Day 33

We are going to do a long push today on the bike and roll back home. It will be over 550 miles on the bike. However we don't want to spend the nigh in say like Redmond. Might just as well go the extra miles and be home.

Here is a final roll along this ride today. I always enjoy finishing with Bob Seger...

Stopped at Foster Lake for one last photo of this great adventure. 

Doing a trip of this nature changes a person. Nothing is planned in advance and you never know where or what the day will bring. 

With all the great times and all the challenging times you know the Motorcycle Angel is riding on your shoulder. Well she did a great job getting us home.

9,064 miles logged in on this one. Not to worry I know I will be on a bike tomorrow with Kiko.

So what's next? Well the Equator sounds interesting!!!

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings. 

 Day 32

Finally we are able to ride out in dry weather again. It is 57 degrees and sunny. 

We are racing for the US border today. A lot of back tracking from our way up so not much stopping and taking photos as we already did this a month ago.

We did stop in Peachland at Lake Okanagan and do a late lunch. This is such a beautiful and extremely large lake. Wouldn't mind do a trip just to here someday.

 Rolled across the border with no issues. Asked to border patrol for a place to camp. He sent us to the Veterans camp in Oroville on a lake. It is only 4 miles from the border.

We rolled in and grabbed a spot. 

It is 81 degrees so we decided to sleep under the stars and not in the tent.

We took over two camp spots. Our tent and all camp gear is very wet from camping at Prophet river two night ago. So we spread everything out to let it all dry out. It was perfect as we can put all away dry when we get home. 

Interesting how our first night on this trip we camped under the stars. Now our last night camping we camp under the stars.

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Day 31

Well we got our BUTTS kicked last night. About 1AM it started raining. It poured so hard you couldn't sleep. Now keep in mind we are in a tent. It finally stooped at about 6AM.

We got out of the tent and had to pack it all up sopping wet. Oh yea baby!!!

We pulled out of there at about 7AM. Wed hit the first spot that had coffee and breakfast. It was a wide spot called Pink Mountain. 

We were wet and cold as it is pouring and 43 degrees.

Once done we geared up and knew we were in for a day of getting our butts kicked. However you do not do adventures like this if you are not willing to face the challenges. So bring it on!!!

I read about the Kiskstinaw Bridge on the Old Alaska Highway. Well we found it. Wow I love it. Check out the wood  artistry in this. 

 We peg up and throttle back to get to Dawson Creek. This is the start of the Alaska/Canada highway.

You know what is amazing? Everyone thinks the marker on top is the original Mile Zero of the Al-Can highway. However it is not. That is the tourist version of it. This is the actual Mile Zero.

 Do your homework if you want the real thing!

As we push south we roll into Chetwynd, BC. This place is world famous for its wood carvings.  Unreal the talent in these artist. 

We rolled into Prince George for the night and decided to motel it instead of camp. It was a wet and cold day for a ride today but so what. It is what it is...

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 Day 30

We are on our way east and the south today. We have no idea how far or where we will end up. We will just go until we want to crash for the day.

We get out of Watson Lake about 50 miles and we come up on some Lo's. How cool is that?

Some have a tag in their ear as I think they are keeping track of them

This highway is absolutely beautiful. I could have kept the go pro going the entire time. Here is just a short clip. Watch for critters.

 I saw a sign for Smith River Falls and hit the brake. We ran a gravel road for about 8 miles and check out what we found.

This was amazing. We hiked the trail all the way to it and it was a blast.

I mean how could I not take a shot for Spencer out of his bottle at this spot. This is for you Spencer.

As we rolled on out and pushed south we hit another climb. Well look who showed up. The big horn sheep. Who does not love these beautiful creature's? 

A few caribou also showed up. 

We pulled in an old campground and dropped our tent for the night. Didn't even have to pay as it is no longer in service. Well that does not stop us.

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 Day 29

Last night we went back to the Red Onion at about 8PM with our buddies from Indiana They are great people and when we ride to Indiana, they want to put us up. They said we would be treated as Royality.

Love Othmar, Connie and Dennis and Rose. We already miss you all.

 

It was open mic and Boyd is a poet, so he recited one of his poems called “Fisherman Bill.” He did awesome and brought the house down.

 When we woke up it finally was blue skies and not raining. We have not had tis in the last four days.

We pointed the front wheel up the Skagway highway not knowing what we would see.

Can you say WOW. We were having to dodge all the tour buses and their tourist to keep them out of our pictures. We were polite and made it work.

 

Here is some GoPro video I was able to capture as well.

We change our course and head to Whitehorse, Yukon to a Suzuki dealer. I have been riding without rear brakes for two days. The calcium they put down on the roads on the Haul Road/Dalton highway is known to eat brake pads. Well, it did and it did not show up until about three days ago and when it went they went fast. Dealer had one set of my brakes. He said a lady had him order them. When she came in to get them, she was shocked at the price and didn’t take them. That was two days ago. Then I called. Again, the motorcycle angle was with me. The next closet place I maybe could get them is Prince George, BC 1100 miles away. No way would I have been able to go that far on only front brakes.

The dealer was great and let us use all their tools as we replaced them right there in the street.

 

 

 

Once we get it done, we push for about 260 miles to Watson Lake campground for the day. That was a long day.

We set camp and when we did we were starving. Well, our Jet Boil stove didn’t work. Boyd and I tore it apart and if we couldn’t fix it, it is not salvageable.

I went over to a couple camping next to us and asked if they had a way to boil water. He gave us his jet boil and we were able to have our Freeze-dried dinner. They were so cool and we were thankful.

 How can you not love this? 

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

 Day 28

We woke up at 5AM today in route to Haines. We will catch a ferry over to Skagway at 12:30PM and need to check in by 10:30AM. We don't want to miss it as we would have to wait another day.

As we head south for 145 miles we start out in rain. I don't know if I mentioned massive rain but that is what we start out in. It is a balmy 47 degrees and getting colder as we travel south and climb in elevation.

About 70 miles into it the rain lets up a lot and it's 44 degrees we can now see some of the beauty.

 I am able to grab the GoPro and finally get some of it. 

We travel from Yukon into British Colombia into Alaska. This entire 145 miles we never encountered a single vehicle. It was awesome having the entire highway to ourselves. This was also the best highway we have been on in this entire trip so far. No road construction and no frost heave damage.

As we get about 40 miles from Haines the rain stops and it is still 44 degrees. We will take it thank you.

The beauty of this highway is amazing. Even though we can't see all of it due to clouds and fog it is still amazing.

We get to Haines and the first place we stop is the giant Hammer. In 2018 My daughter and her family were her on a cruise ship. They hid something for me at the giant Hammer. I was coming into Haines on a ferry from Prince Rupert. Our ferry broke down and we were delayed getting into Haines and had to catch another ferry to Skagway. I didn't have time to find the Hammer and the hidden item. So I went to see if it was still there. We unfortunately it was not. Well it was fun anyway.

This was my granddaughter Jamie in 2018 after they hid the item. Then me today. I love it.

We were in a little coffee shop and Boyd recognizes some lady in there. He tells me that she looks familiar and he may know her. We go outside and sit and drink our java juice. I tell him to ask her if they know each other.

Well he does. Turns out Boyd is a fan of the TV show Gold Rush. This lady is on the show and is the mother of Parker Schnabel. 

Boyd was pretty stocked to meet her. How cool is that???

 We have some time to kill before we get on the ferry so we run around Haines a little bit.

We head to the ferry and meet up with a couple guys we camped with two days ago at Thompsons Motorcycle camp ground. We are all headed to Skagway. I love these trips as we meet so many riders and we keep running into each other days later at the same places. Too cool!

It was a nice ride over to Skag and very calm. Still cold but we loved it.

We obviously cannot camp again as it is cold and wet. We find a hotel and get checked in. Then let's walk the town. It is very similar to Dawson City just more people. There were four cruise ships at port when we got here so a lot of peeps.

We are getting hungry so I tell Boyd that we need to eat and have a beer at "The Red Onion." I love this place. It is an old brothel bordello. They where the period style clothing and run it like it is the old west gold rush days. So fun!!!

It's open mic night tonight at 7:30 so Boyd wants to get on the mic. So we may go back and see how it goes.

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings.