Alaska Highway

I wound up taking a ride out to Highway 43, West of Edmonton, today. There is a some history as to why I did this.

A couple of weeks ago a group of us went for a ride out there. We passed a sign which said Alaska Highway and McKenzie Highway- we were on Highway 16 West of the Highway 43 exit. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but of course never got a chance.

One of the forums I am a member of had a new guy join from Alaska. He said he doubted that there was anyone close to him, North of the 58th, Vegreville is on the 53rd. This is kind of close, since all the rest of the guys live in the South of the US. I mentioned the sign I saw, and of course the guy googled the Alaska Highway and I was wrong. I give in, even when I am right, I know I am wrong. I discussed this with Thelma, he me to go take a picture.. I was supposed to do that yesterday, but wound up hanging out with my son.

Today I went to Tim Hortons, nothing happening there, no one to ride with. The sky looked kind of black to the West. I decided to see how far I could go, towards Highway 43.

I went down the Whitemud, the freeway through Edmonton. I haven't been on it in awhile, it is not handy to anywhere I want to go. When I got to the West end it joined up with the Anthony Henday - the ring road around Edmonton. A great ramp, bikers lean over and the cops catch us exceeding the posted speed limit. oh well. Not today.

I bring up the police as I was just riding, I wasn't speeding, I knew where I was going and had lots of time to get there. I took 16A which is like a milk run. The police were out in force in Spruce Grove. There was radar everywhere.

The sneaky part was a new shiny pickup parked in the middle of the highway sideways. It was a crew cab and the back passenger window was open. I knew a laser was there, there were too many cop cars around.

I didn't get tagged.

I got to the sign, it is just off the side of the highway at the start of 43. I rode by it. I had to do a u-turn. This is a holiday weekend and the people are starting to come home from the lakes. It was kind of busy to do a u-turn. There was sand on the road that cut across the median. I didn't wipe out.

I took off and merged into traffic at speed. This is the best part of riding a bike 0 to 120 kph in a very short span

Got to the end of 43, no way across median to sign. I had to go West on 16.

I then had to look for another road to cut across the median. 16 was WAY busier than 43! 0-140 in a very short period of time and then I had to get to right lane.

The ride in traffic back to Edmonton was fun, to say the least.