We Made It To Alaska!!

Howdy! Finding a solid WiFi signal has been difficult; so we have tons to catch up on...

Our hotel in Fort Nelson was kinda ghetto but at least we dried out our camping gear and was able to do laundry. We got a good night’s sleep, restocked our food supply, and headed up the Alaska Highway again. We were so grateful to be back in the mountains. The scenery was beautiful again and wildlife galore along the road. We saw our first reindeer!! They are too cute!

 

They were standing in the road and had super happy looks on their faces. They weren't scared of us at all and eventually trotted off to the side of the road. We also saw some sheep, goats, and a ton of buffalo. There was a whole herd of buffalo blocking the road at one point. The big horned, beefy males were near the rear to protect the ladies and babies.

 

We were super cautious not to freak out the big daddies with our motorcycles. Eventually we had just a big enough opening in the herd to creep through haha. Our destination for the day was Laird Hot Springs. We were so lucky to get a camp spot...there were only 2 left! We set up camp quickly and ran off to the hot spring. It was the most wonderful thing ever!! They had built stairs down into hot spring. Other than that it was all natural. So beautiful! It was sooooo hot at first but it felt so good.

We probably soaked our sore bodies for an hour or 2 and then blissfully walked back to camp to cook supper and have a couple beers. We made instant minestrone soup and mash potatoes...yum! Of course the evening wouldn't be complete without a thunderstorm. We tried to pack things up before it started raining but we both got drenched. So much for dry clothes haha. We called it a night and hoped things would dry out in the morning.

Morning came and it wasn't raining but looked like it could. We should have just flopped back into the hot spring, but instead we packed up our wet tent and got back on the road. Just like yesterday we saw a lot of wildlife along the road. We saw a big black bear, more buffalo, eagles, etc. Jason's motorcycle scares most wildlife away so we usually don't have worry about the animals coming after us. Most of the time we are lucky enough to grab a picture before they run away. We rode some serious miles today. My fuel light came on twice today and I get about 200 miles on my stock tank. The entire ride from Laird Hot Springs to Whitehorse was in and out of the pouring rain. Just as Jason's clothes would dry on the back of his bike another rain storm would come haha. We were planning on camping outside of Whitehorse but it still looked like rain, it was late when we arrived, and we were super hungry. We found the least expensive but not too scary hotel in the area. At first glance we didn't care for Whitehorse. There were drunk natives arguing in the streets and they will bug you/follow you if you make eye contact with them. Thankfully our hotel had a secret underground parking garage, so our bikes were safe. We hurried off to dinner at a ribs & salmon restaurant, where Jason had reindeer stew. He said it kinda tastes like elk.

We ended up staying 2 days in Whitehorse. We arrived on a Saturday night and motorcycle shops don't open until Monday (if we are lucky), so we had a day to kill. We didn't think about it til too late but we would have stayed an extra day at the hot spring if we would have thought things through beforehand. Oh well...we slept in, grabbed breakfast at Tim Hortons (kinda like Starbucks & Dunkin Donuts combined = amazing!), did some shopping at Canadian Tire (another amazing store), and took a nap. We had high hopes for the morning that Honda would have the tires we are looking for before we head up the Dempster highway.

Thank God my bike has some new shoes!!

Honda had Kenda "big block" tires in the sizes I needed (a beautiful knobby street tire) and Jason got a new Scorpion tire. The Honda people were friendly, but wouldn't let us do our oil changes in their parking lot. I guess some not to courteous previous bikers made too big of messes and ruined it for the rest of us. While Jason worked hard on putting his new rear tire on, I made an afternoon appointment for their mechanic to do my tires for me. $100 (cad) for 2 tires installed and balanced is worth it to me after watching Jason struggle with his (2 popped tubes later he successfully got the tire on). In the meantime, I took my bike next door to the Walmart parking lot to do my oil change. BMW doesn't make an oil change an easy task but I got 'er done before a short downpour hit again. Thankfully it was a quick one. While my bike was in getting its new tires, Jason took his bike over to the Walmart parking lot for his oil change too. By 2pm, we were all set and back on the road. We split off the Alaska Highway onto the Klondike Highway. We found a nice side road down to a river just past Carmacks to camp for the night. We had to rest up and be prepared for the Dempster Highway in the morning.

If you don't know what the Dempster Highway is, it's a 1,000 mile round trip all dirt road. It takes you beyond the Arctic Circle to a town called Inuvik. There is not a whole lot between the turn off for that road and all the way to Inuvik. Just mountains, rivers, wildlife, Arctic tundra, and an occasional semi or truck. The first stretch of road is 230 miles between gas stations and you'll only have gas at that point if the fuel trucks can make it through. If bad weather sets in, it could be awhile before you get fuel. There are 2 ferries for river crossings too. At one of our last fuel stops before the Dempster, we met 2 motorcyclists who had to turn around because the ferries weren't going. There was so much rain that week the ferries were washed out and couldn't safely make contact with land for loading vehicles. 

Anyway...the morning came to start this trek. Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous. As we are cruising along, we come around a bend in the road and there is our first grizzly bear in the middle of the road. Thankfully he didn't like the sound of Jason's bike and ran off the road. We didn't stick around for pictures haha. Another first for me was seeing a porcupine. He was scared of Jason's bike too and had all his little pokey things standing up haha.

We made it to the turn off and there was one last self-service gas station. We fueled up, took pictures by the Dempster Highway sign, and headed down the road. I won't do a play by play on each mile of this road but I definitely could.

The conditions on this road were constantly changing. Between weather and "road maintenance" people, the road was different even just a day later coming back from Inuvik. The only thing that didn't change were the first (and last coming from Inuvik) 200 miles of insane potholes. There were potholes bigger than our bikes and what I like to call rut potholes (20 little potholes in a perfect row so once you hit the first one you are stuck in the rut for the rest of them until they are done). Those will bounce your eyeballs right out of your head. We of course had rain on and off throughout the ride. Some of the dirt was sticky/grippy and other stuff was quite slimy.

There were sections of soft squirrely dirt from road graders & and water trucks and sections of squirrely new gravel...Who seriously makes a road out of pea gravel?!

There were nice sections too though with beautifully packed dirt with just enough gravel packed in for traction through corners. If you remind yourself to take your eyes off the road between dodging obstacles, the scenery is extremely beautiful.

It's hard to explain and pictures don't do it justice, so enduring this gnarly road is worth seeing this scenery. 

We saw a baby moose and momma moose splashing in a puddle, a big black bear jogging down the road, and a moose that looked like Bullwinkle. We even saw a camper trailer on its side in about 4 inches of mud. He was inside tossing luggage out the top when we rolled by. We asked if he needed help but he said someone was on the way and no one was hurt.

Even though this road made me angry and frustrated in some sections, it was worth it. At the end I had tears of joy that I accomplished the Dempster Highway. :)

Our next destination was Dawson City. It is a super cute mining town. You can go gold panning, hang out at old saloons, or dirt bike through old mining roads. We stayed at the Downtown Motel to do some laundry and dry out our camping gear again. They even let us use their hose out back to wash off our muddy bikes.

We met 2 guys during lunch who were just heading out from Alaska to ride the Dempster Highway. They live in Kenai and offered to let us camp on their property when we roll through their area. We have his business card just in case.

That evening we hung out in our lobby bar for a few drinks. Jason had read in one of our Alaska books that this bar offered something called a Sour Toe Shot.

 

Supposedly you order a shot and they put a petrified or mummified human toe in it. You have to take the shot and let the dead toe touch your lips in order to earn a certificate. If you accidentally swallow the toe, it’s a $2,500 fine haha. Jason was all for doing it. I definitely did not 1) because I hate shots and 2) it’s a gross real dead persons’ toe. We even heard a story from one of the people in line for this shot that his daughter’s friend, who was a diabetic, donated one of his toes for this shot after his foot was amputated! Now Jason wants to do that someday haha. Jason disgustingly took the shot like a champ, earned his certificate, and will forever have his name in their Toe Shot book.

 

 

 

The next day we ferried across the river and road the Top of the World Road. It was a very beautiful road with mountains as far as you can see on both sides of the mountain pass road. Of course we rode in and out of the rain all day. The twisty road was beautiful packed dirt when it was dry and slightly muddy and slippery when it rained. There were some potholes but we are used to them by now. The border crossing back into the U.S. was at the highest point of this road. It was a smooth border followed by the smoothest black top road we’ve ever seen and then it turned back to dirt. We saw 4 reindeer along that section. We grabbed lunch (reindeer hotdogs) in the town of Chicken. When we pulled up at the café, there was a husband and wife parked there with their Husqvarna 650 motorcycles. They invited us to eat lunch with them and shared stories of our travels. They were heading in the opposite direction as us, so they recommended we stay at the motorcycle only campground they had stayed at in Took when we get there. They have been traveling for 21 months so far (started in Patagonia)! They are retired and riding the world together. Awesome couple to meet. Right before we pulled away from Chicken, another guy wanted to chat a bit with me. He noticed I had an Indiana license plate and asked where I was from. Believe it or not he knows where Middlebury is! He used to work at the flea market in Shipshewana...crazy small world.

We took the moto couple’s advice and stayed at the Eagle Claw Campground. It was the coolest place ever! The lady that owns it, Vanessa, was super nice and put a lot of work into making a comfortable, homely place for motorcyclists to rest. There was a table and chairs at each tent site, campfire rings, cute little cabins for rent in case you don’t feel like sleeping in a tent, a covered fully stocked kitchen hut, a fully stocked mechanic shop for everyone to use to work on their bikes, and a homemade hot sauna room. After riding all day in the rain, the hot sauna room was so nice. It got us all warm and cozy before crawling into our tent. There were a couple other motorcyclists at the campground with us. We got to chatting and I could have sworn I met one of the guys somewhere along our trip already. It finally dawned on me that he was the biker that asked me if I was ok while I was working on my bike in the parking lot of Walmart in Whitehorse...small world! They had been contemplating going to Honda to get their oil changed; so when they saw me (a girl) doing my own oil change, it guilted them into doing their own oil changes haha.

Jason and I woke up to pouring rain and 50 degree temps the next morning. We kept rolling over and going back to sleep in hopes of the rain stopping. It didn’t, so we threw on our waterproof gear inside the tent and packed all the wet camping gear up. Thankfully as we drove west the sky cleared and it warmed up into the 70’s. Our plan for today was to drive the road to Nabesna (one of Jason’s “scenic routes”). He had read about it in our Adventure Motorcycles Guide to Alaska book. The road was absolutely beautiful with mountains and glaciers on both sides of us but I wouldn’t call this road a road. I would call it a wide 4-wheeler trail. There were some nice hard packed dirt/gravel sections; but we also had 2 or 3 wet river crossings, lots of dry rocky river bed crossings, sandy ruts, and a weird uneven squishy road construction zone. Jason, who is used to riding crazy single track trails on his dualsport bike, sailed right through everything. This was my first time riding crazy terrain with a fully loaded (heavy) dualsport bike. I didn’t like the idea of it at first but my Maui trail riding practice came in handy and got me through this “road” without any problems. Well... minus breaking the bolt holding my Rotopax fuel container on my bike. That wasn’t my fault though. They should have made it strong enough to handle bouncing through a rutty, rocky river crossing. Good thing I had everything tied to everything else on my bike, so it didn’t fall off. We just re-enforced it all with more tie down straps and kept going. Nabesna is a tiny tiny mining town with a grassy little airplane runway. It looked like the few families that lived there flew in instead of driving that road. We chose not to ride further in to see the mines, which would have been fun if we had our smaller trail bikes. We turned around and rode over the river and through the woods back to the main road. We camped for the night near a peaceful lake and will be heading into Valdez tomorrow.

Valdez (especially the drive to Valdez) is absolutely beautiful. If we would have planned on it, we should have stayed in Valdez longer. To get there you have to drive over Thompson Pass. There are glaciers everywhere and waterfalls flowing down the mountains everywhere you look. It was hard to keep our eyes on the road haha. We arrived in Valdez just in time for lunch. It is a cute mountain town right on the ocean. We ate delicious fresh cod for lunch. While sitting there, several people stopped to chat with us. The first 2 were a nice young couple who were also out on a moto adventure together. They asked if we had done Edgerton Highway to McCarthy yet. They had just done that road the other day and said it was great and that we should do it. McCarthy is an old copper mining town. The only road to there is an old railroad, which is now a dirt road. The only reason we were thinking of not doing this road was because a lot of people get flat tires from old railroad spikes and metal scraps and we don’t feel like dealing with any flat tires. The other person that came to chat was a guy that thought our bikes were super cool haha. We ended up talking with him for quite awhile and guess what?!... he used to live in Bristol, Indiana (5 minutes from my hometown) and also worked at the Shipshewana flea market back in the day! I am very surprised how many people know about Middlebury, Indiana. Anyway... he also talked about how we should go see McCarthy; so we made up our minds to go see McCarthy since everyone says it’s a place not to miss. We were hoping to camp at Liberty Falls on the way toward McCarthy and then do the dirt road in the morning, but the campground was full. We headed further down the road and found a random path into the woods and set up camp there. We made backpacker meals for supper and this is what happens when you try to shake yours without it being fully ziplocked haha...

We woke up a little earlier than usual to make it out to McCarthy and the Kennecott Mine and still have time to drive back this way to camp. There were wild raspberries growing everywhere by our camp spot so we put them on our bagels with Nutella. Yum!! The drive out to McCarthy was a lot easier than our book had said. It’s a nice packed gravel road but has lots of washboards. Back in the day when the mine abruptly shut down, it was vacant until some hippies made it out there in the 70’s. It’s still a cute hippy river town, but the National Parks Department took it over to stabilize and restore the old mine; therefore, turning it into a big touristy setup with a better road to get there. It was pretty cool. Vehicles have to park on one side of the river and then you walk across a pedestrian bridge to tour the town and mine.... Unless you have a motorcycle! They still allow motorcycles to ride across the narrow pedestrian bridge as long as no one is standing in your way. We drove all over town and right up to the mine while others had to take shuttle buses. There is a huge glacier in the background scenery of the mine with a whole valley full of sediment and limestone left by that glacier.

On our way out of town, we have to drive through a tiny town called Chitina. We had stopped there that morning for coffee and Jason wanted to stop there again to grab some beers for camp. While he was putting them in the cooler, a moose when cruising by right in the middle of town haha. We drove quite awhile and ended up camping in Copper City. It just so happened to be right on the river where they do fishing charters to catch salmon. After seeing the pictures of what everyone had caught that day, Jason bought a fishing license to try and catch some. Lets just say we only had instant mash potatoes and tomato veggie soup for supper that night.

Completed the whole Deh Cho route

Our time in Yellowknife was great after the rain stopped. We camped just outside of town by a lake, so we could go fishing. We were hoping to catch walleye but only caught northern pikes. I caught the 2 biggest ones and Jason caught the most fish. 

 

We filleted 2 of them and pan fried them for supper. We had quite the gourmet meal. We bought steak (in case we didn’t catch any fish), fried up the morel mushrooms Jason found, and made instant cheesy mash potatoes too! It was delicious!

From Yellowknife, we headed back to Fort Providence to refuel before the road changed to dirt toward Fort Laird. I didn’t know what to expect with this dirt road. The first section to our campsite at Sambaa Deh Falls wasn’t too bad. It was hard packed dirt/gravel with decent traction, so we could cruise at 100 km/h. I had to follow in Jason’s dust most of the time.

On the way to camp, we drove by bears 2 different times! One was a baby black bear running into the words (I thought it was a dog at first) and the other one was a decent sized black bear up the road from our camp. Lets just say we slept with the bear banger a little closer than normal that night haha. Our campground supervisor was really nice. He saw us roll in on motorcycles and knew we weren’t carrying much, so he brought us a picnic table awning to keep the bugs out while we ate. It was the best thing ever! We have been swamped with bugs ever since we crossed into the Northwest Territories.

 

The next morning we woke up to the smell of forest fire. It wasn’t too close by but things were definitely smokey. The stretch of dirt/gravel road we had from Sambaa Deh Falls to Fort Laird varied greatly plus it was sprinkling. We had nice packed gravel road that turned into packed dirt (which was nice because it wasn’t dusty) but then it turned into a freshly graded soft squishy dirt road. A water truck had gone through right before the tractors started grading, so we were quite muddy by the time we reached Fort Laird.

 

Thankfully the place we camped was right by Hay Lake. We were able to use our cooking pot to splash water on our bikes and ourselves to get the thick mud off.

 

Just as we were ready to eat supper it started pouring rain and it didn’t stop raining. We woke up to the sound of rain and went back to sleep hoping it would stop soon haha.

 

We still had at least 40km of now slimy muddy dirt road to get through before it turned to pavement again. By the time noon rolled around, it was still raining and we decided just to throw on all our waterproof gear from inside the tent, pack up as quickly as possible, and hit the road for Fort Nelson. That was the coldest rainiest day of driving yet! With heated gear, heated grips, and layers of clothes we were still cold. It was slow moving through the slimy dirt road, but we made it without any problems.

 

Once again we were covered head to toe in mud, so we put our bikes and ourselves through a car wash (not an automatic one haha) before checking into a hotel to dry out. Praying for no rain tomorrow!

A little overview of the Northwest Territories... the scenery is kind of like the Midwest (like Iowa) and they seem to have a lot of wild fires despite us getting rained on almost every day. Bugs are everywhere! The second we stopped our motorcycles we were swarmed with all kinds of flying bugs (gnats, horse flies, mosquitoes, etc) and they will try to fly into any and all holes in your head. So thankful to have bug nets with us! Jason absolutely hates eye drops but after a couple mosquitoes in his eyeballs, he grew to tolerate eye drops. :) Despite the rain and bugs, people were super friendly in NWT. They were excited to know where you are from and where you are heading and offered information about the area or places down the road. It was a good experience. Our next destination is Laird Hot Springs about 125 miles from Fort Nelson. Then we’ll continue up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, Yukon (where we are finally hoping to buy new tires).

Back Tracking

Howdy from Yellowknife, NWT!

 Time to back track on the weeks events. I think we left off when we were leaving Jasper National Park to go to Edson to possibly buy tires. Well...we didn't get tires. Most shops had ATV tires instead of dualsport tires, but they referred us to a shop in Grand Prairie. We headed up scenic highway 40 (which takes you up toward Alaska...first time we've been seeing signs for Alaska so that was exciting). It was a long drive so we camped at Musreau Lake.


It was a very pretty lake and surprisingly wasn't busy for Canada Day holiday week.  The next morning we arrived in Grand Prairie in search of the moto shop. We found it but they were closed for Canada Day. After much discussion we decided to hold off on getting tires until Whitehorse (after the Deh Cho route).

We wanted to get a picture of the beginning of the Alaska Highway so we headed to Dawson Creek for the night. While in the town center getting a picture of the mile zero statue, we met other riders who were on their way to Alaska.




Before heading off to Grimshaw on the Deh Cho route, we stopped in the tourist shop to buy a sticker for our pannier boxes. The info lady suckered us into participating in a contest where you have to stop at a tourist info center in each providence on the Deh Cho route and get our "passport" stamped. We needed 8 total stamps (3 from each providence) to wina chance at the grand prize, which is a big diamond from Yellowknife. We love scavenger hunts so we decided to play along.


Before leaving the Alaska Highway, we wanted to check out the biggest curved wooden bridge. Wooden bridges and I don't get along (especially when they are wet) so Jason wanted a picture of me conquering this bridge haha. It was pretty cool. Must have taken forever to build!



We made it to Grimshaw where the Mackenzie Highway starts!



We stayed at Queen Elizabeth campground for the night. We could see the start of the wild fires everyone was talking about. We were supposed to be driving through smoke all through the next day. One of the tourist info ladies said last year they had 400 wild fires. All but one of those fires were caused by lightning!

You can see the smokey haze over everything as we drove down to the La Crete ferry. We picked up a lot of stamps for our "passports" on this side route on the Deh Cho; however, it wasn't the best drive. It was super windy, smokey, and long boring roads the entire time. The last town on this route was called High Level. We initially thought about staying the night in this town because we were tired of the wind and it looked like rain. After having supper and stopping by a store, we decided it was in our best interest to move on even though it was late (having daylight til almost midnight helps haha).
Here is a nice homeless native lady that asked me if she could kiss Jason haha!


We drove through the cold pouring rain til about 8:30 at night to reach the 60th Parallel campground in the Northwest Territories. We were immediately greeted by swarms of bugs. People were not joking when they said they have lots of bugs here!

 The next morning it was still rainy and windy, but the campground supervisors who were also the visitor center people were super nice and gave us coffee and a lot of info about the rest of our route in NWT.



We are hoping to see an arctic fox, a polar bear, and a muskox while up here. We noticed a pamphlet about morel mushrooms on the table and the lady said on our way to Yellowknife we'll see a bunch of people camping on the side of the roads. After each wild fire when the undergrowth starts to grow back, morel mushrooms pop up everywhere. Jason was super excited to here this!

The plan for the day was to stop at all the waterfalls on our way to Hay River and then camp at Lady Evelyn Falls. For the rest of our trip til we get to Alaska, we have to manage our fuel wisely (very long distances between gas stations).


Here we are at Alexandria Falls. Jason talks about which direction he would run his kayak over the falls at each one haha.


Louise Falls

Twin Falls

Here is Jason standing at the Great Slave Lake in Hay River. This is where his dad put in his canoe way back in the day when he paddle the Mackenzie River. It was great getting to see the places his dad told stories about. It just so happened to be their Hay Days festival the day we rolled into town, so we sat in the park next to the lake eating pretzel covered hotdogs and listening to live music. We did a little grocery shopping to buy campfire supper (mash potatoes and beef stew) and headed off to find Lady Evelyn campground.

The next morning we packed up, ate breakfast (I shared my poptart with a squirrel who later stole my peanut butter snack off my bike haha), and fueled up to go see Yellowknife. We have been very fortunate so far to not have to deal with road closures due to the wild fires. It rains on us enough that the fires are out and just smoking when we go by. Just like the lady said though there were camps set up everywhere along the road of people looking for morel mushrooms. Jason was determine to get some so we pulled off the road, I pretended to be dumping my fuel can into my tank (which I needed to do anyway), and Jason ran off into the woods to find some mushrooms. I never expected him to come back with 2 pockets full of them haha! We'll be frying them up with some walleye hopefully tonight.


We chickened out and got a hotel room our first night in Yellowknife. It had been raining all day, the road was the longest straightest 400km road you've ever seen (with frost heaves and potholes for the last 40km), and it was cold (14 degrees Celsius... don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but it's chilly). The scenery has changed to just short trees and rocks instead of green big trees and mountains. So far we are not too thrilled about Yellowknife. They have good fishing though, so we are about to pack up and find a camp spot to fish all day. Fingers crossed for some walleye or arctic char (salmon)!

Quick update...

All is good here. We are grabbing supper at a restaurant that happened to have internet in High Level, Alberta before we head to our campsite in the Northwest Territories. Drove most of the day in a fog of smoke from all the forest fires.