dawson was a blast, and I spent most of 3 days there parked right under the stop sign across from the Downtown Hotel., meeting and greeting and ogling all the bikes.

Hope your ride continues to be as amazing as the first part. Great pics !!!

Days are passing. Stayed 2 nights in the dorms at UAF. Had to explore north of Fairbanks just cause I was there. I blew my wad on the Dempster so not interested in the Dalton in the wet. It was socked in for several days. I attempted Manely Hot Springs but a 50 mile mud approach turned me around. made it to Cheny Hot Spring via the 50 mile perfectly flat paved (boring) road. Nice to soak....

Off to the Denali Hwy from east to west. Getting soaked again I pulled in at 40 mile and stayed the night at Maclaren Lodge. A cute red neck girl from West Virginia (just my type ) greeted me and showed me a sleeping room for $60. Cool place to belly up at the bar and spend the afternoon hanging with the lodge owner family and local hired hands.I'd recommend this place as it has a real middle of Alaska feel to it. Internet was down so just walked around and taking photos as the light changes. Quite the eclectic bunch of us in Maclaran tonight. German and Swedish bird photographers. A German pedaling a bike on this 150 mile dirt connector. Me and a group of Moto Quest touring ADV types from the states.

View from Maclaran Lodge of the glacier.

nice!

Stayed with friends in Soldatna one night and headed down to Homer and Ninilchik. Ninilchik is a Russian settlement on the Western side of the Kenai Peninsula. I went in to see the Russian Orthodox Church on the hilltop.
Kinda amazed with the feeling I got from this ledge overlooking The Cook Inlet and volcanoes to the West.

I was quietly looking for a pic around the graveyard and heard a woman weeping. She was kneeling in the tall grass sobbing over a grave.

The church door had a hand scribbled paper sign "come in" and a schedule of the Russian orthodox eulogy readings. It was like opening a time machine. The interior of tiny church was ornate and the people inside were dressed the part of an ancient Siberian ceremony. Such a unique thing to see, I just peered my head in to take a look, grabbed a mental image and backed out.



Ninilchik from the hill above.


View to the west from the fishing port of Ninilchik