Jon let me sleep in until 6:15 this morning. A quick look outside and the news was not good. There was a light drizzle and roads were wet. Packing the bikes in the rain is never fun. We headed out of Whitehorse at 7:15 after topping off the tanks. The temperature was about 45 degrees.
We ran for about 60 miles before stopping for a bite of breakfast and to top off the tanks again. Good breakfast. We headed back out and saw spotty drizzle on and off for several hours. It wasn't hard rain, just icky riding.
As we headed West and North the mountains loomed closer and closer. You could see white snowcaps on the farthest ones. As we were driving through these majestic mountains I was trying to think of words I could use to describe them. My mental thesaurus came up with several words, none of which I can spell. All I can say is that you really have to see them to believe them. They are rugged yet beautiful. At one point the road circled a lake at about 2500 feet. It must have taken us a half hour to get around it. Beyond the lake there were washes where water was running down out of the mountains in river like torrents. The water was just a trickle compared to what it must be like during the spring thaw. You really do have to see these things in person, no photo does them justice (and the camera was packed away, it was raining).
Somewhere along the way we passed a solo rider on a Goldwing. He paced behind us as best he could. We kept seeing him at gas stations. When we stopped for photo ops he would get ahead of us and we have to pass him again, then he'd stay with us for a while longer. Some of the really bad roads would slow him way down, but he'd catch back up when the roads improved. Nice guy, he's headed for Anchorage.
We arrived in Beaver Creek at around 1:15pm local time. This was going to be our stop for the day. After lunch we decided to run the 110 miles into TOK, Alaska to shorten tomorrow's ride. Crossing the border back into the US was no sweat.
The roads in Canada were some of the worst yet. Most are under permanent repair. They don't take down the construction signs, they just put bags over them until the next time they're needed. We had to wait several times for pilot trucks to take us through the construction. One time was a muddy mess as you can see by the filth on the fronts of the bikes. Just another day in paradise! I can see why people like it up here.
Copyright (C) 2004-2013, Larry Manka. all rights reserved.
