Ketchikan to Washington

 After the bike was serviced, we headed south to Mt. Rainier.  This is a shot of one river in the forest on the southeastern side.

While the rig was in the shop, we wandered up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic NP.  More snow!

Olympic NP

 We rode this borrowed Ural rig through the Olympic Pennicinula.  The R1200R loaner Ride West offered me had no bags or luggage capacity.  A tech offered to take the service loaner and give us his Ural sidecar rig for a day and a half.  Though there was no ticket, I did get stopped going up the hill toward Port Angeles. . .third gear, up hill, into a head wind. . .for going too slow.  "Did you see the line of cars behind you?"  NO SIR. (The mirrors vibrated and I couldn't see squat.) "Do you understand what the pullouts are for?"  YES SIR. "License please."  He disappears.  Seems like hours pass.  He returns. "I don't have to write you a $125 ticket to make my point do I?" NO SIR.  Phew.  Later, after going through all the likely spots on the bike and in the car, I realize that the service tech who loaned me the rig had not left the registration or insurance papers on the bike.  This all could have gone very badly. 

Along the beach at Dongeness

The tradition has been upheld.

Beach art

Russian BMW

 The Chinook Pass over Mt. Rainier had opened just two days ago.  The plows were finally able to get the snow off the roads!

 This mountain keeps to herself many days.  For us, she was out in all her splendor.

 Robin's rodents were happy to have a nice cozy ride.

 Rainier is Seattle's playground.  The mountain was alive with the sounds of frolickers.  Here two skiers are off to climb the face and do a June run.

Old growth lined the road down toward Ashford

South to Haines

 When we started south out of Fairbanks, it began to feel like we were heading home.  And then, looking at a map, it struck us just how far from home we were. So, we shifted back to thinking in terms of that day's goal and not some larger view.  Panic attack averted.  

 The Alaska Highway, built mostly by Black soldiers in 1942, comes to an end south of Fairbanks. 

 One of the last original roadhouses, complete with period correct furnishings and personal belongings: it was not difficult to imagine how these people lived and the hardships they endured.

 You never know who is along the side of the road!

 River beds throughout Alaska are wide and accommodate glacial and snow pack runoff.

 Haines Junction, Yukon Territory,  is a real cross roads if I ever saw one.  Pick!  Haines, Alaska,   is south and leads to the ferry.  The Alaska Highway is north and leads to the border.West and you go to Whitehorse.  Nothing is close, no roads are good, and the hills and mountains are still snow covered.  Gas up now! It is well over a hundred miles in each direction to the next pump.

 At Million Dollar Falls on the Haines Jct to Haines road.

Haines has a fair and the set for the movie, Call of the Wild

 A detail of an old Totum.

The Hammer Museum at Haines.

An Alaskan after a few supplies in Haines.

Raven feature prominently in the lives and art of Alaskans

The Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau

 The official greeter at the docks in Sitka.

 Some art work in lovely town of Sitka.  Find this little town on a map.  Out of the way but vibrant and full of history, native, Russian, and Alaskan.

 This was a shot I took from the ferry with my zoom lens.  Enlarge it and those fuzzy images turn into critters.

View from the ferry on the Inside Passage headed out of Sitka

Sunset, June 21st off the back of the ferry

Lingering sunset. . .on the year's longest day.  At this point, we are two more full days north of Bellingham, Washington.  The ferry ride is interesting, the people are of all walks of life and from all over the world, and the staff is amazingly in love with their jobs.  We boarded the ferry in Haines, got off for a day in Juneau, boarded a second ferry and had brief stops in Sitka and Ketchikan.  On the two boats for about four days!

Fairbanks

 The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska is a magnificent building set on a hill overlooking Fairbanks and with views of McKinley.