Me,Leah,Murray, Carol,Chuck, Briand and Toby
Banf Jasper Parkway
Getting closer to home
Here's Diesel Guarding the bikesFriday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
So. After I last signed off, the man was pissed at me because I was on the internet so much. I had to give it up for the rest of the trip home, even if the place we stayed at had WiFi. God, sometimes I swear I am the man in the relationship!! Oh well, when I FINALLY signed off and made it down to my bike there was a note on my tank bag from Brian saying he was next door having breakfast. So I trudged into the restaurant hoping to still be able to get some food without grief! There were some other bikers sitting in there and I could tell they were Harley riders because they didnt say hello, they just stared at me imagining me onthe back of a bike. yeah whatever. When I sat down, Brian asked me if I recognized this dude by the till from Dawson...holy crap! it was Frank from Pink Mountain!! I turned to Frank and said, "Great to see you finally made it off Pink Mountain!" he was equally surprised to see us. His wife Joan was there too and we gabbed for a few minutes about our next destinations. seems they were heading down the Cassiar as well tomorrow and then off to Stewart, so we said that we might see them there. they were headed off to vancouver and then the Island so i told them how to get to my mom's coffee shop in Parksville and they said they were going to try and get there. Which they did. My mom was quite surprised to meet them and hear abit about my adventure on the road. Note to all...she gave them a free bag of donuts because they knew me!! They are great people. After we left the restaurant we met a couple from the Netherlands on a Honda CX650 pulling a trailer, who had been on the road for 2 years already and they were heading to Alaska and wanted to know how the roads were. We told them abit about our adventure and they were happy to hear the roads werent as bad as they had been previously told. This couple were in their seventies I think...pretty cool. If I amstill travelling with my man when i am that old I am going to forget my hearing aids at home I think!!
Back on the road, we headed south on the Cassiar to Stewart. We had heard that the first 25KM or so were a little rough, but it was pretty good. I really like having to steer around pot holes and frost heaves. I definitly am used to it by now!! The Cassiar Highway was awsome!! Very beautifull and a great road to drive on. lots of curves and hills, a bit of gravel and the odd moose. There wasnt a whole lot of traffic but I did see a few bikes. I even thought that I saw Squonker(Ben) but he was going the wrong way. We passed this guy and a girl on an old Norton weighed down like crazy. It was a pretty cool looking bike. We stopped and chatted with them at the Frank Bell Airstrip and man was it hot there. FINALLY some decent freakin weather. The whole day was great. We made it to the Stewart turn off and pulled out the directions to Leah and Murray's cabin (friends of mine from the Island) they have a cabin at Meziadin Lake just east of Stewart. We arived there at 9pmish after my questionable driving instructions which I blamed on Murray, and they were in bed!! what a couple of old farts....I pulled into there driveway and started honking my horn, that got a little action in the cabin happening! I hadent seen them in about a year so it was so great to spend some time with them and the 16 million mosquitos. We canooed(?) on the lake which was just like glass. It was so beautifull there and I told Brian that we need to buy a cabin on a lake and get a canoe. We had a great couple of days there and it was really nice to have a break from the road. Leah cooked us some fantabulous meals and Murray always has alot to say...about everything, which always seemed to end up with those "Damn Politicians!" Murrays parents showed up on Thursday evening and it was great to see them again too. They are great people. We left on the Friday morning after taking a few group photos and after viewing them at home i was quite surprised to see Brian with his arm around Toby, Leah and Murray's dog. Being the HUGE (sarcasm) dog lover that he is. We headed out at our ealiest time so far, 9am , wow. We hit a rain shower early and got to Kitwanga for fuel where we met someother Albertans and it felt pretty good to be going home. We stopped for lunch in Smithers at Brian's favorite eating spot, Subway. Smithers is such a pretty town, I love it there. We drove all the way to Vanderhoof where we found a "Biker Friendly" motel which was owned by a couple from Whitehorse. They had just moved there last October and it really is a small world because the husband used to get his hair done where I used to work in Whitehorse! I didnt remember him but we had a good chat. It never ceases to amaze me how you can meet people in places far from home and they will know people that you do. It is truly a small world and I think it is getting smaller all the time. We saw a wood processing place in Vanderhoof, I think they made 2x4's and other lumber and the amount of logs piled up there was HUGE!! I am not sure if they had so much because of the low price of wood or because the demands for lumber has dropped so much but WOW! Amazing amount of cut logs. We got on the road early and headed east to Jasper. Prince George has really grown alot. The traffic through there was busy. It sure helped having 2 side mirrors now! I dont know how I managed in Anchorage with only one, that town has crazy traffic. Lots of beautiful scenery and a great road to drive on. Nice and smooth with some good curves and hills. We stopped at McBride, that is a nice little town. We tried to find a real estate office to see what the prices their were like but there wasnt one. The local paper had some listings in it and the prices were definitely cheaper than here. McBride has alot of farm land and it is kind of in the valley of some mountains. Very picturesque. I was happy when we made it to Jasper, almost home, YAY!! It was just crazy in Jasper, bikes everywhere. I think every Harley rider with a loud tail pipe went for a ride that day and they all ended up in Jasper. There were no hotels rooms to be had so we decided to go down the Banf Jasper parkway and see what we could find. If all else fails we camp on the side of the road. The first 2 places were completely full and so we kept heading south until we got to the Sunwapta Resort. They had a really nice room and we were set for the night. Why start camping now?!! We went for a long walk by the river to these falls and we kept going until we couldnt handle the mosquitos any longer. Holy crap they are bad this year. They are so relentless in their quest for blood but we werent in the mood to give up any so we went quickly back to the resort. The ride home the next day was glorious. I think part of it was because we were so close to home but, the parkway is so beautifull. Not too much traffic and so much to see. Even after 3 weeks of mountains, mountains, mountains, I am still amazed at the enormity and the beauty of them. What a fantastic ride this has been. I hope that I dont forget too much although combined, brian and I have accumulated 880 photos to be developed!! I think I will have to find a cheap spot for developing since we spent so much on hotel rooms!! oh well, we made it home safely and I was so happy to see the farm again even though all the weeds were 3 feet tall and our lawn looked terrible. More work to do before I even go back to work! oh well...holidays are over! Thanks for reading about our journey, it sure was fun writing it knowing my friends and family were reading along.
Back on the road, we headed south on the Cassiar to Stewart. We had heard that the first 25KM or so were a little rough, but it was pretty good. I really like having to steer around pot holes and frost heaves. I definitly am used to it by now!! The Cassiar Highway was awsome!! Very beautifull and a great road to drive on. lots of curves and hills, a bit of gravel and the odd moose. There wasnt a whole lot of traffic but I did see a few bikes. I even thought that I saw Squonker(Ben) but he was going the wrong way. We passed this guy and a girl on an old Norton weighed down like crazy. It was a pretty cool looking bike. We stopped and chatted with them at the Frank Bell Airstrip and man was it hot there. FINALLY some decent freakin weather. The whole day was great. We made it to the Stewart turn off and pulled out the directions to Leah and Murray's cabin (friends of mine from the Island) they have a cabin at Meziadin Lake just east of Stewart. We arived there at 9pmish after my questionable driving instructions which I blamed on Murray, and they were in bed!! what a couple of old farts....I pulled into there driveway and started honking my horn, that got a little action in the cabin happening! I hadent seen them in about a year so it was so great to spend some time with them and the 16 million mosquitos. We canooed(?) on the lake which was just like glass. It was so beautifull there and I told Brian that we need to buy a cabin on a lake and get a canoe. We had a great couple of days there and it was really nice to have a break from the road. Leah cooked us some fantabulous meals and Murray always has alot to say...about everything, which always seemed to end up with those "Damn Politicians!" Murrays parents showed up on Thursday evening and it was great to see them again too. They are great people. We left on the Friday morning after taking a few group photos and after viewing them at home i was quite surprised to see Brian with his arm around Toby, Leah and Murray's dog. Being the HUGE (sarcasm) dog lover that he is. We headed out at our ealiest time so far, 9am , wow. We hit a rain shower early and got to Kitwanga for fuel where we met someother Albertans and it felt pretty good to be going home. We stopped for lunch in Smithers at Brian's favorite eating spot, Subway. Smithers is such a pretty town, I love it there. We drove all the way to Vanderhoof where we found a "Biker Friendly" motel which was owned by a couple from Whitehorse. They had just moved there last October and it really is a small world because the husband used to get his hair done where I used to work in Whitehorse! I didnt remember him but we had a good chat. It never ceases to amaze me how you can meet people in places far from home and they will know people that you do. It is truly a small world and I think it is getting smaller all the time. We saw a wood processing place in Vanderhoof, I think they made 2x4's and other lumber and the amount of logs piled up there was HUGE!! I am not sure if they had so much because of the low price of wood or because the demands for lumber has dropped so much but WOW! Amazing amount of cut logs. We got on the road early and headed east to Jasper. Prince George has really grown alot. The traffic through there was busy. It sure helped having 2 side mirrors now! I dont know how I managed in Anchorage with only one, that town has crazy traffic. Lots of beautiful scenery and a great road to drive on. Nice and smooth with some good curves and hills. We stopped at McBride, that is a nice little town. We tried to find a real estate office to see what the prices their were like but there wasnt one. The local paper had some listings in it and the prices were definitely cheaper than here. McBride has alot of farm land and it is kind of in the valley of some mountains. Very picturesque. I was happy when we made it to Jasper, almost home, YAY!! It was just crazy in Jasper, bikes everywhere. I think every Harley rider with a loud tail pipe went for a ride that day and they all ended up in Jasper. There were no hotels rooms to be had so we decided to go down the Banf Jasper parkway and see what we could find. If all else fails we camp on the side of the road. The first 2 places were completely full and so we kept heading south until we got to the Sunwapta Resort. They had a really nice room and we were set for the night. Why start camping now?!! We went for a long walk by the river to these falls and we kept going until we couldnt handle the mosquitos any longer. Holy crap they are bad this year. They are so relentless in their quest for blood but we werent in the mood to give up any so we went quickly back to the resort. The ride home the next day was glorious. I think part of it was because we were so close to home but, the parkway is so beautifull. Not too much traffic and so much to see. Even after 3 weeks of mountains, mountains, mountains, I am still amazed at the enormity and the beauty of them. What a fantastic ride this has been. I hope that I dont forget too much although combined, brian and I have accumulated 880 photos to be developed!! I think I will have to find a cheap spot for developing since we spent so much on hotel rooms!! oh well, we made it home safely and I was so happy to see the farm again even though all the weeds were 3 feet tall and our lawn looked terrible. More work to do before I even go back to work! oh well...holidays are over! Thanks for reading about our journey, it sure was fun writing it knowing my friends and family were reading along.
Monday, June 30, 2008
A couple of things that I remembered from Achorage. Brian and I had gone over to see about a room at a B&B that had been recommended by Barb at BArb's Leathers, and while we were standing on the street, a little, black dude walks by and as he walks by he turns to me and says,"I just have to ask...are you on a bike?" "Yes", I say. "Are you actually DRIVING that bike or just RIDIN it?" was his next Q. What the hell?!! I could feel my temper rise and I just about let him have it because he wouldnt ask a guy that, especially a "biker". Right?!JACKASS. He is lucky he was cute. So in my sweetest voice I could muster, controlling my urge to chew him an new one, I replied "Actually, Ive taken that bike on alot of roads most people havent ever been on before and wouldnt consider going on. So I am DRIVING IT!" "Good" he says and walks away after then telling us all about the bike he wants to buy this year. Then we ran into another dude who may have to get his finger amputated because he got blood poisoning in it while working on a fishboat just by getting a couple of pricks from the rope. Then he went into how he used to be a herrion addict and how now he refuses pain meds etc because he doesnt want to get hooked again. He talked to us for about 15 mins about all this and how he became a herroin addict and things about his mom...blah blah blah. We were like.."Where the hell are we?" Oh well, it was pretty entertaining.
Since we left "The Ritz" at Glennallen, we headed to Haines Junction, YK. Such a cute town with fantastic views of the mountains. We met a dude there in the restaurant who had driven up to Prudhoe Bay form California. Guys are always surprised that I am riding my own bike and not sitting on the back of Brian's. Then they ask me how I like my bike because they want their own woman to ride a bike and think mine would be good. It is good dammit!! I love riding it!! This trip has been awsome for riding despite the amount of cloudy, rainy days we've had. The next day we met a group of 3 going to Anchorage while at breakfast. Then we headed to Haines, AK. That road between Haines Junction and HAines, AK was some of the most fantastic scenery and a cool road. But COLD!! up at the summit it was down to 4.5C. I had that heated vest cranked and I was still huddled behind my windshield. Holy Crap! I wanted to stop for alot of pix but my hands were too cold to work. And Brian wasnt going to take his gloves off! By the time we hit the American border crossing it was back up to 14C and sunny. Nice. HAines was a cute little place. It was sooooo windy! why cant we get any kind of NORMAL weather?!! What is it with this country!? We did a walking tour and checked out lots of shops. We had to catch the ferry to Skagway, Ak at 10pm so we had alot of time to kill. The ferry ride over was about an hour and calm and smooth. Thank god!! I knew it had to be better than my last boat ride. It was all good....I didnt need a barf bag. I am still queezy tho and it has been about 4 days since the boat ride from hell.
Skagway is so pretty. A cruise ship hadlanded so the whole town was full of grey hairs. (Thankfully I took care of mine before we left!!) We walked the street looking like a couple of skidooers with all our gear on compared to all the "tourists". I found an artist gallery which had some of the most amazing art in it. This guy buys mammoth ivory and bones, and makes really cool carvings and jewelleryout of it as well as this really cool set of wallrus tusks. They were still attached to the skull bones and he had mounted it onto a beautifull piece of burled wood. WOW, $24,000. it was cool. He had some other really great stuff too...I had to buy a piece of art for myself. I have never seen anything quite like this stuff. Beuatifull craftmanship too. When Brian was done looking and went outside I bought myself a smaller tusk piece. hee hee. Wont he be surprised when it comes in the mail in a couple of weeks?! I just wont tell him how much it costs.....
Well the man is telling me to "hurry up and let's GO!!" we stayed in Watson Lake last night and now we are headed to the Cassiar Hwy to Stewart,BC where it is supposed to be 30C and hot! yay!! some sun!! I might even turn off the vest......
Since we left "The Ritz" at Glennallen, we headed to Haines Junction, YK. Such a cute town with fantastic views of the mountains. We met a dude there in the restaurant who had driven up to Prudhoe Bay form California. Guys are always surprised that I am riding my own bike and not sitting on the back of Brian's. Then they ask me how I like my bike because they want their own woman to ride a bike and think mine would be good. It is good dammit!! I love riding it!! This trip has been awsome for riding despite the amount of cloudy, rainy days we've had. The next day we met a group of 3 going to Anchorage while at breakfast. Then we headed to Haines, AK. That road between Haines Junction and HAines, AK was some of the most fantastic scenery and a cool road. But COLD!! up at the summit it was down to 4.5C. I had that heated vest cranked and I was still huddled behind my windshield. Holy Crap! I wanted to stop for alot of pix but my hands were too cold to work. And Brian wasnt going to take his gloves off! By the time we hit the American border crossing it was back up to 14C and sunny. Nice. HAines was a cute little place. It was sooooo windy! why cant we get any kind of NORMAL weather?!! What is it with this country!? We did a walking tour and checked out lots of shops. We had to catch the ferry to Skagway, Ak at 10pm so we had alot of time to kill. The ferry ride over was about an hour and calm and smooth. Thank god!! I knew it had to be better than my last boat ride. It was all good....I didnt need a barf bag. I am still queezy tho and it has been about 4 days since the boat ride from hell.
Skagway is so pretty. A cruise ship hadlanded so the whole town was full of grey hairs. (Thankfully I took care of mine before we left!!) We walked the street looking like a couple of skidooers with all our gear on compared to all the "tourists". I found an artist gallery which had some of the most amazing art in it. This guy buys mammoth ivory and bones, and makes really cool carvings and jewelleryout of it as well as this really cool set of wallrus tusks. They were still attached to the skull bones and he had mounted it onto a beautifull piece of burled wood. WOW, $24,000. it was cool. He had some other really great stuff too...I had to buy a piece of art for myself. I have never seen anything quite like this stuff. Beuatifull craftmanship too. When Brian was done looking and went outside I bought myself a smaller tusk piece. hee hee. Wont he be surprised when it comes in the mail in a couple of weeks?! I just wont tell him how much it costs.....
Well the man is telling me to "hurry up and let's GO!!" we stayed in Watson Lake last night and now we are headed to the Cassiar Hwy to Stewart,BC where it is supposed to be 30C and hot! yay!! some sun!! I might even turn off the vest......
Friday, June 27, 2008
We headed off in the mornings in the bright sunshine. Gloriously sunny. We went up to the Denali national park and visited the information centre and walked around a bit. Had a coffee on the patio! The tours were in buses and pretty long so we decided to just head down to Anchorage. I still want to purchase a heated vest so we planned to get to Barb's Leathers first.
At Barb’s Leathers we ran into Mark(AKDuc). I had met him in Dawson and he told us a great place to go for dinner, so Brian and I took him out for dinner. The three of us ended up hanging out together and then we stayed at Marks place. He gave us a great tour of Anchorage and we were glad to have a place to stay. Thanks Mark!! So far the weather hasn’t been that great for camping…..not that I have minded staying in hotels any!! Of course the next day was bright and sunny and I didn’t even need the heated vest. We drove on to Seward, AK. Great ride. The road was curvy and fun. Not too much traffic(motorhomes aka landbarges) to manouver around either. Seward is a cute little fishing town right on the water. I was bound and determned that we were going to take a boat tour of the Kenai Peninsula so we headed to the docks to find a charter. We found one that was leaving the next day at 1130 so we decided to get on board even tho they warned us there was a weather warning in effect. I am such a moron!! I didn’t listen to my inner voice(do I ever?) I know that I get motion sickness pretty easy but I boarded any ways. I didn t even think about taking some gravol. Well the harbour was great, smooth nonwavy. Nice scenery, saw a whale and some porpoises. Then all hell broke loose. We headed out to open water where the swells were huge. I knew it wasn’t going to get better and the captain came on said we had about 35-45 mins of this. Crap. I stared at the horizon trying to maintain some composure and keep my guts in check. Brian seemed to be making out allright so I should be able too. I grew up by the ocean I should do better than a prairie boy! After awhile I headed to the most level spot on the boat , the lower deck back part. I stayed there for the rest of the trip. At one point I borrowed a ladies barf bag(already 1/3 full) who was sitting next to me so I could honk my guts out into it. Thank god the deckhands came around with more barf bags because I used 4. I even heaved over the edge at one point. Did I mention it was freezing out too?! Ocean spray shooting everywhere. I was huddled on the back bench with a bunch of teenage missionaries from Georgia. I managed to have a nap before the boat made it back to the wharf and Brian helped me crawl back to our hotel where I slept for a couple hours. I am just thankful that we had a good driver because I think the ride could have been way worse than it was. I told Brian to kick my ass if I ever want to get into another boat again. $300us to puke my guts out for 6 hours. Nice. So we decided after that to drive to Valdez instead of taking the ferry. haha 2 days later and I am still queezy. The Glenn Hwy was really nice and curvy but I had to keep stopping because I felt like I was going to barf again! Gross, in a helmet wouldn’t be too cool. We made it t Glennallen where we have a room at the Caribou hotel in the annex. Kind of like a bunkhouse. Cheap and clean. We are getting a bit short on time so we may not go to Valdez but continue on back to Tok, AK and then to Haines Junction, YK. Back into Canada, or Cehnehdeh, as some of my American friends think we say it!!! We don’t all say eh, you know.
Some things I have seen on the way so far that have been strange: since we have been in Alaska, I have noticed these kiosks everywhere that sells coffee and espresso. We could be on the highway in the middle of freakin nowhere and there is an espresso kiosk. People here must be totally addicted to their coffee. Even in Anchorage every block ihas at least one maybe 2 kiosks for espresso. Another weird thing is since we got on the Alaska Hwy, I have seen 5 cars with the windows all smashed in and pretty beat up on the side of the road, just hanging out. 3 in Canada and then 2 in Alaska. On the highway in the middle of nowhere will be this car in the ditch all beat to crap. Looked really odd.
Well…we are off to breakfast and then back on the road. The heated vest is awesome!!! Roasty toasty. All of our gear has been great so far. My odometer is now 9924.
At Barb’s Leathers we ran into Mark(AKDuc). I had met him in Dawson and he told us a great place to go for dinner, so Brian and I took him out for dinner. The three of us ended up hanging out together and then we stayed at Marks place. He gave us a great tour of Anchorage and we were glad to have a place to stay. Thanks Mark!! So far the weather hasn’t been that great for camping…..not that I have minded staying in hotels any!! Of course the next day was bright and sunny and I didn’t even need the heated vest. We drove on to Seward, AK. Great ride. The road was curvy and fun. Not too much traffic(motorhomes aka landbarges) to manouver around either. Seward is a cute little fishing town right on the water. I was bound and determned that we were going to take a boat tour of the Kenai Peninsula so we headed to the docks to find a charter. We found one that was leaving the next day at 1130 so we decided to get on board even tho they warned us there was a weather warning in effect. I am such a moron!! I didn’t listen to my inner voice(do I ever?) I know that I get motion sickness pretty easy but I boarded any ways. I didn t even think about taking some gravol. Well the harbour was great, smooth nonwavy. Nice scenery, saw a whale and some porpoises. Then all hell broke loose. We headed out to open water where the swells were huge. I knew it wasn’t going to get better and the captain came on said we had about 35-45 mins of this. Crap. I stared at the horizon trying to maintain some composure and keep my guts in check. Brian seemed to be making out allright so I should be able too. I grew up by the ocean I should do better than a prairie boy! After awhile I headed to the most level spot on the boat , the lower deck back part. I stayed there for the rest of the trip. At one point I borrowed a ladies barf bag(already 1/3 full) who was sitting next to me so I could honk my guts out into it. Thank god the deckhands came around with more barf bags because I used 4. I even heaved over the edge at one point. Did I mention it was freezing out too?! Ocean spray shooting everywhere. I was huddled on the back bench with a bunch of teenage missionaries from Georgia. I managed to have a nap before the boat made it back to the wharf and Brian helped me crawl back to our hotel where I slept for a couple hours. I am just thankful that we had a good driver because I think the ride could have been way worse than it was. I told Brian to kick my ass if I ever want to get into another boat again. $300us to puke my guts out for 6 hours. Nice. So we decided after that to drive to Valdez instead of taking the ferry. haha 2 days later and I am still queezy. The Glenn Hwy was really nice and curvy but I had to keep stopping because I felt like I was going to barf again! Gross, in a helmet wouldn’t be too cool. We made it t Glennallen where we have a room at the Caribou hotel in the annex. Kind of like a bunkhouse. Cheap and clean. We are getting a bit short on time so we may not go to Valdez but continue on back to Tok, AK and then to Haines Junction, YK. Back into Canada, or Cehnehdeh, as some of my American friends think we say it!!! We don’t all say eh, you know.
Some things I have seen on the way so far that have been strange: since we have been in Alaska, I have noticed these kiosks everywhere that sells coffee and espresso. We could be on the highway in the middle of freakin nowhere and there is an espresso kiosk. People here must be totally addicted to their coffee. Even in Anchorage every block ihas at least one maybe 2 kiosks for espresso. Another weird thing is since we got on the Alaska Hwy, I have seen 5 cars with the windows all smashed in and pretty beat up on the side of the road, just hanging out. 3 in Canada and then 2 in Alaska. On the highway in the middle of nowhere will be this car in the ditch all beat to crap. Looked really odd.
Well…we are off to breakfast and then back on the road. The heated vest is awesome!!! Roasty toasty. All of our gear has been great so far. My odometer is now 9924.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday June 22, 08
Well, our time in Dawson City was some of the most fun I think we’ve ever had. I don’t think I have ever laughed so much. The group of guys that we hung out with were some of the best people I have ever met. We all just clicked and had a riot, usually at the Downtown Hotel for a few beers and ending up with a good Harley bashing. Thursday Brian and I just hung out and checked out the town and some of its features like the Robert Service and Jack London cabins. It was pretty amazing what people used to live in compared to what they seem to need to live in today. A lot of the buildings here are from the turn of the century and are kept up quite well. Some are a little rough and looking a little lopsided but still cool. The weather was hot, sunny and fantastic. The first real great weather we’ve had since April. The whole way up here everyone we have talked to has had the same nasty weather that we have had in RD. Cool and rainy and not like it usually is. I stopped in for a massage, that was great to loosen up my tight shoulder muscles while Brian went back for a nap. Seems that was the plan for the day with everyone. Naps. I guess we are all too old to stay up till the bar closes without having to nap it off the next day. Too funny. I think we are trying to conserve our strength so when the party happens on Friday night we will be able to handle it. Right guys? Friday was the banquet for the Dust to Dawson ralley. I guess there were over 130 people for the dinner, with awards and door prizes and a whole lot of stories about getting up there. I won a door prize, a BMW touque so small that it is lucky I won it because it wouldn’t fit any normal persons head. I am not saying that I am not “normal” just that I have a small head!! My friends all know how “normal” I really am!! Haha There was also a bike rodeo thing that happened in the street in front of the Downtown Hotel which included some obstacle course type stuff like seeing who could drive the slowest, and blindfolded driving, and a bunch of other goofy stuff, it was pretty entertaining. The BEST entertainment of all was when Sgt Marty(an excop from Colorado) had to direct a bunch of tourists from getting hit by the motorbikes participating in the bike rodeo, as they would exit the street that was blocked off to regular traffic. It was so funny to see how he totally took control of the traffic situation in Dawson City where it is rare to see more than one car drive down the street at a time. I dont even think they have a street light. Dawson City is such a laid back place you wouldn’t think there would be a need for a traffic cop but I guess Sgt Marty was in the right place at the right time!! He had no idea we were all watching him and laughing our asses off. Juneau Dave went down and told him and Sgt Marty gave us a special salute. I guess once you are a cop you are always a cop. After the biker games, we went into the pub and had a few more beers, had some more laughs before heading outside to take some more photos of all the bikes. They all had to be lined up in front of the Downtown Hotel at midnight in order to get a D2D(Dust to Dawson) sticker and to see exactly how many bikes there where. I guess there were about 167 bikes lined up and down the street. It looked like a beemer convention with a bunch of Kawasaki KLRs added to it with a Russian Ural in the middle. It was pretty impressive. I am sure there were millions of dollars sitting on the dirt street of Dawson City that night. I am also sure these bikers were probably more likely to be firemen and city planners and maybe even the odd coast guard worker, than the bikers of the 70’s! . A strange thing happened to me in Dawson. I found out that I graduated form Robert Service Secondary that same week. Juneau Dave was reading the Dawson paper and found an article about the graduating class (6 kids total) and a picture of one of the girls graduating, valedictorian actually, looked EXACTLY like me! I graduated again!! YAY!! I even thought it looked like me. Too bizarre. I had to give an acceptance speech over a few more beers in the pub, it was all good, the guys were proud.
We all met for breakfast the next morning before saying goodby and heading off in our different directions. I was filled with mixed emotions. It was hard to leave all these great new friendsthat we had had so many good laughs with, but I was ready to get back on the road. I am sure we will always keep in touch.
We left Dawson and drove the Top of the world Highway. Very cool, scarey as hell and hugely exciting at the same time. The road is straight up the mountain with a lot of curves and absolutely NO shoulder on the right hand side of the road. It drops off into nothing. Crazy, I tried to stay close to the yellow line as I was cranking my bike around the curves. We followed Andy up to the top and it was such a wicked view. On this trip I have seen more truly spectacular views of mountains and scenery that is so completly awe inspiring. It really makes you realize how truly insignificant our regular home life is when you see such amazing things. We all drove on to Chicken,AK and that is where it went from gravel back to pavement and we said goodby to Andy. He was headed to Haines, AK to catch the ferry back home to Juneau and we were headed towards Anchorage. We stopped at a gas station in Tok,Ak where I ate a Reindeer hotdog! There will be no Rudolph this year!! He was pretty tasty too. We made it to a place called Paxon,AK where we got some gas and had more to eat. It was kind of a dumpy place and the people there were a little off I think. We didn’t stick around too long. Drove a few more miles to Tangle Lake campground where we chatted with a couple who were camping next to us. They had brought there cat with them which was kind of funny. they said they didnt go anywhere withiut their cat. Our tent glowed like a light bulb. I haven’t seen the sun really go down since I left Grande Prairie. I think it is getting easier to sleep the whole night even with all the light. The next morning we headed west on the Denali Highway. The day started out sunny but true to form, the clouds rolled in and we headed into some really crappy weather. The road was the shits too. It was full of washboard and pot holes. Just about the whole way was gravel, again. I am getting a little tired of gravel. The Dempster Hwy was WAY better than this road. When we got to the end it started to pour down rain so we found a gas station and pulled in for a hot coffee. While in there we met up with a few other bikers getting out of the rain and we decided to get a cabin near by instead of going south to Anchorage. We found a place about 8 miles north and dried out all our stuff. My radio is now hoped and we have no communication between us. It really hadn’t worked that great for the most part but now we are back to hand signals and swearing in our helmets, or maybe just my helmet! While having pizza and beer at a local restaurant, Brian found a local paper that had the most hilarious personal ads in it that we had ever read.
This is straight out of the Pioneer Press:
Woman seeking man- SWF 50’s seeks man 50’s to mid 60’s for romantic hikes and general good humoured get togethers. Must love dogs, walk gently this good earth and have a reliable vehicle.
Man seeking woman- human shipwreck seeks experienced diver to search for lost treasures.
These two should get together. If you know anyone who might fit the bill I have kept the paper and I can give you the numbers!!
Well, our time in Dawson City was some of the most fun I think we’ve ever had. I don’t think I have ever laughed so much. The group of guys that we hung out with were some of the best people I have ever met. We all just clicked and had a riot, usually at the Downtown Hotel for a few beers and ending up with a good Harley bashing. Thursday Brian and I just hung out and checked out the town and some of its features like the Robert Service and Jack London cabins. It was pretty amazing what people used to live in compared to what they seem to need to live in today. A lot of the buildings here are from the turn of the century and are kept up quite well. Some are a little rough and looking a little lopsided but still cool. The weather was hot, sunny and fantastic. The first real great weather we’ve had since April. The whole way up here everyone we have talked to has had the same nasty weather that we have had in RD. Cool and rainy and not like it usually is. I stopped in for a massage, that was great to loosen up my tight shoulder muscles while Brian went back for a nap. Seems that was the plan for the day with everyone. Naps. I guess we are all too old to stay up till the bar closes without having to nap it off the next day. Too funny. I think we are trying to conserve our strength so when the party happens on Friday night we will be able to handle it. Right guys? Friday was the banquet for the Dust to Dawson ralley. I guess there were over 130 people for the dinner, with awards and door prizes and a whole lot of stories about getting up there. I won a door prize, a BMW touque so small that it is lucky I won it because it wouldn’t fit any normal persons head. I am not saying that I am not “normal” just that I have a small head!! My friends all know how “normal” I really am!! Haha There was also a bike rodeo thing that happened in the street in front of the Downtown Hotel which included some obstacle course type stuff like seeing who could drive the slowest, and blindfolded driving, and a bunch of other goofy stuff, it was pretty entertaining. The BEST entertainment of all was when Sgt Marty(an excop from Colorado) had to direct a bunch of tourists from getting hit by the motorbikes participating in the bike rodeo, as they would exit the street that was blocked off to regular traffic. It was so funny to see how he totally took control of the traffic situation in Dawson City where it is rare to see more than one car drive down the street at a time. I dont even think they have a street light. Dawson City is such a laid back place you wouldn’t think there would be a need for a traffic cop but I guess Sgt Marty was in the right place at the right time!! He had no idea we were all watching him and laughing our asses off. Juneau Dave went down and told him and Sgt Marty gave us a special salute. I guess once you are a cop you are always a cop. After the biker games, we went into the pub and had a few more beers, had some more laughs before heading outside to take some more photos of all the bikes. They all had to be lined up in front of the Downtown Hotel at midnight in order to get a D2D(Dust to Dawson) sticker and to see exactly how many bikes there where. I guess there were about 167 bikes lined up and down the street. It looked like a beemer convention with a bunch of Kawasaki KLRs added to it with a Russian Ural in the middle. It was pretty impressive. I am sure there were millions of dollars sitting on the dirt street of Dawson City that night. I am also sure these bikers were probably more likely to be firemen and city planners and maybe even the odd coast guard worker, than the bikers of the 70’s! . A strange thing happened to me in Dawson. I found out that I graduated form Robert Service Secondary that same week. Juneau Dave was reading the Dawson paper and found an article about the graduating class (6 kids total) and a picture of one of the girls graduating, valedictorian actually, looked EXACTLY like me! I graduated again!! YAY!! I even thought it looked like me. Too bizarre. I had to give an acceptance speech over a few more beers in the pub, it was all good, the guys were proud.
We all met for breakfast the next morning before saying goodby and heading off in our different directions. I was filled with mixed emotions. It was hard to leave all these great new friendsthat we had had so many good laughs with, but I was ready to get back on the road. I am sure we will always keep in touch.
We left Dawson and drove the Top of the world Highway. Very cool, scarey as hell and hugely exciting at the same time. The road is straight up the mountain with a lot of curves and absolutely NO shoulder on the right hand side of the road. It drops off into nothing. Crazy, I tried to stay close to the yellow line as I was cranking my bike around the curves. We followed Andy up to the top and it was such a wicked view. On this trip I have seen more truly spectacular views of mountains and scenery that is so completly awe inspiring. It really makes you realize how truly insignificant our regular home life is when you see such amazing things. We all drove on to Chicken,AK and that is where it went from gravel back to pavement and we said goodby to Andy. He was headed to Haines, AK to catch the ferry back home to Juneau and we were headed towards Anchorage. We stopped at a gas station in Tok,Ak where I ate a Reindeer hotdog! There will be no Rudolph this year!! He was pretty tasty too. We made it to a place called Paxon,AK where we got some gas and had more to eat. It was kind of a dumpy place and the people there were a little off I think. We didn’t stick around too long. Drove a few more miles to Tangle Lake campground where we chatted with a couple who were camping next to us. They had brought there cat with them which was kind of funny. they said they didnt go anywhere withiut their cat. Our tent glowed like a light bulb. I haven’t seen the sun really go down since I left Grande Prairie. I think it is getting easier to sleep the whole night even with all the light. The next morning we headed west on the Denali Highway. The day started out sunny but true to form, the clouds rolled in and we headed into some really crappy weather. The road was the shits too. It was full of washboard and pot holes. Just about the whole way was gravel, again. I am getting a little tired of gravel. The Dempster Hwy was WAY better than this road. When we got to the end it started to pour down rain so we found a gas station and pulled in for a hot coffee. While in there we met up with a few other bikers getting out of the rain and we decided to get a cabin near by instead of going south to Anchorage. We found a place about 8 miles north and dried out all our stuff. My radio is now hoped and we have no communication between us. It really hadn’t worked that great for the most part but now we are back to hand signals and swearing in our helmets, or maybe just my helmet! While having pizza and beer at a local restaurant, Brian found a local paper that had the most hilarious personal ads in it that we had ever read.
This is straight out of the Pioneer Press:
Woman seeking man- SWF 50’s seeks man 50’s to mid 60’s for romantic hikes and general good humoured get togethers. Must love dogs, walk gently this good earth and have a reliable vehicle.
Man seeking woman- human shipwreck seeks experienced diver to search for lost treasures.
These two should get together. If you know anyone who might fit the bill I have kept the paper and I can give you the numbers!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
A few long days
We arrived Friday night in GP at 9pm, what a looong day. We met Brenda Stanvick, who I used to work with in RD and her fiancée Ken for a beer. They are doing really well and she doesn’t miss RD so much when are weather there is the pits, like all spring! Ken is really nice.
We Left Saturday morning at 9am and headed to Dawson Creek for breakfast. It is only 100kms or so away so should be fine. Weather is looking good, sunny and warmish, 11 degrees so far. The weather network said 19degrees in Fort Nelson. Bring on the heat! The road was nice and not too much traffic which was good because as we rounded a curve 2 deer were on the left hand side of the road contemplating crossing. Brian cranked on his brakes and I honked my horn madly. One deer went left and the other went directly in front of us! Freaky stuff! Damn deer. What are they thinking?! It didn’t help as well that a car had come up quickly behind us so we had to pin it and get out of there. No time to stop and think or check your pants!
We stopped in dawson creek for a great big breakfast and then headed north, our destination today is Liard Hotsprings which is about 700kms away. The road to Fort St.John was great and there were even breaks in the clouds where this really warm bright light would shine through. Weird. All good things must come to an end. It is a 4 hour stretch of boring road between Fort Nelson and Fort St.John. About and hour into it, the rains came. It was FREAKIN’ COLD! Brians GPS said it was 6 degrees. I decided I am going to get any type of electric apparel I can get. Pants, vest you name it I am putting it on my body. Up to this point I pretty much just followed brian but when I saw the sign for Pink Mountain Lodge, I buzzed passed him and turned into the parking lot of the lodge. I peeled myself off my bike and we went inside this gloriously warm dining room. We sat near the huge woodstove and ordered some coffee and lunch. While we were there we met a great couple who were sort of stranded there. They had travelled from Pensylvania on there motorcycle, which happened to be the same bike as Brians, a BMW 1200GS. They had arrived at Pink Mountain the day before and had encountered snow. Huge snowflakes and minimal visibility. I felt kinda bad for them because I am pretty sure this was no luxury hotel. Well we sat there for about an hour and a half and chatted bike stories and they were super nice. They were headed to Fairbanks, AK so we hope maybe they will stop in Dawson City when we are there and we can chat some more. Things got better after Pink Mountain. It never really got too sunny for long periods but it was definitly warm, 19 degrees. We stopped for gas at Fort nelson and we were going to stop at a grocery store but before we could find one, the town ran out. So we kept on going. About an hour north we were on this straight stretch and I could see this brown shape on the right hand side of the road walking on the shoulder and I thought it was a person so I moved to the left of my lane getting ready to go around them. Well these brown shapes turned out to be a mother moose and her baby! Brian cranks on his brakes as do I and good thing too because instead of it heading to the right into the trees, it has to veer in front of us and go to the bush on the left!. They were huge!!! The mother moose had to be 8 or 9 feet tall. Way over Brians head on his bike. And the legs! Crazy animals, they high balled it into the trees and we went on our way. I wish I had a helmet cam because I could have gotten some good pictures of that. Up the road we met another man in a huge motor home who was from florida. We told him about our mooses and they had seen 4 or 5 bears but no moose. I am not sure I want to see bears. He was going to anchorage and valdez. We said we might see him there. The rains came again for a while and it got a bit scary when it was rainy and the sun was shiny and you cant see much from the glare on the road and I just hoped we didn’t run into any more animals. Then we started crossing these bridges with metal decks and all these grooves. That was nasty because it feels like your bike is going to fall over and then you see a semi coning onto the brisdge towards you, Yikes!! I hate those bridges!
Stopped for coffee at Toad River for a coffee warm up and decided to get to Muncho lake instead of Liard Hotsprings tonight. There is a lodge at Muncho lake and a campground at Liard. Hmmmm. I am starting to see a trend here. Toad River and Muncho lake park are some of my favourite places on the Alaska hwy. it is so beautiful here. Thank god the lodge had a vacancy! And a lounge with wine too!! Yay No butt fatigue yet either!
When we left RD my odometer read 4032kms today it says 5607kms. Our highest elevation was 1295meters and that was at the Summit pass and the coldest temp was 5.5 degrees.
Thursday June? I am already losing track of days and time. We made it to Whitehorse and spent the night in the campground there. It was nice and close to town. The drive up was pretty and the road was great. There seems to be a lot of BMW’s on the road up here to Alaska. A lot of RV’s too. We stopped on the side of the road to take some photos of some HUGE buffalo laying and eating in the ditch and I pulled a u-turn to pull in behind Brian’s bike and the shoulder of the road was really soft and it caught my bike tire and my bike fell over and propelled me off into the ditch. I was fine and when Brian saw my bike laying down the first thing he did was take a picture of me next to my poor bike laying on its side on the gravel. I was scared because of the freakin buffalo 100 yards away. They didn’t seem to mind tho, I think we were lucky there weren’t any baby buffalos there or things may not have been as nice. I think I gave a pretty good show for the 4 or 5 RVers that were parked behind us on the road!
We made it to Whitehorse with no other issues, the road was great and the weather was nice.
We left WH the next day and went up the Klondike Highway towards Dawson City. We met some other bikers on their way up to Alaska at Pelly Crossing. That was were we met Andy aka Spicy McHaggis, who was riding a Russian Ural with a sidecar. This ural is a replica bike of a BMW the Russians stole from the Germans in WW2 and then reverse engineered it to make their own version. He was taking it up the Dempster highway to the Arctic Circle. A lot of people told him you couldn’t do that on that bike but he was willing to prove them wrong. We all ended up fuelling up at Stewart Crossing where a Swiss military vehicle (Pinsouer) with 6 wheels, showed up. We had the whole eastern block of Europe parked at a small gas station in the Yukon there along with our BMW’s. That was probably one of the weirdest things I have seen on the road so far. Andy and us camped at Moose Creek campground and in the morning he headed for the Dempster and we went up the Silver trail to Mayo and Keno City where we toured the museum and had awesome homemade pizza at the Snack Bar.
We ended up at the Dempster Highway turn off at about 5pm and as we fuelled up the bikes, a couple of riders pulled in who had just come from Eagle Plains. Ben (Skwanka) and Dave. They said the road up the Dempster was pretty good and we should have no problems. Up to that point we had heard that the road could be pretty sketchy at the best of times. They said they had passed Andy on the road and he was headed for Eagle Plains that night and then the Arctic Circle the next day. Good to know he wasn’t having any troubles with the Ural. We took the plunge and headed up the Dempster. 370 kms of gravel road to Eagle Plains. 30 or so more to the Arctic Circle. The first mountain range we saw was the Tombstone Mountains. AMAZING!!! I have never seen anything so awe inspiring before. I took a bunch of photos but they will never portray what the views are really like. Truly fantastic. We travelled on over this road that was in pretty good condition for the most part, doing 60-80 kms/hour. Some spots were pretty scary and you just climb up and up over tons of mountains. You could see in every direction for miles and miles. We were going to camp at Engineers Creek but when we stopped we were totally swarmed by a frenzy of mosquittos. It was disgusting. We decided to go the next 180 kms to Eagle plains. It was 830pm and we figured another couple hours and we would be at the lodge. We pulled in at 1045pm. Tired and sore I got a 6 pack of coronas while Brian got the room and we were thatnkfull we made it without any incidents. We had heard of guys wiping out, breaking down and not even trying to venture up the highway on their bikes and here we were safe and sound in a room with dark curtains(thank god because the sun never sets here) ready to have a great sleep. In the morning we had breakfast with Andy and he had already been to the Circle and back so we ate and then headed up on our own. I couldn’t believe we were at the Arctic Circle. Holy crap. We took our pix and headed back down the Dempster towards Dawson. The road back seemed to go a lot smoother and faster for some reason. Pretty cold and rainy but otherwise great. We made it to the Klondike corner in 6 hours. Our bikes were covered in muck and so were my legs. I seemed to get the worst amount of dust and grime because I was always behind Brian. I look at that dirt as a testament of our journey to Eagle Plains and back with a lot of pride. What a ride. Awsome. We made it to Dawson and met up with Andy, Dave, Ben, Carry, Mike, Klaus, SGT Marty, Alexander(from Holland) and had a few beers and talked about our tours up the dempster. Milke and Klaus had made it to Inuvik in one day. It took them 16 ours to do 750 kms. that had been our original plan but I am thankfull we changed our minds because I guess they were calling for snow in inuvik. Yikes!! Klaus hit Pink Mtn the day after we did and met the same people from Pensylvania that we had seen there. It is really cool how everyone we have met on this trip has either talked to someone we have or heard stuff about other riders that we have. It is a cool group of riders. the guys we have been hanging out with here in dawson are telling me that I have to start hanging out on the Adventure website that they are all addicted too. It is like facebook for adventure bikers. That site is where they all have the funny handles like Spicy Mchaggis, Skwanka and Sgt Marty.
I will hve to think of what name I could use.....hmmm
Now we have a few days of rest here in Dawson City, I guess the rally people are getting here today (Thurs) and all the festivities start tomorrow. Tonight at midnight we line up all our bikes in front of the Downtown hotel. I think it will look like a friggin BMW convention. There are quite a few in town already.
We Left Saturday morning at 9am and headed to Dawson Creek for breakfast. It is only 100kms or so away so should be fine. Weather is looking good, sunny and warmish, 11 degrees so far. The weather network said 19degrees in Fort Nelson. Bring on the heat! The road was nice and not too much traffic which was good because as we rounded a curve 2 deer were on the left hand side of the road contemplating crossing. Brian cranked on his brakes and I honked my horn madly. One deer went left and the other went directly in front of us! Freaky stuff! Damn deer. What are they thinking?! It didn’t help as well that a car had come up quickly behind us so we had to pin it and get out of there. No time to stop and think or check your pants!
We stopped in dawson creek for a great big breakfast and then headed north, our destination today is Liard Hotsprings which is about 700kms away. The road to Fort St.John was great and there were even breaks in the clouds where this really warm bright light would shine through. Weird. All good things must come to an end. It is a 4 hour stretch of boring road between Fort Nelson and Fort St.John. About and hour into it, the rains came. It was FREAKIN’ COLD! Brians GPS said it was 6 degrees. I decided I am going to get any type of electric apparel I can get. Pants, vest you name it I am putting it on my body. Up to this point I pretty much just followed brian but when I saw the sign for Pink Mountain Lodge, I buzzed passed him and turned into the parking lot of the lodge. I peeled myself off my bike and we went inside this gloriously warm dining room. We sat near the huge woodstove and ordered some coffee and lunch. While we were there we met a great couple who were sort of stranded there. They had travelled from Pensylvania on there motorcycle, which happened to be the same bike as Brians, a BMW 1200GS. They had arrived at Pink Mountain the day before and had encountered snow. Huge snowflakes and minimal visibility. I felt kinda bad for them because I am pretty sure this was no luxury hotel. Well we sat there for about an hour and a half and chatted bike stories and they were super nice. They were headed to Fairbanks, AK so we hope maybe they will stop in Dawson City when we are there and we can chat some more. Things got better after Pink Mountain. It never really got too sunny for long periods but it was definitly warm, 19 degrees. We stopped for gas at Fort nelson and we were going to stop at a grocery store but before we could find one, the town ran out. So we kept on going. About an hour north we were on this straight stretch and I could see this brown shape on the right hand side of the road walking on the shoulder and I thought it was a person so I moved to the left of my lane getting ready to go around them. Well these brown shapes turned out to be a mother moose and her baby! Brian cranks on his brakes as do I and good thing too because instead of it heading to the right into the trees, it has to veer in front of us and go to the bush on the left!. They were huge!!! The mother moose had to be 8 or 9 feet tall. Way over Brians head on his bike. And the legs! Crazy animals, they high balled it into the trees and we went on our way. I wish I had a helmet cam because I could have gotten some good pictures of that. Up the road we met another man in a huge motor home who was from florida. We told him about our mooses and they had seen 4 or 5 bears but no moose. I am not sure I want to see bears. He was going to anchorage and valdez. We said we might see him there. The rains came again for a while and it got a bit scary when it was rainy and the sun was shiny and you cant see much from the glare on the road and I just hoped we didn’t run into any more animals. Then we started crossing these bridges with metal decks and all these grooves. That was nasty because it feels like your bike is going to fall over and then you see a semi coning onto the brisdge towards you, Yikes!! I hate those bridges!
Stopped for coffee at Toad River for a coffee warm up and decided to get to Muncho lake instead of Liard Hotsprings tonight. There is a lodge at Muncho lake and a campground at Liard. Hmmmm. I am starting to see a trend here. Toad River and Muncho lake park are some of my favourite places on the Alaska hwy. it is so beautiful here. Thank god the lodge had a vacancy! And a lounge with wine too!! Yay No butt fatigue yet either!
When we left RD my odometer read 4032kms today it says 5607kms. Our highest elevation was 1295meters and that was at the Summit pass and the coldest temp was 5.5 degrees.
Thursday June? I am already losing track of days and time. We made it to Whitehorse and spent the night in the campground there. It was nice and close to town. The drive up was pretty and the road was great. There seems to be a lot of BMW’s on the road up here to Alaska. A lot of RV’s too. We stopped on the side of the road to take some photos of some HUGE buffalo laying and eating in the ditch and I pulled a u-turn to pull in behind Brian’s bike and the shoulder of the road was really soft and it caught my bike tire and my bike fell over and propelled me off into the ditch. I was fine and when Brian saw my bike laying down the first thing he did was take a picture of me next to my poor bike laying on its side on the gravel. I was scared because of the freakin buffalo 100 yards away. They didn’t seem to mind tho, I think we were lucky there weren’t any baby buffalos there or things may not have been as nice. I think I gave a pretty good show for the 4 or 5 RVers that were parked behind us on the road!
We made it to Whitehorse with no other issues, the road was great and the weather was nice.
We left WH the next day and went up the Klondike Highway towards Dawson City. We met some other bikers on their way up to Alaska at Pelly Crossing. That was were we met Andy aka Spicy McHaggis, who was riding a Russian Ural with a sidecar. This ural is a replica bike of a BMW the Russians stole from the Germans in WW2 and then reverse engineered it to make their own version. He was taking it up the Dempster highway to the Arctic Circle. A lot of people told him you couldn’t do that on that bike but he was willing to prove them wrong. We all ended up fuelling up at Stewart Crossing where a Swiss military vehicle (Pinsouer) with 6 wheels, showed up. We had the whole eastern block of Europe parked at a small gas station in the Yukon there along with our BMW’s. That was probably one of the weirdest things I have seen on the road so far. Andy and us camped at Moose Creek campground and in the morning he headed for the Dempster and we went up the Silver trail to Mayo and Keno City where we toured the museum and had awesome homemade pizza at the Snack Bar.
We ended up at the Dempster Highway turn off at about 5pm and as we fuelled up the bikes, a couple of riders pulled in who had just come from Eagle Plains. Ben (Skwanka) and Dave. They said the road up the Dempster was pretty good and we should have no problems. Up to that point we had heard that the road could be pretty sketchy at the best of times. They said they had passed Andy on the road and he was headed for Eagle Plains that night and then the Arctic Circle the next day. Good to know he wasn’t having any troubles with the Ural. We took the plunge and headed up the Dempster. 370 kms of gravel road to Eagle Plains. 30 or so more to the Arctic Circle. The first mountain range we saw was the Tombstone Mountains. AMAZING!!! I have never seen anything so awe inspiring before. I took a bunch of photos but they will never portray what the views are really like. Truly fantastic. We travelled on over this road that was in pretty good condition for the most part, doing 60-80 kms/hour. Some spots were pretty scary and you just climb up and up over tons of mountains. You could see in every direction for miles and miles. We were going to camp at Engineers Creek but when we stopped we were totally swarmed by a frenzy of mosquittos. It was disgusting. We decided to go the next 180 kms to Eagle plains. It was 830pm and we figured another couple hours and we would be at the lodge. We pulled in at 1045pm. Tired and sore I got a 6 pack of coronas while Brian got the room and we were thatnkfull we made it without any incidents. We had heard of guys wiping out, breaking down and not even trying to venture up the highway on their bikes and here we were safe and sound in a room with dark curtains(thank god because the sun never sets here) ready to have a great sleep. In the morning we had breakfast with Andy and he had already been to the Circle and back so we ate and then headed up on our own. I couldn’t believe we were at the Arctic Circle. Holy crap. We took our pix and headed back down the Dempster towards Dawson. The road back seemed to go a lot smoother and faster for some reason. Pretty cold and rainy but otherwise great. We made it to the Klondike corner in 6 hours. Our bikes were covered in muck and so were my legs. I seemed to get the worst amount of dust and grime because I was always behind Brian. I look at that dirt as a testament of our journey to Eagle Plains and back with a lot of pride. What a ride. Awsome. We made it to Dawson and met up with Andy, Dave, Ben, Carry, Mike, Klaus, SGT Marty, Alexander(from Holland) and had a few beers and talked about our tours up the dempster. Milke and Klaus had made it to Inuvik in one day. It took them 16 ours to do 750 kms. that had been our original plan but I am thankfull we changed our minds because I guess they were calling for snow in inuvik. Yikes!! Klaus hit Pink Mtn the day after we did and met the same people from Pensylvania that we had seen there. It is really cool how everyone we have met on this trip has either talked to someone we have or heard stuff about other riders that we have. It is a cool group of riders. the guys we have been hanging out with here in dawson are telling me that I have to start hanging out on the Adventure website that they are all addicted too. It is like facebook for adventure bikers. That site is where they all have the funny handles like Spicy Mchaggis, Skwanka and Sgt Marty.
I will hve to think of what name I could use.....hmmm
Now we have a few days of rest here in Dawson City, I guess the rally people are getting here today (Thurs) and all the festivities start tomorrow. Tonight at midnight we line up all our bikes in front of the Downtown hotel. I think it will look like a friggin BMW convention. There are quite a few in town already.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
We mde it to Grande Prairie
So, the plan was to leave early....yeah. We finally left RD at 11:30 after getting our money exchanged at, I am sure the busiest bank in town. The ride started off really great, nice, sunny, not too much traffic. I was pretty excited to be on our way and things were looking good as we travelled up HWY 20 north of Sylvan. Brian had the GPS and took us on some weird route through Tomahawk(?) nice road but I had no idea where we were. It got a little cloudy and cool around there all the way to edson. We stopped on the side of the road about 15 mins outside of edson for a quick bite to eat of beef jerky and babybell cheese when group of harley riders buzzed us. We chatted with them at the Edson Tim Hortons andthey turned out to be from RD and I knew one of them from my Utopia days. I am trying to forget RD for 3 weeks and it just wont let me!! Well when we left Tims and turned right onto the hwy I knew we were in trouble because the HUGE black cloud ahead of us didnt look friendly. It nailed us to mins down the road and we were riding in a torrential down pour with hail and lightening! i was laughing in my helmet at how this was supposed to be a fun trip. oh well it was pretty exciting. We managed to avoid another rainstorm at the hinton gas station only lasted about 10 mins. Hwy 40 north to Grande Cache was a fantastic road. Really fun to ride on and not alot of traffic. We saw a carbou on the side of the road as well as a couple of really nice looking elk. And one dead cat. Why are there always at least on dead cat on the road?! I think I would like to go back on that road again and do some camping. there were actually REAL campsites there that didnt look like they had all the hookups and stuff people seem to need these days to go camping. I should really talk I guess, we stayed at the holiday inn last night!! We will be camping for sure tonight. I realized that I forgot the hookup for my camera to my computer so it may take a few days for some pix to arrive. Brian forgot his running shoes and kit bag but he had to bring this huge towel even after I had bought some of those reallysmall compact ones. He didnt think he would like the compact model so he brought a huge one. Good grief. Well the man is loading up the bikes and paying the tab so I better get a move on. We are still having fun!!
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