Up early for a long day’s ride today. 280 miles to go to Tok.

In Haines Junction, it was an extremely small town with about 8 motels/inns and two hippy type shops and bakeries that did real health foods, and organic rawfoods.  We bought our breakfast in the shop there, Turkey roll for Paul and rice with cranberries for me. Absolutely delicious.  Sometimes we have really struggled with the lack of nutritious food choices, it’s burgers and hot dogs all the way, so we’re hoping we can have some fresh salmon and halibut in Alaska.

Once again, the chill wind was blowing, and the temperature gauge stayed down at 11.5 degrees for a long time. We stopped for Hot Chocolate after riding 65 miles to the first available service area, and what a lovely treat that was.  Paul also bought himself some straps, as the extra petrol can we bought a couple of weeks ago has taken to swinging about a bit whilst in transit.

At about 100 miles into our ride, we came across the first Construction work on the road, and then sat either at traffic lights or behind the Pilot Car again for the next 40 miles. We were taken through mud, gravel and clouds of dust.  The trees lining the roads either side were sheathed in dust overcoats. Still, a very essential part of the highway maintenance here.

A stop for lunch found us in another tiny bakery/creperie which was rather odd.  We plumped for a lunch of soup, which was really just warm water with celery floating in it (Paul hates celery).

At about mile 170 today we reached the U.S border to Alaska, and were passed through easy enough. We were even allowed a ‘bear’ stamp in our passports.

We are stopping tonight in a cabin at Tok, and what we have noticed being back in the U.S straightaway is that the shops are full of guns for sale again.

A chillier start this morning, 11 degrees, but still sunny. I tucked myself into the sidecar warmly under the cover. No side winds for me today! 

We were accompanied by blue lakes on our left nearly all the way to Whitehorse.  

Whitehorse is a major town that sits in the centre of the Alaskan Highway but also has other major highways running to it, so it's more stocked, busy and bustling than we've seen for a week or so.  

Paul had been communicating with Yukon Yamaha to see if they could turn our tyres around on the rims for us.  They had said to try popping by. 

Because of the set up of the bike and sidecar the tyres wear unevenly, and turning them will extend the life. 

When we arrived at Yukon Yamaha they were exceedingly busy with riders all having new tyres fitted, either where they'd already been on the gravel roads, or were preparing for going. There was an awful lot of testosterone buzzing around. 

They could do it for us, Paul just had to go and buy a couple more tools and remove the two wheels for changing. No problem!! 

It all went well, we popped off to visit SS Klondike and now we're stopped for the night at Haines Junction 

 We’re not moving on too far today, so that we get a chance to keep comfortable and make sure we see what we want to see.

It was warmish and sunny when we left Watson Lake this morning, and we had only 160 miles to ride to Teslin, our stop for the night.  The Alaska Highway that we are following, takes us back into British Columbia briefly before returning to the Yukon Territory. 

We first heard about the Yukon on Ice Road Truckers, a tv programme that follows the winter truckers trekking all over Alaska, during winter, when some of the frozen rivers can be used as roads. 

I think it’s fair to say we see a lot of evidence of how difficult it must be to live here permanently, and for produce, goods and services to be delivered to the areas.  They are pretty remote; in that it takes hours to get anywhere.  There might be a sign at the roadside occasionally which will say, so and so lake 300 km east, and this would just be seen as a ‘Sidetrip’.  There is certainly no problem for the locals to drive 100’s of kilometres on a round trip to get what they need.

The only wildlife we saw today was a beautiful and friendly red squirrel, when we stopped to view some waterfalls. The stunning scenery has returned though. Endless pines, with the ghostly outlines of far off mountains always in the distance.

We are however, meeting more and more travellers, and the first question is always ‘are you going North or South?’, because most people using the Alaskan Highway are doing so to visit Alaska.  Everyone is friendly and there is feeling of a camaraderie among us. It’s a feeling of heading for the top of the world, only the foolhardy may apply!

Our stop tonight is at Mile 804 of the highway, Teslin, which was the domain of Native Indians and Inuits until the White Men came and changed everything in 1942 with the building of the Alaskan Highway.

It was an emotional parting yesterday morning.  Jane and Nick were making the turn to head back South through Jasper Park and Icefields Parkway, for another 5 days, and we were setting off for another long day’s ride North. As Jane turned away, rather than look when we left, I’m guessing she feels the same.

If all goes to plan, it will be another six months or so before we see anyone from home, and that can feel very overwhelming at times.  Paul and I both seem to manage it by only looking as far as the next couple of days riding, or planning, just so that it’s small chunks of time.  As we well know, everything can change in an instant.  This also means that hopefully, we enjoy the moment and are not always excited about the next best thing coming.

As we left the town of Fort Nelson, a great mist descended thickly over the tree-lined roads, causing wet screens and visors, but not enough to be raining.  The temperature was at about 12.5 degrees Celsius, and the midges were definitely raging.

After about an hour, we came very suddenly to the end of the mist, and popped into high blue skies and bright sunshine. The temperature then began rising until it peaked around 25 degrees Celsius, much more pleasant.

Our ride today was to be 325 miles long, approximately 100 more than we normally ride, and although the roads are straight and direct, there are still quite a lot of construction parts, with gravel, and speed limits. This mileage is essential though, because the distances between settlements is huge. There are stretches of road, the like we’ve never seen at home, which are just tree-lined, and green.  I’m guessing you have to be bred tough to live your life in these parts, and extremely self-sufficient. Our first stop of the day, at a service area in the middle of nowhere was at Stone Mountain services, where we were offered coffee and home-made cakes.  Paul plumped for the chocolate haystack, and was most pleased.

Whilst sitting, recharging, we met Johnny, a Canadian from Vancouver, who had been riding happily alone in Alaska for one month. Johnny was excited and enthusiastic about his travels, and happy to share where he had been with us. I think, really Johnny would have preferred to turn around and head back North behind us. It’s so great to meet people who have been where we are going and had a great time.

As is often the case, we find, when people live near to borders, or out of the way places that people visit, they will start telling us, ‘oh, you don’t want to go there, it’s boring/the road’s rubbish/it’s full of bears/there’s nothing to see’, that kind of thing. We’ve learnt to take it all with a pinch of salt, so when we meet someone with genuine enthusiasm, it’s an absolute joy.

The highlight of the day, was the ride in the sun, seeing two bears at the roadside, and an elk running alongside us.

Last night, and today we are staying in Watson Lake, which could be described I think, as a two horse town, with a beautiful lake, and the most interesting Signpost Forest, which has more than 75,000 visitor’s signs pinned up. Signpost Forest was started in 1942, during construction of the Alaskan Highway by Carl K Lindley of Company D, 341^st Engineers, who put up a sign with mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois, and has grown from there.

aIt seemed strange setting off in convoy this morning, with the normal bike and sidecar, followed by the throaty roar of Nick’s Mustang!

At first, it was a little overcast but not too bad after the torrential rain of yesterday evening. Grand Cache had turned out to be a stop in the busy area of workers, and not a great deal else. 

There are immense stretches of road here with nothing by the sides apart from Landfill,  Energy supplying plants, or logging companies. The trucks are a lot longer and are allowed to drive a lot faster than at home, some bombing along at 80 mph. Understandable though, because it’s so far to anywhere here.

The sun did come out in the end, and we cruised along enjoying it, whilst Jane and Nick really enjoyed the benefits of their convertible roof, once they had passed us, we also enjoyed their music playing at high volumes!

Dawson Creek was a fairly large place 60,000 plus population, but most exciting for us is that is at mile Zero of the Alaskan Highway (also known as the Alcan). We have this wonderful guide book with us, The Mile Post, which details every single mile of this historic highway.

The highway now runs for 1,387 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada to Delta Junction, in Alaska, America, but was originally 1,700 miles long when built in 1942 over the 7 summer months.  Workers began at each end, and met at mile 588, Contact Creek on the Yukon/British Columbia border. Its purpose was to join Canada to Alaska. Thankfully, nowadays it is all paved road. The original length has been shortened by various re-routings around towns, or cutting out bends, etc.

Yesterday, Nick and Jane decided to stay in Dawson Creek, whilst we moved on to Fort Nelson (Mile 283). Our journey had us meeting the usual array of interesting people, in particular, Vince and his doggy Sabbi, another pair of motorcycle and sidecar riders. Also, a young guy, originally from Bristol who had just bought his bike in Alaska, and was making his way to California, who asked Paul for advice about his chain (it was bone dry, and needed replacing), and was spending his nights wild camping in the forest in a hammock ‘I’ve seen a lot of bears!’ he said to us.

However, the highlight of the day yesterday was meeting a lovely couple at the motel who were riding together on a bike the same as ours, George and Shirley, from Edmonton in Canada. They kindly invited us to dinner, and we spent a lovely evening in their company swapping stories.  We really hope to meet up with them on our way back down through Canada.

We are now enjoying a rest day, and Nick and Jane are on their way for one last night together, before they start heading back down country again, and we continue our journey North to Alaska!