Alaskan Rider

Jan. 21 – Alaska in mid-January might bring to mind glaciers, frozen tundra and snow piled higher than a set of ape-hanger handlebars. Would you also believe there is a motorcyclist who rides just about year-round there?

Meet Russ Pagenkopf, an intrepid Alaskan rider who doesn't let winter shut him in. Of course, since he lives in Juneau, he benefits from slightly different weather patterns than other parts of Alaska, but he's still a bit of an inspiration to the rest of us.

"We are heavily influenced by the warmth of the Pacific Ocean," Pagenkopf says. "From my house, I can ride to the ocean in about five miles, and it's about two miles from a glacier."

Because of Juneau's location on the western coast, the weather is more like Seattle, Washington, than the Alaskan tundra. That allows Pagenkopf to ride his '98 Triumph Trophy 1200 most days of the year.

"We get at least 100 inches of rain a year," Pagenkopf says. "It's far more common to ride in the rain than the sun."

But since he's about 600 miles from the Arctic Circle, the weather can turn at a moment's notice. And that means he has to remain flexible.

"We typically get extreme weather conditions within a single day," Pagenkopf says. "We can start with snow in the morning, but the clouds will actually warm things up, so it'll turn to slush in the afternoon, then to rain with winds of 60 mph or more—and it'll all be gone in a few hours. Even in the summer, you have to plan way ahead to go for a ride.

"You have to pick the days, you have to pick the times, and you have to pick the weather," he says. "You need to know what's going to happen eight hours from now."

Planning ahead can get real tricky, especially if Pagenkopf wants to leave Juneau.

"There are no roads to Juneau because of the icefields," he says. "If I want to ride out of Juneau, I have to take a four-hour ferry to Haines, Alaska."

Riding around Juneau, though, can get pretty limiting. "There are 35,000 people here," Pagenkopf says. "It's 60 miles from one end of the main road to the other, and there's about 5 miles of road between the valleys."

And if Pagenkopf needs service on his Triumph, he has to take his bike to Seattle either by cargo plane or boat.

Those are some significant hurdles, but they're not enough to stop Pagenkopf.

With such hardships, you may ask, "Why bother?"

"The reason I own a motorcycle in Juneau is because I can," he says. "I rode when I was younger, and recently someone asked me why I stopped. They said, 'You know, you aren't getting any younger.' So I went and bought one."

Pagenkopf says there may be a few others in Juneau who ride year-round.

"You can ride year-round with the caveat that you have to slow down and you have to appreciate where you are riding," he says. "We use sand on the roads up here, so you need to slow to half traffic speed. If a turn is marked 40 mph, I'll take it at 20. You always need to ride conservatively due to the changing weather conditions. During the winter, you have to be even more aware of what the traffic is doing."

This year, though, Pagenkopf admits he's riding a bit less than usual.

"We got so much snow and so much rain," he says, "it turned to ice."

So, like most people, Pagenkopf finds diversions.

"I use the time to fiddle with the bike, and then I plan what I want to do when I can get out of town," he says. "Right now I'm thinking of a ride from Prudhoe Bay (the northernmost point you can drive to in Alaska) to Key West (the southernmost point in the continental U.S.) I look over maps and use the Internet. The Internet is great for communicating with others—which is something I don't have the time to do in the summer."