June 13 - Whitehorse to Dawson City

Pretty much the entire road from Whitehorse to Dawson is 500 kms of rolling mountains, trees, bogs, muskeg and swamp spruce. We packed gas because we weren't sure about the reliability of the gas stations along our route but, it turns out, we were fine. Our first stop was Carmacks which has a very nice little hotel (Hotel Carmacks) and, in front of it, an Esso Station and the Tatchun Centre Store. The store is fantastic - a very nice grocery store that also has a small deli. They also have a very impressive selection of house wares, clothing and almost anything else you might need. 

From Carmacks, we carried on and pulled over at the Five Finger Rapids rest area. We took a few pictures and reminisced about our river trip back in 2009 (more on that later). The Five Fingers was a notoriously tricky spot on the river for the paddle wheelers back during the gold rush. They had to use cable and winches to guide the big boats through so they didn't get smashed. 

Further down the road, we stopped at Pelly Crossing which also has a very nice general store. Our last gas stop was Stewart Crossing and, just beyond that, there is a pull out where you can look out over a vast valley, the Tintina Trench, which is a fault line that runs diagonally through the Yukon. Millions of years ago, the trench shifted 450 kms. Prior to the shift, Ross River was close to Dawson City so if you look on a map, you'll appreciate how far the landscape moved.

 

From here, it is only 60 kms to Dawson City. As you near Dawson, on both sides of the highway is a moonscape of vast piles of undulating crushed rock - left overs from the enormous dredges that worked this valley from the 1930s - 1960s. We decided to stay right in Dawson City at the Gold Rush Campsite. It's a very convenient spot, within walking distance of the entire town which is great. We need to get out and walk after all these miles on the bikes!

One of the things that has been particularly lovely has been all of the wild flowers that are in bloom all along the highways right now. There are loads of pink flowers that looks like pea vine, blue and pink lupines, masses of wild roses, tiny white daisies, fireweed, yellow wild flowers of some kind... alll them casting ribbons of colour along the roads and hillsides. So pretty! 

Since leaving Whitehorse, it's been particularly nostalgic for us. In 2009, we (and some family and friends) took our jetboat and another jetboat from Lake Laberge (near Whitehorse) down 500 kms of the Yukon River to Dawson City, camping on the shores of the river along the way. It was also on this trip that I met and became fast friends with my dear friend (and talented writer) Alicia Priest who was a guest on the second jetboat that was on the  adventure with us. Alicia has since passed away from ALS but before she did, one of her last accomplishments was to publish her book, "A Rock Fell On The Moon" - the true story of her father who was convicted of one of the biggest mining heists in Canadian history. I would highly recommend this book - a riveting account of the heist itself but also of some of the history of this area in general. Alicia and her family lived in Elsa, Yukon, and on our trip in 2009, we retraced the historic route the paddle wheelers made from Whitehorse to Dawson. We then drove the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, flew to Tuktoyaktuk and dipped our toes in the Beaufort Sea before heading back south for visits to Mayo, Keno and Elsa. Coming back again this year and retracing some of our steps from that first trip has brought back many fond memories of Alicia and the still fresh sadness of her passing only a few months ago. I know she would be so thrilled to know we have come back to her beloved Yukon again... :) 

June 12 - Whitehorse

It was really nice to sleep in this morning, not having to "jump up" and pack up and head out for the day. We woke up to gorgeous sunshine! How divine! We sat outside and drank our coffee and didn't make a move until 9am (which is VERY lazy for us!) We got ourselves sorted out and rode the bikes into town with a list of some shopping errands. We ran out of room on our memory chip for our GoPro video camera so we picked up a couple more of those along with a few other odds and ends. The big task was to find new tires for the travel trailer. Up here they have miles and miles of "chip seal" roads - at home we call it seal-coat but the stuff up here is particularly abrasive. We couldn't believe how it's eaten through our tires and the ones on the trailer have taken a huge beating and are almost bald! We hit several tire stores (who are the only ones who LOVE the chip-seal roads here!) and no one carries the size we need so we decided to make do with an alternative and hope for the best! 

After all of that, we went downtown and looked for some lunch. We decided to go to the Klondike Rib and Salmon Restaurant. If you've ever been to Whitehorse, you'll know which place it is... it's the one with about 50 people lined up down the street every night. We were smart and went for a late lunch at 2pm and there was hardly anyone there but they still serve their same killer BBQ ribs. Yes - it's worth all the hullabaloo. They were fantastic! 

After that, we wandered around, taking some pictures of the old log church and poking around some of the shops. 

We bought a few groceries and headed back to our camp. We were exhausted (I think the last week of long days and weather extremes were catching up with us) and we both had a huge power nap. We'll have a quiet evening sitting around the campfire, BBQing a couple of steaks and that will be the extent of the day. Tomorrow - Dawson City. 

June 11 - Haines to Whitehorse

This morning, the cloud ceiling had lifted somewhat but it was still pretty chilly - about 8 degrees. We packed up camp and filled up with gas and topped up our jerry can. Lynn's trike's range is fairly diminished towing the little trailer, especially on long big hills and ESPECIALLY with this crazy wind we've been having! There is only one gas stop between Haines and Haines Junction and we've learned not to count on stations being open. 

The gas station guy told us the best breakfast in Haines can be found at the Chilcat Restaurant and Bakery so we headed there. We chatted through breakfast with Brian from South Carolina who was riding his BMW 1600 with a side car. He'd been on the road 2 months and had already covered Alaska and most of the Yukon. We got the scoop from him on some of the gravel roads we are contemplating - we keep hearing conflicting stories about the Top of the World Highway from Dawson City to Tok and the Denali Highway. Some people describe it as if you're descending into the pits of Hell and other people say, "Pfft... piece of cake!" Brian's assessment was somewhere in the middle which is what we intuitively had figured. Breakfast was excellent (as promised) and off we went. 

At Mile 33, there is a really cute little gas station with one pump and and old log cafe. Apparently, the grub is really good there too. We topped up and shortly after that, we started to see some glaciers to the West. The mountains are HUGE with several glaciers glittered in hues of arctic blue in the sun. Very breath-taking. We hit the Canadian Border and waited there for yonks while some transport truck was being processed but eventually, we made it through without issue. From there, the road climbs and climbs, twisting and winding it's way up into the mountain range and it's one spectacular view after the next. The world starts to become quite desolate as you climb above the tree line and eventually get up into nothing but barren rock and scrubby bushes with enormous snow covered peaks towering over you. Even that runs out and all that's left are fields of glacier crushed gravel. We  were in awe and pulled over to take photos, all the while mindful of the cutting wind and the 3 degree temperatures that were eating through our gear. 

We didn't stay long and then plugged our electric gear in and headed for lower country. At top count, I had my thermal underwear, electric vest, fleece jacket liner, leather jacket and rain jacket on and I was *just* warm enough. Even with all our technology, it was a cold and inhospitable place. I kept thinking about the First Nations people and the early white settlers here who regularly crossed this range to trade, visit, arrange marriages and hunt and fish. It's  hard to imagine the hardships they endured. 

Leaving the summit behind, the jaw-dropping jagged peaks were replaced with rolling mountains and we descended fairly quickly back into treed terrain. We dodged big thunderous looking rain clouds most of the morning but did get wet a couple of times. Once in the Yukon, we came into Kluane National Park which is quite desolate but there are camp sites and designated hiking trails. By the time we hit Haines Junction, we were very ready for a hot meal.

We fueled up and followed some signs to the Village Bakery and I can honestly say, the trip to Haines Junction is worth it just to go there. Village Bakery is off the main road a couple of blocks and it's a collection of little wooden buildings all joined by a deck. You can rent cabins there as well. The bakery itself has beautiful baked goods ranging from sweets to savories along with icecream, great coffee and various lunch and dinner offerings. They have live music there some evenings as well. We both had an enormous vat of homemade tomato vegetable soup that greatly helped us thaw out. We would highly recomend this little gem in the wilds of the Yukon. After lunch, Lynn announced he "might live now" and we set out for the last 150kms to Whitehorse.

This leg of the trip is just more trees. Lots and lots of trees. There are a couple of LONG  stretches of gravel road that they're working on and when the trucks put water down on them, it's like grease. Nasty stuff that sticks to everything and I was slipping and sloshing along, trying to pick out the relatively dry spots. Not much fun, especially when RVs fly by at top speed! 

We arrived in Whitehorse and pulled into the Robert Service Campsite, where we stayed in 2009 on a diffrerent trip up here. It's an awesome little place - a little hippyville. People come from all over and some folks stay the whole summer and set up shared outdoor kitchens etc. The campsites are walk in and none of them are serviced. We were able to handbomb our little trailer into a site. If you have an RV, you can stay in the back parking lot. It's a bit of a ramshackle place but it's quaint and the people are really nice. They have a covered outdoor living room with an exposed wood stove beside the Office that people are encouraged to use for visiting to keep the rest of the camp quiet at night which is nice. We really like this little funny spot. No power for my little heater though - tonight I'll hit the sack with my long underwear, thick socks and fleece hoodie! 

June 10 - Skagway and Haines

Woke up this morning to a very cold and socked-in Skagway. Brrrrrr!!!! It  rained throughout the night but it held off most of the day although it was cold and damp and WINDY!!! What is it about the crazy WIND around here!? Gale force winds seem to pick up in the afternoon and howl for the rest of the day. One of the long term residents of the RV park guides fishing tours and he had to cancel his tour today because of the chop. 

We managed to pack up our camp during a pocket of time with no rain which was good. A soggy tent isn't much fun! We headed into town and went straight to the ferry terminal. We bought our tickets to Haines and then went and had breakfast at the Sweet Tooth Cafe on Main St. It's a cute little diner with good greasy spoon breakfast which was perfect on a cold, wet, windy day. After that, we wandered around. Another couple cruise ships had docked over night and the town filled up with another 10,000 tourists. The shops were hopping and it was just fun to people watch. One thing we sure noticed, people were agog at our motorbikes. Many of the Alaskan cruise folks are from afar and, I guess, Harley Davidsons are a big deal for a lot of them. We had all sorts of people gawking at us, smiling and giving us thumbs up as we drove through town. More than one person asked to have their picture taken with us and our bikes - we sort of felt like celebrities which was funny! One fellow named Dave saw our jackets and came up and asked if we really had Harleys. We  laughed and said yes, they're parked around the corner. Nothing would have it but for him to come with us and take a look. He was like a little kid, he was so thrilled and he asked to sit on my husband's trike and have a picture taken on it. His wife Cherryl said he has 3 Harleys in New Zealand and he's nuts about them. We had a great visit with them on the street and by the time we left, they had invited us to visit them in New Zealand and stay with them which, we truly believe, was a genuine offer. We just might take them up on it! This is the kind of thing that happens to us often - for some reason, motorcycles are an incredible point of social connection and we've been so lucky to meet many great people because of our bike trips. 

We headed over to the ferry and we left at 3:00, arriving in Haines at 4:00. Haines Junction is the next closest place and it's about 300kms away so we decided we would stay in Haines for the night and do the whole trip to Whitehorse (about 500kms) tomorrow. We're hoping it warms up a bit. In the meantime, we had a good home made dinner at the Lighthouse Bar and Restaurant on the harbour. Really good food. From there, we could see the old Fort Seward. It was a military fort during the war but it was decommissioned in 1946 and sold off privately. The officers' barracks are beautiful old Victorian-style mansions and the area became known as Snob Hill. You can see the toll the salt air, damp climate and time have taken on these old beauties but some of them are getting face-lifts and restoration work which is nice to see. 

Tonight we're staying at the Haines Hitch Up RV park. We tend to stay at RV parks when it's cold and we need some power for our little heater and a good shower. Otherwise, we stay at campsites or, sometimes, just along a quiet road. The Hitch Up is the opposite of the Garden City. It's clean and well looked after and the showers are free and hot and they even have hair dryers which is a luxury for me! 

June 9 - Teslin to Skagway

What a fantastic day!! 

We had a late morning - we didn't sleep well because it was SO COLD. It was around zero last night and it was so cold that we had the little heater going in the tent most of the night PLUS I had to sleep with long johns and my hoodie on but we woke up to sunny skies which was great after all the rain. We packed up camp and hit the road around 10am. The Alaska Highway west of Teslin is more of the same - lots of trees and not much else. There are quite a few side-of-the-road lodges/resorts/gas stations that have closed up. We made it to Jakes Corner and it was equally run down so it was hard to tell if it was open or not but it was. We bought some gas and inside, they have a very nice little bakery so we had some coffee and a sweet and carried on the road to Tagish and Carmacks. Here, the road gets narrow and twisty which was fun on the bikes - a little more interesting than the Alaska HIghway. Not much in Tagish but Carmacks has a little heritage town center and is a pit stop for many of the bus tours loaded with cruise ship folks from Skagway. From Carmacks, the trip gets very interesting. The mountains start showing up and you start gaining altitude as you head towards the American border. 

We pulled over at Log Cabin, the location of an old townsite at the top of the Chilcoot Trail. Not much to see but the Federal Government has an info spot there that explains the significance of the site. The road continues to climb and quickly you get into the thick of HUGE mountains that spike into the sky. They're glorious and all around, the terrain quickly becomes rocky and barren as you ride along the top of the tree line. Big patches of snow still dot the mountains and sides of the road and, today, it was bitterly cold and windy. My thermometer said 3 degrees C and then you have to factor in the windchill. Thank heavens for electric gear. It sure came in handy today.

At the train stop of Fraser, the Canadian customs has their check point. 

The US check point is 12kms further West. We crossed into the US and from here, the road drops from about 4500 ft. to sealevel in about 20 kms - the road just twists and winds it's way down through mountainous crevasses until you roll into the town of Skagway.

We would compare this road to the Going To The Sun Highway in Glacier National Park in Montana. It's spectacular. If you don't want to drive it, from Skagway you can take the White Pass heritage narrow-gauge train up the Chilcoot Pass and see the whole thing that way. It's just unbelievable that so many people walked up this pass loaded with literally tons of goods that the government required each person have to gain entry. I always think of the photo on the cover of the Pierre Burton book and wonder what would possess a sane person to set out on such a journey! 

Skagway is a tourist town that hops for the 5 month cruise ship season. Today, there were 3 cruise ships in port and about 10,000 tourists (according to several of the locals) wandering about. 

We talked to Chris, who owns Discount Tours, and he said there are about 24 cruise ships a week. All the businesses have the ship schedules so they know exactly when they will show up and how many people will get off. The majority of the businesses are seasonal and Skagway only has a resident population of about 450 during the winter months. 

We went to the famous Red Onion Saloon and Brothel for dinner based on the recommendation of several people and had really good thin crust pizza. It really was a brothel back in the day and for $10, you can do The Quickie - the 20 minute guided tour of the upstairs brothel. Alas, we missed the last tour but might go back again tomorrow... :)

We're staying at the Garden City RV park but, after cruising through town after dinner, we happened upon the Pullan Creek RV park which is right on the waterfront by the marina. There is a nice park across the road and you can watch the goings-on of the cruise ships from there. If we came back again, we would stay there instead. The Garden RV park is OK but a little shaginappy. Only a very few of the sites have picnic tables and the whole place looks run down. The bathrooms smell mouldy and you have to pay for a shower. 

Tomorrow, we have to catch the only ferry to Haines.  Apparently, the ferry service is a little unpredictable. One local said that it's even up in the air if the runs will continue and, at the moment, some of them are passenger only and some will take vehciles and they don't always run consistently. We found out a vehicle ferry goes tomorrow at 3pm so we have to be on that one or we have to back track. We will do the circle route through Haines up to Haines Junction and then on to Whitehorse.

June 5-8 Chetwynd, BC to Teslin, Yukon

We were off the grid for the past few days - it seems that this will likely be the case as we get further out into the wilds of Yukon and Alaska so this blog may be updated several days at a time as we get access to wifi.

June 5

After leaving Chetwynd this morning, we took Rte. 29 through Moberley Lake and Hudson's Hope. This is the valley that will be flooded if and when the Site C damn is put in. Aware of this as we drove through, we took note of many signs locals have put up indicating where the high water mark will be so you have a sense of how much land will be flooded. It's really hard to imagine just how big that reservoir will be and how much stunningly gorgeous farm land will be lost. I can't imagine how heart breaking it will be for many of the locals in that area, particularly the people who will be lose their properties. As we looked out over the valley, we couldn't help but think that there must be a better option. Wind farms perhaps? Who knows - we're not experts in this area but it just seems like there should be other ways to make power without such massive destruction. 

All the farm land (and this is just a small bit of it) will be flooded - beautiful rich river delta... hard to believe...

Anyway - the drive from Chetwynd to Charlie Lake, just outside of Fort St. John, is spectacularly beautiful. At the junction at Charlie Lake, we headed north on the Alaska Highway towards Fort Nelson. Alas, the road from here on out was just endless trees - mostly scrubby swamp spruce that looks like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book. It truly was endless - miles and miles of it until we arrived in Ft. Nelson. We stayed the night with our good friends, Jacquie and Reily. Lots of fun visiting and a great BBQ.

June 6

After a quick breakfast, we left for Liard Hotsprings. Jacquie and Reily decided to come with us for the weekend which was awesome. Reily is (among other things) a hunting guide who has worked out of Toad River quite a bit so he knows the area really well. About 50kms west of Ft. Nelson, the scenery changes significantly - mountains start to show up and the road starts to get twisty and climb. We headed up to Summit Lake and Stone Mountain. Spectacular!! Stone Mountain (at the top) is above the tree line and there were patches of snow still there. Summit Lake is really pretty and there is a nice campsite. It was really cold and windy so we didn't stay long but it was beautiful.

From there, we descended the other side of the summit and came into Toad River. The little gas station has some good coffee and home made baking. There are over 10,000 baseball hats nailed onto the ceiling of the cafe from all over!

Next, we headed to Muncho Lake which is a FANTASTIC motorcycle road - lots of twisties and the pavement is good. Much of the road runs along the shoreline of Muncho which is a GORGEOUS turquois glacier fed lake. There are great camping spots along the lake and several resorts. We're starting to become aware that we'll have to be careful about buying gas when we can. Many of the smaller resorts are closed and the identified gas stations (on the maps etc.) are closed up. We've got a jerry can we'll keep filled. 

After Muncho, we carried on to Liard Hotsprings. We were here a few years ago when we came up in 2009 with our truck and camper so we knew what a gem it is and it was absolutely a must-do again. Liard is one of the BEST natural hotsprings I've ever been to. There is a Provincial campsite there and, across the road, another RV park and cafe. There is some limited development at the hotsprings itself - a nice change area and a washroom house. The board walk is well maintained and it's about a 15 minute easy walk from the parking lot to the springs. There are two natural pools - the top one is VERY hot and the bottom one gradually cools off so you can find your perfect "zone". When we arrived, we set up camp, BBQ'd an awesome dinner and then headed off for a soak. The springs are open 24 hours a day and, right now, it's almost 24 hour daylight. It gets a little dusky around midnight and then lightens up again around 3am. 

Today was a GREAT wildlife day - we saw several black bears, half a dozen bison and some moose, one of which was eating in a swamp right beside the highway, completely without care of concern about all the people gawking at it. I'll post photos from my other camera on here later. 

June 7

Jacquie and Reily took off for home and we decided to stay another night. We were tired so we just had a couple of soaks at the springs and took a good long afternoon nap. After dinner, another soak. It rained most of the day so really, the best thing we could do was hang out in the hot water! In the evening, we managed a nice campfire and dried off a few of our towels etc. A nice lazy day. No cel service, wifi or power at the camp.

June 8

We had a quick coffee at the cafe at Liard and then headed out. We wanted to make Teslin by tonight. We drove through 200 kms of trees and trees and trees to Watson Lake. It's amazing how many little resorts and gas stations along the way are closed up. Sad to see this evidence of a faltering economy. When we were here in 2009, most of them were still open. Now they're closed, boarded up and being over run by weeds... 

Watson Lake is a neat little town and definitely worth stopping for a visit. The biggest attraction is the Sign Forest - people from all over the world bring signs and nail them up to posts in a small park along the highway. We put a sign up in 2009 but there are so many now, I couldn't find it! There is also a fabulous little "department" store across the road which sells pretty much anything you could want and their prices are very reasonable. A very fun place to poke around in. Beside it is Kathy's Cafe where we had lunch. Really good homemade food. We also did a shop at the grocery store across the highway. Apparently, it's the last good supermarket until Whitehorse and we needed to stock up. Of note, the gasoline was very expensive in Ft. Nelson ($1.50/litre for regular) but comparitively inexpensive in Watson Lake ($1.28/litre for premium) - there doesn't seem to be any logic to the way gas is priced up here... it's hard to predict. We bought a second 5 gallon jerry can because we've heard from other motorcyclists that many of the gas stations are closed.

Sign Forest in Watson Lake

From Watson Lake, we continued on for another 260 kms to Teslin, Yukon. Lots of miles of trees and trees but you start to see some of the coastal mountains in the distance. Very pretty. We arrived at Teslin Lake around 6:00 and set up camp right on the shore!

Our camp at Teslin, Yukon

 

Day One! June 4, 2015

June 4, 2015

Well, we finally got away at the crack of 11:00... ah... the best laid plans of mice and men (and motorcyclists) - there's always one more thing to do! There's nothing quite like the feeling of pulling out of the driveway, knowing you have 6 weeks of riding adventure ahead of you. Suddenly, all the stress and worry of planning and organizing is gone and you're on your way!

The weather cooperated despite dodgy forcasts and was perfect - blue skies with a few clouds here and there. We headed through Quesnel and on up to Prince George. We swung into the Harley dealership there to pick up some synth motor oil and talked to one of their staff who greatly recommended the route through Hudson's Hope from Chetwynd into Ft. St. John. "It'll all be gone pretty quick - all that beautiful farm land and that great motorcycle road - when they flood that valley for the hydro damn project. You better enjoy it now while you can - it's my favorite route up north." The Site C dam (damn?) project has been the subject of much debate and controversy for years and has recently been given the green light by the government. 

From Prince George, the highway is pretty rough - ravaged by the huge amount of big truck traffic which is steady. There are some stunning lakes along the way. We stopped for gas and a much needed coffee at the Windy Point gas station - an old log building that has stood watch on that stretch of dusty road for a long time. We fueled up and enjoyed some GREAT coffee on the picnic table out front and watched the truck traffic go by. Most of them turned off on the road to Mackenzie. We continiued north to Chetwynd. 

The drive from Windy Point to Chetwynd was GORGEOUS! Almost right away, it starts to get hilly and then mountains start to arrive around the corners. The pavement is in great shape - relatively new and very smooth which makes the twisties fun to ride! As you approach Power King, the mountains on the right (will look up the name later) arch into the sky. They must be a geologist's dream - you can see all the striations of the various layers of rock and you can really see how they boiled up out of the earth millions of years ago. They look like giant curling chunks of ribbon candy my grandma Alice used to have. I saw my first bit of wildlife - a wee black bear cub running up out of the ditch on the side of the road. 

We arrived in Chetwynd around 8:00pm - exactly 620 kms from home. Chetwynd is famous for it's wood carvings and they host chainsaw carving competitions here. All along the main drag of the town, carvings line the road and there is a nice walking path you can wander on to look at them. There are some really impressive works of art here. Will post a picture or two a little later. We thought about hitting an RV park or campsite but found out we would have to back track so we opted to pop the tent trailer in an pretty abandoned lot beside the creek in the middle of town. Perfect! My husband Lynn was happy to have a creek to wash in! Tomorrow - Fort Nelson.