Hello from the Yukon!
We are in Watson Lake, Yukon today. Let me see if I can catch you up....
The trip up here was long, of course, and we were all ready to get out of the truck and get on the bikes. Day one riding took us from Calgary through Banff and Jasper National Parks. As Bill put it, the American Rockies have nothing on this place. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such picturesque mountains in my life, and I’ve seem a lot of mountains! We stopped in Jasper N.P. at the Columbia Ice Fields (see photo above), and we even saw three grizzly bears by the side of the road. We camped in a small roadside campground about 20 miles or so outside of Jasper.
Day two took us to the start of the Alaska-Canada Highway (ALCAN). Along the way, we saw a moose cow and calf cross the road - these are some HUGE animals. We also saw a few more black bears. We had lunch in Grand Prairie at Tim Horton’s - a Canadian institution. It’s a chain all over Canada, and it is awesome! I think most of us had the chili combo, with chili, a bun, and a donut for dessert. Today the immensity of what we are doing really hit me. The distances up here are so huge and the time it will take is so long, that it’s a bit overwhelming. Along the ALCAN there are places where you can get a long view of 20 or 30 miles, and you see nothing but trees everywhere you look. There’s not a sign of humans anywhere except the road you are on. At the end of the day we camped in a little place called Pink Mountain.
Day three was the hardest for me. I think I hit the fatigue wall and I’m just worn out. We are now almost a full day ahead of schedule. We continued up the ALCAN to Watson Lake, entering the Rockies again further north. There are sections of road repairs where there’s some gravel and rough spots, but it wasn’t too bad. To the wildlife list we can add more black bears, bighorn sheep, wild buffalo standing in the middle of the road, and a young bull moose. We rode in mist and rain for a good part of the day, enjoyed some great twisty roads (fun even in the wet), and stopped for lunch in Toad River. That didn’t sit well with me, so I’m staying in a motel tonight in Watson Lake and the others are camping just down the road.
That’s all for now. Wish I had more photos to show, but I’ too tired to edit them, and I haven’t had a chance to do that at camp yet - so far it's all I can do to get myself fed and charge camera batteries. There is lot’s more to tell, but much of it will have to wait until we are home. I think what we'll do when we get back is start a new thread for the full ride reports. So this one we'll use for posting from the road. Thanks for following us along everyone! It means a lot that you guys are pulling for us.