June 28-08 Denali National Park

I am writing this post from an RV park about 10 miles from the entrance of Denali National Park. I got here last night and am staying tonight as well. The lady who runs the front desk is really nice and she made me a special deal for 2 nights, there is a little complex of cabins with about 10 units. Mine is on the corner near the dog walking area and she said it was kind of noisy and gave me a better rate. Actually, while I have heard the traffic, I have not really noticed it, and I have taken the opportunity to visit some of the local canines on their walks, I miss my little dog "Shorty" and it is nice to give a "patty pat" to the little dogs.

After catching up my blog yesterday, I have gotten plenty of sleep and feel much better today. The rain has been intermittent and there has been some sunshine, but the temp has been around 50 degrees all day. I got up this morning and drove down to the park entrance and drove in as far as they would let private vehicles, I turned around and went back and hopped on one of the tour buses that take you farther into the park. I will have to say that I have been impressed with all of the national parks which I have visited so far, from the stand point of how they handle the tourist traffic and give them the best "Bang" for the buck so to speak.

I know that people experience things in different ways depending on their physical condition, time limitations etc. I think most people who come to this park are left with a satisfied feeling and memories that will last for a long time.
For the average tourist, I would highly recommend any of our national parks.

For myself, I am in a different situation and due to nearly a month of travel on the fringe of the norm I look at things differently, that is not to say that my way of travel or opinion is better or worse than others. I would like to make a few observations, just from my point of view. I don't want these to be taken offensively by others, they simply are observations that may or may not be of interest to you.

First of all, I would venture to say that 98% of the tourists I have encountered in national parks, never make it off paved roads, or walk ways, that is a shame, because generally just a few miles, or even a few hundred yards off the beaten path will be rewarded with things that most others never see. I took the tourist bus today, just because it was the only way to get further into the interior of the park. During the ride in there were two couples setting in seats across the isle from me. They had apparently met this morning at breakfast and just happened to get on the same tour bus. For the next half hour, their conversation, which was loud enough to be overheard by 1/2 the bus, was nothing more than each couple trying to one up the other. One of them was an Engineer, the other one was an Architect, one Lady was a teacher, and the other a nurse. Every other sentence was a subtle innuendo designed to elevates one couples status above the other. All the time they were just exuding fake sweetness. I just almost wished they would have just stood up, and said to each other, "we are better than you!" It was sickening.

During the half hour I was on the bus, we saw one little sickly caribou, and a glint of a bears ass disappearing into the woods. Of course both of the couples setting across the isle, became experts in wild life and back country lore! I finally had enough, and asked the bus to stop, which they will do at anytime, I had brought my back pack with me and got off for a little hike. You can stop a bus to get off to hike and flag one down to get back on at any time, which is really nice. I took a little loop trail up and around a small mountain and had a great time, I saw plenty of wild life and had a nice little lunch and nap.

A couple of hours later a flagged a bus down going back towards the park entrance, Guess what? out of the many tour buses, it was the same one I had gotten off of earlier, and the same people were on it, and my same seat was open next to the two couples. I asked the lady I had been setting next to if any one else had gotten off or on the bus, she said, "no" I also asked if they had seen any other animals and she said "no." The couples across the isle where still trying to one up each other and 1/2 hour later we were back at the park entrance. Everyone seemed happy and content with their park experience and were on their way!

Personally I thought what I saw of the park was nice, my little hike was nice, unfortunately for me it was not a show stopper, I am having scenery overload issues. For me, I also get more of a thrill, when I am in a place that is remote and while it may sound selfish, someplace where I don't have to share it with others.

Tomorrow I plan to head south to Talkeetna, then head out on the "Petersville Road" a rarely used road that skirts the south side of Denali National park, but is not under park authority. I have an appointment for Monday to get a new rear tire, but not until 5:00pm. I hope the weather clears, as the view of Mt. McKinley is supposed to be good from the south side.

Tim

Back to Fairbanks and to Denali 06-25 & 26th 08

I got back to Fairbanks and spent a couple of days. Myself and my poor motorcycle are just beat to Hell. I spent $20.00 at the car wash and my bike is still dirty, just a badge of honor I guess. I found a Kawasaki dealer ship and bought 2 new turn signals to replace the broken ones and also installed a new chain, I tightened a few bolts, and that was pretty much it. My rear tire is shows plenty of wear, and I am picking up a new one in Anchorage on Monday. I have a K&M air filter, and I cleaned it, I could not believe how much dirt was in it. I also plan to change my oil while in Anchorage.

I had to get a new camera, as my old one was broken, My GPS is still not working correctly, and I am not going to drop another $800.00 to get a new one. My computer was not working right, but I took it apart this evening and did a little work and it came back to life, this computer does not have a hard drive, It just works off of flash memory, I have been running off of my external chip and it seems to be working OK!

Mentally, I feel great, my head is clear and all the stresses of work and life have seemed to vanish, I have trouble remembering what day it is and what time it is due to the never setting sun. From a physical point of view, I have dropped a few pounds along the way which is always nice, but the thousand mile 3 day trip to Prudhoe, has taken its toll. Nothing really imparticular, it reminds me of when I totaled my Camaro many years ago, I came out unscathed, but the jostling of my internal organs lingered for a while.

Bad weather has set in and I have found a nice little cabin outside of Denali National park, which I am going to hole up in for a few days. I plan to take a few side trips and rest up. As I mentioned previously, I have an appointment to get a new tire in Anchorage on Monday, then I plan to head south down the peninsula and do a little fishing. I am not sure how much time I will spend in Alaska, it is beautiful country, but I am getting a little jaded to the scenery, and July is the rainy month. I plan to see, all that I can see, but if I get bored, I will take off for the coastal highway and work my way down the Pacific Ocean.

Over the next day, I hope to add a few supplemental blogs in regards to some of my other thoughts and past experiences.

Tim

Brooks Mountain Range--personal thoughts

View from my resting spot on the Arctic plain, Brooks mountains back ground.
Creek through Brooks valley in Arctic Plain
The Arctic plain and brooks Mountains
View over Antiguin pass
Brooks Mountains on the forested side.


Of all the places I have been and seen, not only on this trip, but in my lifetime, nothing compares to my experience in the Brooks. Maybe it was because it was the gateway to one of my major goals, or just because the sacrifice to get here was so great.
I was not able to catch the grandeur on film and it is point less to attempt to describe it with words. I almost felt guilty to have experienced something so beautiful and grand. The feeling was like a first kiss, a first love, once you have experienced it, will anything else ever compare!

Tears welled in my eyes during the transverse.

I will leave you with the words I wrote in my journal while resting on the tundra on the north valley of the Brooks Mountain range.

"If after today I could no longer see, what I see now will suffice for the rest of my life."

"If after today I cannot hear, the silence of this place will hold me."

"If after today, I cannot smell, the scent of the tundra will ever be in my mind."

"If after today, I see no other day, I will be complete."

"After today, and being in this place, my life, forever will never be the same!"

Tim Trickel
06-24-08

June 23- 24-25day 21-22-23 up the Dalton Highway

Leaving Prudhoe bay
Arctic Ocean
Prudhoe bay from a distance
Into Prudhoe bay
Pipe line
Brooks Mountain range
Moose and calves
Coldfoot camp sign
Coldfoot camp
Arctic circle
A reminder of the road conditions, there were more of these than I could count.
Yukon Bridge supply
Road conditions
Outside of Fairbanks.
Last paved road out of Fairbanks.


I got going at 6:00am and made a quick stop at Walmart and picked up a small gas can and quart of oil. I then stopped at McDonalds and had breakfast. A group of motorcyclists showed up and it looked like they had been on the road for a week, it turns out they had gone up the Dalton Highway about 50 miles and turned back. They told me I was crazy to try the drive and one of them looked at my bike and expressed concern that I did not have any extra tires with me. They told me good luck and I was on my way. I pushed back the feelings of doubt, I had traveled over 4000 miles to get here and I was not going to quit without a fight.
The first miles out of Fairbanks were good paved roads, then the pavement ended and it was rough dirt roads, while they were rough, the reminded my of the bad country roads where if first learned how to ride a motorcycle.
It was interesting because the roads would get worse and worse, then all of the sudden there would be a stretch of new paved road that would go from a couple of miles to in some cases 20 miles or so at a time. The most dangerous part was when the paved road suddenly stopped with no warning and you were back on loose gravel. After a while, I was able to read the road and anticipate these transitions. The first stop was the Yukon river crossing, there was gas, food and lodging, I gassed up got a couple of "Red Bulls" and was on my way. Another 60 miles up and I got to the Arctic Circle. It was a beautiful day and when I got to the Arctic Circle I took off my riding jacket and put on my wind breaker, which I would wear for the rest of the day. I also put on sunscreen. The ride for the rest of the day was beautiful, and the road varied from good to bad. I arrived at Cold foot around 3:00pm, Cold foot is the farthest north truck stop in the world. It really is nothing more than a cluster of modular buildings that serve as a truck stop, restaurant, and lodging. The cost of lodging was $220 per night, and you got a 10x10 bunk room with a shared bathroom. I had a hamburger, $13.00 filled up with gas $5.50 per gallon, and filled up my extra gas can. from Cold foot it is 240 miles to Prudhoe bay. I stopped about 20 miles up the road at the Kyoukuk river and set up camp, the river was beautiful, there was another group of campers about 100 yards up the river. I started a nice fire and tried to get some sleep. The sun never sets above the arctic circle, so even at 12:00pm it is still daylight. Around 3:00am I woke up and walked away from camp to relieve myself, I heard some noise and about 20ft away was a "huge" Grizzly bear making its way to the river. It looked at me then looked away and headed to the river, it was so close I could literally smell it, after it had made its way to the river I headed back to my tent, needless to say, the rest of the night I did not sleep well. In other areas, when I say a bear, or when they say me they ran away, not this big boy, he just took his own sweet time.
As I could not get back to sleep, I packed up around 5:00 am and headed north. The roads the 2nd leg of the trip where worse than the first half, but I had fell into a groove and was able to anticipate the roads better, I was able to cruise along about 45-50 mph. The scenery got better and better as I went. Going into the Brooks mountain range, the landscape changed from forested mountains, and when I went over the Antigan pass is changed to Tundra, about 50 miles past the pass, the landscape changed to Arctic Tundra, it was breath taking. The last 40 miles into Prudhoe bay were the worst roads of the entire trip. I thought I have made it this far, I can make it a little more.
About 10 miles out of Prudhoe you could begin to see the operation, I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it was not what I found.

I got there around 1:00pm and when you enter the complex it is basically a 3-5 miles square heavy industrial complex. Trucks where whizzing everywhere and there really was not a town per se. Luckily I had a map and was able to find the gas pumps as I was running on fumes, even with my extra gas, It was nothing more than 2-pumps that came out the side of a building, you put in your credit card and filled up $5.95 per gallon, down the road about a mile as a big building that housed a Napa Parts store, a True Value hardware store and a general store, I stopped there and got some supplies and mailed a few post cards. I took the trip to the arctic ocean. I had made arrangements to stay at the motel there, $275.00 per night, once again it was nothing more than a bunk house.

There was nothing to do there, no mini-golf, go carts etc...Just a gigantic industrial complex which supplies 20% of our nations oil. It was not too many years ago that private citizens were not even allowed here, I think for political reasons accommodations have been made, it was quite evident that the workers there thought of tourists as nothing more than a nuisance, I can see their point. I stopped by he hotel and was able to cancel my reservation, the weather was nice and I figured I would just head back down the road. I did not have to worry about it getting dark and I knew that bad weather was a day behind me.

I turned around and headed back, where else could I go, I had traveled north as far as a person can by road in the United States. I had not seen a single motorcyclist the entire day, but the next 40 miles out of Prudhoe I say about 20 and 6 of them were broken down, I stopped and offered help to one guy who was by himself, he had a flat tire and was trying to patch his tube, he told me he had patched it 5 times prior and did not have a spare and wondered if I had a spare tube, I said yes, but I still had my return trip to consider. He offered me $300.00 for my tube, I thought about it for a moment then had to decline, I offered to unload my bike and give him a ride into Prudhoe, he seem kind of pissed off that I would not give him my tube, so I got off my bike and took off. The other broken down cyclists had people with them, so I did not stop. I rode and rode and rode and finally made it back to Wiseman, which is a nearly abandoned mining town outside of coldfoot truck stop. There was an established camp ground there, so I stopped and set up camp, no one else was there. Once again that evening I had a big Grizzly pay me a visit, he just kind of ambled through and was on his way. The wolves were out in number and they were howling on and off through out the night. I was too tired to worry and slept fairly well. It had been nearly 500 miles in one day of the most difficult road I have ever ridden, over 14 hours in the saddle. While I have been riding for nearly a month, my hands are blistered from keeping a tight grip on my handle bars.
I got up at 6:00 am and stopped again in Coldfoot, gassed up and had breakfast, then it was back south. As every mile clicked off, I was getting closer to civilization. Around 4:00pm I got back to Fairbanks, just in time for rush hour traffic, it was odd to be back. While it had only been 3 days, it seemed like a lifetime, I looked at the people rushing from place to place in their cars, and It seemed odd that they had been following their usual routine, and for the last few days, I had experienced things that few will every experience or see in their life times. Many of these people who live at the gateway to the north, have probably been no more than a few miles up the Dalton highway.
I found a reasonable hotel room, and moved in for the night. I took a shower and it took a good 3 minutes for the water to run clear off of my body. I unpacked my motorcycle and it seems like everything was broken or battered, I hit the sack and would mess with it in the morning.

Tim

June 22- day 20

From Tok Alaska to Fairbanks was a fairly uneventful ride, I did not take any pics, I got into Fairbanks around 4:00pm and was met with a big rain storm, there was also some construction going on and It was difficult to find my way around. I finally found a place to park out of the rain and made of few phone calls and booked a hotel room. It was a little over priced and they only had Internet in the lobby and bar. Even for the price, dirty towels had been left on the hook on the back of the bathroom door and the trash cans had not been emptied, but it was nice to be out of the rain. It looked over some maps and made plans for the next few days up the Dalton Highway. Early to bed tonight, the next few days will be interesting to say the least. I did to talk to a guy at the bar tonight about my plans and he thought I was crazy, and said to had been as far as Cold foot and would never do it again, so much for positive affirmation.

Tim

June 21 day 19

End of Alaska Highway 1422 miles.
Border crossing to US.
The views are even nice from the outhouses!
Beautiful lake view
View from motorcycle.
Back to the USA!!!


I got an early start from Haines Jct today as I was in a hurry to get back into the US, however the roads leading out of town were blocked due to the bicycle race, I was able to find a back road, and drive few a couple of ditches and eluded the race officials, what were they going to do chase be down on their Bikes!
The ride back to the US was a pleasant one, I hit the boarder around 11:00 am. The border crossing was easy, I just showed my drivers license and answered a few questions and was on my way. The first place I got to, I gassed up, it was only $4.75 per gallon and the cheese burger was only $9.00. It was amazing the difference between the two countries, just a few miles back in Canada, I would have stopped at a roadside fill up spot, and there would have been a small store with a few overpriced items, then here in the US and the store I stopped at was well stocked and the prices, while high, were much less than those in Canada.
I stopped in Delta Junction which is the official end of the Alaska Canadian Highway, It was amazing to see that I had traveled over 1400 miles in such a short period of time. The highway was amazing and I found it to be in good condition overall, the scenery was fantastic. I got my first cell service in nearly a week and made a few phone calls.
Next it was off to Tok Alaska, there were a number of Motorcyclists in town, due to a Sport Bike rally in Dawson city, I talked with some guys from Anchorage, they all worked at Prudhoe bay, when I told the of my plans they said I was crazy, but might be able to make it. I bought a 12 pack of beer and a pack of smokes and actually got change back from a $20.00 bill. Tomorrow it is off to Fairbanks!

Tim

Watson lake 06-20-08 Day 18

Entry to sign post forest, Watson Lake Canada
Sign Post forest.
Along the highway for hundreds of miles, people make signs with rocks, there were thousands of them along the way.
More rock signs.
Bicyclists in Haines Jct. Canada
Motorcyclists from Scotland.


I ended up in Watson Lake last night, rather than Whitehorse, nothing great to report, just an old mining town, it does have an attraction called the "Sign Post forest" which is an area, where people have been hanging signs up from all over, since the 40s when the highway was being built. After leaving Watson lake I headed towards Haines Jct, when I got there a bicycle race was being staged the next day. The town was full but I managed to score a $50.00 hotel room, and hung out with some bicyclists in the hotel, as well as a nice couple from Scotland who were touring Alaska and Canada on a Harley with a side Car. I hope to make it into the United States tomorrow.

Tim

All the way to Prudhoe Bay and back!

I believe this is Wednesday, or Thursday, the last few days have just ran together. I am not going to try to fit everything in this blog entry, as I feel that I have lived a lifetime in just 3 days.

Over the last few days, I have seen both Heaven and Hell! My body, my motorcycle, my equipment is battered and beaten. My computer is broken, my gps is broken, my camera is broken, two sealed cans of Vienna Sausages, were broken and soaking in their own "mire" in the bottom of one of my side boxes!

I write this blog from a computer in an office of a motel in Fairbanks, the people were nice enough to let me use.

To back up a few days, Monday morning I left Fairbanks, AK to start up the "Haul Road" or actually the "Dalton Highway". This road is the only overland supply route for the North slope, Prudhoe bay oil complex, which provides %20 of our nations oil supply. It parallels the Alaskan Pipe line and and provides the only overland route to the farthest point north in America, to the Arctic Ocean!

20 miles outside of Fairbanks, the road begins, and continues almost 500 miles to Prudhoe Bay. It also transverses the most rugged and virgin wilderness of the United States. Once you have left Fairbanks, there are few services and no real towns, other than a few old mining towns left over from the Gold Rush days. I had to carry and extra gas tank along to get myself between fueling stations.

The best way to describe the road is to imagine the worst country road you have every driven on in your life, then multiply that by X2 and drive it for 900 miles. The interesting thing is that out of the middle of no where a perfectly paved section of road will appear, and will extend for many miles, then abruptly it reverts back to pothole filled dirt road. Then there are the trucks!, They blast down the highway at breakneck speed, and they hate motorcyclists, they give not quarter...Trucks are king! Carrying fuel and equipment like you would not believe bringing supplies to feed the oil fields of the north slope.

To digress for a moment, the morning I left Fairbanks, I stopped and ate breakfast at McDonalds, a few minutes after I had sat down, a group of motorcyclist pulled in, their bikes were dirty, they were dirty and they looked like they had been on the road for days. After they say down, I went over to their table and asked them if they had come from Prudhoe bay, they said no way, they had gone up the highway 50 miles and turned back.

In retrospect, I think that they were just "wimps", but at the time it gave me time to pause, not doubt, just pause.

Without a doubt these last 3 days have been the toughest days of my life, I have been pushed to the limit in every way. My poor motorcycle was asked to do things that no machine should ever be asked to do! It did not let me down, and nor did I her!

The scenery and environment was with out compare, aside from previous posts, nothing compares to what I have seen the last few days. I almost felt guilty to have witnessed such magnificence. The north side of the Brooks Mountain range leading onto the Arctic Tundra, brought tears to my eyes! Magnificence that few will see, the sacrifice to get there is too great.

On two occasions while camping I encountered "Grizzly" bears the size of small cars, so close, that I could smell their musky wild smell. Wolves bayed in the night and I could see the glint of their eyes beyond the light of my campfire. Moose, Caribou, Dall sheep where as plentiful as the stars in the sky.

My time is short on this Internet connection, and my thoughts are many, I will continue when I can.

Tim

Sunday 22--interim Post

I will go back later and add the missing Days and pics, the last few days have been very trying and tiring, I finally got to Alaska yesterday, the 21st. I was ready to get back to the states. It is nice to be back in the USA, Friday, I left Watson lake, and drove all day to get to Haines Jct. There was a big bicycle rally going on there and the town while small was overran with Hundreds of bicyclists.
From there it was off to TOK Alaska, it was nice to be back in the USA.
This evening I am Fairbanks Alaska, the hotel only has wi-fi in the bar and there are a bunch of people down here and the connection is poor. I will go back and add pics later and fill in the blog details.
I am in a little bit of a rush, schedule wise, I talked met a couple of motorcyclists last night in TOK, one of them actually works in Prudhoe Bay, we visited about the ride, and he said it was a real B*&%H, he indicated that I would have a pretty good chance of making it on my bike if the weather held out. I guess there have been 3 fatalities this year so far on motorcycles on the Haul road. When it rains it is just a soupy sludge.
I plan to get up early in the morning and stop at wal-mart and get a small gas can, the mileage between gas stops is pretty big and are on the fringes of the limits of my bike in the best of conditions, so I plan to carry and extra gallon or two of gas. 20 miles north of Fairbanks the pavement ends and it is called the "Haul Road" primarily because its only real use is to Haul supplies to the oil field at Prudhoe Bay. I under stand the truckers drive like crazy and have no affinity for motorcyclist, so I will be on the watch for them. From Fairbanks it is about 230 miles to Coldfoot Alaska, which is the farthest north truck stop in the world. I will fuel up and stay the night there, if everything works out ok, from there I will go approx 50 miles to the Arctic circle, and from there another 200 miles to Prudhoe Bay where I will stay the night, then head back the next day. They are calling for good weather the next 3 days, and the 4th is marginal so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
My bike seems to be running fine, and I think the tires have enough tread to make it, I have a couple of extra tubes in case I have a problem, but was not able to locate an extra tire to take. I don't anticipate any mechanical breakdown. If there is a break down there are two basic problems, first of all you just can't call a tow truck, and if you do their fee is $5 per mile, each way, the other problem is that above the arctic circle, there are Polar bears and unlike their brown and black brothers to the south, they are not scared of humans, in fact they enjoy them as a food source! They will be looking at me with drooling lips, saying to each "Hey other look at that well fed Kansas Beef, Its gonna be steak tonight Honey!"
1000miles of dirt road in 4 days, It will be very remote, so I doubt that I will be able to update much until the end of the week.

Tim

Signs, supplemental blog june 19

Canadians have very interesting signs, I am starting you out with an easy one as this is pretty self explanatory, while this is just a small example of signs encountered in Canada, as with any sign, you need to be observant and many times you will find hidden meanings!
This sign means there are bumps ahead in the road.
This sign means there is a likely hood of horses in the area.
This sign means there is a chance for rocks to fall from the hillside, or large bowl movements may result in "dingle berries"
This sign means a "hoven" animal may cross your path.
This sign with its small appendage added, means a "male" hoven animal may cross your path, for the next mile or so.
This one means that Large Bull Moose do pretty much what they want and for a long time!

Thursday june 19--day 17

A nice way to start the day, NAPA Fort Nelson BC
Poor me, I have to put up with this scenery all the time!
The hell with the bears, these will put the real hurt on, these are big ones, 2000lb, not like the little trained ones they have in Yellowstone.
First Brown bear I have seen.
Another bear!
Yet another bear!
Two bears at once.

What a pleasant way to start the day, I stopped off a NAPA and visited Bob and Sheldon who I had met the night before at the Elks lodge. It brought back a lot of old memories, I wish I was their, rep, I would have really busted the expenses account. I had a cup of coffee, Bob gave me a really nice hat, (you will see pics in later posts.) I did not stay long, some where down the road, I will meet these men again, but I always feel understatement is best. Kind of like when I had out of town guest stay at my home, the first night, there were mints on the pillow, the second night there were brochures for nearby hotels. I do wish I would have waited a day to do my oil change as Bob offered the use of his shop if I needed to do any work. I picked up a metric Allen wrench set that I had forgotten, (thanks for the discount Bob) and was on my way. It is always nice to meet nice people with common values so far away from home!

I can hardly describe the ride today other than utterly fantastic! It was about 300 miles a show stopping scenery along the Alaskan Highway. The road for the most part was in good condition, there were a few areas of construction but not too bad. I could not believe all of the wild life. After the first few hours I stopped taking pictures. I saw at least 15 bears along the way, bison, moose and the show stopper was the biggest "Bob" cat I have ever seen in my life, at first I thought it was a mountain lion, but for a split second it looked at me and I recognized it for what it was, I have seen them before, but never so big. It is unfortunate, but the best wild life I have seen have been quick chance encounters and I just have not been able to get a quick picture.

Around 12:00 I took off on an old logging road, and found a nice spot for my afternoon nap. I ate a power bar and laid down for a bit, a couple of times my snoring woke me up, and with all the bears I have seen lately, I was a little startled, When I finally awoke for good, I walked towards my motorcycle which was about 50 yards from where I had laid down and as I got towards it there was a bear on the other side, sniffing my rear pannier, where I keep my reserve stash of Vienna sausages, when I saw him I yelled and he ran off. I was about 3 miles off of the main highway, when I was riding back there was a herd of about 30 bison on the road in front of me, I stopped and tried to get my camera out of my tank bag, when a big bull broke from the herd and headed towards me, I about shit myself, as there was no way I could turn around, thank god for the big air horn I had installed on my bike! I gave it a big blast and the whole herd disappeared into the woods, the sound was unbelievable. I high tailed it back to the main road and headed off.
About 5:00pm I hit the Yukon and it was another 30 miles to Watson lake. I did not figure it would be busy, as Fort Nelson had been nearly a ghost town. When I got to town, I saw that there was a lot of activity, after my experiences through out the day with wildlife, I was not going to camp out tonight. As it ended up, I got the next to last room in town, and believe you me am paying a premium for it, there is Internet, so that is why I am catching up. The town itself is not much to write about, other than it is a dirty little wide spot in the road, and the friendliness, I have seen everywhere else in Canada is not quite as apparent here.
I hope to make it to Whitehorse tomorrow and to Alaska the day after. While I have enjoyed my time in Canada and have met many nice people and made new friends, It will be nice to be back in the USA.

Tim

Wed June 18--Day 16

Elks lodge #400 Ft Nelson BC
Bar room, Ed and his wife the E.R.
One of many bears I saw today


I Started the day in Dawson Creek and tried to get an early start, I needed to change the oil in my motorcycle and the shops I stopped at yesterday wanted $20.00 just to drain the oil, I had my own oil as it is difficult to find. None of the places seemed very anxious to help me out. So first thing this morning I went to wal-mart and got a funnel, I drained my oil into an old jug I found, then filled it back up. Then I went back to one of the shops and asked if they took old oil, which they did, so I gave them mine and headed out.
Dawson Creek is the official start of the Alaska Highway, I was going to take a picture, but the sign post was hard to get to and a big tour bus was parked near it, so I just headed out wanting to put this town behind me.
About 50 miles up the road I came to a town called Ft. St. John, it was a good sized town, and I found a big outdoors store and tried to find a pair of boots, the only size 14 EE they had were $350.00. I explained to the sales lady about the problems I was having with rain getting into my hiking boots, so she suggested a pair of high "gaiters" which were water proof. I got them and a new pair of water proof insulated gloves. I still ended up spending $80.00, but it was well worth it as about 50 miles up the road I hit rain. The gear worked great and it was money well spent. My goal for the day was Fort Nelson, which is 300 miles from Dawson city. It seemed that the day was dragging on, but about 100 miles from Fort Nelson things cleared up and it was looking like it was going to be a nice evening. I thought I would stop in town get gas then find a place to camp.

When I got to town, I filled up with gas and found an ATM that would take my debit card, most of the ATM's here only take Master Card based debit cards and mine are Visa. It was about 6:00pm and I headed out of town, but what would I see on the edge of town, but an Elks Lodge! and right next to it a very run down hotel. I decided to stop and check the rate for the hotel and if it was less than $100.00 I was going to stop. I found it funny because the name of the hotel was "Shannons" with a green sign and a big shamrock on the sign. The guy who ran it was Chinese and could hardly speak English, things were slow and I got the room for $55.00. Believe me in this part of the world that is CHEEP! I got checked in and found that I pretty much got what I had paid for, but it was a roof over my head and no bears to contend with tonight.
I went over to the lodge and what did I find, but one of the nicest lodges I have been to since my stay in Oppalassas LA in 2000. Everyone was a nice as they could be. I met Bob and Sheldon, who just happened to run the local NAPA store. Those of you that know me, Know that my first real job was with NAPA in the early 80s as a manufactures rep. We had a lot in common and had a real nice visit! They invited me over for coffee in the morning before I headed out.

What started out as a difficult day, ended up as one of the most pleasurable of the trip, yes as always the scenery was nice, but new friends, cold beer and the fellowship of the Elks is always a nice way to end the day!

Tim

PS I wanted to give a shout out to Kim Zimmerman, I high school friend I have not seen in over 25 years, she found my blog and is along for the trip. Nice to hear from you Kim, I have thought about you from time to time over the years, I hope all is well for you and your family!