It was still early so I thought I would have breakfast but not much for a restaurant. The only place I found was more of a dining hall that was cleaned out of food. I found a stale, pre-wrapped pastry and a coffee. That will work.
Mid June and the lake was still frozen.
The ride back was more enjoyable now knowing there wouldn't be any surprises from the road. A bit more relaxing.
The big metal tube the road follows.
Atigun Pass was just as impressive from the north if not a bit more than from the south.
Coming up to AP, it looked like rain but as I got into the pass, the weather cleared.
On my way up, there was a tour group all waiting to get their pic in front of the Dalton sign so I skipped and was able to get the return.
I got to Coldfoot for dinner and saw a few other bikes that were on their way north. It was nice to talk with other bikers and give them info of road conditions.
I left Coldfoot and got about 2 hours from Fairbanks when I found a pull off area to set camp up. Being near the road, I put my earplugs in.
At 3:30AM area, I was woken up by my tent bouncing around and a really bad stink. I thought there must be a bad storm blowing in, so I removed my earplugs. Then I heard a car horn. HMMM, then a guy yelling that there was a bear on my tent and he was chasing it off.
That's a new one for me. I never saw how big or what type of bear but when I was in a tent, it didn't matter much other than it was a bear.
I packed up my camp and rode to Fairbanks, found a restaurant serving breakfast and pulled in. That gave me some time to process everything.
I decided wild camping wasn't for me the next evening so I found some areas to ride and a campground that I could stay at. When I was setting up my tent, I saw the bear claws cut my rainfly.
I wasn't far from a small town so after setting up camp, got a few items and returned to make dinner.
As luck (or bad luck) would have it, there was a 10 year old boy that was hanging around. I think his parents owned the campground. As I talked with him, he got all excited that someone was talking with him. He wanted to ride wheelies on his bicycle and running around for attention. As he was running around my camp area, he knocked over my pan of food that had meat and meat juice. Just what I need, meat juice in the grass not too far from my tent 12 hours after having a run-in with a bear.
I slept better than expected and realize there are probably more bears near campgrounds than wild camp areas. Decision made to go back to riding and camping wherever I was with no planning.