Dead Birds, Gravel and Rain. {Wesley}

I was cruising up the last miles through the smokey haze of forest fires in Yukon to Dawson City when a beautiful black and white bird flew out in front of me. There was no time to react and I caught it on my crash bars and watched it flop dead onto the road in my rear view mirror. It left blood and feathers on the crash bar. I felt bad.

The next days ride was The Top of The World highway and the farthest North border crossing in the US at Poker Creek. A dusty, smokey gravel road for 150 miles.

Todays run was from Fairbanks to Anchorage. 350 miles through Denali Park. Beautiful views of the mountain. The last 100 in the rain.

The problem we have now is that we made too good of time to Anchorage and the Kenai is socked in with rain for the next week as is Valdez and Seward. We are only 800 miles from where we catch the Ferry in Haines...what to do for the next 6 days!

Top of the World

I'll have another update shortly after I sort through some photos and get a cocktail in my hand. But for now here is a little clip during a break on the Top of the World Hightway from a few days ago. This should have been a beautiful, scenic ride for a couple of hundred miles from Dawson City to the Alaska border, but smoke from forest fires hid the view. More to come!

Sorry we haven't been able to update much...Internet access has been spotty. Will try again later today. Heading to Talkeetna today. Still smokey.

Sleeping In (Doug)

OK...a slow start this morning as we hotel'd it in Whitehorse since the campground was full. Here's a pic of our side trip to Hyder. Taking an easy day today and just heading to Dawson City. Our thoughts of changing the route gave way to sleeping in. There were quite a few other bikers here last night so it was a lively conversation in the parking lot over some cocktails. Cheers for now!

Crash Bars and wasps {Wesley}

Sorry for our delay in updating this blog but we really are in the middle of nowhere. And there really are few chances to update but now we have a window so here goes. The day before yesterday was less than optimal. Cruising along around 75mph up the Cassiar...really enjoying myself. Out of the corner of my eye I see a small black dot that hits my helmet and conveniently funnels down my jacket. I knew this could be potentially a bad thing so I pulled over in front of a farmer's driveway to investigate. As I pulled in and turned the engine off I felt the first sting of a wasp on my stomach. I rushed to get my gear off and get the kick stand down as a BC farmer looked over at me with surprise. As I got my jacket unzipped I felt another sting in...well...my private area...I jumped off the bike and...The bike fell on its side as I ripped my pants off. Got rid of the wasp but found myself standing in front of a Canadian farmer with my pants down and my bike on its side. He was nice enough to help me lift it up...the bike, that is. Thanks BC farmer...and he didn't make too much fun of me...a little, though.

So we have really been doing the miles. 500 today. Its a lot but feels great to have the time to ride so much. And the more riders we meet we realize that we are light-weights. Some of these guys are really doing it and they have a lot of knowledge to share. This trip is making me want more trips. And its only the first week.

I think I need new gloves

Hyder, the Cassian Hwy, Speed (Doug)

Finally the scenery we've been waiting for. We left Smithers two days ago (thank you, Wesley, for the b-day dinner and drinks) and made our way to the Cassian Hwy (37) north to hook up with the Al-Can Hwy 1. Still hot as hell, but the scenery was worth it...snow-capped mountains in the distance, rolling road, no traffic jams. We did the side-trip to Hyder (37a), a 42-mile jaunt down a beautiful road, glaciers to the side, a baby black bear munching berries by the side of the road, and a rushing river that kept us cool in the spray while we waited at the one construction stop. We had also come here to be "Hyderized"...a shot at the local bar. Hyder is actually back in Alaska, but we couldn't spend our American dollars as everything was closed down due to a power outage. This is also the place where there is a viewing platform/deck to watch bear feast on salmon. The salmon were running, but the bear action is early or later in the day and we were there in the dead of the heat, so no bear pics for us this time. We cruised until Iskut and camped at a lake, took a refreshing dip, and then tried to dodge the swarms of mosquitoes. Today was a long haul from there up to the Al-Can Hwy (1) through Teslin. The Al-Can is a rolling, sometimes scenic road, thankfully devoid of policing so the speed limit seems to be up to your own discretion ;-) Rethinking our route from here. Today was close to 500 miles on the bike so it's crash time. Cheers, all, and thanks for keeping in touch!

Lessons learned...chain Maintenance and lube

Its been a fun few days...depending on your definition of fun. Today I questioned my definition of it. My chain adjustment didn't go as well as planned. Seems to be working fine but I am sure there will be another adjustment soon. And in my packing haste I forgot chain lube so tomorrow I will search for the alternatives before heading into the wilderness on the Cassiar Highway. Met a great guy named Jack last night at a campground on a lake(in the pic). He is 60 years old with 7 adopted kids from New York that decided to learn how to ride a bike and then a couple years later ride it for 3 months from New York to Prudhoe Bay and then down to San Diego and across the South and back to New York. He pretty much humbled us with our tricked out adventure bikes and all our gear. He was wearing hiking boots and riding a Suzuki Vstrom 650. Doing 450 plus a day....alone. The farther we get North the warning signs have gone from "look out for deer, to look out for Caribou, to look out for Moose, and now Bears". A couple more days till Alaska...