Tunnel Vision

7/15/07
After getting off the Valdez - Whittier ferry, we had to travel
through a shared tunnel to leave Whittier. A shared tunnel is one
that is shared with a train and it only one lane wide. On the hour,
you're allowed to go from Whittier out and on the 1/2 hour, you're
allowed to go into Whittier. They run the motorcycles last after
everyone else has gone because of some accidents. The tunnel is 2.5
miles long and you've got to ride between railroad tracks for the
length of it. The tracks themselves have some larker gaps with them
that make it an edge trap for motorcycle tires. Ruth and I made it
through with no problems.
We then headed to the Aleyeska resort about 15 miles toward Anchorage.
Ruth had heard of the Seven Glaciers restaurant on the Travel channel
and we wanted to go eat supper there.
We traveled around the area looking for an RV camp to set up the tent
but there wasn't one that we could find so we went to the Aleyeska to
go to the restaurant. The restaurant is at the TOP of the ski slopes
so we had to take a tram to get there. My MILEPOST magazine gave us a
two for one deal to get to the top. We were told at the bottom that
there were no reservations available but we were going up to at least
sit in the lounge.
At the top we found out the restaurant didn't open for 45 minutes. We
sat on the viewpoint looking at the glaciers and talking with locals.
At 5:30 we went to the restaurant and they told us they had some
cancellations so we could get in. Ruth and I split our dinners; she
had halibut and I had salmon. The food, atmosphere and company were
all great. We had a strawberry shortcake for dessert.
We headed for Seward after that. We'd hoped to find someone to camp
soon, but there was nothing. We started asking at motels but they
were all full. We ended up riding all 78 miles to Seward and setting
up the camp at 10 PM on the waterfront.

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Todd Ryan; Hudson, MA
Westborough HS Science Teacher
MSF RiderCoach