Did you know…

"Alaska is said to have more Harley Davidson owners per capita than any other state." This in the state with the shortest riding season!

Source: www.ktuu.com

Close Encounters of the Moose Kind

Labor Day weekend, 2007: My son Jameson was riding his Suzuki GSX 1300R Hayabusa and his friend Brent was on a Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird. Brent's wife Lydia and I followed in the motorhome chase vehicle.
The day had been sunny, but all along the Talkeetna Mountains there were thunderclouds with lots of lightning. Just a couple of miles south of Trapper Creek, it started to rain torrents. I saw the motorcycles start to brake and figured they were going to pull over to put on rain gear. The visibility was terrible and I couldn’t really see what was going on, but I started braking, too, in case the guys were stopping.
As we got closer, I could see Brent and Jameson standing on the shoulder so I started pulling over. Then I saw a fresh skid mark and noticed there was only one motorcycle parked beside them. We jumped out and found out that Jameson had hit a MOOSE!
Brent’s viewpoint:
Brent saw the moose. He saw Jameson brake and swerve. He thought, “Oh, good, he missed it.” Then suddenly Jameson’s headlight turned toward him and knew the bike had flipped over. He was horrified, thinking, “This can’t be good.”
Jameson’s viewpoint:
Visibility was so bad, he never saw the moose’s head as it walked in front of him. Suddenly, looming out of night in front of him was a moose’s butt! He braked and swerved, but still hit the moose in a glancing blow. Jameson was catapulted over the bike and the moose to land mainly on his left shoulder. Fortunately, he had all his protective gear on. His first thought was, “Where’s the moose? I don’t want to get stomped!” He jumped up immediately and looked for the moose. The moose was standing in the ditch. It looked over its shoulder at him and trotted off into the woods.
While it was bad luck to hit a moose, the bad luck stopped there. The flying motorcycle didn’t land on Jameson, Brent didn’t run over him, the moose didn’t stomp anyone, and his only injury was some deep bruising of his left arm and shoulder.
Brent rode his motorcycle the remaining couple of miles up to Trapper Creek, where Nick Smoljan, a local tour guide (nicksmoljan@yahoo.com) was having dinner at the gas station restaurant. Good samaritan Nick kindly went home and got a trailer and helped get the bike into Trapper Creek.
The poor Hayabusa -- or as we now call it -- the Hayamoosa - didn’t fare quite so well, but it has since been repaired.
-- Carmen

Date 6/13/08

Anchorage Temperature
Low 49 °F, High 63°F

Daylight 19 hrs 15 mins

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Life in Alaska