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| Riding along Klaune Lake... Priceless |
We left Tok on a nice sunny, humid day. The past few days
have been wonderful. It was a nice change from the rain I had experienced the
bulk of my time up here.
The Alaska highway (ALCAN) from Beaver to WhiteHorse is,
IMHO, the most scenic section of the highway. Doubly so as one approaches
Kluane Lake and the Kluane Wolrd Heritage Park. Along the way we crossed the Donjek
River, rode through Burwash landing, Destruction Bay along Kluane Lake… all
places familiar with me, as I have done treks in the Kluane Park before.
We spent the night in Whitehorse at a friend’s place. The
next day we rode towards Skagway and we rode to Emerald Lake along the Klondike
Highway. We experienced the Carcross Desert, Nares Lake and enjoyed the views around Bove
Island before turning around to head out back to the Alaska Highway (AlCan).
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| Emerald Lake |
We then motored our way to Tagish and then joined the
AlCan at a place called Jake’s Corner Teslin and spent the night at the
campground behind the Teslin Motel. Showers and a hot meal were greatly
appreciated. We also noticed that it was starting to get dark now. A full moon
appeared in the horizon and I got up to take some pictures of it and the Teslin
metal grated bridge. It was a quiet and surreal feeling.
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| Nares Lake |
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| Bove Island |
The next day, I was feeling really lousy. I feel like I
caught a bug somewhere before Tok that I just couldn’t shake. It was all
finally coming on full force. Yun and I split up once we got on the Cassiar
Highway. I slowed down a bit and took a nap at Boya Lake as I could hardly keep
my eyes open.
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| Full Moon at Johnsons's Crossing (Teslin) |
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| Motorcycle Friendly Wildlife |
From there I stopped back in at Jade City and said hi to
my friends there and continued my journey south. I met up with Yun bfore
arriving at Dease Lake. We took some great photos of the Dease river in the evening
sunlight. We decided to get some grub and camp outside of town at Dease Lake
Lions Tanzilla River Campground. The weather had been very warm this day, but
the camp near the river was nice and cool. I went to bed that night with a head
splitting headache and nausea.
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| Rding the Alcan Hwy |
Sometime during the night a gentlemen rode in next to us
on a DR650 and setup camp. The next morning we got to chatting with him and
noticed that a good deal of the plastics and his panniers were taped together
and bits and pieces missing. He was on his way back to Vancouver after riding
up to Tukutoyuktuk…. He told stories of rain, mud and all kinds of challenges
he faced. But that wasn’t the fascinating part of his story. It seems that
about the 3rd day into his journey north from leaving home, his bike
caught fire. His soft luggage melted and then burned while he was on the
Cassiar heading north. He only noticed when a passing truck pointed out to him
that his rear was on fire. At this point he had lost all his tools, much of his
clothes and such. Instead of turning around, he just taped and re-tied
everything onto the back seat of his bike and kept going without his good
waterproof riding jacket, clothes and tools. He did need to make some
adjustments to his bike and Yun and I loaned him some tools. In all my days of
riding, I have never come across such a tough individual on the road.
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| Boya Lake |
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| Dease River Crossiing |
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| Somewhere along the Cassiar |
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| Moose Tracks |
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| Curious Fox |
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| Eddontenajon Lake... WOW!!! |
After fueling up at Meziadin Junction, we were hoping to
see if the bears were out at Hyder, a 40 mile side trip. The word was that the
Salmon runs hadn’t started yet, so the bears weren’t out fishing yet for us to
view along the rivers. We did stop in at the Nass river fish camp to take a
look at the Meziadin fishway designed as a means for sockeye, chinook and coho
salmon to bypass a man-made weir dam. Unfortunately, there were very little fish
to be seen.
From there Yun and I rode separate ways again, only to
connect up at the Cassiar junction for gas. By this time the heat was taking
its toll on me and the condition I was in, made it tough to focus on my riding.
I cooled off a bit then told Yun that I was going to get a room in Smithers to
see if I can get over this flu-like symptoms I was experiencing. This was the
last time I was to see Yun until a week later when he came by and stayed at my
place for a few days to get some RR and do some maintenance work on his bike.
I had a terrible night in Smithers BC.., the stomach
cramps and headache continued to plague me and the room AC didn’t seem to
really work. It was humid and in the 90s. Needless to say, I was extremely
uncomfortable.
The next morning I awoke, feeling a little better, but
still with a very hung over feeling. It was a chore to make it back to
Vanderhoof. From there I cut down the Blackwater Road over to Quesnel. I saw a couple of more bears. Hard to believe that
these bears, with their black fur coats, could stand to be up and about in the
afternoon heat. The rest of the ride went by like a blur as I was not feeling well
and riding was now a chore and no longer fun. I crossed the Soda Creek bridge
into Williams Lake and I made camp at Lac La Hache lake just south of Williams Lake
B.C. The cool breeze felt good, but in my condition, the best I could do was
lay back and nap, enjoying the sun until I finally crawled into my tent to doze
off for the night. I slept really well that night.
The next day I had an uneventful trip back home. I did,
however, take the Pavilion cutoff outside of Clinton B.C. and ride over to
Lillooet and the Fountain Valley to round out my trip and the last bits of dirt
I would see on this trip. I had an uneventful border crossing into Washington
State. It was still hot when I pulled into my place in the late afternoon,
tired, dirty from the road and glad to be home.
Two days later, I got married. But that’s another story….
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