Majestic. Vast. Spectacular. Unable to be truly captured by photo or video. What a beautiful ride today was!
After a delicious egg and bacon breakfast at Liard Hot Springs Lodge, I did a quick check over the bike. My biggest concern is tire wear, especially after yesterday’s road conditions. The treads look pretty good, but all the wear has been in the middle. Even up here it has been mostly straight riding. The rest of the bike is just filthy. Like one of the bloggers I read in planning said, this is definitely not a trip for the chromosexual.
The morning weather was perfect. Sunny, puffy clouds and temps in the low 60s. I saw my first bear, but unfortunately he likely passed the night before. The black bear was road kill. I did see several more bison over the first hundred miles. Each of them either walking or sitting alone in the ditch. Huge creatures.
I must say, I’ve never seen so many unique silhouetted animals on yellow caution signs before. Moose, bison, deer, elk, horse. It got me thinking of a funny radio call-in spot I had heard sometime back. As luck would have it, it happens to be in my iTunes library and found its way to my ride tune USB. Unfortunately, WordPress does not accept .mp3 files. Anyway, the gist is a North Dakota woman calls into a radio station to publicize her beef with the posting of deer crossing signs in high traffic areas. Why should we encourage deer to cross in such dangerous areas? Hilarious!
I had some great views all morning of the Liard River and surrounding mountains. Again, pictures do not do it justice.
I hit the 60th parallel, or the border to the Yukon, late morning. The AH crosses between Yukon and BC several times over the next couple hundred miles. The official, pretty Yukon sign is at about the third crossing. I chose to get a pic at the first one. My 10th province. Well, technically it’s a terrtory, so “my first territory!”
Just inside Yukon is a town called Watson Lake. Famously known for the Signpost Forest. Originated by the soldiers who built this road, it provides an opportunity for any traveller to leave his mark on the AH. It is now about 2-3 acres of signs, license plates and other memorabilia. Another place I could spend all day just imagining the stories behind each sign. Wisconsin is well represented in the few aisles I walked thru.
Oh, and I bumped into Darren and his kids there. I left no sign.
Outside of Watson Lake it got cooler and cloudier. I was already wearing a hoody under my jacket and gauntlet gloves. It was now time to put on the rain pants for extra warmth. It was mid 50s, but it felt colder. Light rain would come on and off the rest of the day, but never enough to put on the rain jacket.
Odd sighting of the day. I was just west of Watson Lake ridig at what I thought was a pretty good clip of 65 mph. I then get passed by a school bus that was doing about 75. Then another, and another. Then four more from the other direction. The strangest thing was that each one was empty. Any ideas?
I made my first gas gaffe by passing one stop for another that appeared on my GPS 12 miles ahead. The place was boarded up. Next station ahead was 53 miles, so I backtracked the 12 miles. The 30 minutes lost pales in comparison to seeing that beautiful scenery two more times. Plus I met a couple guys on BMWs from Washington. I would leap frog them a couple more times today. I also saw a gal on a Triumph Tiger (I think) riding solo as I pulled out.
By now I had a pretty good feeling I was going to ride further than my original plan. I was feeling good and it was still early. I had no idea what time it was because the bike’s clock would gain two hours each time I crossed into Yukon and give them back when I crossed into BC. I would also later determine that the clock somehow lost 20 minutes. When I got to the hotel this afternoon I learned there was no time change. Much ado about nothing. I’ll deal with the bike clock tomorrow.
Teslin was a pretty area. Teslin the town, river and lake. The view of the bridge coming into town reminds me of the view of Prairie du Chein from Wyalusing (except for those mountains in the background).
After Teslin I passed my originally planned stop of Johnsons Crossing (home to the big-as-your-head cinnamon rolls) and headed to Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. Riding into Whitehorse was surreal because I had seen such little civilization in the past couple days. Whitehorse has over 26,000 residents and many of the luxuries we’re used to. Fast food, Starbucks, etc. They are also home to the furthest north brewery in all of Canada, the Yukon Brewery. The lady that checked me into the hotel said Whitehorse’s first snowfall usually hits in October and is typically all melted in April. I said, “Sounds familiar.”
Road conditions all day were exemplary. Better than most of Wisconsin. Almost no construction.
I finished the day with a short walk along the river and then a plate of salmon. Of course I washed it down with a few of those local brews.
Tomorrow, who knows how far I’ll go, but I’ll definitely be in Fairbanks Thursday night. Incidently, I saw my first sign for Fairbanks earlier today – 1046 km.
These posts are getting long, but I’m truly using only the best stuff from the day.
Rome2Alaska 