Well, for those regular consumers of this part of the forum, you'll know this in an annual trip and will have probably read my previous reports on these trips so hopefully won't be bored.
This years trip was a great smallish group of 8 hardy souls looking for an adventure like no other.
The group was myself, Guy and Lesley, Steve and Judith, Nick, Michalis and Colman some of whom you may recognise.
Anyway, I've changed the route to avoid riding the infamous Dalton Highway which is recent years has become more and more dangerous due to a lot of construction and road conditions and anyway, the area is huge and there is plenty of better roads to ride.
I also missed doing one last year due to some medical stuff so was itching to get back to the last frontier.
Prep for the trip wasn't helped by me nearly chopping my right index finger of the day before departure. 3 hours in A&E and very good nurse bandaged me up and said to rest for a few days. When I told her I was off to ride motorbikes in Alaska for two weeks she didn't really advise it but gave me plenty of bandages etc and told me how to keep it all protected.
Problem was, it's in my brake hand and I couldn't bend the bloody thing so we'd have to see how things panned out. Fingers crossed eh?
Alaska is a four seasons in one day kind of a place so the kit was laid out double checked and packed.
Essentials sorted:
and off on the empty 05.36 to Heathrow via Paddington.
Nice easy journey to T3, checked in early and relaxed before getting on board one of Virgins finest A330 NEO heading to Anchorage via Seattle.
Nice bit of reading for the flight ahead:
And we headed west across the pond. powered by those mighty Rolls Royce engines.
I'd got a brilliant deal on he flight so upgraded to Premium Economy which is almost essential on a long flight. Nice flight, excellent cabin crew and even the food was pretty good with a proper china mug for tea.
This years trip was a great smallish group of 8 hardy souls looking for an adventure like no other.
The group was myself, Guy and Lesley, Steve and Judith, Nick, Michalis and Colman some of whom you may recognise.
Anyway, I've changed the route to avoid riding the infamous Dalton Highway which is recent years has become more and more dangerous due to a lot of construction and road conditions and anyway, the area is huge and there is plenty of better roads to ride.
I also missed doing one last year due to some medical stuff so was itching to get back to the last frontier.
Prep for the trip wasn't helped by me nearly chopping my right index finger of the day before departure. 3 hours in A&E and very good nurse bandaged me up and said to rest for a few days. When I told her I was off to ride motorbikes in Alaska for two weeks she didn't really advise it but gave me plenty of bandages etc and told me how to keep it all protected.
Problem was, it's in my brake hand and I couldn't bend the bloody thing so we'd have to see how things panned out. Fingers crossed eh?
Alaska is a four seasons in one day kind of a place so the kit was laid out double checked and packed.
Essentials sorted:
and off on the empty 05.36 to Heathrow via Paddington.
Nice easy journey to T3, checked in early and relaxed before getting on board one of Virgins finest A330 NEO heading to Anchorage via Seattle.
Nice bit of reading for the flight ahead:
And we headed west across the pond. powered by those mighty Rolls Royce engines.
I'd got a brilliant deal on he flight so upgraded to Premium Economy which is almost essential on a long flight. Nice flight, excellent cabin crew and even the food was pretty good with a proper china mug for tea.
