To Alaska and back…31 days of fun, sun, rain and memories.

Great pics, great report, great fun. Keep it coming, Scott.

August 4th Day 7 Saturday

Icefield Parkway to Chetwynd, BC Canada

515 Miles

After another great night’s sleep (steak and beer and lots of miles each day seem to be a great soporific) we quietly loaded our bikes and headed out for this day’s journey.

As a side note, today was one of many days that I was glad that neither Guido or I subscribe to the “loud pipes” theory of motorcycle riding. It was so incredibly quiet (the only noise was being made by the morning birds) by the cabins we stayed in that I would have felt incredibly guilty for having some “super duper look at me I ride a motorcycle” loud pipes on my bike that I probably would have pushed my bike to the front of the parking lot instead of starting it where it would wake up other folks.

OK, with my anti loud bikes rant out of the way, let’s get on with the trip.

As we pulled out of the parking lot I looked down at the temperature gauge on my bike (big mistake!!!) I was informed that it was 39 degrees!!! In August!!! That is quite cold on a motorcycle!!! It only took a few minutes for me to realize that I had not brought near enough clothes for these conditions.

Fortunately the sights along the road were amazing enough to take my mind off of the cold from time to time.

One amazing sight, that I wish I had been able to get a photo of happened within about a mile of starting. We were coming downhill into a right curve and moving from sunlight to shadow when I noticed a Great Blue Heron on the shoulder of the road, opposite of the side we were traveling on.

My first thought was “Oh...big bird. Big big bird. Please do not fly across the road into me..it would be bad for both of us”.

My second thought as the big bird launched into the air was “Wow, that is awesome” and then I just started smiling as the heron flew parallel to me allowing me to watch it’s huge wings beat gracefully against the morning air. After about thirty seconds of sheer wonderment (and me not watching the road at all) the heron veered to the left and flew across the river we were following. A truly amazing experience.

Twenty truly frigid minutes later, we came across the Icefield that the Icefield Parkway is named for and stopped to take some photos and warm up.






That done, we continued on 93 (The Icefield Parkway) to Jasper and then onto 16 (The Yellowhead Highway which is also known as the Trans Canadian Highway).

We stopped at Lake Yellowhead to admire the view and take some photos.







I kept our pace on 16 fairly moderate, as there huge bloodstains all over the road. It was obvious that some big animals (moose, bear, elk....) had been struck by motorists so I took that as a sign we should proceed somewhat cautiously.

We stopped in McBride for gas and while at the gas station I noticed this juxtaposition of the bright chairs and dreary dumpster. For some unknown reason this struck my funny bone and made me giggle for a minute.



A little further up the road (I believe this was in Bear Lake) we saw something we haven’t seen in a long long time:



We passed through Prince George and ended up in Chetwynd for the night.

Between Prince George and Chetwynd we also saw, on two separate occasions, black bear crossing the road. That was a neat experience. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to get photos of them.

Chetwynd is an interesting town. As were rolling down the main street I couldn’t help but notice there were many wooden sculptures lining the shoulders. I was interested in them but also real tired and looking forward to getting a hotel room.

Guido picked our hotel for the night, the aptly named “Stagecoach Inn” (my behind felt like I had been on a horse all day). Which was a nice little place with an attached restaurant.

After unloading the bikes I decided to ride around town before we ate. I was looking for a postcard from Chetwynd to send to my nephew. I never did find that postcard but I did spend a some time looking into these sculptures that were all over the town.

It turns out that Chetwynd has had a chainsaw sculpture competition every June since 2005 and places the winners and people’s favorites throughout the town. Chetwynd bills itself as the “Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World” and given what I saw there, I am not going to argue with them.





These next two were on the sides of the above sculpture:








The detail on these sculptures was amazing:











This one was my favorite:



Probably because of the title:



After my photographic adventure I returned to the hotel so Guido and I could go eat. As had become our tradition we ordered Corona to put a nice end to the day. However as we made our order, the waiter looked at us and said “What is Corona?”.

Apparently beers from south of two borders is not a big player in the lumberjack area of Canada so we had a local brew called “Kokanee”. While it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t Corona.

Dinner over, we returned to our rooms for the evening. I decided I needed some ice so I went in search of the ice machine. It’s location was not clearly marked so I asked some fellas who were grilling in the parking lot if they knew the location of the ice machine.

They pretty much knew right away I was from America and thus began a two hour conversation about socialized medicine, politics, gun control and motorcycles. I didn’t mind, they were giving me beer.

Guido came out of his room and was dragged into the conversation also. Later on, after our conversations were over and he was walking back to his room, he looked at me shaking his head and said “When did you become so friendly?”

I just laughed, staggered into my room and went to sleep. I never did get my ice.

Another good day.

Some great photos in there........thx for sharing. Keep 'em coming.......I'm in!

Gonna share those sculpture pics with my budding artist daughter! Thanks!

August 5th Sunday Day 8 “Gas Cans are Good”

Chetwynd to Lake Muncho 296 miles as the crow flies...but 482 miles to drive it!! Gotta love Canada!!

An early morning followed a late night but we were up, loading the bikes and ready to hit the road. It was going to be a long day in the saddle.

Can you tell my helmet has seen a few miles?



As we were packing the bikes I noticed this truck:



That must be a good job if it requires you to carry a four wheeler with you.

We were at a 7-11 gassing up and eating a quick breakfast when we were approached by this gentleman:



He was intrigued by the bikes so we talked for a bit, swapping stories. We told him the route we were taking and he told us to be sure not to miss the Hudson Hope overlook. Assuring him that we wouldn’t, we got on our way.

Picking up 29 from Chetwynd the first thing I noticed was an abundance of deer on the sides of the roads and in people’s yards. This immediately made me nervous as deer and motorcyclists are natural enemies. Those cloven hoofed buggers are constantly jumping in front of motorcyclists in suicide attacks to take us out.

As we passed through the the town of Hudson’s Hope we came across this sign:





Yes! We were on the right track!!

As we proceeded up the road I was keeping a constant look out in front of us for deer and consequently I did not check my rear mirror as much as I normally do while leading a ride. We had passed through a particularly heavy concentration of the deer when I checked my mirror and Guido was not there.

I pulled over to the side of the road (such as it was, the shoulder was about six inches wide) and waited. After a couple of minutes I began to get nervous so I turned around to look for Guido. I had scenes of deer carnage running through my mind as I tore back the way we had come.

As I took a curve I saw Guido waving me down (much to my relief). I had been concentrating on looking for deer and had missed the Hudson Hope Overlook. I am very glad Guido did not miss it as the view was from the overlook was amazing.









This is a video, click on it to watch:


After taking in the view we hit the road and once again we began to hit the occasional road construction site. These sites were where the road was being worked on and had been torn down to gravel. At the first one we hit we also encountered our first, and not last, jerk of a truck driver.

This particular spot was marked as a “heavy dust” area and there was heavy dust on the shoulders. If you drove on the center of the road there were really no dust issues. However, the 18 Wheeler that was in front us chose to deliberately drive on the shoulder causing us to be enveloped in large dust clouds. Apparently this moron thought that we would stay behind him for the length of the work zone. He was wrong. We passed him quickly and in the interest of foreign relations I did not let him know what I thought of him as I passed.

We bypassed Dawson Creek by taking 29 and picked up 97 to continue to Alaska.

While on this stretch of 97 Guido and I did our good deed of the trip.

As part of our trip prep we both had purchased one gallon gas cans to carry with us on the bikes.

We ran into a soldier, driving an older Ford pickup that had run out of gas. He was on his way to Alaska to his new duty station. He had several gas cans with him, but they were all empty.

We gave him the gas we had and sent him on his way.





The next big town (big being a relative term in this part of the Canada) was Fort Nelson so we stopped there for gas and food. As we were gassing up, our Army buddy coasted into the same gas station on empty again. Guido and I were quite glad we were able to help him get to where he could buy some gas.

Bellies and gas tanks full we left Fort Nelson. A few miles down the road I could see we were rapidly approaching what I thought was a military convoy. Because they were doing about half of the posted speed limit I decided to take my chances and pass them.

As we were passing this convoy I soon realized that this was not a real convoy, this was a gaggle of reenactors!!

This group was celebrating the 70th anniversary of a military convoy that drove the Alaskan Highway from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. They were planning to take thirty days to cover the 3500 miles.







After passing the many, many military vehicles in the convoy we stopped to take photos of this caribou that was standing on the side of the road.








Of course, this meant passing parts of the convoy again. But I will give them this, the drivers were very courteous and did their best to give us room to pass every time we ended up behind a group.

After quite a few miles we ended up at Muncho Lake, our destination for the night and once again we were frozen out of camp sites so we ended staying at the Northern Rockies Lodge.

97 into Muncho Lake was incredible. Nice tight “S” curves that follow the lake. Cliffs on one side of you and the lake only about five feet below the road on the other side. Unfortunately, as is true in many parts of the roads in Canada there was no shoulder to stop on for photos.

The Northern Rockies Lodge was a nice place to stay, right on the edge of the lake offering wonderful views of Muncho Lake from the balcony of the restaurant.





While eating we ran into yet another person from Texas riding to Anchorage. Bill lives in North Richland Hills and runs a business in Irving so we had quite a bit in common to talk about.

Dinner was good, the beer was cold and the views were awesome all day long.

A good day.

Video requires a password.

gixxerjasen said:

Video requires a password.

Click to expand...

Doh!

I think I fixed it. Please let me know if this doesn't work.

The Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA) has been doing that trip for several years now. A lot of those participants vehicles are at LEAST 65-70 years old now providing testament to their durability.


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Yup, that and the Canadian Holiday were two big events I did not know about when I was planning this trip

Works now, funny stuff.

Great shots and adventure. Thanks for posting!

I'll 2nd that!