Fairbanks

I left Tok pretty early in the morning. The other guys were going up a rather famous motorcycling road to Dawson City called the Top of the World Highway. I was tempted to go with them but it would have easily taken me 2 days out of the way. I needed to press on to get to the Dalton Highway!

I got to Fairbanks after a wet ride and spent the afternoon prepping for the excursion. I found a great little hostel called GoNorth, and it was a perfect choice. I will definitely be staying in more hostels in the future. This one was apparently very popular with Germans, as the staff was fluent in German, and about half of the occupants only spoke German. I tried listening for any words I may recognize, but only caught “Bier” and “Hasselhoff.” Guess I need to bone up on the German.

I thought I’d be ready for the full hostel experience, being a huge fan of Hostel and Hostel II, but this place was nothing like that. There were a lot of interesting characters around. One that sticks in my mind was a guy who came to Fairbanks to work an oil job, and his only transportation was riding a ‘82 Suzuki piece-a-junk motorcycle. The other day his chain snapped, which broke open his crank case, which caused all his oil to leak out. Well as you know from my previous experience, motorcycles tend not to run well without oil. His broke-down bike caused him to lose his job, is unemployment got him kicked out of the house he was living in, so he was now homeless at the hostel, hoping someone would buy his bike for $100 so he could get a bus ticket… and I guess just be homeless somewhere else.

I filled my spare gas tanks (I had two gallons of extra gas because gas stations are located so far apart on the Dalton) and figured out a way to strap them to the bike, washed clothes, checked the brakes, chain, and all bolts. The Dalton is known for being rough, so I didn’t want anything rattling off.

Since most bike shops are closed on Sundays, I had to wait till the next day to replace my chain (which had started making some odd sounds) and my tires (which were worn quite well and made more for highway than gravel).

While doing laundry, I think I learned a lot about Fairbanks. This place is definitely laid back. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t been in a Laundromat for a while, but it seemed like a crazy mix of people, with emphasis on the crazy.

These ads from the Laundromat bulletin board sum it up:
Fetish Ball – Food, entertainment, fun, and demonstrations!
Freight Dog Pull – Dogs compete in four weight divisions.
and ads for three separate Farmers Markets. Farmer’s Markets aren’t weird of course, but the fact that Fairbanks can support three different ones is definitely odd.

The other hostelers were having a grand old time hanging out in the common areas, but I was so exhausted from trip prepping all day that I had to just hit the sack. Ready for a tough day tomorrow!

Sorry, no interesting pictures today, but you can check out the GoNorth link for more info about the hostel. Or you can just check out pictures from Hostel.