Monday, August 10, 2009 (Day 15)

The last but not the least day.

Lillooet Circle Tour

We left Williams Lake in good spirit, and good weather. The planned route was down Hwy 97, then Hwy 1 to Vancouver. Several of us were thinking of going on Hwy 97, then to Hwy 99 and coming back through Pemberton/Whistler way for a more fun twisty ride, and more importantly, not so hot in temperature. I was all set to do that for the final leg.

Therefore, Granny Don, I didn’t go through Cache Creek. Sorry, no answer about Jimmy’s Restaurant for you.

Lillooet Panorama View

About 30 Km south of Lillooet, my onboard computer was flashing red warnings. I knew something was serious wrong. I was on slopes and fairly high speed. By the time I had stopped at the side of the road, I had identified it as a tire puncture. Then I saw, Dr. Mike Whitfield, the Paediatrician, riding by. I flagged him but he didn’t see me. I got on the bike and chased him through the hills for 2 Km (on a flat tire) and passed him and forced him to stop. The reason I was doing that was because for 2 weeks, he had made it known that he carried a tire repair kit and a tire pump. I thought that he might have been my saviour. He helped me using the mousse/silicone stuff and pumped up the tire. Unfortunately the puncture of the rear tire was simply too huge.

We were not in cell phone signal area.

Then John Valk rode by, and we flagged him down. He rode back to Lillooet to use land-line phone, trying to contact Randal in the support truck. Remember the support truck was going along the planned route of Fraser Canyon. Well, Randal’s truck was not in cell phone signal area. After a long while, John got hold of Randal on the cell phone, and re-routed him over to our area. It was very nice of John & Mike to stay with me under the 30C sun and clouds of insects for 3 hours waiting for the support truck to arrive. The reason the support truck was late was because it had its own transmission problems which wouldn’t let it accelerate properly.

Anyway, we loaded my motorcycle onto the trailer and tied it down. I was riding in the truck with Randal all the way to Vancouver. We arrived, truck and all, at about 7:45 pm. By the time Margaret took me home, it was almost 8:30 pm. The journey has ended. The “new” tires only lasted 3 weeks and almost 6,000 Km. You can imagine that we rode through some pretty rough terrains.

The bike was in John Valk’s shop, and hopefully, tomorrow they will do a do-over and replace anything that needs replacing.

Insight of the day:  Stay in cell phone signal areas. Stay in well travelled and serviced routes.

Ah, sleeping in my own bed.

Sunday, August 9, 2009 (Day 14)

Burns Lake

Williams Lake, city and valley

It has been a beautiful day. We left Burns Lake at 8C, and arrived at Williams Lake at 24C. Mostly sunny, some overcast. Lots of highway repair, but good to ride on asphalt again. It is a relatively short ride, 460 Km.

I stopped by places like, Vanderhoof, Prince George, Quesnel. I was going to take a 200 Km detour to Barkerville, east of Quesnel, since I heard so much about it as an old pioneer town. Then I remembered, I spent 2 days at Dawson City and saw it all.

Prince George

As we were beginning to get closer to “civilization” as we travel today, I had some real food for lunch at Prince George, MacDonald’s 6 piece MacNugget Meal. It was good! Ha Ha.

This is the last night on the road. We went to the hotel’s restaurant to have group dinner again as we had every night for the past 13 evenings. Then we walked to Dairy Queen about 200m away. John Valk treated us to ice cream dessert. Then we had a drinking party at the parking lot. We know tomorrow we are all going to go different directions and speed to get home. So Day 15 is mainly riding on your own.

I got a compliment from Robert D. He was with me in Baja 2005. He said Chris & he used to shake their heads when they followed me then when I was riding the curves. He said that I am doing very well now. (Hello! I have 4 more years of riding experiences since then.)

Whistler

We will be travelling about 550 Km tomorrow to get home around rush hour! However, the weather forecast says super hot afternoons on our route >33C. I think I may detour to the Pemberton/Whistler Hwy 99 way which is forecasted at ONLY 28C, and also with the sun on our back instead of going west on Hwy 1 facing the hot sun. The hottest place will be near Lilliooet.

Saturday, August 8, 2009 (Day 13)

Even though we thought we were well rested, the scheduling threw us off. Getting up at 4 am (Alaska time zone), and be on the bike by 6 am didn’t do the brain much good. I was so dozy that I had to stop at the side of the road, and ate some KitKat to wake up by 10 am even though we had Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s at Terrace at 8:30 am.

Prince Rupert Bay

At Prince Rupert, because it was an Alaska ferry, we had to clear Canadian Customs in order to enter. I think they put the junior trainees here. They asked all the standard questions and very slowly, such as any weapon, alcohol, tobacco, $10,000 cash, etc etc.
 

Smithers

The weatherman would have a very good day with us today. At Prince Rupert, we had 16C and drizzling. At Terrace we had rain and 18C. At Hazelton, we had sunshine and 19C. At Smithers we had hail (about 1/2cm diameter) and 12.5C. At Houston, we had overcast and 16C. At Burns Lake, it was raining and 11C. The forecast tonight is thunderstorms and 4C. Fortunately, tomorrow looks good.

These northern towns are all the places that I have heard often. I am glad that I finally have a chance to visit them. The towns get bigger and more prosperous as they get more southward.

I think the 8 riders are starting to get sick of each other. I was mainly riding on my own. Thank goodness for the GPS. The scenery was great. It must be the rain……the forests look so “green”. BC is truly beautiful.

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Friday, August 7, 2009 (Day 12)

I had the most sound asleep last night. I thought the light didn’t bother me when I slept, but last night I was alone in the inside cabin with almost total darkness. Or it could be because that I only had clam chowder and crackers for dinner last night, because the food was so bad.

Sarah Palin

Juneau, Alaska

Juneau, neighbour of Petersburg

Wrengall Channel

I didn’t even know that the ship docked at Juneau last midnight. I missed my chance to say hello to Sarah Palin.  Oh, Sarah had left the building!! This morning we docked at Petersburg, Alaska. Palin might have thought that she could see Petersburg from Juneau and that it was Russia! Next stop: Wrangell, Alaska. The ferry went through the very “inside” channel, called the Wrangell Channel, nicknamed Pinball Channel. For 26 miles of very narrow channels with numerous buoys marking the way, the ferry had to negotiate in slow speed left and right multiple times. The cruise ships just cannot go through this, and they have to go to the more outside of Inside Channels, which means 200 more miles of sailing. The ferry docks near the downtown of these towns, e.g. in Ketchikan, not the same places as the cruise ships dock. Therefore, more pubs and less souvenir stores.

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Thursday, August 6, 2009 (Day 11)

motel

Today, we were supposed to ride 9 Km from the motel to the ferry terminal. We were supposed to check out of the motel at 11 am, and be at the ferry terminal at 12:30 pm for the 3:30 pm sailing. The continental breakfast at the motel was terrible. Yet, we were not losing weight, because the diet during this trip were high fat and high carb. We had since found out that the ferry was going to be 3 hours late. I did the whole town by foot in less than 1 hour. I guess it was a good time for forced slowing down and relaxation.

Some of us were going to the habitat to see the bald eagles. Over the years, I have seen enough of them at Point Grey and Ladner so I wasn’t interested.

I would be bored stiff if I have to live here. According to Bruce, who was born and raised in Euclelet, said that the town life was so limited that everybody knew everybody in great detail. There were constantly Payton Place type of happenings. He moved out at age 17.

That is why I was amazed at my friend, Dr. Ron Pearson, happily living in Whitehorse. It turned out that he was from Victoria. He chose the lifestyle of Yukon, and set up his life in Whitehorse as soon as he graduated from UBC. He loves all the outdoor activities, hunting, fishing, camping, kayaking, ……etc. He took me to his cottage which was a tiny old log cabin. The history was that during the Klondike days, that was a RCMP observation post at the lake front. He loves spending time at the cabin, really roughing it. But when his daughter turned 13, she demanded a “washroom” and no more outhouse. He started building a separate building for her bathroom. There was no building design or code. He started and then added a huge garage for all his dirt bikes, ATVs, skidoos, kayaks, old car that he was going to restore, cross country skis, fishing gears, camping gears, hunting gears etc. You can imagine how big it is. Then there is one bathroom and one bedroom. But he still prefers to live in the log cabin and going to the outhouse.

Mailrun

His first wife raised huskies (30 of them). He did a dog sleigh mail delivery in the winter for 120 Km one year.

One of his daughters has a horse ranch and leading tourists to 2 – 3 days horsing expeditions. One daughter breeds horses and has 120 acres near Whitehorse. One son, graduated in business, is running all the business aspects of Ron’s dental practice, so Ron just works and plays. He has another daughter that does business administration also. He has divorced, and is with this lady in common law.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2009 (Day 10)

It has been a beautiful day. We only caught may be 30 minutes of rain, and the rest of the time was cool.

Haines Junction - Alaska Highway

We left Whitehorse, and rode on the Alaska Hwy until Haines Junction, and then headed south. That is the south-western part of Yukon.

At the Shell station there, it was run by an oriental looking couple. The man, about 55 years old, was the cashier, and the woman looked at the old 13” TV on some program like Big Long Gold serial soap opera. I made conversation. There were so surprised that I am Chinese. They said they have never seen a Chinese motorcyclist in that area in years. The closest that they came to were some Japanese motorcyclists. The man was from Hong Kong. The wife was from Taiwan. They were retired! They just operate the gas station for a few months in the summer and then go to their children in Toronto.

Haines Junction

Going south we then cut through the north-western part of B.C., Going further south, we entered Alaska. Now we were again on the third time zone of our trip. The section from Haines Junction to the US border was great. We were riding up and down the mountains, going from snow peaks to meadow valleys. We had 360 degrees of mountain ranges surrounding us, some with glaziers and ice packs. Spectacular. The sky was partly cloudy. The sunlight peeks through the clouds with beams of light projecting to the ground.

Purple flowers

See attached photo. If you can name the purple flowers, you win the botany prize of the month!

In Haines, Alaska, it is also famous for its huge

American Bald Eagle

 population of American bald eagles. They are majestic in their flights and their hunts. We were watching the seagulls getting in their ways, and wondering how long they are going to live.

Haines is a fishing town in a fjord. It is not a tourist place. The only

 importance is that the US State Ferries load from here. We are surprised to see a small cruise ship, Holland America Statadam, docked in port. The bigger cruise ships, such as Princess, dock on the other side of the fjord in Skagway, which we visited last year on the Rhapsody cruise.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009 (Day 9)

Whitehorse Main Street

Alone in Whitehorse. I slept in till 6:30 am, fiddled around and relaxed.

I did some motorcycle maintenances, checked tire pressure, gassed up, cleaned off about 1/2 of the dirt and mud. (Not doing a thorough cleaning because it is forecast to rain tomorrow ——mother nature’s bike wash.)  Went to MacDonald’s for breakfast. Did some computering. Went to town —–  Whitehorse downtown ——- about 2 blocks wide and 5 blocks long, and bought a new pair of cheap walking/running shoes for $60. It was too hard and getting blisters on the heels for walking so long in the riding boots.

Stopped by Tim Horton for sandwich lunch.  Came back to the hotel by 12:30 pm. So I was going to stay in the room, kick back and relax. I’d be ready for the evening ride. Temperature was sunny and hot 26C, but it would cool down and rain tomorrow.

I forgot to mention that I saw a full grown fox crossing the road in front of me about 3 days ago.

From my observation in the past week:

There are very few young able males in northern BC, northern Alberta and Yukon. I suspect that they are like in inland China; they go to where the jobs are ………. e.g. oil fields. A lot of the workers are “mature” adults and younger ladies. There are lots of young ladies operating vehicles and machines on the highways. Almost all the servers are young ladies.

I have been holding my tongue, but I think I would ask the next time the opportunity comes up. I couldn’t place the accents and ethnicity of these people. They looked like a blend of Philippians, Mexicans, Japanese, Koreans, First Nation natives, Inuits and Eskimos.  Curious Bon was going to approach the young ladies again.

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Monday, August 3, 2009 (Day 8) 

Whitehorse

Today, the weather was good. It was also the day that I left the group at Dawson City, and rode solo for 535Km to Whitehorse without the support van. I checked into the same hotel in Whitehorse, and the receptionist recognized me. I wondered why. I got a much better room this time.

Because I left the luggage to the support truck, I could only carry limited amounts on the motorcycle. I thought I would be walking through the town tomorrow, and therefore brought the pair of running shoes. I could not fit them into the saddle bags, so I used bungie cords to tie them at the back seat. Of course, about 1 hour into the journey, I realized that only the bungie cords were there. Shoes disappeared. I would be stuck with muddy riding boots for the rest of the journey. Boy scouting did not teach me bungie cord tying techniques half a century ago!

I had one near call at the gravel sections, and fortunately pulled through with my new-learned techniques. I suppose it is hard for non bikers to realize the difference of different gravel roads. The best analogy that I can think of is like skiing. The big difference between skiing on groomed packed snow runs vs deep powder. Anyway, the good news is that (supposedly) it is going to be paved roads from here on. Yippee!

The BMW motorcycle is performing well. It was a good choice to trade in the VFR for this one. It doesn’t take 1,000 Km to break in the engine as the manual says. All the other owners said no, and now I agree, that the engine really breaks in after 10,000 Km. It is now running smoother, stronger, and burning almost no oil. I think the geometry and handling of it helped me out tremendously in doing the gravel roads.

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Sunday, August 2, 2009 (Day 7) 

Today is a non-riding day for a few of us. 

The weather is beautiful today. This is Klondike wilderness. I went to bed at 10 pm last night. 2 riders went out visiting the local pubs and saloons, and reported having a great time, (and took a photo of the hotel in bright sunlight at 12 midnight.). 

Paddlewheeler Graveyard

Abandoned paddle-wheeler

This morning we slept in till about 7 am, and had a leisurely breakfast. The portions of food are so large, that I think they are catering to Americans and Germans. In answer to Edwin’s query: the majority of tourists are middle age or older Americans, and young Germans. We loitered around town, checked out the visitors information centre. Then we set out for a hike, took a ferry as foot-passengers, across the Yukon River, walked along the river bank, and came to the Paddlewheeler Graveyard. At first, I was wondering what my fellow riders want to see in a graveyard. It turned out that before the Dempster Hwy was built, the route to Inuvik was by the steam boats with big Ferris wheels up the Yukon River. Since then the dead (abandoned) boats were left in a place by the river. The historic facts were so-so. But it was a good leisurely hike for about 3 hours. Of course I was bitten by insects twice. Must not have been mosquitoes because I didn’t get a big reaction from it. I was using a lot of “OFF” sprays. 

Mountain and River

The views of mountain and river………They are great. I think the reason that they are not famous is really because the Rockies (Jasper & Banff) far exceeds in grandeur and beauty. But, there are a lot of Europeans here on vacation (RVs) totally absorbing the wilderness which is not available in Europe. 

Back in town we had a so-so lunch at some tourist restaurants. (Of course, the locals won’t eat there. Ha Ha.) Once again I notice the cost of living is so high. At the prime of middle of July, there are not many tourists. I talked to John Valk, the owner of the bike shop that I bought from, and a partner with a travel agency that organizes the motorcycling adventure tours worldwide, this morning, wondering whether his business has suffered with this recession. He said the BMW motorcycle sales are the same as before, but the bike tours are down. He said it used to have close to 30 riders every trip in the past, and now we barely can make 10. He said it is a shame, because with the tourism down, this is a perfect time for such bike trips with lighter traffic and better ambience in choices of motels/hotels. 

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