Day 17

Here it is our final day, day 17. We left Fort St. John early and decided to come home through Grand Cache. Lynn and Randy went the shorter way through Valley View. We said good-bye and carried on for home. Today gas is an issue as many stations along the way are out of fuel. Not a good feeling when you cant go far on a motorcycle without filling up. Randy found out just how far his bike can go as he had 12 km left of fuel by the time he found a station with gas. Mike decided to take another way home from Grand Cache and turned on highway 40 just west of Hinton. We drove on a lovely highway for about 50 kms which then abruptly turned to loose gravel. There standing on the edge of the gravel road looking at us was a mountain sheep. Oh!! someone was angry, all I could do was laugh as we turned around and rode back the 50kms and then headed on a real paved road home. No more events, got home about 9:15. 12 hours of riding in one day is almost too much. We are glad to be home, but absolutely loved the north country and have plans to go again one day...a BIG THANK YOU to Lynn and Randy for being our tour guides and showing us a spectacular holiday, you guys are the best!!!!

Day 16 - Fort St. John

We rode 8 1/2 hours today and made it back to Ft. St.John. Smoke filled the air around us and the temperature reached 30 degrees. A mountain sheep ran across the road in front of Lynn and Randy, without incident. Mike finally agrees that there is at least one bug in the north as a bumble bee landed in his coat and stung him 3 times on the back of the neck before he could stop and get it out. lol. Dont worry hes okay!! Randy also got stung today. We are staying at the Stonebridge Hotel tonight (same one we stayed in on the way up). We will be up early and should complete our wonderful trip tomorrow. This has been an unbelievable vacation.

Day 15

Well we are sad now, as it is Day 15 and we have to start our journey home. From our little camp site in Skagway, we went to Starbucks for coffee again and on to some serious shopping for souveniers. We mailed home a large box of souveniers when we were in Whitehorse so we could make room for more.lol We left Skagway around 10:00 and headed east and then south to Watson Lake. Along the way we noticed a large forest fire off in the distance and by the time we got to Watson Lake, we saw at least 7 large fires burning. They are in every direction and a local resident told us they all started last night when a thunderstorm went through the area. Smoke fills the air and has left a red glow of the sun. Ashes landing on us at our rest stops in Teslin. The temperature was 34 degrees today with wind. Tenting tonight is not an option so we are in a hotel. The weather since we left Anchorage has been absolutely gorgeous with blue skies and warm temperatures. We have had a perfect holiday so far......

Day 14

Day14- We woke up in our tent in Skagway and walked downtown for coffee at Starbucks. It was nice not to have to pack up camp before we could go! After coffee, we rode to Dyea to look at the old town site. We visited an old cemetary of the stampeders who were trying to get to the Chilkoot trail and died in an avalance on March 3,1898.Many unknown headstones stood out among the others. From here we went to the Chilkoot trailhead and met several people who were packed and going to hike the 20 miles of the trail to Bennett Lake. Wow! We hiked 100 yards up the trail and nearly died. Cant imagine doing the entire trail, let alone it being back in 1898 with 2000 lbs of gear.They say it is the worlds longest museum as there are artifacts of the gold rush along the way. They were tough people back then. Back to town of Skagway for a pizza lunch at a pub and then to a live show performance of the famous Soapy Smith and Frank Reid. After the show Lynn, Mike and Joanne took the White Pass train up the white pass for 21 miles. Unbelievable scenery along the way. Waterfalls, cliffs, bridges,and tunnels of the trail of '98. We went places on the train that are unimaginable unless experienced. The ride lasted 3 hours. We finished the night off with a wonder King Crab supper at the pier and watched seals in the harbour and salmon jumping in the nearby river.

Day 13 -- Ride to Skagway, Alaska

Today is day 13- From Whitehorse to Skagway. What a beautiful ride. Very picturesque. we saw mountain goats along the way and passed many waterfalls and lakes. Emerald lake gets its name honestly. We have never seen anything like it. WOW!!! We stopped at the little town of Carcross, where it was the 109 anniversary of the last spike driven for the White Pass railway. Lots of history. We bought our tickets to take the train tomorrow from Skagway through the White Pass. We watched as the train went by on our way into Skagway. Cant wait!!! We got into Skagway and got the last campsite along the harbour where 4 huge cruise ships are docked. There are many people in town so Mike and I decided to take a water taxi to Haines, Alaska. 1500 ft waterfalls line the corridor to Haines. A seal played in the water beside the ferry and had a 2 ft fish in his mouth. We saw old remnants of Fort WM. Seward. On our journey back we stopped for crab at a seaside restaurant. BEST we have ever had. ALASKAN KING CRAB!! Lynn and Randy stayed in Skagway and are out walking around the town.......

All is well...back in the Yukon!

All is going good! We have been in Skagway the last few days and internet wasn't possible! Were back in the Yukon heading to Watson Lake for the nigh! Skagway is a amazing place to visit! The history is so unbelievable! The Gold Rush made lot of man crazy! Wow! A full update maybe tonight!
Talk to y'all soon!

Day 11 - North Pole, Alaska

Well it is day 11- after an amazingly peaceful sleep, even though we woke up in bear country, we rode on to Fairbanks. On our way to Fairbanks we passed through thick white smoke from local forest fires. Mike saw the largest cow moose that he has ever saw, comparable to a Clydesdale horse. No kidding. This animal was massive!!! From Fairbanks we rode to the North Pole to see Santa. It was quite exciting, we saw his reindeer and his workshop. Made us feel like kids again. From there we headed south where mother nature once again tested Mike and Randys driving abilities. 100 km/hour winds and dust storms. It was almost scarier than the loose gravel. We had to slow down and take our time. We had to watch for moose as they were everywhere, even in the median. We passed by the famous National Guard Airbase, where stealth bombers sat prepped and ready for missions. Quite the sight to see. We also watched huge helicopters out fighting the large forest fires. The weather finally co-operated as it was up to 28 degrees today with clear skies.No rain at all today!!! Tonight we are back in Tok, Alaska and will be on our way towards Skagway tomorrow. Oh by the way, NO BUGS!! (yet)

Denali Park - Day 10

Day 10- What a night! Our little cheap, clean motel turned out to be a nightmare. Real biker, bar fights and girls all night long. A fight broke out in front of Lynn and Randys room, the guy was bleeeding, and yellling. The sheriff showed up and got the situation under control. Randy moved his bike to in front of our room, where in the middle of the night a guy pounded on our door so hard we thought he was coming in.( not once, twice, but three times) Mike yelled back and the guy finally left and went banging on the door beside ours. HONEST MISTAKE so he says as he came back to apologize. Now I am wide awake and a little freaked out. In the morning, no rain and we decided to head to Denali Park.We figured it better to sleep with the bears who are more predictable than the drunks from the previous night. We camped at the Park where there was a cranky grizzly bear who charged a park wardens car the night before. We felt safer.lol.We set up camp and then boarded a tour bus into the Park for 53 miles which took 6 hours. What a park, unbelievable. We saw beautiful picturesque landscapes, caribou, moose, dahl sheep, baby Falcons, rabbits and 5 grizzlys. One was right beside our bus. Too cool, except he was only about a mile from camp!! An absolutely amazing experience. The road wound around the mountain side taking us back to Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet. This mountain peak is only visible 20% of the time due to weather. After 2 days of rain we got lucky to see a clear snow covered mountain. Check out our pics. Our bus arrived back at camp at about midnight, but dont forget it is still light as it is only dark for about 2 hours a night. Actually it never really gets dark, just dusk. Made it easier to sleep with the bears. Mikes bear spray in our tent helped too!!!

Day 9

Day 9- Well guess what? It is windy and cold, and heading out of Homer, it started to rain and rain and by the time we reached Anchorage it was pouring. Thank goodness again for good rain gear and heated vests and gloves. We decided to stay in a hotel again called the Arctic Inn. Cheap, but clean. Lynn and Randy decided to rest so we went for a drive to check out the city. Found a market with neat local crafts, paintings, and jewelry. Only bad thing about the bike is we have no room for shopping. Randy went to the local BMW shop and bought a hat and t-shirt. For supper we ate in a Seafood restaurant and had the fresh catch of the day...Pretty quiet day but lots to see along the way.

Day 8 - Over 4400 kms

Well it is already day 8 and we have rode 4400 kms. Cant believe our holiday is half over, but we still have lots to see. Each day there are new and exciting adventures. We left our little cabin in the woods at Hope and travelled to Homer, Alaska. The weather was a little better today, cloudy and cool, but not raining. We rode down to Clam Gulch and watched as local people went clam digging. Then as we carried on down the highway we passed more people fishing for Pink and Red Salmon. Talked to a guy who says they can catch 45 fish per household and he figured he would have his limit that day. They pole net them from the river. Just before we entered the town of Homer, we stopped to rest and met 2 guys who have been on the road for 6 months from the southern states. They bought us a beer and we had lots more stories and laughs. We decided to camp again as the weather let up a bit and chose a campsite directly on the beach and had a fire in the rocks. We listened to the waves all night and were worried as the tide line of seaweed was only about a foot from our tents. We also had to visit a local bar called the Salty Dog which was in an old lighthouse at the end of the spit. Then we looked around and saw our friends from the ferry come in so had drinks with them and went out to a seafood supper with them, Tim and Kathy from Arkansas.They came back to our fire with us for a visit. To top off our day we watched a bald eagle and another larger brown bird similar to an extra large hawk soar over the ocean and collected shells on the beach.

Day 7

Day 7- Well it is still raining this morning, but we dressed up in our gear and headed to the ferry at 7:00.On board the ferry to Whittier we saw sea lions, and otters. The fog started to lift in time for us to see ice bergs drifting across the water beside the ship. What a site. Again we saw many waterfalls and lush green mountains. The ocean was beautiful. When we arrived in Whittier we rode to Hope Alaska,but the only way to leave Whittier is either on the ferry or through a 3 mile train tunnel. Each hour the tunnel opens so traffic can travel in one direction or the other. It was a little hairy as Mike and Randy had to manuever along the track in the 4' space between the rails. I took video and pics as we rode through the tunnel. We met some interesting people from Arkansas and another couple from Oklahoma. It was an excellent 4 1/2 hour ferry ride with lots of stories and laughs.We got to Hope, Alaska around 4:30 and got a cute little cabin, Bowman's Bear Creek Lodge, as the temperature is 9 degrees today. The rain has stopped, but it is cold. Hope is right on the ocean. We went down to a little river running into the ocean and watched as people pulled 2-3' pink salmon out. Every minute another fish was caught. Unbelievable day!!!

Day 6 --Tok to Valdez

Day 6- We woke up in Tok,Alaska at the Bears Paw Campground. The weather was beautiful. We travelled south on the Richardson highway on our way to Valdez. On our way through the spectacular mountain views, we stopped to watch a moose cross a lake and wander into the trees. The clear lake showed mirror images of the mountains and trees. As we made our way down the highway, through more construction and gravel roads, it became cloudy and poured rain. We drove past semi-active volcano mountains in the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and entered a lush almost tropical type valley with thick green forest. As we travelled, we past through Thompson Pass and Worthington Glacier. We then drove down into Keystone Canyon with sheer canyon walls containing countless waterfalls including the famous Bridal Veil waterfalls and Horsetail Falls.This took us to the beautiful city of Valdez. It poured rain and the temperature dropped to a mere 8 degrees. Thank goodness for heated vests and good rain gear. Mike found a foot deep puddle to accidently drive through that soaked us, but washed the mud from the wet gravel roads off our bike. We walked around the docks and laughed at the sign that read " dont drag your fish on the dock". Mike and I thought of Matthew and his first catch in Alberta being only 6 " long!!! We went to a pub on the harbour for beers and then decided to go for a nice crab supper, somehow ending up in a fast food restaurant where we had fish and chips and crab cakes. We had to be up by 5:30 to catch the ferry to Whittier so decided to stay in a hotel called the Mountain Sky Inn. Also the rain made up our mind for us.

Day Five

Day 5 We got up and had a great Breakfast at Klondike Kates kitchen and looked around the town again. We went to Robert Services , Pierre Burton, and Jack Londons cabins. It is great to see all the history. A short ferry ride across the Yukon River started our trip to Chicken Alaska. We rode 100 miles of gravel over the Top of the world Highway with spectacular views from the mountain tops in all directions. The 100 miles of gravel was well worth it to see the amazing scenery. At the US border into Alaska, we watched a herd of caribou cross about 30 metres in front of us. Wow what a sight!!! As we started our descent from the mountain peaks it started to rain and rain and rain, turning our crazy gravel road into a very slippery crazy gravel road. Mike and Randy kept us shiny side up. All is well. Lynn and I needed drinks when we hit Chicken. Well, we made it to Chicken ,Alaska. What a place. Best hamburger Ive ever had and the saloon was a unique experience. Underwear from tourists hangs from the ceiling and walls. The whole bar holds about 12 people.Our first real American beer was Alaskan Ale. Randy started chatting with a local goldminer, named Toad. He lives about 7 miles from Chicken and comes to town 2 times a week for the mail plane. He lives in an old cabin year round. The roads are closed and so is the town of Chicken so he has to store enough supplies to get him through a long Alaskan winter.Randy asked him what supplies he gets from town before winter and he says all he needed was his blowup love doll, Rita! He told us his cabins lower logs are rotting and his cabin is now shrinking and the door is only about 4 feet tall and he bangs his head all the time. He says he doesnt remember when her could stand up and do stuff. He was a geat guy. The bartender is a young kid from Louisiana that comes to Chicken in the summer to work. He loves the north and the quietness. From Chicken the roads were paved again and made travelling lots less stessful. We are now in Tok, Alaska in a campground. There is fire ban on so we are enjoying our beers around the picnic table reading more history of the areas. Oh and whoever says there are bugs in the North should visit again as we have seen nothing so far!!! Tomorrow is on to Valdez and Prince William Sound.....

Day Four - A little behind!

Monday morning we left Whitehorse and travelled to Dawson City.The weather again started out very warm with a few showers in the afternoon. The roads are not great and not motorcylce friendly.Lots of construction with loose gravel. They are so poor that at local gas stations, you can buy wreaths!!! The only wildlife we saw today was a brown bear. Roads continued to worsen as we headed north and stress levels increased accordingly, but it was all worth it as we rounded the corner and entered into the dreged valley of Dawson City.Piles of gravel ,the tailings, line the river along the highway into Dawson. We slowly made our way to the DownTown hotel, where we spent the night. After check in, we wandered the streets seeing all the old buildings and their history. After one drink at the Saloon, we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties for supper, the shows and some gambling. Before closing we had to go back to the Sourdough Saloon for a sourtoe shooter. Mike, Joanne, and Randy all participated in the drink and have authentic certificates to prove our stupidity. Years ago an old miner lost his toe to frostbite and somehow ended up in a drink at the saloon and now has become a popular drink for the tourists. The toe that touched our lips was black, shivelled, losing skin, and complete with untrimmed toenails.Lynn whom never had the drink was the only one who almost got sick. Then we went back to Diamond Tooth Gerties where Mike and I both lost. Not much, but we had a great time doing it. Joanne again had to help Mike back to our room. Our room had a hot tub right outside our door, and was in an excellent location.

CHICKEN ALASKA

We have made it to Chicken, Alaska!! Wow! The road (top of the world highway) over to this little town in the middle of no where was a little scary! Gravel pretty much all the way here from Dawson. Then to make matters worse it started to rain making it really slippery! Joanne was hanging on for dear life! But we made it! Now were on to Tok where were going to set up camp! Bye for now from Chicken!

Forgot the picture!

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Dawson City, Yukon

Wow what a place! I don't know what else to say! Internet service is a little hard to find up here. Im doing this update on my Blackberry somehow I have service. We had a shot last night with a real frozen toe in it and it had to touch your lips!! It was a little different! Ok a lot different! It was pretty gross now that were sober! Today were going through Chicken Alaska! Its suppose to be something to see. I'll try and do a proper update tonight!! Bye from Dawson City, Yukon!
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Were just in Dawson city

Well were on the road just about in Dawson City. I'll update the map tonight! Battery on laptop died last night during the update! Excellent ride so far! 2464 km and counting! Bye from the Yukon for now!
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Day 3

Well last night went stayed at the Liard Hot Springs and WOW!! Talk about beautiful! This place was in the middle of nowhere and well worth the long drive to see. You walk up this 300 metre boardwalk to this amazingly hot springs in the middle of the bush. One end was cool and as you walk to the other end it got so hot that you couldn't even stand it. But very relaxing and very welcome for my sore butt and neck. We left there about 9am this morning and continued on north to Coal River for breakfast. On the way we seen a grizzly sow and 2 cubs. We watched them for quite some time as the little cubs were showing off for us. They looked like a bunch of cute cuddly little teddy bears. Rolling around, sitting on their butts and falling over on their backs! It was pretty amazing!! Then we had to watch for bigger, much bigger animals!! BUFFALO!! Holy crap these beasts are huge!! But pretty cool to see these animals in the wild! We then carried on to Watson Lake where Randy needed to stop for a coffee. There we looked at all the signs at sign post forest. The sign forest was started by a lonely soldier that was home sick during World War 2,he put up a sign with the mileage to his home town. Since then everyone stops and puts up their own signs. There were thousands of signs from all around the world. Really something to see!! The weather was really nice until we left town and then the skies opened up and rained and rained hard. We were sure glad that it didn't last long! Then the sun came out and was sunny but cool. At the next stop Lynn bought some beer for the road ahead. We didn't want to run out again!! Lynn ended up dropping one so we had to shotgun it in the middle of the parking lot. We rolled into Whitehorse about 6:30pm and stopped at the Robert Service Campground. We have setip our tents and headed off into the town to check it out!

Day Two

We left Fort St.John early this morning with beautiful blue skies. About an hour and a half out of Fort St. John we saw our first black bear. 5 min later we saw our second black bear which was much larger. Pics in the album. About half hour after Randy came face to face with a cow elk wanting to cross the road. The weather was hot and sunny all the way to Pink Mountain where the weather turned cloudy with down pours. We battled our way to Fort Nelson where we had lunch with the locals and they informed us of the construction ahead as we watched the thunder head clouds roll over the mountains to the west. The weather progressively worsened as we headed west. Not stopping our wildlife viewing as we saw several caribou, deer, a cow moose with twins.We stopped to take a pic of the cow moose,but was on high alert when she lowered her ears as her twins came out of the trees.Next a buffalo was standing on the side of the road. Then, we stopped at Toad River for a beer and on to Tetsa River where Randy had to fuel up for a cheap $1.54/litre. From here it really rained all the way to Muncho Lake. We stopped and had a $10.00 ham sandwich. No beer now for miles. Mike finally has something new to complain about besides his sore butt, and sore neck. No beer is worse than anything. Thank goodness for Atco employee Bob for coming to our rescue in Liard hotsprings. Small world... Liard hotsprings is amazing, tropical, and extremely hot!!! Our camp site is under the day use picnic shelter so we are out of the rain and dry.

Day One...Fort St. John

Well it started off with beautiful hot weather,but by the time we hit Breton. We were rained on, just a mild shower and we carried on and it got hotter and hotter and more humid as we headed north. In Mayerthorpe we meet a couple heading to Alaska from New York City, now thats along drive!! It was beautiful until we got to B.C. when we reached Dawson Creek, then we had some rain, hail,rain, but our waterproof clothes held up. However we were not so sure about a night of rain and lightening in our tent, so chickened out and are now staying in a fancy hotel in Fort St.John.Great choice as it is raining buckets outside and we are in our room watching a big screen TV and playing on our new laptop. Hope the morning brings sunshine, so we can continue our trek to Liard hotsprings where we have a camp site booked.


Me and the two sisters at Mile "0" of the Alaska Highway


The view from our hotel room - Day 1 - Fort St. John, B.C.

Were on our way!

Well we left Rimbey at about 930 and doing pretty good so far. Were at Fox Creek right eating lunch! Still hard to believe that were doing this trip! Hopefully Ken and Debi-lyn's motorcycle angels will keep us safe! Thanks again guys!
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Done work...

Well we're done work!! Now it's just a little packing and were off to the great state of Alaska! And the map has been updated with our starting point. Yahoo...should be awesome!!

The Map of our travels!

Above you will see a map of our travel plans. Days before we leave I will erase our route and try to update it as we move forward in our achievements. My new handy-dandy little laptop should work perfectly for this! It's only a week away now and the excitement is really starting to set in! Two weeks...no kids...Alaska...sounds awesome!!

Early Birthday Present...

Well we went looking for a little 10 inch computer that we could take along on our trip to keep track of our little outings and to keep our blog up to date...and well...remember we were just looking!! We came home with a little and I mean little Toshiba notebook that we can keep in our tank bag. It is the perfect size for a motorcycle. Now as long as we can find WIFI in Alaska...we should be set to keep everyone posted on our little adventure. I know that some of you people couldn`t care less about our holiday but I look at it as a diary for years to come! So when Joanne and I get home we know exactly what we did on what day. And years from now it will be a excellent way to relive our Alaskan holiday. It has worked very well for our last few holidays!!

Beginning of July...

Well the big day is coming on very fast now! It's just over a week until our big departure to the great state of Alaska! We received our sheep skins today for our seats on the motorcycle, hoping that it is going to help us with our 8500 kms round trip. Were putting a lot of faith into a little bit of fur. But everyone swears by them on long trips, so I will report back after our first two days. Lynn wants to do something like 800 kms per day for the first two days! Getting us close to Whitehorse, Yukon. Joanne and I are pretty excited but on the other hand were not sure how were going to cope with this kind of rigorous pace!! But in the back of my mind, I feel that the adrenaline will help to push us along! And with scenery like this...

how can't you keep going to see what will take your breath away next!!

Well just over 40 days now!!

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I would do an update. The weather this spring, as everyone knows, has been anything but perfect!! I hope that it smartens up soon so that summer doesn't seem so short. It's only 41 days until we leave for our Alaskan Experience! We are all so pumped for this holiday! There's still a few things that I have to do to the motorcycle, like a new tire, an oil change and a front fork seal replacement! Not much!
We pretty much have all our camping gear that we need. Maybe a few small things. Joanne and I tried it all out on the May long weekend in Banff and than Radium. Everything was perfect!

Leaving Home

Banff Camp

Radium Camp

The weather...well....

Well last week I started riding my bike to work and then this week...well... What happened?? I thought spring was on its way! We could have done without the 2 inches of snow but I did fertilized the lawn just before, so...

Were about to leave for our Cuba vacation. Were pretty much ready to go except for a few last minute things! Everyone knows how woman are with clothes and shopping before a holiday!! Yea thats what were going through right now! Just 4 more days and then adiós amigo's!!

The streets are clear!

Well I just couldn't wait no longer! The streets have finally cleared enough for the first motorcycle ride of 2009! It was a cool one, but I ride at that!! At 5pm today I finally got up enough courage to go for a bike ride to Pine Like general store and back. It felt really good to be back in the seat. My fingers and ears got a little on the nippy side but I had to do it!! Come on spring!!

Someone is a little excited...

Well its like this...we had to setup our tent and lay out our sleeping bags the other night in the basement! Just for a trial run and wow, look at the excitement in someone!!
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Wow! Camping $upplies...

Well yesterday we went to Edmonton shopping for motorcycle camping equipment and wow quality sure is expensive! We picked up a waterproof tent, excellent sleeping bags, warm foamies and a couple of biker bags for all our supplies! Lots and lots of money but you get what you pay for!
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Something a little different this year!

Well this year were going to try something a little different for a summer vacation. Were going to Alaska on our motorcycle with Lynn and Randy! It sounds like its going to be quite an adventure!

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