Valdez/MaCarthy (part 3)

After those short bursts of heavy rain I was a little wet, a little cold, and a little light on fuel. On the east end of Glennallen is probably one of Alaska's most traveled intersections. Which is where I always stop to get gas. I can't remember how much it was but it was more than enough to make me happy I was on the KLR and not the jeep that day.

Next on the agenda was Valdez, where I was going to spend the night. To this point the road was pretty much same old, same old. The south part of the Richardson Highway was new to me and I was ready to get on my way.

I know the woman who did the inspection for the paving at the Wrangell St. Elias Nat'l Park welcome center. Since I was going to basically ride through part of the largest yet least visited National Park I figured I better stop to take a look. The pavement was in pretty good shape, but I saw this sign inside the welcome center.

Ha! Take that Vermont and New Hampshire!!!

There was a park ranger that was looking at me funny the whole time I was in there. Can't figure out why. I mean I was wearing my riding jacket and a pair of yellow rubber rain pants.


Heading south I ran into more of those short sections of heavy rain. In the picture above you can see the aftermath of the weather. The road went for a while and then dropped me down off a kind of a plateau. There was a nice looking lake to the east and every once in a while you could see a pull out that had access to the pipeline.



The scene around this pull out was beautiful. To bad more of the pictures didn't turn out. There was a little bit of blue peaking out from behind the clouds. I secretly hoped the sun would come out and burn off the clouds. But, if you look close, there is definitely not enough blue to make a pair of Dutchman's britches. The sun would never come out all the way, but I couldn't complain.

At the same turn out there was an RV with a BMW GS (motorcycle) parked next to it. It looked like there were camping out and riding around during the day. I thought they might come out and strike up a conversation but either they weren't there or didn't want to talk to me.

For more pictures from this road check out the Feb. 15 Post (Road to Valdez