(We‘re a little late getting this day’s information posted due to Internet connectivity problems. Hopefully, Canada’s socialized medicine works better than its socialized Internet. Oh well, no worries… "No worries" --that’s apparently the Canadian expression for “forget about it!”)
Bikes, Bears, and Buffaloes
The day started out with breakfast at the “Please Don’t Ever Stop In Again Inn” on top of Pink Mountain. Our motel manager, cook, waiter, and answer man was very hospitable again this morning and breakfast was worth eating. We left about a quarter till eight o’clock, with sprinkles and 36 degrees. Over the next few hours on our way to Fort Nelson, British Columbia, it sprinkled, rained, or rained hard for most of the journey. One highlight, though, as it was on this section of highway we saw our first bear of the trip. By the time we had gotten to Fort Nelson, it had warmed up some and had quit raining. The break in the rain wouldn’t last long.
After gassing up in Fort Nelson and taking a pretty long break, we continued on northwest along the Alaska Highway. We saw quite a few deer and caribou along this stretch before getting to Toad River Lodge. In the restaurant, we saw Rick and Margo, the couple traveling in the truck with camper we had spoken briefly with right after the nastiest part of yesterday’s storm and before we ended up at Pink Mountain. Rick told Ed about videoing him during the storm while he was following Ed/us. Ed told Rick that he ought to tell Margo how pretty she was every day (as a way of making some deposits), because someday, he might need to make a withdrawal. One interesting thing about the restaurant was the ceiling – it was covered with caps, apparently 7,687 of them. After having burgers for our late lunch, we were on our way again. It sprinkled on us a few more times, but the weather eventually got much better.
It was at Toad River Lodge that Ed and Carey really started noticing just how dirty their bikes were. Harley owners are a little funny about wanting to have and ride a clean motorcycle and what had happened to their bikes over the past 24 hours was just about criminal. Conversely, Tom keeps talking about wanting to ride his bike from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, so he obviously could care less what his bike looks like if he would subject it to that stretch of infamously bad road.
The Alaska Highway at one point was right alongside Muncho Lake, and the lake and surrounding area were beautiful. We made one curve and scampering out of the road and into the hills were some horned, goat-like creatures. One stayed around long enough to get in a picture. After leaving the Muncho Lake area, it really started getting exciting for all of us. Before getting to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory – where we’re staying the night – we saw at least ten black bears and two herds of buffaloes.
We made it to Watson Lake around 9:00 p.m., and got rooms at the Belvedere Motor Hotel. It’s not a bad hotel – probably eight to ten stars better that the place we were in last night. While checking in, we saw some familiar faces – the couple from Kansas we had seen at the Mile “0” sign in Dawson’s Creek, four biker folks (a man, his two sons, and one son’s girlfriend/wife) from Ohio whom we had seen and visited with at the Toad River Lodge and while gassing up about 110 miles later in an area called Coal River, and a trucker and his daughter whom Ed had taken their picture at the [nice] Yukon Territory sign. We got to the hotel’s restaurant about 9:45 a.m., and who was there but our [now] good friends Rick and Margo. Though Rick and Margo were traveling and overnighting in their truck/camper, they had stopped for dinner at the hotel restaurant. And talk about small worlds, Rick had on a tee shirt from FLETC, a place Mark and Carey have “gotten” to spend a considerable amount of time during their respective law enforcement careers. Rick’s son is in the U.S. Coast Guard, and had been trained/stationed on the southwest Georgia base. We visited and Rick and Ed again discussed the storm-rider video Rick had made of Ed. E-mail addresses were provided and we hope to soon have that video to view/share.
Mark got the trip’s origin story (short version) finished. Please check the Home page for it. It might answer a question or two for you. Shorter story – four old men wanted to take the trip of a lifetime and got busy doing it.
We did right around 500 miles today, bringing our nine-day total to well over 3,800. We started the day in the hole, but after lunch when the sun and the wildlife started joining us out on the highway, it turned out to be another great, memorable day. Tomorrow, we plan to travel close to, but not get to, Alaska. We’ll make that milestone on Wednesday morning, absent an unforeseen event. Stick with us, we’re going places.