Month: July 2017

At Muktuk, I met another solo rider, Paul. He was heading up to Inuvik, but would rather have the safety of riding with another rider. Paul and I discussed the In’s and Out’s of riding together, and I decided to cut the stay short at Muktuk, and take off to Dawson Saturday Morning, instead of staying thru at Muktuk at least until Sunday.

We rode the next afternoon the 5-6 hours to Dawson from Whitehorse. We stopped and had lunch at a picnic area on the Yukon River where loads of people were pulling the laden canoes out of the river, having been on extended camping expeditions using the canoes as Portage.

The ride was gorgeous, as usual. The road was rougher than any yet encountered, a nice test for the Dempster, since there were long wet, gravelly dirt sections, with 3 small rain storms along the Yukon Highway.

As we approached Dawson, the heavens opened up into a bad storm with lightening, but we broke through without stopping to gear up for it, and made Dawson by 6:30pm.

I visited the Muktuk Sled Dog B&B.

Here are the photos from my visit! 

At first, I was taken aback. When I drove in from the 4km long dirt and gravel road off the Alaska highway  a short drive West out of Whitehorse, I was confronted with a huge yard with dogs all chained up. What in the hell was this? And this was a tourist attraction?! I was seeing thru “Georgia Eyes”, where back at home tethered dogs are dogs that are neglected and exist in a living hell, and amounts to felony cruelty.

I quickly learned how far I was from the truth with my first impression.

Over the course of my stay,  I watched teams of volunteers and employees waiting on these dogs hand and foot, I am guessing at least a dozen times a day. There was always someone out there, cleaning up dung, refilling water, putting down more food, playing with them, releasing them to run, putting them back on tether, and so on.

The dogs are cycled into free running sessions and allowed to range through the vast acreage to the river where they swim and chase rabbits. They are also rotated into large paddocks, about a half acre each,  where the better behaved ones are allowed to do whatever they wish, surrounded by trees, grass, and bushes. Ones that are grouches get time off tether, but are handled with more care, while not exposing the other dogs to their grumpy fangs.

The ones let loose to run to the river were loosed about 200 yards away from our guide. Yet, out of the 153 dogs, she knew their names on site. All of them. Every one. Seemed to me that all the folks working there knew ALL the dogs names on site.

Three litters were in progress, one 7 week old, one 10 days old, and one 5 days old. These folks were on top of managing the mom’s, making sure they were supported and not overwhelmed by all that a litter of puppies entails. We were encouraged to handle them, so as to more easily socialize the dogs as they mature. The 7 week old puppies loved it. A 5 day old puppies nuzzled into my arm, and basically was not going to move unless I put him down, falling fast asleep, nose buried into my elbow’s crook.

I really do not know how they do it at Muktuk. Day after day. 153 dogs.. and managed like a swiss watch. These dogs were happy, healthy, and fit. All of them. They even sprinkled in, I guess, a dozen or so rescue dogs and had some boarders mixed in as well.

Anyhow, if and when I go to dog heaven, this is pretty close to the mark.

As for the lodge, it was a wonderful. They had everything, comfy beds, nice bathrooms, a good cook, coffee on tap, hot chocolate, and a guitar that was in tune.

I really slept like a log, and did not want to leave the next day. I have not been sleeping well this entire trip, and the time leading up to it, and this has caused me stress related headaches. I slept like a baby.

I will visit again on my way back down towards the US.

I also plan to book a week of actual sled dog training, training for me.. they do a full week culminating in a 2 or 3 day full on wilderness sled dog camping experience.

Sign me up.

Brrrrrrr.

It will be COLD.

Whitehorse, in Yukon Territory, is a city of ~25,000 people, representing 80% of the entire population of the Yukon.

Since the last post, I ran into the guys from Mexico on my second night in Stewart. We drove out to Watson Lake that morning. We camped the night before at Boyo Lake. We scored campsites on grass right on the water, We were fly fishing, catching nothing but a few imaginary strikes on the line, but enjoying the view, nonetheless.

Camping in a park here is pretty different than at home. The lady who manages the campground was cheerful, polite, and helpful. You will not see that from the grumpy old man in the trailer at a Georgia state park, right? They had a lot of canoes and kayaks for rent on an Honor System basis. You left some cash in the envelope with a signed Release, grab a paddle, and a life preserver, and go seek your Bliss. Noone steals the boats, paddles, or preservers. Noone seems to beat things up, or wear things out. Everyone fills out the form and pops money into the bin.

Imagine that. People behaving honestly and responsibly.

I am writing this blog post from a room overlooking the Yukon River and the town’s trolley station. The whole area is a sportsman’s dream. It has a few dark sides. I saw a couple of people passed out drunk on the sidewalk, a drug addict was aggressively pan-handling us in the A&W today. All that said, most of what I have seen here is just squeaky clean, polite, and mostly reasonable.

Until now, I have been reading Jack London’s books White Fang and Call of the Wild. I will also have to grab a copy of Robert Service’s writings. He is a legendary poet and writer from these parts.

We drove from Boyo Lake to the junction of the Cassiar Highway and the Alaska Highway. Cassiar ends at the Alaska Highway, and I actually drove the entire length of the Cassiar. This is not actually unusual, since there are no roads that leave the Cassiar from end to end that actually go somewhere as a highway would, just a bunch of short jaunts like to Stewart BC.

The last stretch of the Cassiar was a little depressing. Several Wildfires over 3 -10 years have left large swaths devastated for miles in every direction. However, amongst the burnt husks of the pines, the Aspen and Birch are thriving and generating a short, but thick blanket of forest everywhere.

The last stretch of the Cassiar was rough on my tires, being a rough road surface that chews up tires. By the time I reached Whitehorse, my Metlzer Tourance tires were flat as a pancake. I leaned the bike a lot, and had some good wear, but I simple could not even out the wear on these long straight stretches on rough road.

The Alaska Highway was even more epic than the Cassiar, but of course, had a lot more traffic. You come over a hill, and you see the road winding thru dozens and dozens of miles of low pine forest hills until the next mountain range over 50 miles away, maybe a 100. Who knows? Without the luxury of reading a real map while I ride, I am left to guess what I was looking and judge the distances by Dead Reckoning. Vast. Epic. Enormous. Empty.

Primordial, perhaps. very very very little signs of development besides the road itself. You can go 30 miles and not see a structure anywhere ,except maybe right alongside the road, here and there, but rarely.

Reaching Whitehorse was for me an accomplishment. I am very sure most adventure riders will just roll their eyes. I don’t really care. 5500 miles in a couple of weeks is a lot of riding, no matter how you slice it.

It’s my first time on a long ride. I have to ride at least that amount just to get back home, which seems all to very far away.

I love getting all the texts from folks, and those call while I am on the road have kept me in good company on many a long mile.

I must admit all these encouraging Texts from home like “Be Safe”, “Have Fun”, “What an Adventure”, “So Amazing”. hmm. The truth is I am wracked tired nearly all the time. If that’s fun, then I am doing it wrong. Then, there is the gear to manage. I have to pack and unpack the bike at least once or twice a day and then constantly play the Search the Bags  game for every little thing. Yes, I organize where I put things. When you are road tired at the end of a long day,  you simply must mine in the bags for what it is you need right then.

So.. while it is truly a big adventure, there is a side to it that is a grind. I try to keep my eyes on the adventure.

The plan for today is to ride from here to the Yukon on the Cassiar Highway, Stewart, BC, as far as we can, with the destination being the intersection with the Alaska Highway near the town of Watson Lake 21km to the east of that junction.  9 hours without stops..

I managed to get one more video posted: https://youtu.be/8g7MgSCYrsc

Uploading takes a lot longer than downloading, so it’s all I can do to even get short videos up and online. It takes many hours for just a 6 minute video to finish uploading.

The Cassiar Highway is British Columbia most remote highway, running the length of the eastern side of the Coastal Mountain. The road is pretty rough, with one small gravel section, and the rest a rough road surface with grit and gravel on top of tarmac.

Cassiar is a mining ghost town. Allegedly, Cassiar was a asbestos mine. Needless to say, that product is not in high demand these days. I didn’t realize it was a product that could be mined straight from the Earth. I will have to read up on that topic later.

Kelowna may either be regarded as the Vegas of Canada, or the Napa Valley of Canada.

It is certainly nothing at all like Las Vegas, and I mean that in a good way. And as far as a Napa comparison goes, this place is full of friendly natives, great food, a humongous fresh water lake, and vineyard after vineyard of superb grapes, yielding very good wines.

I only sampled a few since it’s not wise to drink anything at all and ride a motorcycle. However, with dinner at the Mission Winery, I paired up a Sauvignon Blanc from down Osoyoos way at the now infamous border crossing mentioned in the previous post. I also had a glass of the Viognier, a vibrant wine that had an amazing taste of peach.

We checked into the Super8. The desk clerks were super cool, there was a spa, hot tub, indoor pool, a diner, and gym.. at a Super8?! Yep. Price reflected it too.. C$145 per night. Ouch. Oh well. It’s vacation. Shout out to Manvir Gil. He invited me to visit India with him. He is Sikh, and just a super amazing guy. (I was watching a news broadcast, and my patter is now Trumpified. Amazing. You’ll love it. It’s gonna be the best. ;-p)

I took the bike into the Bentley BMW Motorrad dealership for service. I opted not to get the tires swapped out, but did get an oil change and a road inspection. Everything checked out, and I am good on the tires.. front 80% remaining, rear 75% remain. Having logged around 3800 miles to date, that’s pretty good tire wear for motorcycles, especially loaded down.

The road to the Northwest we learned was pretty much shut down owing to the wildfires. The smoky haze really hampered the view of Kelowna, which is a lake side area with beaches, mountains, ski resorts. They even have pianos put in the open for anyone to play, right along the beach.

It was a long day. I have been suffering from headaches for a few weeks now. They come on quickly, and go away after a few minutes. Painful and annoying. While the bike was being serviced, I grabbed a pricy cab over the hospital in town across the lake from West Kelowna. Turns out that Yanks are not given a free ride, nor is anyone else, at Canadian Health Services. Here is the minimum Emergency Room price if you have no valid insurance…$1115.00! Still that is probably cheaper than what you’d pay at home out of the “affordable deductible” Affordable if you are Bill Gates.

I was able to get m blood pressure checked, and rule out that as a cause of the headaches.

I also had the opportunity to meet Wilson, a volunteer service dog. A very welcoming fellow, this one!

I headed back to Bentley where Vick, Dave, and Jay took good care of me. They suggested I make sure my helmet properly fits. Already a perfect fit, we ruled out another possible cause.

I headed to WalMart where I was outside working on my computer on a bench, and a nice woman, Courtney, walks up, taking a work break. Turns out she is in the eye department, and tried to help me get an appointment, to also rule out vision as a cause of the headaches. I ended up going to Stickle & Strawn. Again, super duper nice folks. They had some advanced gear, and verified that my vision is better than 20/20, except for reading. I need to get some UV blue blocking reading glasses! Other than that, not a cause for the headache.

Bed rest and hydration were recommended by everyone involved.

So Be It.

We woke in Moses Lake, dawdled a bit, had a great breakfast at Sporty’s. We drove all the way thru to Kelowna. I will recount more of this trip tomorrow.

For now, here are the photos from the journey.