Heading South to Warm Up

Howdy!

Jason and I packed up camp and decided to eat breakfast in Tok at a place called Fast Eddy’s. They always have really tasty food. We were half asleep drinking our coffee when someone walks up and asked if he could sit with us. It was Chris (the guy we rode with after Deadhorse who has the BMW 1200)!! He recognized our bikes while riding by and stopped by to say hello. It was a nice surprise. We shared our route plans and Chris showed us some roads to take down the Cassiar Highway side since he had already come up that way. 

We were all heading toward Haines but Jason and I had to stop for gas after breakfast, so Chris went ahead without us. We knew we’d probably meet up again down the road. The riding from Tok to Haines Junction is quite droning but still very beautiful. 

 

We stopped in Delta Junction for a picture with the end of the Alaska Highway statue and the mosquito sculpture. The mosquitos are for real that big up here haha. 

 

From here down the southeast tail of Alaska, we will be hopping back and forth between Canada and the U.S. If Jason had any problems getting into Canada from Alaska, our plan was to take the pricey ferry from Alaska to Seattle. There was quite a long line at the Alaska Highway border crossing into Canada. Jason always goes first so I know if he made it or not. He got the green light to pull up, gave them his passport, and waited.... and waited..... and waited haha. I was getting a bit nervous for him. We turn our Sena communication devices off at border crossings so I didn’t know what was going on. Eventually he pulled forward and I went through. Once I caught up with him he said when the border guard scanned his passport, the computer broke haha! That was convenient. They had to do everything manually until the computer was fixed. No wonder the border guard was grumpy when I went through.

Right before we drove by Destruction Bay, there was tons of road construction. It wasn’t too bad except for the deep gravel parts and all the dust and rocks cars were throwing. At least we got to see a bobcat or small mountain lion run across the road. We finally drove by Destruction Bay. Everyone kept asking if we had seen it but we couldn’t remember (it’s because we just hadn’t driven passed it til now haha). It was big and beautiful but very windy around there.

We rolled into Haines Junction around 6 or 7pm and needed to find a place to camp. There was no way we’d make it to Haines that night. We checked out one campground next to a lake but was super crowded so kept going. We found a few side roads so Jason went to check them out. Sometimes the side roads can be steep, rutty, muddy, or all of the above with very little space to turn around; so I always have Jason cruise through first. He gets his single track riding fix and I don’t have to get stuck somewhere I can’t get out of haha. The second road he checked out he came back to the main road with half a tree stuck to the side of his pannier box. He’s like “well... it’s a cool spot but it’s a little steep.” I told him we’d keep looking haha. The next road was perfect. It was far enough off the main road and had a previous campfire pit set up.

We cooked up some backpacker meals and crawled into the tent to sleep. It was a very very cold night. Sometime early in the morning we heard a creature moving around outside our tent. It was too early and still too cold to get out of our sleeping bags to check and see what it was so we let it be. We eventually convinced ourselves to get up and get on the road. There were moose prints all over the ground so that must have been our mystery visitor.

About 20 miles down the road, we had to cross the border again back into Alaska.

Haines is known for having tons of bald eagles. It was a very cute small ocean side town.

We grabbed lunch, did a little browsing through town, and then drove out to the ferry to see how much tickets were for us and our bikes to sail to Skagway. The next ferry out of Haines didn’t go until tomorrow at 11:30am, so we needed to find a place to camp but needed to refill our water container first. We figured the people at the visitor center had a sink with drinking water, so that’s where we headed. Believe it or not....Chris was there haha! We got to finally hang out. We had read in the adventure motorcycle book that there was a tent-only campground at the end of town. It was a beautiful grassy lawn with an ocean view.... perfect! Chris, Jason, and I set up camp and then wanted to explore town more. I think we drove every little road in that town. It was cool to find all the hidden coves and hiking trails.

We grabbed dinner together and then sat around a campfire sharing moto stories and had a great time.

Morning came so we packed up camp and had to catch the ferry to Skagway. Chris decided he would like to stay in Haines an extra day to do some hiking. We had to wait in line for the ferry with a bunch of motorhomes and other cars.

We couldn’t believe how big this boat was!

Once it was our turn to load into the bottom of the boat, we noticed there was another couple riding behind us. They had almost the exact bikes as us too haha. They were super cool (a young couple from B.C.).

We cruised around the boat and then sat in the café to share moto stories with them. I love chatting with another woman rider who is short like me! She has all the same problems that I do so I don’t feel alone in the struggle. The ferry got into Skagway around noon. Skagway looks like a bigger version of Dawson City.

It had the old time gold rush architecture but with some upgrades (lots and lots of tourist shops). Our moto book told us about a campground on a dirt road outside of town before the Canada border crossing.

We cruised out there to check it out. It was kind of crowded but we wanted to check out the rivers for salmon, bears, and other wildlife; so we decided to stay. Right out front of the campground there was a seal swimming around. I thought it was a dog at first. Then we rode out toward the mud flats. There were a couple people fishing in that river. When we walked over there, we could see why.... hundreds of salmon were making their way upstream.

There were so many you could have walked across the river on top of them without getting wet. We didn’t see any bears though.

We packed up camp quickly the next morning. Rumor had it that rain was moving in. The border crossing was only 20 miles out of town. Every time we cross into B.C. the scenery is just insanely beautiful.

Waterfalls everywhere, big mountains, and beautiful blue water. The Canadian border guard was super friendly. Quick and easy and we’re back in Canada. Not too far down the road a van was pulled over with its turn signal on. There were no cars coming the other way so we just went around him. We almost were stopped in our tracks. 2 big black bear were sitting in the road in front of the van haha! We weren’t able to get a picture but they were cute. It was a chilly day of riding in and out of rain. We stopped in a tiny little rest stop/restaurant for lunch and to warm up with more coffee. Not a very eventful riding day which can be a good thing. We stopped for fuel at the turn off for the Cassier Highway and then headed South. The Cassier Highway is quite beautiful! We encountered very little traffic, lots of brand new pavement, and nice curvy corners. This road is much better than the Alaska Highway. We stopped to refill our water container at a campground but it was $22 to camp there so decided to cruise down a trail to find our own camp site. It wasn’t too bad. Still looked like rain but thankfully never did.

We had quite a ways to go to get to Hyder but the scenery was nice. We stopped by Jade City, which is a rock store with mostly artsy stuff made out of jade. Lots of beautiful things but super pricey.

 

It unfortunately started raining on us and Jason’s heated gear wasn’t working (must have blown a fuse). We grabbed a nice hot soup and sandwich lunch at a small town restaurant to warm up a little. While we were eating, a Brazilian kid stopped by on a KLR.

He was making his way North from Argentina. He was trying to earn money for his travels as he went, so we bought one of his website stickers from him. We should have made stickers for ours too but we didn’t even think about it before we left. Anyway... we had to wait 45 minutes for gas before hitting the road because a whole convoy of motorhomes with 100 gallon gas tanks got there before us. Even when it was our turn, some old guy with his crappy leprechaun motorhome was so impatient and rude to us. We made sure to smile and wave at him every time we flew passed him on the road after that haha. Another 160 miles down the road, I needed to stop for gas again. Right before our next gas stop, there was a black bear eating something on the side of the road. Jason did a uturn to go get a picture of him haha. Our communication device didn’t reach that far; so if he wasn’t back in 10 minutes, I was supposed to go looking for him.

Thankfully the bear was more scared of him than he was of the bear and it walked away. The place we stopped for gas was called Bell 2 Lodge (Last Frontier Heli Skiing Lodge). We were over the rain so Jason went in to see how much a room there cost.

It was really reasonable, so we had a lavish comfortable evening in our own cabin with a wood burning stove. We had one of the best steak dinners there, sat in the hot tub, followed by the sauna, and then ended the evening by sipping wine by the fireplace. It was amazing!!

We took our time getting ready in the morning. We had a nice breakfast in the lodge and talked with the head chef about heli skiing. He was a cool guy (an adrenaline junky like us). Jason put a new fuse in his heated gear set up just in case of rain again and we were good to go. The day started out nice but then it was cold and rainy all the way into Stewart and Hyder. It was one of the most beautiful scenic roads we have ever seen though!

 

Huge green covered mountains with glaciers and waterfalls everywhere you look. It’s really hard to keep your eyes on the road there. We stopped for lunch in Stewart before crossing the border into Hyder.

Hyder is still part of Alaska but there wasn’t a border crossing guard for the U.S. there (only coming back into Canada).

We wanted to check out the spot where you can stand on a bridge and watch bears eat the salmon in the river. We heard this time of year is when they go nuts for them. There were signs everywhere that said “Please walk on boardwalk. The street is too dangerous because of bears crossing.” They definitely went over the top to keep people safe here.

The boardwalk is gated off at all entrances so bears can’t get in and you’re supposed to keep all food and pets inside your vehicle. We weren’t thinking clearly when we went to look at the bears... animals feed at dusk and dawn and we were there around 2pm so we didn’t see any. I guess there were a couple grizzlies feeding there at 9pm the other night.

We didn’t want to stick around til dark. It had started pouring rain again; so we went back into Stewart, bought a few groceries, and fueled up. While at the gas station, Jason decided to have a look at his chain (it had been making terrible noises for the past few days). It wasn’t the chain... his sprocket was so bad it had teeth missing. Thank God he had new sprockets with him!!

We sat under a tree to replace his sprockets out of the rain. The old mechanic at the gas station was super nice and used his air gun tool to change Jason’s sprocket bolts over to the new one for him. Quick and easy fix and back on the road. We wanted to drive out of the rain and hopefully find a spot to camp.

 

Not too far out of town there was a black bear sitting on the side of the road eating plants. I guess he didn’t get the memo about all the salmon in the river. We didn’t get a picture of that cute bear because Jason had the camera and he was daydreaming and never saw him sitting there haha. We stopped a lot on the way out of Stewart to take pictures. It was just crazy beautiful all around us. Once we made it to the turn off toward Prince George, the rain went away. There was no way we could have made it to Prince George before dark, so we explored a nice gravel forest service road to find a camp spot. Off this road was another side road but it was a little overgrown, so I let Jason check it out first. He went in a little ways and said “Bear!” I said “Well... guess we aren’t camping here!” I understand there are bears all around us when we go camping; but if we actually see one and I know it is there next to us, that’s a good enough excuse not to stick around. We explored a bit further down the gravel road and found a beautiful grassy knoll next to a bridge above a big river. It was perfect!

There were only 2 directions a bear could come from, so there was no sneaking up on us there. The little bit of grocery shopping I had done earlier was to make a fancy appetizer before Jason before our usual backpacker meals. We had capocollo (meat that looks like prosciutto), cheese, crackers, and wine. For dessert, we had homemade chocolate chip cookies.

 

We had a great evening sitting there listening to Jack Johnson music and enjoying the quiet forest. Once the sun went down, we went to bed; but then we heard a car door slam. Who seriously would be way out here in the middle of the night?! We both crawled out of the tent with a bear banger and knife in hand just in case haha. It was just a couple of giggly teenagers going out on the bridge to do whatever teenagers do under the stars. We stayed up for awhile to make sure they didn’t steal anything on their way out and then went back to sleep.

In the morning, we packed up camp and then wanted to explore the river bank below us. I had noticed there was a collapsed old building down there the night before. I bet there was some cool stuff hidden inside that house.

We didn’t want to get stabbed by rusty nails or fall through holes so we didn’t crawl over the mess, but it looked like someone had lived there not too long ago. Then we found this....

 

A big mama bear foot print with little bear cub foot prints right along the water’s edge which was also right below where we were sleeping! Good thing I always sleep with the bear banger next to me. We hopped back on the bikes and cruised out to the main road to find a trash can to dump our trash. While Jason was throwing stuff away, I noticed a white stripe on his tire. He checked it out and sure enough the threads on his tire were showing through!

We had planned on getting new tires in Prince George but now it looked like his tire wouldn’t last that long. We drove slow all day to try not to explode his tire. We stopped at every motorcycle shop in Smithers to at least get Jason a new rear tire to get us to Prince George. Surprisingly no one had a tire that fit his bike except for one tiny Suzuki shop. Their mechanic was busy but they let Jason use their shop to change his tire.

I sat outside and typed away on our blog stories. About an hour later, Jason comes rolling out and instantly I can see his tire is wobbling like crazy. He said it will be fine and we hit the road. We didn’t make it too far before he realized his tire was seriously wobbling. We went back to a gas station across the street from where he bought the tire to use their air pump to try and seat the bead better. As he was reaching down to unscrew the valve cap, the tire exploded as loud as a bomb! Thankfully he wasn’t hurt! The tire must have had a defect in the steel wall of the tire because it shouldn’t have exploded like that.

 

So...we were back to square one. Jason walked back to the motorcycle shop to see if he had another tire he could buy. The only thing he had left was a skinny dirt bike tire. It made his bike look like a body builder with skinny chicken legs haha. After a very long stressful day, Jason wanted a shower and chicken wings from Boston Pizza, so we got a hotel room in Smithers. Our bikes (and us) are a bit tired so we’ve been finding more excuses for getting a hotel room instead of camping. Hopefully we’ll snap out of that. We’ve been doing mechanic work for one thing after another since we left Alaska, so it makes for slow moving travel.

We had a nice night, did some laundry, showered, grabbed breakfast at Tim Horton, and got on the road for Prince George. We rolled into town around 5pm so we had to hurry if we were going to tire shop before the shops closed. We went to 3 different shops before Jason found the tires he wanted. He bought Heidenau Scout tires which are said to last for 15,000 miles. He made an appointment at Forest Powersports to get the tires put on in the morning. Sadly nobody had tires for my bike. We stayed in another hotel room that night since we were in a city.

The next morning I slept in while Jason took his bike in to get new tires.

 

The guys at Forest Powersports were super cool and helped Jason out a lot. They even went over our map with us to show us some cool roads since we hadn’t planned that far ahead on our route yet. Most of the time Jason will ask me, “Do you know where we are going?” and I’ll say, “Nope I’m just following this road.” Haha that is how most of our traveling has been lately.

Anyway, we wanted to get out of the city so we cruised toward a lake district that the guy from the shop said was nice for camping. There were some beautiful twisty roads and then it turned to gravel.

We checked out a few side roads and decided to do a Uturn back to one of the roads we saw. For this Uturn, Jason went off the road into a grassy square area and then ramped back up on to the road in the opposite direction. I followed and did all the hard stuff perfectly except my short legs couldn’t touch the ground after my suspension rebounded once I was back on the road; so I plopped sideways again. I hate it when that happens! I have to take the box off the side I fell on, take all the stuff out of it, pop the side of the box out again, and then put everything back in the box. But anyway... we found a camp spot up an old logging road. It wasn’t ideal but it was doable for the night.

Jason bought some yummy smoked salmon to go with the rest of our crackers and cheese.

Then we cooked chicken noodle soup, but didn’t have enough water to wash dishes; so we used bundles of long grass to clean dishes haha. It actually worked quite well. Right as we were going to bed, wolves started howling! There was a pack of wolves behind us somewhere howling toward a pack of wolves down by the road where we came in. Thankfully we never saw them close up but it was hard to sleep that night.

To the Top of the World!

Good morning!

It’s a beautiful day for going to the top of the world! The sun was shining again and mountainous views were everywhere. We had 240 miles to Deadhorse and it was mostly gravel/dirt roads. Atigun Pass was very beautiful!

It was a little cold going through there but we threw some more layers on so it was tolerable. There were a few sections that were a little sketchy but it was from road construction. They completely soak the road with water and calcium chloride and then use road graders to mix it all up which just turns it into slimy soft mud.

Thankfully the mechanics in Fairbanks told us about spraying our radiators with WD40 before we started up the Dalton Highway because it prevents the calcium chloride from caking on it. We stopped for lunch (a can of cold soup) on the side of the road halfway to Deadhorse. It was very scenic with the oil pipeline on one side of the road and a little pond with endless tundra on the other side. We were getting ready to leave when a truck stopped by with the guys in it. They said there was a wolf chasing 2 caribou just on the other side of the hill from us. They only saw one caribou come out alive. They also said there was a grizzly bear spotted where we were eating lunch just the other day too; so basically they were saying don’t stay in one spot too long... there were too many big hungry creatures nearby haha. I dumped more fuel in my tank and off we went. The biggest thing you need to watch out for on this road is the semi trucks.

If you slow down and give them plenty of room, you shouldn’t get a rock in your face because the truck drivers will slow down too. However if you’re a jerk and take up half the road and keep cruising at 65mph, you will be killed by flying rocks from the semi’s tires. Jason was only hit in the balls once by a rock and thankfully it didn’t hurt him because we were nearly stopped. We passed by some RV drivers who had cracked windshields from golf ball sized rocks.

With just 20 miles to Deadhorse, the road turned to crap. Early in the spring the river/lake rose too high and washed a section of road away. When we got there, they were in the process of rebuilding. It was layers and layers of big rock gravel with sunken in muddy sections from semi tires. As long as we stood on our pegs and let the bikes bounce around underneath us, we could cruise right through. Some motorcyclists took one look at it and considered turning around but pushed through because they came that far and wanted to finish the journey.

Yay!!! We made it to Deadhorse!!

We wanted to take the tour van up to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay but the last one left at 3pm and we didn’t get there til 3:30pm. Oh well! It all worked out. While we were in the general store buying souvenirs, we were told it was going to snow on Atigun Pass tonight. That was enough motivation to push us out the door, refuel, and speed off to get over the mountain pass before we froze to death. We also figured we better take advantage of the nice sunny weather while we had it (the road gets really really slippery in the rain and it rains often up here). This time of year it doesn’t get dark til almost 1:30am so we had plenty of driving hours. We left Deadhorse around 4:30pm and only stopped once for Jason to eat some candy and refuel my bike. We were coming over a hill shortly after we started riding again and there were 2 cars stooped on the side of the road with people walking around. We thought maybe they had an accident or something so we slowed down. As we approached them we saw a huge grizzly bear sitting on the side of the road!

He was just chillin’ and digging in the dirt. We took some great pictures and decided to sneak past him. He just lifted his head to look at us and then went back to digging haha. We also saw a muskox from a long distance. We wished we would have seen one close up. We made it over Atigun Pass around 8:15pm. It definitely felt cold enough to snow. We were super tired and hungry from riding 500 miles in one day, so we tried to find a place to camp. Most of the side roads are privately owned by the oil companies, but we found a quiet corner by a gravel quarry to sleep for the night.

It was so peaceful. The wind was blocked and there were beautiful mountains on either side of us. Besides having to re-inflate my air mattress a few times throughout the night, we slept like a rock.

The next morning was a little cloudy but still dry. We took our time packing up, made coffee and breakfast, and then headed back into Coldfoot for fuel. Not too long after that the clouds started to roll in and it rained. At least the last 200 miles were half paved so we didn’t get into too much mud. Just enough mud to make us and our bikes really dirty haha. We decided to warm up a bit and eat lunch at the Yukon River camp (and refuel the bikes). When we walked through the door, there sat Chris (the BMW 1200GS rider we met in Talkeetna)! We had a great time taking with him all through lunch. Since we were all heading in the same direction, we tried to ride together; however, the boys left me in their dust (or mud I should say). Jason would have loved to fly down the road at 80mph with Chris but my poor little bike maxed out at 70mph, so he slowed down to stay with me. We caught up with Chris at the Dalton Highway sign, took some pictures, and discussed our next riding plans. Originally Jason and I had wanted to go see Manley Hot Springs but it was way too wet and muddy, so we passed on that one. All 3 of us decided to go to a car wash in Fairbanks before making any more decisions.

Calcium chloride from the dirt roads is tremendously corrosive to the bikes so it’s best to get it off asap. Even though it wasn’t a shower, it felt good to be “clean”. We were still cold and it looked like it could possibly rain again, so Jason decided he would like to treat us to a nice night at Chena Hot Springs. It was still 60 miles from Fairbanks and it was getting late so we camped on a beautiful grassy lawn at Rosehips Campground in the national park and would drive the rest of the way in the morning.

It was such a great night! It started to rain so we crawled into the tent to eat our supper and shared stories all evening about our lives before we met and reminisced on our time together.

Thankfully the rain was gone in the morning! We arrived in Chena Hot Springs around noon and Jason reserved us a room. We couldn’t check in until 4pm; so we grabbed lunch at the café, checked out the caribou, and cruised around the property.

They had a dog kennel full of sled dogs and puppies, so Jason surprised me with a tour!

I love sled dogs!! I even got to hop in the puppy pen and play with every single puppy! They quickly found out I had Velcro on my riding pants and thought it was the best toy ever haha. I couldn’t move without at least 3 puppies hanging off my pants.

Shortly after our puppy tour, our room was ready and we hopped into our swimsuits. The hot spring was soooooo nice!!

We soaked for hours and then went to the lodge for supper. The owner of the whole resort stopped by the bar while we were sitting there and bought us all a round of drinks. The people sitting next to us were there for 6 weeks as consultants for the owner guy. Supposedly the owner is trying to be completely self-sufficient in his power usage for the entire resort. It was interesting listening to how they make their power and their plans for future power plants using the existing hot water source but also recycling plastics to create different oils and fuel sources. They have a good thing going here. Chena Hot Spring’s employees are all given housing, food, and get paid for their work here. Anyway... we eventually stopped chatting with everyone around midnight and went to bed.

The morning was very very cold and rainy so we decided to stay an extra day to just relax in the hot spring. Instead of paying a bunch for a room, we downgraded to a yurt (a yurt is a large tent big enough for 3 cots and a table with chairs).

It was better than getting our own tent wet. We spent the entire day soaking in the hot springs and then ate dinner at the lodge again. We didn’t want to be up super late again so we just ate and went back to the yurt to get ready for bed. The cots provided in this yurt thing were not the greatest. We thought it was a great idea to fit both of us on one cot that night. Terrible idea!

It was the coldest most uncomfortable night ever haha! Besides having a cold hard cot to sleep on, there was a generator as loud as an airplane not too far from our yurt making noise all night long to keep their ice museum cold. The ice museum is a bar completely made out of ice inside a large dome thing and only serves appletinis. We never went in because it’s a nice 20 degrees Fahrenheit in there, you have to pay $40 to get in, and Jason only drinks Budlight. It is cool though that their martini glasses are made out of ice too. Anyway...we were like zombies the next day from lack of sleep and it was still pouring rain, so we grabbed breakfast and hit the road. We really really wanted to drive out to Circle, which is a small town where Jason’s dad visited back in the day; but it had been raining so much lately we figured the dirt road would be a terrible muddy mess and decided to head back to Fairbanks. Jason was still waiting on some parts for his bike from a moto shop there and we wanted to get a hold of Big Agnes to see if my air mattress was covered under warranty, so we stayed at a motel in Fairbanks to be able to use our cell phones and internet. Good news for the air mattress! Big Agnes said they will mail us a new one asap; but we are constantly on the move and don’t have a place for them to mail it to, so we’ll pick it up at Jason’s sister’s house in Seattle.

The rest of Jason’s spare water pump kit parts and the new odometer cable finally arrived in the morning, so it was time to head South. It’s getting too cold up here! Like Jason said, “It feels like winter is nipping at our heels!” We stopped by the North Pole to say “Hi” to Santa Clause and buy more souvenirs which we are running out of room for haha.

From there we hauled ass to Tok. We loved the motorcycle campground so much we stayed there again. We got to chat with Vanessa (the owner) and used the maintenance station to do an oil change on my bike. We decided to rent one of her cabins, so we could stay warm and cover my air pad with duct tape.

Vanessa heated up the sauna room for us again. It was sooooo nice! We need to build one of these for our home in Colorado. 

One thing that we are not used to yet is having to use our headlamps. It has been daylight for most of our trip up north so we haven’t needed them. Another thing that is going to have to change is our riding time. We have been doing some 10 hour riding days just because it’s nice and sunny and there are places we’d like to get to. Now we are back to finding a camp spot early enough in the evening to cook supper before dark. Speaking of dark... it’s time for bed. Heading toward Haines tomorrow.