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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Saturday, August 1, 2009 (Day 6)

Last night, the sun didn’t set until 11:30 pm in Whitehorse, and sunrise this morning was about 3 am. There was a false fire alarm in our hotel last night at about 2 am. Everybody was scrambling, I just wanted to have lots of clothing and not wanting to go to the street in my undies.

Tonight we expect the sunset at 12:30 am and sunrise at 2:30 am.

Dawson City

Klondike theme

Downtown Hotel

Today, we travelled about 550 Km north to Dawson City of Yukon, population 1,800+. We left the Alaska Hwy and took the Klondike Hwy. Dawson City is one of those tourist spots with the Klondike theme. It is like in a western movie walking across from the hotel to the saloon across the street in sandy roads with strong wind blowing, with nobody in sight. I was expecting a tumbleweed blowing across the street anytime. The whole town was in that theme. I will explore the town tomorrow. I have decided NOT to take any of the extension runs to further north or to Alaska because the roads are all gravel. I have been lucky to make it this far, and I have enough.

The travelling was good most times except when we came across about a dozen bad sections with gravels. We survived.

So, tomorrow I will rest, and will explore the town.

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Friday, July 31, 2009 (Day 5)

It was a beautiful day.

We heard all these road construction reports and were so scared of the loose gravels and construction delays etc. It turned out to be a bit rough but very manageable. The weather was great, alternating between sunshine and overcast, ranging from 15C to 22C.

Whitehorse

It was also a shorter ride, only 435 Km. We arrived at Whitehorse, Yukon by 2:00-2:30 pm. We would have wanted to relax and hit the town on a Friday night, but the support van hadn’t arrived yet at 3:45 pm. I was still in my riding gear with no change of clothing. (Margaret would be proud of me as I am discarding old undies and T-shirts along the way instead of doing laundry. Ha Ha.)

The support van arrived about 2 hours later because the trailer wiring had a problem, and Randal had to go to some “garage” and begged for repair. It wasn’t a big job, but you know in Yukon, nobody is in a hurry, especially on a Friday afternoon. Anyway, it felt so much better with a shower and civilian clothing.

City

The more current statistics put the population of Yukon at 33,000, and 24,500 of them are in Whitehorse. (And I was told there are 16 dentists, so the competition is fierce.)

Dr. Ron Pearson, my classmate from UBC, practised in Whitehorse for 35 years. He has children and grandchildren here. He picked me up at 5 pm after his workday, took me to visit his present clinic, as well as his previous 3 clinics that he sold to his associates. He gave me a grand tour of Whitehorse, and also a tour-guide’s version of the history of this place. The grand tour of Whitehorse lasted 35 minutes. It was very interesting. He is going to take me for a ride to his cabin at the lake on Day 9 when I am alone in Whitehorse.

Giorgio's

We were all resting and waiting for the “party” at around 7 pm.

Something trivia: only Bell provides cell signals here.

The GPS is great. On highways, there are limited choices to get to Whitehorse. But once in Whitehorse, boy oh boy, the GPS comes in handy to find the hotel. This “High Country Inn” used to be a YMCA spot 35 years ago. It was run down and bankrupted, and assumed by CMHC….etc, now renovated and become one of the convention centre type of events in “downtown” Whitehorse. HeeHee. It is old and bare essentials.

I had a funny incident today.

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Thursday, July 30, 2009 (Day 4)

Today, Day 4, we started from Fort Nelson, after a nice stay at Super 8 “H”otel. We climbed to 1,250m elevation again. Most of the day was overcast with occasional sunshine, which was great. The temperature ranged from 10C – 15C. We are now in Watson Lake, Yukon.

Alaska Hwy through Watson Lake

travel was OK. Because of the severe winter conditions, the roads were not paved with asphalt like those in southern BC. I think they were paved with something called “chip seal”. They were gravels covered with hot tar. If you fall from the motorcycle, you are guaranteed that it will tear through even your protective clothing. There were lots of potholes. The highway department is busy repairing and repaving the roads. We were stopped many times waiting for the alternate 1-way 1-lane through way. There was one stretch of road construction that lasted 5Km of the very beginning stage of the “chip seal”. We were riding over about 4 inches deep of loose gravel. I initially had a few fishtail sways and also slid about 1-2m sideways. Riding my motorcycle through loose gravel is my deadly fear. Good thing I remember to let the handle bar find its own direction, and gently add more fuel. I got through it OK. One guy fell, a Scottish guy named Michael Whitfield. It turns out that we met before at Children’s Hospital. He is a Paediatrician. A proud Scot.  He bounced up and pronounced himself perfectly OK without any injury and carried on. He broke the right side rear view mirror and the turning signal light.

So, it just further reinforced me the idea to skip the Arctic run on 800Km of gravel road (return trip) when we get to Dawson City on Day 11. I think I will just have beer and watch the can-can girls at the local saloons at Dawson City for the day.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009 (Day 2)

Written in the morning before the ride.

Jasper National Park

This morning we will be riding through the Jasper National Park. The weather forecast is going to be torrential rain following us all the way to Grande Prairie.

I have always been an early riser. I am ready to hit the road since the weather seems to have a clear opening. Other riders are advising me to go later. There is something that I had not thought about before. There will be lots of deer on the road. So let the cars go ahead first and create traffic and noise to warn the deer away from the roads. Good idea.

We may be going on the road even later. A couple of riders are interested in joining a river safari from Blue River. I am not interested mainly to see grizzly bears.

Oh well, I may again ride alone and take my time.

Written at the end of the day

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Monday, July 27, 2009 (Day 1)

I have checked into Room 108 (lucky number!), at Glazier Mountain Lodge of Blue River, B.C.

 
There is no cell phone signal here. I am lucky to have Internet wi-fi, because the motel “just” had one put in very recently.
 
The ride, 596 Km, (from Vancouver) was fairly relaxing with little traffic. There were some heavy downpour of rain and freezing at 9C temperature going through Coquihalla at 1,400m elevation. I ended up at a fancy golf club outside of Kamloops and had lunch at the clubhouse while waiting out the rain. ha ha.
 
I am going to wear layers tomorrow.
 
We are almost all here by 4:45pm.
 
We will meet at the lobby at 6:45pm, and walk down the highway to another motel that has a restaurant. There are altogether 9 riders and a support van. I know one rider from South Africa and one from Baja rides. Of course, the leader, John Valk, has been on all of them.
 
There is a hot tub in this motel. I brought my swimming trunks. ……… but I am too chicken to go into some warm stew that had been brewing for a while. May be I’ll skip it.
 
So far so good.