Day 9

We decided to stay an extra night in Dawson City, Yukon as this place is just too beautiful and fun to leave after one night. 

We walked all over this town and learned so much about its history and its people.

No matter where we go along this trip we meet tons of people. If you know Boyd and I no one is a stranger. Our swag shirts of our trip get tons of attention as people everywhere ask us "What is The Long Way North ?"

We point to the names and say "He is Boyd and I am David." Then turn around and show them the tour.

They are always amazed. A bunch of them are jumping on the blog as well.

We did some short rides to Dome Lookout and another lookout across the Yukon River. We had to ferry across and then Ferry back. We found Rich and Al's sticker at the Dome so we had to put ours by it.

Rocko turned out to be our new best friend. What a great dog.

It has been awhile since we have done a CrossFit workout so what better place to knock out a bunch of Burpees then right here? 

After the Dome we are riding down the mountain. Boyd spots a road and says "I wonder where that goes?"

It is big rock gravel and steep. I told him "It looks like it goes to a wildfire lookout." Well hell that lit Boyd up. He says "We have to find the beginning and go up there."

We went up to the small cabin the watchman lives in and introduced ourselves. His name is Marcus and his dog is Telsa. He should us around and took us to the big lookout. What a great find to run this road.

 

We head out from there and go catch the ferry to cross the Yukon. We then run up the hill on the other side to a lookout of Dawson City where the Klondike river meets the Yukon. 

We get there and we meet Sharon and Mike. What a great visit we have with them. She has just recovered from the battle of breast cancer. Well Boyd and I have a lot of passion for the women that have to take on that battle. 

All of a sudden our biker buddy Walter shows up. We met him at the hostel we are at as he and his buddy are here as well.

What and awesome hour we all had together.

Now lets take a walk all around Dawson City. It is such a picturesque and eclectic town. Old building that tell a life of their own. Come with us on this walk about.

 

As I was taking the picture of this school a couple told me the story behind the choice of colors for the remodel of the school.
Turns out, the children were the ones who chose the color palette. They said that with all the dark colors around town and the dark days during school, they wanted something that would be much brighter. Success.
And the complete remodel as well as the cost or repainting was covered by the proceeds from the tribal casino.

We topped of the night with a BBQ with our biker brothers Walter and Greg from Vancouver, BC.

Great stories and great times. We will probably see then tomorrow on the road.

How can you not love this?

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 

 

 

 Day 8

About 8:30AM it was pegs up and throttle back. Or goal for today is to ride up to Dawson City, Yukon. It's paved all the way but I remember from last time I did this paved could end at any moment.

It is dry today and already about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday morning. We pull out at this great lookout over the Yukon river. We will be following and crossing the Yukon many times as it is a very long river.

Interesting story about the "Sinking of the S.S. Columbian". I will let you click on the picture as it tells the story. Sorry for the shadow in the picture it is part of the mounting.

We decided to dump the fuel out of our fuel bags into the bikes so this was a great spot to do it.

Hit a roadside eatery for a late breakfast early lunch. The locals sure spoil you with their cooking. Have not been disappointed yet. I told Boyd "When I travel I do not eat at any establishments that we can get in the area we live. No chain food joints for me."

Boyd's reply "ADSOLULTLY!" 

We stop and take in Five Finger Rapid. Stunning view and beautiful river.

We then headed up and came upon Pelly's Crossing. Again Stunning. We found our bubbies Rich and Al's sticker so of course we had to put our on as well. We were tempted to place ours over theirs but we showed the love and did not.

As we roll along we come up on the Yukon River again. WOW what and awesome crossing. It is called Stewarts Crossing.

Incredible views and beautiful river.

We are at the the junction to make a left for Dawson City. We stop to put our sticker on the sticker sign and again find Rich and Al's sticker.

 

So far it has been paved all the way until!!!

We go about 20 miles and a massive road construction project his happening. No pictures as we are going to have a hell of a time on this. We pull up ahead of the long line of traffic stopped and waiting for the pilot rig to follow. We do this at all road blocks as we are not going to eat the gravel and dust from them.

It's about 20 miles of DAMN! I am in the lead and the road is soft dirt. All of a sudden the pilot guy takes us thru a very slimly deep muddy stretch. Oncoming pilot rig is bring his group thru the better "if you can call it that" stretch. Man I went down but kept rolling the throttle back and got the bike upright before it and I are laying in the mud. As soon as I am upright down to the other side I go. I keep the pressure and again prevent myself from eating the mud. 

I hear Boyd tell me NICE SAVE Dave. Then immediately I hear his swear words flying. I can't look in the mirrors to see if he is up as I am working hard to get thru this. Finally the dude upfront gets to the other side. Man we want to have our way with him.

We get to the end of this and are just exhausted.

We hit some open road and it allows us to sit back and just try to relax. Boyd is in the lead and I am pulling up the rear. Very nice peaceful cruise after that mess.

 

We pull into Dawson City and find the Bunk House hostel. I stayed here in 2018 and it was great.

Our buddies we helped get one of their bikes started two days ago ended up here as well. We had a great dinner and drinks with Senad who is originally from Bosnia and Siggi who is originally from Germany. The lies were flowing like crazy. Complete with motorcycle picture being shared like crazy,

They both now live in Alberta. 

All in all a great day.

How can you not love this.

Let's see what tomorrow brings

  

 

 Day 7

Last night when we checked in we were soaked clear thru to our skin.  Once we hit the room which was kind of like a Motel 6 back in 1980 I went on a mission to get things dry.

A little lady was working on cleaning rooms. I went up to her and asked if they have a commercial dryer. She didn't speak much English. She is a native of the Indian in this area and spoke their language.   

Well I got creative in my communications skills. She loved that I at least tried to be part of her world.

She ended taking all our wet cloths and our heavy riding gear and got all of dried for us.

I wanted to pay but she said, after I figured out that she was trying to tell me that she can not accept tips. Well there were other employees behind me so what do I do.?

I block their view and put money in her pocket. She looks at me and then throws her arms in the air for me to hug her. Well she gets a full Dave bear hug. How can you not love life?

 After our first night in a motel we felt much better after yesterdays ride. We had breakfast and went to fill our fuel bags as we knew we were in for a long run of gravel with about 230 miles of muddy gravel and dirt with absolutely no civilization in between.

We are about to peg up when a fellow biker brother comes over and asks in his  accent from Bosnia if I have jumper cables?

About 15 years ago I made a set of motorcycle jumper cables. They have to have a small clamp and be thinner wire and at least 8 feet long. He was thrilled when I said "I do."

After we helped him and his buddy get the bike started Boyd and I headed out.

We hit Sign post Forrest before we pulled out of Watson Lake.

We both had signs we brought from home jus for this. We pulled up and Boyd had this look of amazement on his face and says "WOW just WOW!"

We start walking and looking for a spot to mount ours and that proved to be a challenge.

We achieved our mission and were very happy now have part of our lives in 

"Sign Post Forrest."

 

We head out Hwy 4 and about the first 20 miles are paved with absolutely no cars. We never saw a car on this stretch.

 We hit dirt and at first it was not bad then it went to crap. Soft mud light rain and about 47 degrees. Hard packed gravel then loose gravel then a guy turning it with equipment mud and muck. We both almost spilled out in the muck but we dropped gears and rolled the throttles. By the grace of God we stayed upright and got thru it. Only to hit more gravel.

I had to stop about 100 miles into it as my hands were numb. Yes I brought heated gloves and a heated jacket liner. Did I start with them on NO?

Why not Dave "Because I a one tough SOB!" Well this guy had mother nature show him the She has a sense of humor.

I will let the video do the talking.

We hit some beautiful areas along this stretch and was a fantastic day and ride even with the challenges.

I have to say this "You go along in life and think every capture of your life is in your control and created by you. Then you meet someone you never knew. You both look at each other as if you have known each other your entire life. Then a capture you did not plan to insert into your life starts."

I have only known Boyd for not even 3 years and I will make sure that his world allows me to live in it. Thank you Boyd.

How can you not love this.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 Day 6,

After a flesh eating night and morning we headed into a massive storm.

Its starts out cooler and cloudy. We throttle back for about 70 miles and pull into a Native Tribal awesome restaurant at Kluachon, BC. The gals cooking and running it are sitting at a table. I walk in first and say "Hey ladies, where have you been all my life?" 

Well then Boyd walks in and we introduce ourselves to them. Well I have to tell you they treated us like kings. Others walk in and unfortunately they were not treated like kings. Typical tourists. 

Listen Boyd and I have traveled all around the globe. Treat people in different lands with respect and honor and they will love you. No one is a stranger to us.

They asked if we had a sticker or something to remember us by. Well yes we do, we brought our stickers...

A group of Harley riders pulled up and had to go. Well what do you do? Pull it out.

We kicked the pegs back and dropped into 1st gear. Rolled the throttle back and pointed the front wheel north not knowing where we would lay our head down.

Well mother nature showed up and showed us who was boss. Sky blew up into lighting, thunder and massive rain and hail. Combine all the gravel road construction we hit we got POUNDED! 

This is one of the many stops due to road construction. See that sky well it exploads on us very soon after this. Sorry no pictures as we were just trying to concentrate and survive it.

We have to run about 220 miles with no gas stops. We hit the Alaska Highway junction and there is an old run down gas station and store. Well this storm has blown up all there power lines from falling trees. We saw one tree fall over a power line and explodes and started burning in the rain. We just ran around it and blasted the throttle.

We hit JADE CITY and took refuge, they were awesome. Had us come in and made up fresh coffee for us. We meet a husband and wife from Switzerland. They rented a couple of adventure and were running this storm. We had a great time with them. They headed south and we headed north.

So the guy who helps run this business gives me the story of INUKSHUK.

Well if you know me deep you know how I respect cultures beliefs. This was awesome.

Yes I bought me one and had it sent home.

Well after about and hour we decided it is not going to change. So let's go get wetter and cold again. We had about 70 miles to hit the Alaska Highway junction in the Yukon Territory. We were watching our gas but at the junction Boyd ran out of gas. We had about 14 miles  to get to Watson Lake, Yukon. Luckily we had 3 one liter bottles of spare gas. Two on my bike and one on Boyd's. 

No worries EXCEPT!!! Boyd never filled his bottle. So we have 2 bottles. Well we dump them in and we limp into Watson slow so I can hopefully make it as the weather is kicking our ass.

No Gas here!

We put up a sticker and roll out.

Well it worked and we limped in found gas and our first motel room.

YES...

How can you not love this?

Lets see what tomorrow brings.