Day 7: July 10, 2019

Today was fantastic. But before I begin my report, I’d like to mention Canada and Canadians.

The “Bob and Doug Mckenzie” skit and the movie “Strange Brew” were really funny, and delightfully poked fun at Canadians. The reason they were so funny is that Canadians are wonderful people. As a whole, they are engaging, gentle, helpful, charming and gracious people. There are not enough superlatives to describe how wonderful the people are here, and how good they have been to us.

Canadians are very patriotic, and love to show their flag. With good reason – Canada is a beautiful country. Their flag is everywhere.

Brother Larry took the best photo of the trip, which shows how stunning this country is. 

Doppelgänger:

A doppelganger is a double of a living person. But can this apply to Harleys?

When I went to the hotel parking lot this morning, parked right next to my bike was a Harley doppelganger: a blue, Harley Ultra Limited CVO, with a 110 cubic inch power plant, with a custom blue paint job. While it was a beautiful machine, my bike was created by Franklin Bass – a true Harley architect. My bike is much, much cooler. Who else has an alligator seat?

The Land of the Midnight Sun

The locals really like it here. In fact, they tell us that people leave, and return - provided that there are jobs.

Yet in the winter, they say it never really gets dark. Apparently, you can read outside at night. It never gets beyond dusk.

This photo was taken at 11:15 at night - in the summer. You can still read a paper in this amount of sunlight. Consider the length of the day in winter. Freezing temperatures and the midnight sun: I am surprised everyone here is not in therapy.

The Continental Divide

After leaving the hotel, we climbed to the continental divide to find breathtaking scenery: the mountains, not the three caballeros.

The Road

This is what the road looks like to us:

The road conditions have been surprisingly good. But there is a lot of road left to drive. 

The Alaska Highway Mentality

There is a mentality up here. I don't know if it is the Alaska Highway, the harsh conditions in winter, or something else. But people are very chatty (which makes my Southern friends giddy), and they are very willing to help. An example is that one of us dropped his bike at a gas pump. It wasn't a big deal except the bikes are very, very heavy. Two guys driving by stopped, jumped out of their car, and ran over to help. We have seen that kind of spirit over and over. I stopped on the side of the road to change my eye protection, and a guy on a Harley stopped to ask us if we were OK. These are the type of people we've met on the road.

Travelers

We have seen many different modes of transportation besides cars, trucks and motorcycles. We saw a guy in a wheelchair traveling along the roadway - long distance. There are bicyclists: both long distance bicyclists weighed down with gear, and bicycle tours with a chase car. We've seen people walking/hiking along the roadway. I saw a person walking, pushing a tall cart full of gear. There are all kinds of travelers. 

We've also seen a number of Europeans. Some were driving cars others were on bikes. And surprisingly, some them had European license plates meaning that they brought their vehicles from home. They are really enjoying themselves. 

Toad River

The first gas station after we left the hotel, was 75 miles away. We are being very conservative on our fuel stops.

We first gassed at the Toad River Lodge – which was a trip. Remember a television show years ago called Northern Exposure? It was about a New York medical school graduate who came to the great white north to pay off his student loans. On the show, you see how weird and quirky people are up here, through the eyes of someone from the lower 48. And that is the truth. 

Everything up here is expensive, and the locals are not bashful about charging for everything as you will see in some of the photos below. 

At Toad River, it was the honor system for fuel – like the old days. You gassed up, and went inside to pay your bill. There was a store, a restaurant and a shop – with the counter manned by one person. But she handled it. 

Hanging from the ceiling were a huge number of hats. It was like something out of the twilight zone.

Note the sign on the wall. They charged $2 to use the Internet - even for paying customers. 

Magellan is in front of the dining area, contemplating a new hat. 

Brother Larry has spent most of the trip on the telephone. Here, he is taking a break from the ride to spend some quality time doing deals.

This is the view out the back of the gas station. 

Moncho Lake

We motored to Moncho Lake looking for food. But the kitchen was closed, so we pressed on.

Cabins behind the Lodge. 

Transportation for high rollers and retired guys. 

Moncho Lake.

The Lodge. 

Wildlife

We saw a moose and her calf on the side of the road. Randall saw a bunch of mountain goats.

We saw a huge brown bear and a bunch of black bears.

And we saw many, many bison. It was fantastic.

This Bison was huge.

The Portage

Several times on this trip, the road narrowed to a single lane because of road construction. There was a flag person on each end, and they would send a convoy of cars through the work area on a single lane/track.

We came to one area which I will refer to a portage, as it was 8 km long. We needed a pilot car to move us through the single track. Typically, they call the motorcycles to the front and let them go first as the convoy kicks up a tremendous amount of dust.

At the front, was a crusty, salty, fifty-something "stick lady" (she worked for the contractor holding a stick which said "stop" on one side and "slow" on the other). She communicated with the worker on the other end to manage the convoy of vehicles going through). She controlled this end of the portage. She had us get off our bikes because of the long wait, and talked to us the whole time, learning every detail of our lives. And from her, we have the best line of the trip so far:

Brother Larry: “How long is the single track.”

Crusty Lady: “Suck it up buttercup, you’re going to Alaska!”

The name stuck. Here we are, waiting for our turn to traverse the single track. 

The line-up waiting to go through.

Salty lady in the hard hat and vest.

They first put down "oil" on the roadway, but it is really bitumen/tar. They then spread milled/crushed stone and roll/compact it. They let traffic roll over it for 24 hours, and then brush the excess stone off the roadway. This leaves a course aggregate roadway - meaning a rough, high-traction surface. 

Coal River

We stopped again for gas at Coal River, and met more delightfully nice, quirky people.

Calling this a lodge is a stretch. And again, they charged for everything. 

Liard River/Hot Springs

We also stopped for gas at the Liard River Lodge. 

In Canada, they don't call natives "Indians" or "Indian Reservations." They call them "First Nation." We ran into several of these "First Nation" businesses, including this. Really nice people, and really bad food.

Outside the Lodge, we came upon a bunch of four wheelers. They were out knocking around the woods. Notice the shotgun scabbards (the bears are unpredictable they told us), each had a winch, a chainsaw, and extra gas. Now that is a Canadian picnic!

Watson Lake

We finally crossed the frontier into the Yukon Territory:

We stayed at an old BOQ, which housed military pilots/officers ferrying planes and cargo to the airbase here during WWII. It is like company grade officers quarters: tiny rooms, a bathroom down the hallway and a latrine also down the hallway. It is like being in the military. It is called the Air Force Lodge. 

Air Force Lodge Air Conditioning.

The only thing in Watson Lake, is the Sign Post Forest. When they built the Alaska Highway in 1941, a lonely, homesick soldier hung a hometown sign to remind him of home. Since then, thousands of signs and license plates have gone up.

Unbeknownst to us, Magellan had signs made referring to each of our home towns, and the mileage from Watson Lake. And we dutifully hung them in the Sign Post Forest. How about that! Kudos to Magellan.

One of the locals told us that this is the largest collection of stolen property in Canada (street signs). But with Magellan bringing his own signs, he skillfully avoided an encounter with Dudley Doo-right and the Mounties.

We rode 339 miles today, for a trip total of 3068 miles. Tomorrow, we move deeper into the wilderness.