June 5th ride report. The Migration and no’s.

To explain that title before I give you today’s short ride report. Talk about a migration of RV’s heading to Alaska. Yesterday I forgot to mention the fact that just about every single vehicle that passed me in the opposite direction was an RV. Sometimes they were 4 and 5 deep in trail. Today same thing, all heading to Alaska. So make note to yourself, the first week of June is the RV migration to Alaska. It means something, I just know it does. What about the NO’s. Once I pulled out of Whitehorse, I had no cell service for 644 miles of driving. No major restaurants or gas station either. Just mom an pop type businesses which is fine but I find it unusual. I had no trouble finding a place to eat or getting fuel, but not even major Canadian names were to be found. Luckily, my little tiny motel has wi-fi.

Let’s start by talking about the weather report for today’s ride. When I went to bed the forecast for the town I was sitting in, Whitehorse was 50% chance of rain and increasing throughout the day. The weather forecast for Stewart, my destination, was for rain the next 5 days. No way I wasn’t going to get wet and be a little cool with a high forecast at 50. When I awoke, the sun was out. Hehe! I love it. It was chilly at 45, but sunny. The ride down to Stewart looked threatening at times but I never hit more than just a few sprinkles that lasted no more than 2 miles of driving. For the most part it stayed partly cloudy most of the day. I had to barely turn my heated suit on some parts of the day at higher elevations. Like Ms. Tippens says, “Keep those toesies warm!.” So I feel extremely lucky to have had the views today along my ride. The rain? I’ve got the gear to handle that, but it just ruins the views and I do not take pictures in the rain.

The ride from Whitehorse to the break off of Route 37 was ok, but the ride on 37 was awesome. I finally had the opportunity for almost 400 miles to lean into some curves and find out what those hard dirt bike tires can do. Once they are warm and burned in a bit they do pretty better damn good, not street tire good, but well enough that I leaned the girl at high speed. The views down 37 were everything that I read about. Everything has turn a deep rich green and the only thing that ruined some of the views, was man. They’re putting some new electric poles to transfer power along the route for about 30 miles. Damn it was ugly.

Going to make this short because I didn’t arrive into Stewart until 7:10pm. Why? The route today was 644 miles. Long day and it was longest planned route of the trip because there is nothing in between to two points. Well almost nothing! I know there is no damn cell service.

The turn off of route 37 onto 37a was a 32 mile ride into Stewart. Wow. Towering mountains lined the road on both sides. Snow still melting down the sides. Some of the snow slid down into streams and staked itself over 2 stories tall and almost covered the stream beds. Then the glacier sliding down the mountain. Pretty spectacular visuals to drive for the first time. Did I mention waterfalls? Yes waterfalls to. Tomorrow on my way out, I will take more time to get more pictures of this road. The town of Stewart? Let’s just say, there ain’t much here. My room has a TV but no service for channels. They offered to bring a satellite receiver for the night, but since it was so late, I can live without it. Kind of peaceful. When I finish this blog, it’ll be time for bed.

When I pulled into town and fellow actually followed me the motel by foot and waited until I got my room to speak. He needed help and he was a rider. He saw my bike driving through town, one street town remember, and saw the tires hanging on the sides, and thought there was a chance one might fit his bike. He is driving an RT1200 BMW. His tire width is 180 and mine in 150 and I just do think my skinny tire will inflate on the wider rim. The chords are showing on his tires and air is leaking from multiple places. I had nothing on my bike that would solve his issue. I offered my inner tube, because that would likely do it, but when he said he needed to travel 300 miles to Prince Rupert to catch a ferry, I didn’t think his tire would hold together that long. A bit risky driving on a tire that could shred at speed. I really felt bad for him and if it were me, I would have been on the phone all day getting a tire overnighted. He spent his day trying to come up with a patch. I wished him the best and we parted. I would have given him the tire if it would have worked.

Tomorrow is just a another transition day for me and I’m heading to Prince George, BC. That will set me up for my entry into Vancouver. The ride into Vancouver is suppose to one of the best twisty roads out there. Come on dry payment, no traffic, and no repair work. Speaking of repair work. After all the worrying I did about road repair, I got stopped for maybe 2 minutes all day and all the other sites under repair, I just blew right through them. Fairbanks to Deadhorse was good training and now I see repair work and think, come on just let me through.

Today’s ride was 644 miles putting my trip total @ 8205. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that is close to being my high for a trip. I would have to look that up. I may have done 8500 before. Tomorrow my departure point should be overcast with possible morning showers but I think my route should be mostly sunny. Prince George might be sunny and 65.

Pictures of the Day