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Bears, Bugs, and Bikes: Clarkson Jewelers’ Scott Bolozky Rides From Missouri to Alaska | July 17, 2013 (0 comments)
Ellisville, MO—Jeweler Scott Bolozky recently learned a few facts about nature: 1) cold weather does not necessarily kill off bugs; 2) chasing a bear is not a good idea; and 3) moose are much bigger than most people realize.
“They’re HUGE! Just gigantic! Even a baby moose is bigger than a horse, and a full-grown one makes a horse look like a small pony,” he says. He should know. Bolozky, of Clarkson Jewelers in Ellisville, recently came face to face (or, rather, face to waist) with many moose on a motorcycle road trip that took him from his native Missouri through Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, Alaska, and into Canada’s Yukon Territory.
The trip was a personal goal. “I’d been talking about taking such a trip for years, but I could never get anybody to go with me. Finally, my friend Rick White said he’d go.” (White, not a jeweler, owns a string of about 30 barbecue restaurants.)
The pair set off on June 8. Bolozky rode a Harley Davidson Road Glide, which he describes as a “good, comfortable long-distance bike.” White rode a Harley Convertible. Three friends joined them as far as Hannibal, MO, and from there the route took the two through Auburn, NE; Hot Springs, SD; Forsythe, MT; Kalispell, MT; Kaleden, BC; Williams Lake, BC; Deas Lake, BC; Whitehorse, YT; Beaver Creek, YT; Delta Junction, AK; Fairbanks, AK; and Anchorage, AK.
Jeweler Scott Bolozky with his trusty bike and a herd of bison grazing in the background. Below, the entrance to Mt. Rushmore, one of the stops the friends made on the trip.
The trip held a number of surprises, both pleasant and sometimes a little less than pleasant. “The roads were much better than I thought, but some of the hotels were kind of, well, rural,” said Bolozky with a pause, trying to find a polite way to describe them. Then he just said bluntly, “They were dives.”
Still, the pair was surprised to get a room everywhere they tried. Sometimes even dive motels are booked solid if there are construction crews working in the area. Bolozky and White had packed a tent and sleeping bags just in case they needed to lodge al fresco, but they never had to stay outdoors, and the people they met were incredibly friendly and welcoming. One place, a gas station, simply rented out rooms above the station, so one night the two friends stayed in one—which was cavernous, with five beds, couches, and a full outfitting of conveniences for long-term lodging. And invitations to visit strangers’ homes weren’t unusual.
Pipe dreams: Bolozky, left, and White standing on an oil pipleine amid tall trees.
“We met a guy from Williams Lake, who owned a pretty nice steak restaurant called Laughing Moon. We sat at the bar and just chatted with him and drank beer, and learned the guy owns 15,000 acres and is a cattle rancher. He invited us to come stay and hang out and relax at his ranch for a few days,” said Bolozky. They didn’t; they had to move on to their next destination, but Bolozky told The Centurion the people they met was truly the high point of the trip.
Something else that surprised Bolozky was how many bugs there are in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The mosquitoes there—like the moose—are huge, and they’re not shy about feasting on human flesh.
“You’d think how cold it gets in the winter, it would kill off the larva, but apparently not,” he said wryly. More than one person has since forwarded him a recent article about what makes mosquitoes bite (type O blood and beer are two top culprits).
“I don’t know what my blood type is, but we definitely had some beers,” he laughs.
He also got to experience the summer solstice in Yukon, which truly does not get dark in summer. It is light almost all night; the darkest it gets is a very, very late dusk before the sun comes back up, says Bolozky. Conversely, however, there is a bit of light during the winter solstice—about four hours a day, one local told him.
During a stop in Hyder, AK, Bolozky looked up and saw a bear. Thinking “photo op,” he chased after it with his camera—until a local said, “Um, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” It was one of a number of black and brown bears he and White saw on the trip.
The pair also saw tremendous scenery, and mountains from Montana and Idaho westward. They saw Mt. McKinley from a distance for much of the ride, but they didn’t go to it, though they did go to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.
The scenery was magnificent, says Bolozky. For most of the trip, mountains and lakes like this were everyday views.
The most interesting dichotomy of the trip was the luxury jeweler visiting the rustic mountain man. Clarkson’s Jewelers sells such top-end brands as Roberto Coin, David Yurman, Patek Philippe, Rolex, and more. The mountain man, a high school friend of White’s who lives in Delta Junction, AK, lives off the land and off the grid.
Bolozky and White went to visit for three days. The fellow, a carpenter, built his house himself out of 90% scrap lumber. He has no electricity, no running water, no refrigerator, and no indoor plumbing of any kind. The house itself is fairly large but has no frills. A battered cooler filled with frozen bottles serves as a refrigerator, wood stoves provide heat (even in -60 degree weather) and a freezer is run off solar power. There’s a small generator for the freezer in case the solar fails or there’s an ongoing string of cloudy days, but that’s the only concession to technology.
Rick White, left, and Scott Bolozky pause their bikes on one of the warmer days of the trip.
Taking a shower at their friend’s house meant filling a five-gallon jug, heating it over a wood heater, then trickling a pitcher of water over your head to soap up and rinse, says Bolozky.
As for other bathroom amenities, “Using the outhouse was not a highlight of the trip. That was probably the worst part,” says Bolozky, who admits he can’t even stand smelly trash cans. And there wasn’t even a proper seat, just a hole with some foam, he added.
“[Rick’s friend] is a really nice, normal guy. He just likes it simple,” says Bolozky. The fellow lives on about $200 a month, mainly for gas, cell phone, and food. “Three days at his house was two days too much,” he said. “But he is really nice.”
Despite bugs, bears, and a decent bit of rain, Bolozky loved the trip and would do it again in a heartbeat. But The Centurion had just one final question: do you really get bugs in your teeth riding a motorcycle?
“You do if you keep your mouth open,” he said.