Day 9

Slow day today. Risto and I stayed at a cheap Travelodge motel in a sketchy part of Fairbanks but the motel was OK. Graham spent the night in Denali. After breakfast Risto went to get a new back tire mounted and ended up replacing the chain too. Northern Power Sports gave some great service and got him in right away because we were traveling. I caught up on some work stuff, and Graham drove back into the Denali Part to get pictures of the mountain because it had  cleared up overnight.

We did some laundry and then found a Safeway with a Starbucks.

It was a warm day - maybe 70 degrees. We had our coffee and for awhile I sat in the parking lot in the shade of the motorcycles and ignored the stares of the people driving by. They probably felt sorry for the poor guy sitting on the asphalt under a dirty motorcycle but they don't realize we wouldn't trade this for anything. We also met a few guys that had ridden up from Texas and were on their way back down to Anchorage to get their bikes serviced. Panniers seem to have a magnetic attraction to others.

We had agreed to meet Graham at 4:30 at the Chena Hotsprings about 60 miles east of Fairbanks for the evening. On the way out we kept our eyes open for a good camp spot to stay the night. The land around the river valley in the area is waterlogged and most of the likely camp stops would be swampy. One logging road looked promising because there was a long winding hill but when I explore a moose blocks the road. It was real difficult to turn the heavy BMW around on the rutted hill, alll while keeping a wary eye on the moose.

Chena was unbelievable - better than any other hotspring I've experienced. It was a hot 106 degrees and there were even hotter spots in part of it. It had a gravel bottom and cold fountains and very powerful warm fountain that was a real massage if you stood under it. Chena also has a landing strip a few hundred feet from the entrance to the pool.

We enjoyed the pools for a few hours and had dinner there before we left.

 

 

After the hotsprings we drove to a pullout by a river close to the resort, sprayed on the bug spray, and set up camp. I did an oil change there too. At the Safeway had purchased an aluminum cake pan to drain the oil into and with Risto's assistance was able to get the drain oil back into the empty bottles without making a mess.

It was midnight and still felt full daylight when we crawled into the tents.

I'm over 3000 miles this evening.