Twenty One Days....

[TFancher]

Day Ten and it's raining. (Anyone noticing a pattern here?) We decided to stay another day in the dry and rest. Yeah, right. Karla and I decided to catch the bus to Fred Meyers ( think Target and Walmart had a son and named him Fred) for a few things. Spent the afternoon napping and trying to rest. Around 5 pm we all went next door to dinner. This is where the plan took a serious detour. Allen and Lincoln had concocted a plan. We would leave around 6:30 pm and ride to the Arctic Circle sign. So much for a rest day. Google  said it was only 148 miles. We could be there and back by Midnight. Yeah, right.( Again ) And so off we go.
We fueled up in Fairbanks and headed out. At least it wasn't raining. Yet.
I should mention that I had a concern over fuel availability at dinner. As usual, Allen said " it'll be alright"
We reached Yukon River camp( the only fuel stop)  after about 120 miles at around 9 pm. We're thinking another 30 miles and 150 back to Fairbanks so everyone will be good on fuel. Then the young lady in the store informs us its 60 MORE miles to the sign. Thats 120 miles to there and back to this fuel stop. Only problem is, they close in 2 hours. No way we can make it there and back and get enough fuel to get back to Fairbanks. Here is where problem solving skills come in handy. We scrounged around and found 5
(Old, nasty, clabbered) milk jugs. We bought 5 more gallons of gas and hid it behind the station. On the return trip we would have enough gas to get us back to civilization. Fortunately no one saw us hiding it and stole it before we got back. At more than 5 dollars a gallon I was sure it would be gone. When we got back where we had left it, to my surprise it was still there. Lincoln cut a swath of my t shirt for a filter and a Dr Pepper bottle for a funnel and we were good to go.

And guess what? More rain. We got about 100 miles from Fairbanks and it started again. Cold rain. And forget about being back by midnight. We rolled back in around 3:30 am.



Oh well. Thats why its called Adventure riding. I wouldn't change a thing.

[renchinrider]

Wow!  What an awesome trip!

I have encountered my share of rain over the years, but nothing like y'all experienced!  All of you should have higher survivability ratings (and amphibian certificates!!) after all that rain!  Amazing story--I look forward to your continued postings!

Rench