OK, I got it wrong !!!

I have a confession to make… I got it wrong! Having now ridden a little over 1000 Kms of the Alaska Highway, I can assure you that it is indeed one of the World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides. Certainly the first few hundred Kms were fairly straight and flat with a little too much traffic for my liking, but as the ride unfolds…Wow! It twists and turns and climbs and dips through hills and valleys, over mountains and across streams. There is enough scenery for even the most jaded of travellers to overload on; and I'm not halfway through it yet!!! Last night I camped on a completely deserted camp ground about 7.5 km west of Watson Lake and I slept like the proverbial log. I've had two fairly tough, long days on the road. 

The first involving a run of over 540 miles whilst yesterday I stopped to help a couple of fellow bikers one of whom, Mark, had suffered a second front wheel puncture. Whilst they had most of the things they need to fix it, the power socket on Mark’s BMW 800GS had stopped working, probably just a blown fuse, but try as we might we couldn’t find the little bugger, and the handbook was, of course, no help at all. Then his pump decided to overheat, so my trusty Slime pump got dug out from it’s hole in the tank and they were soon on their way once more. All in all it had cost me about 2 hours and so there was no chance I would make it all the way to Whitehorse, my initial destination. But hey, I made it into the Yukon so I'm quite happy with that. A quick stop at a supermarket in Watson Creek and a walk around the slightly bizarre Signpost Forest ,where of course I had to add a “Sam” sign, and off to camp. The RV site on the edge of town was full to bursting so I didn’t even bother to try getting a pitch. I’d been told at the supermarket that there was another camp ground a few clicks out of town so that’s where I headed. And what a result; my first completely empty site since Cape Breton. No little envelopes to fill in and put money in, nobody had been around to collect and not even a notice to give the fees payable. I’ll be back on the road by 8am and with Whitehorse now a little over 400 km away, I should hopefully make it by tonight…  

What a ride; Sensory overload by the bucketful! I thought the Alaska highway was great, but as I’d got to Whitehorse by just after lunch, I turned left just before the town and headed down to Skagway on the coast, which is the Klondike Highway, and takes you right through the mountains, finally dropping over 3000ft in just a few miles, but without a hairpin bend in sight! The 80 odd mile ride took me about 4 hours to complete as I kept stopping to take photos. Then no sooner did I get going and another fantastic scene popped into view; that overused Americanism, awesome

Is the only way I can describe it.

Weather wise it’s been a bit of a mixture with the temperature well down on recent days which may, hopefully, give the guys fighting the huge number of forest fire a little bit of respite. It even rained at one point, starting with a few spots, then as soon as I got my waterproofs on it stopped. A few miles later the heavens really opened and it lasted for at least…….. two minutes! A few more bursts of very light showers and it was all over. I took advantage of having to take my jacket off by stopping for coffee. To be more accurate I’d spotted a sign advertising “home made buns”! It could only mean Cinnamon buns, and I love them. They did nor disappoint, in fact I nearly bought a second to take away with me but somehow resisted the temptation; how good am I?

It’s been a bit of a strange ride in another way too. I seem to have been hopping in and out of Yukon and BC all day, even though I’ve been on the same road, and I've finally ended up in Alaska with the US customs being about 2 miles before you enter Skagway. Apparently the actual border is at the top of the pass about 27 km back but it’s too cold up there for the poor US customs men so you end up crossing a sort of huge no-man’s land; by far the longest I've ever found between customs points and that include the minefield between Western Sahara and Mauritania!

Dougie & Judith

As I pulled in to refuel between Whitehorse and Skagway there was a bike at the pumps with BC number plate but sporting a Scotland sticker. Dougie had bought the bike unseen on line, although he had enlisted the help of a member of the Horizons Unlimited forum to give it a once over for him. Then he and his wife had flown into Vancouver, picked up said machine (a Suzuki Varadaro) and set off for a 5 week tour of Canada and Alaska. They had even been a part of the way up the Dalton Highway towards Pruhdo Bay, but had been hit by bad weather and turned around… I listened intently as that is where I’ll be heading in a couple of days time! Whilst I don’t have a pillion, as I’m camping against their motels, I’m carrying a lot more kit which probably weighs as much if not more than Dougie’s wife!

The end of the Yukon River means I've reached the West Coast!

So here I am camped just outside Skagway and I can now say that I have officially ridden from coast to coast… OK, I know it’s not quite as far west as you can get, but it’s certainly on the west coast and in Alaska. The campsite was a lucky find in that I was trying to find someone to book me into an horrific, overcrowded RV site in the middle of Skagway when I bumped into a guy coming out of the showers who told me about this place. It roughly 9 miles from town, 5 of which are along a dirt road which as long as it doesn’t pour with rain tonight, is an easy ride. It might just get a bit slick with a lot of water on it… 

Oh! And there have been a few bear sightings on this camp ground over the last few days, well to be exact, the last one was… earlier today! And on that happy note I'm off to bed. I'm already sat in the tent away from the Mosis which get a bit hungry late in the evening. The funny thing is that I seem to get up before them! I've usually breakfasted and almost packed before they start to become a real nuisance.

I don’t think I’ll get much further than Whitehorse tomorrow as Skagway looks to be an interesting old town, so I’ll probably spend most of the morning there before heading back the way I came down; unless of course I find something else of interest to keep me here, in which case… I’ll be back! Oh, and Whitehorse has a Tim Hoton’s coffee shop with WiFi so I might just be able to get this posted on the blog.

And two for Diane...

Alaskan Fireweed. It's everywhere and so called as it is the first to reappear after a forest fire!

One of the many Floral Displays in Skagway