27 June - Not Quite The US Just Yet

27 June - Whitehorse to Beaver Creek

Why is it harder to leave someone's home than a motel?
By the time I left Bob and Louise's , did a bit of shopping, yakked with the locals (very friendly and free with advice - I'm coming back here), it was 11:00 by the time I hit the trail. Everywhere I stopped today, I had a really good yak with someone. I guess if you're here, you're committed to being more relaxed, sure helped me.

I took a couple of hours to get to Haynes Junction, at one point getting hailed on, then just deluged with rain. I stopped to put on the raincovers and I swear I got wetter than if I'd ridden it out. Lunching at Haynes J I got talking with an Ozzie family on their way back to Whitehorse at the end of their adventure in an RV, and a KLR-mounted California bloke on his return from up North. I was served pizza by a stunningly beautiful girl, so it was a most enjoyable lunch. To top it off, while this was going on, visibilty lifted from 2 metres to about 2km, revealing a stunning vista of big mountains.

The ride has started to get more interesting again, much more curvy and challenging, much to the despair of the RV drivers, but hey, I've done the time, it's my turn. And I'm in a very good mood as I approach Sheep Mountain

Sheep Mountain

...and Destruction Bay, despite the intermittent heavy rain (this is dry for the Yukon, I keep hearing).
For a couple of days now I've been hearing about major road construction around Destruction Bay, so called because the place was once flattened by a big storm. Miles and miles of gravel...

Now you have to understand, I've been riding for 30 years, all on the left of the road and all on pavement. My Brass Monkey buddies will testify that a handful of gravel is enough to send me into full butt pucker and slow me down to single figures (km/h, much to my shame), for a goodly span of time. Well, I have to tell you, I hit that gravel (10k stretches at a time) and I just had a hoot! The KLR has been a bit of a penance on the straight tarmac, but today is what it was all aboot.

After that we got into Destruction Bay itself, with all the RV guys coming south bemoaning the rough road they've just been down and we were about to face. Once again the KLR ruled and RVs drooled. The road is savagely frost heaved, with huge divots out of the road where the RVs have bottomed out. Nine inches of suspension travel floated me across everything. And curves! 20 more km of gravel just added icing on the cake. The bike has the classic explorers colour scheme by now, though.

Oh Yeah!

By 6pm I'm at Beaver Crossing with the border ahead and 200 miles to Tok (locals prnounce it Toke), I decide to call it a day and hole up in an expensive motel, which is good for you-all because I get the chance to update the last five days on this blog.
Tomorrow - the border.
Time on the road, 7 hours, 480k,63 mpg - I think it's time for an air filter clean.

26 June Yukon and Whitehorse.

26 June.

The day started very gloomy with low mist, which fortunately had burned right off by the time I hit the road. I had a chat with Norman, a Christian Biker on his way up to Whitehorse with his wife, her mum and a nice worked over RD400 he was planning to leave at Whitehorse while he did a bit of work up there. He was a bit disappointed I wasn't planning to spend any time in Whitehorse, and now I'm here I can understand why. It's really the focal point of the Yukon. Maybe I'll take some time on the way back. I had good, but uneventful riding to the Yukon border, where I met up with Philip and David, two Harley boys from Alabama on day 12 of their adventure. We took each others photos and yarned for a while then back to the road.

Four days on the road and I'm finally into another Province!

Lunch at Nugget City with a charming couple from Washington State, then through to Teslin. The longest bridge on the Alaska highway, mesh decked - probably the most challenging bit of the trip so far, the bike weaves all over the metal mesh road surface, absolutely terrifyng.

Nitsulin Bay Bridge at Teslin - longest span on the Alaska Highway.

Stopping immediately after the bridge to gas up (I'd been caning it and hit reserve far earlier than I expected), I came across the largest group of KLRs I've seen so far, 6 bikes not all travellig together. Most were heading south with stories of good road conditions on the Dalton and the Cassiar (which I'm travelling) and the Dempster (which I'm not, worse luck). Uneventful ride to Whitehorse to be offered a couch at Bob and Louise's, relatives of Rob the aero engineer. Everyone needs an aero engineer! Bob did a lot of work on the first Telecoms systems that were built in the Yukon and Northern Territories, so we had a lot to talk about, cos I'm a Comms Guy myself.


Time on the road, 9 hours with a bit of mucking around, 526km
62mpg (thrashed it between Nugget City and Teslin).

25 June - Pink Mountain to Coal River

25 June.

Saw my first bear this morning. A black bear and cub feeding by the roadside. No way was I going to stop.

I sort of expected today would be a transport stage. I'm starting to be over vast tracts of forest with miles of straight road, especially when wet.

It threatened to rain all morning, but nothing much happened weather wise, only the bear sighting to break the monotony. I got to Fort Nelson by midday and had lunch and then it began to get interesting...

Entering Stone Mountain Provincial Park.

...and the downhill run just after the previous photo, yee har!

I was flinging myself around the bend at the bottom of this pic with reckless abandon and there was a caribou right on the side of the road! Only problem with the big single is it makes more noise when you throttle off than when you are running, so we both gave each other a fright for a moment, but no real drama.

At Toad River I stopped for a breather and gas and met Richard, who related a tale of woe about blowing his beemers rear drive seal. He was making arrangements to ship his bike back to the nearest BMW dealer in - Edmonton! 1200 km away. His was not the only sad tale there, a couple of young girls were also there waiting for a new distributor to come up on that day's Greyhound bus from Fort Nelson. Hope it all worked out OK for everyone.

Later I had to stop for a road construction red light for 5 minutes, and that's when it chose to rain hardest all day! I'd been running into and out of weather cells all day, never more than 10 minutes of rain at a time, but so often! At least when you're running a bit of the rain misses you!

My plan was to make it to Liard River for the night, but it was still early and raining, so I sailed right on by, running out of steam at Coal River. Donna and Brent, the proprietors are really nice people. Brent let me park the bike in the garage workshop and dry out my gear, bought me a beer and we nattered for a while. Later on after tea (supper here) they told me a great deal about the local area including the giant whirlpools in the river - not reachable by road, unfortunately. I also met up with Bill and Dusty from Iowa on Goldwing 1800s, on their way back from Arctic Circle after 3 weeks on the road. The sneaky sods paid for my Buffalo Burger and then forced me to drink bourbon and coke. I must be more careful!

Time on the road, aboot 8.5 hours, 64mpg, 569km

June 24 Alaska Highway Reached!

24 June

Prince George to Pink Mountain
on the road at 9:00.

The roads are more winding now, although interspersed with great stretches of not very much but forest and nearly straight roads.
The forests here give the impression of being self-sown and are mixed, not like our plantation monocultures. There is a lot of damage from the pine beetle, with some stretches of at least 70 percent lost.

The brown is dead trees, hard to see but it goes right to the skyline.

Farther down the road, I came acros Bijoux Falls. Very pretty, but the insects are starting to come out now!

Bijoux Falls - thought to be named for the sparkling of the water (French)

Misinchinka ranges going over the Rockies.

I came into Chetwynd in time for lunch. Chetwynd has a huge collection of chainsaw sculptures scattered throughout the town. Some of the more spectacular ones are lined up along a walk on the main drag, here is one, there are too many to choose, but bandwidth and hosting limits being what they are, you only get one.

Chainsaw sculpture at Chetwynd

And later, a wee reminder of what the heck I've got myself into...

Gulp! 1500 km to Whitehorse - and that's still in Canada!

Dawson Creek at last. Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway!

Bits of the Highway have been overbuilt/bypassed. The curved wood bridge over the Kiskatinaw River is now on a potholed bypass.

Curved Wooden Bridge over the Kiskatinaw River

Finished up later than I expected at Pink Mountain due to extensive roadworks and a miscalculation of distance on my part. 7:45.
Followed rain, cold, tired, grabbed first motel I came across, a little dingy but warm and dry.

Time on road, 10.75h, 642k, 68.6mpg.

To Alaska- Interary North

Proposed itinerary going North;

Sat June 23 Kelowna to Prince George 681k
June 24 Prince George to Pink Mountain 582k
June 25 Pink Mt to Liard River 532k
June 26 Liard River to Whitehorse 648k
June 27 Whitehorse to Tok 622k
June 28 Tok to Fairbanks 324k
or
Tok to Manly Hot Springs 572
June 29 Manly to Coldfoot 403k
June 30 Coldfoot to Deadhorse (end of road) 385

For the return, thinking along the lines of Dawson City, down to Skagway, back along 97 to the Cassiar Highway and visit Steward, then back to Kelowna. I'll detail it when I get my head around it.

23 June Off to Alaska at Last

Kelowna to Prince George





I've given up on waiting for parts, I'm going to plan B, which is;

1. Get a pair of bicycle shorts and suffer the hard seat

2. Buy a jerrycan to overcome the tiny (14l) tank.



Fortunately Rob, the aero engineer next door loaned me a jerry can. Everyone needs an aero engineer next door!

The first day started well after waking up at 5:00(!) Breakfast, a few emails, load the bike and off at 9:15, close enough to the planned 9:00 start to not matter. The route I chose was north up to Vernon, then across to Kamloops to pick up Highway 1 then 97 North.
During the first hour I noticed a wee weave from time to time that made me think of tyre pressures, but I eventually decided it was either longitudinal disturbances in the road surface or a combination of load and speed.

While stopped for a few photos of Kamloops Lake (above), I spied one of those super long CPR trains winding along the edge of the lake. Next thing another goes up the other side of the lake, too long for me to get it all in the camera's field of view. I measured one by the side of the road later at 2.2km.
Highway 97 North follows Frazer's Chasm and the old Gold Rush Trail.

Gold Rush Trail - bit more pavement now than in those days.

It's pretty much a run through several Provincial Parks up through to Prince George. Lots of wee gathering spots with names like 100 Mile House, 150 Mile House, etc. Fair sprinkling of ramshackle houses and parked RVs about too.

Distance, 673k, time on road, 10 hours, 68.6 mpg, using a bit of oil.

18 June Calgary back to Kelowna - 2 days

After spending the weekend in Calgary with friends - doing a bit of touristy stuff and hiding from the rain, Monday dawned bright and sunny (typical) and I got on the road heading South through Calgary, down to Highway 22 South, which parallels the Canadian Rockies before going over the mountains at Crows Nest Pass and past/through the Frank Slide, where the Turtle Mountain collapsed in 1903, burying the mining town of Frank and doing untold damage. There are still bolders the size of small trucks in a great heap either side of the road.

Also stpped off in Sparwood for the obligatory photo of the Terex Titan - the worlds largest truck.

After Highway 22, Highway 3 West looks quite gnarly on the map, but from a riding point of view, it's quite gentle. The roads here seem to be built for trucks and the bends are all quite gentle (except for about 4 of them going into Osoyoos!) There are huge runs of very steep grades,10-12km of 8% slope, up and then down, truck run-off lanes every km or 2 (with wheel tracks!)

Highway 22 south of Calgary looking South - long way to go...

...and come a long way, looking back from the same spot I'll wear the tyres square at this rate!

Classic shot, the cloud was just boiling over the top of this one. Fortunately not going to get rained on just yet, but just wait.

Osoyoos - I got a few laughs the first time I tried to pronounce it. Lovely spot, though, looking NorthWest the next day. Temp about 28 degrees C, very welcome after being rained on in the Passes.

And there is a bend in the road!

The bike is running well, I've been getting up to 70 mpg (imperial), but that's because I'm keeping mainly to the speed limits. The chain oiler I built is not working too badly, it is more work than squirting a bit of lube on it, but that's because it's still a work in progress and it's good not to see dust sticking to the chain.

Distance - just over 1000km over 2 days

Kelowna BC to Calgary - 15 June 700-odd km

16 June 2007


It's taken a week but finally got the bike from Vancouver last Monday, assembled it and got on the road after a day or 2 off with a migraine (!), the trip is not going quite as planned just yet. I still have a few things to work out with the big tank, so while I'm waiting for that I nicked over to Calgary, Alberta from Kelwowna, BC where I'm currently based. Travelled most of Friday to stay with my mates Trevor and Rebecca whom I met while working in the UK.

On the road to Revelstoke, BC. Snow on the mountains and it's still 22C down here!

The last spike on the Candian Pacific Railway in BC. It really is a golden spike.

Big day, big mountains, big plains. At one stage the road in Alberta went almost perfectly straight from horizon to horizon. I also stumbled across the point at where the last spike was driven into the Canada-Pacific Railway for a bit of local interest, where several people stopped to ask me about my NZ number plate and one good old boy walked over from his RV (they are huge - the good old boys and the RVs), to offer me a doughnut out of a box he was working on (I think by himself!)

Rogers Pass, Candian Rockies, looking East to Alberta. Weather not promising.

Rogers Pass looking West, back to BC and the good weather. Must keep fingers away from lense.

The bike is going well, getting good mileage as long as I don't thrash it and not losing too many nuts and bolts along the way, and I haven't managed to go the wrong way down any roads yet. I love being able to turn right on a red light!

It Starts

Having crated up my KLR650 and waved goodbye to it in early May (well, in spirit, I was at work but No.1 son was at home supervising), I settled down to work out my contract for the rest of May.

Queen's Birthday is the time for the Brass Monkey Rally in Central Otago, so the first weekend in June, I'm off down South for another beautiful run through the spectacular MacKenzie country with some good mates. We got rained on at the rally site, which was a bummer, but I met up with people who have done the Alaska run and soaked up all the advice I could.

More importantly though, Peter Mac and Peter J attened their 20th Brassy in 21 years - good on them. I've only got 18 because of my insistence on spending time out of the country.

Ironically the week after the rally Central Otago was closed down with ice and snow! Been there, done that and got the primerpaint to prove it.

Bill and Pete J repairing the Beemers oil leak in the wilds of Waimate. The bike had just had a $1000 service the week before!

Frost and Primer!

The night of the rally istelf was wet, but then we had a hard frost overnight, freezing all the rain on the bikes. Never had to deal with frozen ignition locks and stuck starter switches before! Boy am I glad it's Summer in North America.

7 June

The day has finally come, I'm dropped off at the airport by my most supportive wife and middle son Rob, to begin a gruelling flight, far too long and far too far. Sydney(!), Hawaii , with a little unpleasantness from overzealous Security and finally to Vancouver.

Vancouver is a nice town, and I clear some of the Customs paperwork with no drama and off to Kelowna the next day, where I spend the next week clearing other guff and waiting for the bike to turn up.