Soaked

I got up and started to pack up.  EVERYTHING was soaked.  Although my tent had maintained its waterproofing, a lot of stuff stays outside the tent to give me more space.  The tent has a couple of vestibules, but they didn’t stay dry.  Neither did the floor of the tent.  And, everything I touched got wet if I’d touched something wet before.  What a disaster.

I wrung out my tent, my bike cover, my mattress, my chair and packed it all up soaking wet.  Hopefully, it would dry out somewhere today and I’d be able to get everything dry.  For now, the only thing to do would be to just get up, get on the bike and ride.  The goal for today would be Teslin Lake Government Campground in Yukon.  Days of riding and I was finally getting to Yukon!

Wildlife

I headed off in the rain and out of the electrified area onto BC 97.  Right outside the fence was a herd of bison.  These giants are apparently rare in British Columbia, having been wiped out at the turn of the century.  They were reintroduced in the 1970s and have been back in the wild since.  On this day I would see three separate herds of them, but I couldn’t count the animals in each herd as I rode by.  It was pretty cool to see them though.  I also saw 8 or 9 black bears (I lost count), a grizzly bear, a mink, and a porcupine!  The porcupine was the one animal I desperately wanted to see on this trip.

For the first three hours or so, it rained and was in the high 40s.  I was cold and hoping it would dry out and the sun would shine on me.  I followed the Liard River for the first part of the day, and it was nice, except for the weather, twisty and pretty.  Eventually, the rain quit, and as I got further north and west, the sun actually did come out.

I passed through Watson Lake and saw the Signpost Forest.  This place was started in 1942 by an American soldier homesick and on light duty for an injury.  He put up a sign for his hometown, Danville, IL, 2835 miles.  Since then, visitors are welcome to add their own signs and there are over 100,000 signs there.  I didn’t add a sign, but I was happy to look at them.

Kymani next to some old gas pumps at a very old gas station.  Pump first, then pay! 

Sunny campground

I found my campground and pulled into the first site that was open.  It was a pretty good site, close to the water pump and not far from the bathrooms.  There were plenty of trees for me to hang my clothesline, a great place for my tent, it was fairly level, so I had no trouble with Kymani, and THE SUN WAS SHINING!  I quickly hung my things to dry and talked to my BFG a bit.  With the sun and the relative warmth of 67⁰F, I was feeling awesome.  Once everything dried out, I set up my camp, got water for the day, and went to check out the lake.

Finally some sun to dry us out!

It was really pretty, and I got a couple of photos.  After my visit to the lake, I worked my way back to the campsite, made dinner and hit the hay.

Teslin Lake

The Alaska Highway at Teslin Lake Campground

Change of plans made for a short day

After a decent night’s sleep, I got up and got ready to go.  I had shortened the day considerably, since I had decided to skip the dirt Robert Campbell Highway given how muddy it would be.  My original plan had been to ride the dirt Robert Campbell Highway, cross the Yukon River in Dawson City by ferry, and ride the Top of the World Highway into Alaska.  The amount of rain I was hitting would ensure these dirt roads would be mud roads, and I was not equipped for mud riding.  I had 70/30 tires on which were fine for gravel roads, but not adequate for mud.  Also, I am not a dirt road rider, and I do not have the skills to travel hundreds of miles in mud while I am alone.  I was a little sad about it, but not as much as you might think.  The weather was beating me up, as was the mileage I was making, and I thought taking it a bit easier would be a good choice.

Because of the change of plans, I would have about 200 miles to ride to get to the next campsite.  That sounded like a day I could get behind!  I will be passing through Whitehorse today and I was super excited to see it.  I guess it’s the Jack London fan in me.

Disappointment

Whitehorse was a bit of a disappointment to me, after all the fabulous things I heard of it.  It was just like any other Yukon town, nothing super spectacular about it.  Even the horse of Whitehorse wasn’t nearly as impressive as photos of it show.  This is what happens when you’ve expectations, I guess.

After leaving Whitehorse, the weather again turned cold and windy, and I rode leaning far over to one side to keep myself on the road.  Also, while you might not know that bridges with a grated deck are hard on motorcycles, I’m here to tell you they suck!  And, I rode over the Nitsutlin Bay Bridge, the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway, in the wind, with a grated deck.  There was much fear and swearing for the entire 1,917 feet of the crossing.

More bad gravel

After spotting two separate individual either very large coyotes or single wolves, and accidently taking the life of a suicidal ground squirrel, I finally got to my intended campsite at Pine Lake Government campground.  The road was potholed, a bit steep and surfaced with marble-like gravel.  I made it in okay, but it was the exact scenario of how I laid Kymani down in Nevada to come out.  A steep uphill with a very sharp right-hand turn.  Of course, I worried about how I would get out, but decided to try to put that worry aside until morning.

Relaxing after setting up camp at Pine Lake

Pine Lake

The lake at the campground was nice, and I took a hike around to see the place and take some photos.  I’d been seriously slacking in the photo department.  It’s been so rainy and there isn’t really a lot of good places to pull off the road.  Given that I can’t turn my video cameras on with my heavy gloves on, I’ve also not been recording much video either.  The lake and the mountains around the lake were gorgeous, as you can see, and with less miles, meant more time to just relax in camp.  After all, this was a vacation!

Camp at Pine Lake

Shots from Pine Lake

The Alcan and the mountains from Pine Lake campground entrance

A really nice guy

Eventually another motorcyclist made his way into the campground and took the spot across from me.  He came over to check out Kymani and we chatted a bit.  He was really nice and not anything like many of the men I come across while riding.  He was from Oregon, where he moved from Montana to be closer to his grown children, and had been riding dirt bikes for most of his life.  He thought it cool that I have never really ridden dirt bikes and was out here on my own.  We talked about how much the gravel felt like marbles under our tires and how easy it was to fall while riding on it.  I told him I was nervous about riding out of the campground.  He was sweet enough to tell me he’d ride my bike out for me if I needed him to.  That gave me the confidence do ride it out myself.  Sometimes it’s the little things.

If all goes well, tomorrow I’ll be in Alaska!