Dawson To Whitehorse
Now this is the latest in the shenanigans
Before parting Dawson we had to stop and the building where the council had built the ground on an angle, there was no one on the street when we started and our interest created a whole lot more interest next thing there were camera everywhere .. funny things happen.
We set off from King Dicks on Thursday 28th June from Dawson, the road south from there was more suitable of a 1 Litre roadie than the DRs.
First stop was Dome hill as Ellen had not been there so, we were here
There was not a lot to see or do so we hunkered down and got to twin lakes for the night so a 424 km day.
We did have some entertainment with a little rodent running out across the road the turning backing under my bike only to get a hiding now by the Heidenau, he was visiting his flat mate I think.
We also came upon a sad looking 12 hundy GS that had gone off into the veges after failing to stay straight in some road works, hope the rider was ok as no one was there.
Arriving at Twin Lakes to bed down we were greeted by some nice people (John & Arlene) who said there are two sites left and they had paid for one of them to hold it for their mates the next day, they said we could use it which was cool so we just squared them up for that.
After tea we went over to their motorhome armed with maps and questions, they had a fire going and duly offered us a wine .... what was a coupla bikers do but accept.
After discussions and chats they offered us a Seizer?? or Bloody Marry, well over the course of the night we had another then another all of varying degrees of stiffness and heat....awesome dudes you guys made our night.
So after being impromptually feed and watered with the best we finally packed it in and went to bed about 1.30am ... still daylight tho.
In the morning Arlene brought Coffee over after had just made our own one, so thanks were given anyway, these guys truly are top people and represent Canada to the highest level.
Ellen also decided that the lake was inviting and went in for skinny dip to an island ... we think she may be the first nudy Asian bum to do it!! (sorry X rated so no photos)
After setting off we arrived at Wethorse, the temperature had dropped like a stone and mum nature shouted us a very good invigorating shower .... upon arrival at Wethorse we headed to McDees for some hot tucker and Wifi, this was great as a couch surfer host had replied and we were good to go for dry, warm, shower, no mozzies and nice people lodgings.
So we stayed with Claire and JD and there two boys Jasper and James, later in the evening two other couch surfers Otis and Daniel arrived as well so we had quite the party with a bunch of people we didn’t know, Otis was in Cromwell for three months so knows roughly were we live, great guys great hosts and great night, thanks guys you made our stay on Whitehorse pretty groovy.
From left is Otis, JD, Daniel, Claire, me and Ellen
Ellen making Tacos ... Y U M
The result
Also in Whitehorse, we parked outside Canadian Tires, a guy stopped and talked to us, he has a KLR 650 (he seemed nice tho
). We are so familiar with this now, where we are from, where we are going, where have we been, the bikes set up etc... in the end, this guy said: “Are you guys couch surfing? I live north of Whitehorse, you could stay with me ...” to late now, we already in town. We thanked him. In the evening, when we checked our email again, we got reply from couch surfing request, he said : “ I talked to you this morning outside Canadian Tires. I was in the field whole week, so only got your email now...” What is the odds of that!
From Whitehorse we headed back into town to stock up on food, a cycle shop owner has this incredible piece of artwork on his front lawn, pretty groovy and a LOT of work.
We also went up to the Salmon ladder which lets the Salmon get up past the dam
Before parting Dawson we had to stop and the building where the council had built the ground on an angle, there was no one on the street when we started and our interest created a whole lot more interest next thing there were camera everywhere .. funny things happen.
We set off from King Dicks on Thursday 28th June from Dawson, the road south from there was more suitable of a 1 Litre roadie than the DRs.
First stop was Dome hill as Ellen had not been there so, we were here
There was not a lot to see or do so we hunkered down and got to twin lakes for the night so a 424 km day.
We did have some entertainment with a little rodent running out across the road the turning backing under my bike only to get a hiding now by the Heidenau, he was visiting his flat mate I think.
We also came upon a sad looking 12 hundy GS that had gone off into the veges after failing to stay straight in some road works, hope the rider was ok as no one was there.
Arriving at Twin Lakes to bed down we were greeted by some nice people (John & Arlene) who said there are two sites left and they had paid for one of them to hold it for their mates the next day, they said we could use it which was cool so we just squared them up for that.
After tea we went over to their motorhome armed with maps and questions, they had a fire going and duly offered us a wine .... what was a coupla bikers do but accept.
After discussions and chats they offered us a Seizer?? or Bloody Marry, well over the course of the night we had another then another all of varying degrees of stiffness and heat....awesome dudes you guys made our night.
So after being impromptually feed and watered with the best we finally packed it in and went to bed about 1.30am ... still daylight tho.
In the morning Arlene brought Coffee over after had just made our own one, so thanks were given anyway, these guys truly are top people and represent Canada to the highest level.
Ellen also decided that the lake was inviting and went in for skinny dip to an island ... we think she may be the first nudy Asian bum to do it!! (sorry X rated so no photos)
After setting off we arrived at Wethorse, the temperature had dropped like a stone and mum nature shouted us a very good invigorating shower .... upon arrival at Wethorse we headed to McDees for some hot tucker and Wifi, this was great as a couch surfer host had replied and we were good to go for dry, warm, shower, no mozzies and nice people lodgings.
So we stayed with Claire and JD and there two boys Jasper and James, later in the evening two other couch surfers Otis and Daniel arrived as well so we had quite the party with a bunch of people we didn’t know, Otis was in Cromwell for three months so knows roughly were we live, great guys great hosts and great night, thanks guys you made our stay on Whitehorse pretty groovy.
From left is Otis, JD, Daniel, Claire, me and Ellen
Ellen making Tacos ... Y U M
The result
Also in Whitehorse, we parked outside Canadian Tires, a guy stopped and talked to us, he has a KLR 650 (he seemed nice tho
). We are so familiar with this now, where we are from, where we are going, where have we been, the bikes set up etc... in the end, this guy said: “Are you guys couch surfing? I live north of Whitehorse, you could stay with me ...” to late now, we already in town. We thanked him. In the evening, when we checked our email again, we got reply from couch surfing request, he said : “ I talked to you this morning outside Canadian Tires. I was in the field whole week, so only got your email now...” What is the odds of that!From Whitehorse we headed back into town to stock up on food, a cycle shop owner has this incredible piece of artwork on his front lawn, pretty groovy and a LOT of work.
We also went up to the Salmon ladder which lets the Salmon get up past the dam
Whitehorse To Boya Lake
Along the Alaska Highway we were treated to seeing 3 (real) black bears, we also spotted a
Smiling Black bear (dodgy)
moose
and a Bison
They said it was gonna be wildlife rich
We came up a lake called Emerald lake, the colours were stunning
Along the highway it was quite spooky, the remains of a forest fire left millions of tree burnt but standing, for those who saw the movie .. Day Of The Trifods, that is exactly what it looked like.
Further along the relatively tame motorway we came over one of the many metal based bridges, ...don't look down!!
Told you not to look down!
Cassiar Highway
The trip livened up a little after leaving the Alaska Highway when went turned right at junction 37 on to the Cassiar Highway, this road would be mint on my old KTM 990 SMR, 640 km of great road so a good hours ride!!! .... so we took the DRs and the day, Ellen said it as smooth as a baby’s bum ... not sure how she knows this!
We camped at Boya lake and meet some others riders, Shawn from Florida was travelling light and paying for it standing there shivering in front of us, he was wearing a tee shirt and rain jacket, I felt sorry for him and told him to harden the f@#k up so a good kiwi helping hand.
I have to admit that the further South we were traveling the colder it was getting, this was to be the same for the following few days, coupled with rain and no sun things were pretty chilly at times.
A brisk walk in the morning to get the circulation going and we hit the road heading for Meziadin Lake Park, it was very cold when we arrived and got colder during the evening.
Smiling Black bear (dodgy)
moose
and a Bison
They said it was gonna be wildlife rich
We came up a lake called Emerald lake, the colours were stunning
Along the highway it was quite spooky, the remains of a forest fire left millions of tree burnt but standing, for those who saw the movie .. Day Of The Trifods, that is exactly what it looked like.
Further along the relatively tame motorway we came over one of the many metal based bridges, ...don't look down!!
Told you not to look down!
Cassiar Highway
The trip livened up a little after leaving the Alaska Highway when went turned right at junction 37 on to the Cassiar Highway, this road would be mint on my old KTM 990 SMR, 640 km of great road so a good hours ride!!! .... so we took the DRs and the day, Ellen said it as smooth as a baby’s bum ... not sure how she knows this!
We camped at Boya lake and meet some others riders, Shawn from Florida was travelling light and paying for it standing there shivering in front of us, he was wearing a tee shirt and rain jacket, I felt sorry for him and told him to harden the f@#k up so a good kiwi helping hand.
I have to admit that the further South we were traveling the colder it was getting, this was to be the same for the following few days, coupled with rain and no sun things were pretty chilly at times.
A brisk walk in the morning to get the circulation going and we hit the road heading for Meziadin Lake Park, it was very cold when we arrived and got colder during the evening.
Meziadin Lake Park To Stewart/Hyder To Fort St James
On arriving at Meziadin Lake Park we set up camp, nice grassy area s it was n o i c e and soft.
Nice camp and hard case photo.
As soon as we arrived I saw Ellens chain guard ... FAIL!
A bit of Kiwi ingu, ingue, indunit, cunning and we had it all good to go or as good as it gets for a bush repair.
The cold from the evening turned to rain and it rained quietly all night, our intentions were to head to Hyder etc and time dependent maybe stay another night, the grumpy lady at the camp wanted $8.00 to leave our gear there for half a day so that made our decision and we just packed up, she really should be in another job rather than campground hosting.
We left Hobbit in the day use area and took Chiwi two up to Stewart, very nice ride in, no bears at Hyder as it is a little early with no salmon there yet.
We carried on to the end of the road 60km past Hyder which turned out to be a real treat, we had pretty good weather and stunning views, we accidentally went into a construction zone and got told off but we explained our story and the then told us how far we could ride on bla bla bla .. coolio!!
Two Photo Kiwis were at it again taking advantage of Canada finest, we saw a big back bear and a few overgrown otter kinda thingies that were alpine animals.
Here is a number of groovy glacier pics.
Bear Glacier
The little river at the base of Bear Glacier
On our return to Hyder we merrily rode through the customs border crossing as no one had pulled us up on the way in to the US ... the dude from the Canadian side came running out saying STOP in Canadian .. which is STOP in Kiwi too! ... that was lucky 8-D
We had a laugh with him, great guy and we got stamped back into Canada without really leaving it.
That is when the action happened, two BMW 12 hundies went past, I waived and looked in my mirrors to see NZ stickers on them, I said to Ellen that MUST be Dick Hubbard and Ken so we did a Uie and went back to the US again and chased them down it was an all american car chase through Hyder with Hubbard caps stones flying off, tyres squealing on dirt but nothing blew up tho.
We caught up to them, it woulda been a good 400 metre chase but it was over and they recognised the Two Dodgy Kiwis when we told them to pull over.
A great moment of hellos, handshakes and hugs as we had been corresponding over the e and were trying to meet up, as fate would have it with no internet over the last 5 days we bump into them here while trying to do an unintended runner through the Canadian border.
We all rode to the fish and chip shop for photos and chats as ya do, Ellen and I had the Hallibut and chips... YUM, Ken and Dick had already eaten so we gave them some good road info etc and sent them on their way.
The lads
The chicks
Look closely and see the three NZ bikes with NZ stickers in a smile .. something in that
Upon saying goodbyes we went back to the Canadian border, this time somewhat wiser so we stopped without being told to, same dude, same chat, same laughs but no stamp this time time and we were on our way.
Just along from the border was a wee digger, I think they were doing a bit of gardening
One thing that took my eye was a bridge that just kinda stopped!
Then a bridge that really had been stopped but by a grumpy mum nature
Arriving back at Meziadin Lake camp we picked up Hobbit and proceeded to Gitanyow lake, the details of which we had been given by Otis of a secret camp site by the lake, stunning spot and nice wee fire.
Ellen did a nudy bum skinny dip again and the rest that followed I don’t need to explain!!! 8-D
To be bear safe I strung our food pack up in a tree, this turned out to be a very smart move as we had a coupla visitors during the night snuffling and crashing around, I have to admit to being on hi alert ready with out nautical horn etc.
There were bear prints at the base on the tree but the bag was ther and utouched being probably 4 metres high.
The following morning we headed to Fort St James to meet couch surfer Mel, Fort St James is one groovy town, we were there only two minutes at the visitors centre which was closed because it was after hours when a kind gent by the name of Meguel stopped and asked if we needed help.
Well yes we did, no wifi to find Mels addy we did have a phone number but no phone so he kindly took us to his place and we rang Mel to get instructions.
Mel said here drive was very rough .... she was right, potholes, deep puddles, rutted, muddy and very slippery the perfect driveway to any ADVers liking ... except Ellen as she binned Chiwi.
I left Hobbit at the house and headed back up the drive to find Ellen walking with no bike ... Chiwi was another 100 metres up the drive having a sleep in a puddle, Ellen on good advice earlier had just turned off the bike and both fuel taps so her knight in Klim armour could come back and pick up the stricken vessel.
No pics as the camera was at Mels house and the task was to put Chiwis rubber side down.
After greetings etc we had a bite to eat and lit a fire outside sat around and talked shit for a while, super cool!!, I must add at this point that Mel have a very cool log cabin on the side of the lake in a location that is second to none.
Thanks Otis for the lead, we would never have known such a beautiful place was here without the tip as we had our eyes on the Rockies, some great advice that we are taking is look outside of the square and don’t just look at the big notable areas, take a look around OFF the main drag to see some real beauty with really groovy helpful people.
Nice camp and hard case photo.
As soon as we arrived I saw Ellens chain guard ... FAIL!
A bit of Kiwi ingu, ingue, indunit, cunning and we had it all good to go or as good as it gets for a bush repair.
The cold from the evening turned to rain and it rained quietly all night, our intentions were to head to Hyder etc and time dependent maybe stay another night, the grumpy lady at the camp wanted $8.00 to leave our gear there for half a day so that made our decision and we just packed up, she really should be in another job rather than campground hosting.
We left Hobbit in the day use area and took Chiwi two up to Stewart, very nice ride in, no bears at Hyder as it is a little early with no salmon there yet.
We carried on to the end of the road 60km past Hyder which turned out to be a real treat, we had pretty good weather and stunning views, we accidentally went into a construction zone and got told off but we explained our story and the then told us how far we could ride on bla bla bla .. coolio!!
Two Photo Kiwis were at it again taking advantage of Canada finest, we saw a big back bear and a few overgrown otter kinda thingies that were alpine animals.
Here is a number of groovy glacier pics.
Bear Glacier
The little river at the base of Bear Glacier
On our return to Hyder we merrily rode through the customs border crossing as no one had pulled us up on the way in to the US ... the dude from the Canadian side came running out saying STOP in Canadian .. which is STOP in Kiwi too! ... that was lucky 8-D
We had a laugh with him, great guy and we got stamped back into Canada without really leaving it.
That is when the action happened, two BMW 12 hundies went past, I waived and looked in my mirrors to see NZ stickers on them, I said to Ellen that MUST be Dick Hubbard and Ken so we did a Uie and went back to the US again and chased them down it was an all american car chase through Hyder with Hubbard caps stones flying off, tyres squealing on dirt but nothing blew up tho.
We caught up to them, it woulda been a good 400 metre chase but it was over and they recognised the Two Dodgy Kiwis when we told them to pull over
.A great moment of hellos, handshakes and hugs as we had been corresponding over the e and were trying to meet up, as fate would have it with no internet over the last 5 days we bump into them here while trying to do an unintended runner through the Canadian border.
We all rode to the fish and chip shop for photos and chats as ya do, Ellen and I had the Hallibut and chips... YUM, Ken and Dick had already eaten so we gave them some good road info etc and sent them on their way.
The lads
The chicks
Look closely and see the three NZ bikes with NZ stickers in a smile .. something in that
Upon saying goodbyes we went back to the Canadian border, this time somewhat wiser so we stopped without being told to, same dude, same chat, same laughs but no stamp this time time and we were on our way.
Just along from the border was a wee digger, I think they were doing a bit of gardening
One thing that took my eye was a bridge that just kinda stopped!
Then a bridge that really had been stopped but by a grumpy mum nature
Arriving back at Meziadin Lake camp we picked up Hobbit and proceeded to Gitanyow lake, the details of which we had been given by Otis of a secret camp site by the lake, stunning spot and nice wee fire.
Ellen did a nudy bum skinny dip again and the rest that followed I don’t need to explain!!! 8-D
To be bear safe I strung our food pack up in a tree, this turned out to be a very smart move as we had a coupla visitors during the night snuffling and crashing around, I have to admit to being on hi alert ready with out nautical horn etc.
There were bear prints at the base on the tree but the bag was ther and utouched being probably 4 metres high.
The following morning we headed to Fort St James to meet couch surfer Mel, Fort St James is one groovy town, we were there only two minutes at the visitors centre which was closed because it was after hours when a kind gent by the name of Meguel stopped and asked if we needed help.
Well yes we did, no wifi to find Mels addy we did have a phone number but no phone so he kindly took us to his place and we rang Mel to get instructions.
Mel said here drive was very rough .... she was right, potholes, deep puddles, rutted, muddy and very slippery the perfect driveway to any ADVers liking ... except Ellen as she binned Chiwi.
I left Hobbit at the house and headed back up the drive to find Ellen walking with no bike ... Chiwi was another 100 metres up the drive having a sleep in a puddle, Ellen on good advice earlier had just turned off the bike and both fuel taps so her knight in Klim armour could come back and pick up the stricken vessel.
No pics as the camera was at Mels house and the task was to put Chiwis rubber side down.
After greetings etc we had a bite to eat and lit a fire outside sat around and talked shit for a while, super cool!!, I must add at this point that Mel have a very cool log cabin on the side of the lake in a location that is second to none.
Thanks Otis for the lead, we would never have known such a beautiful place was here without the tip as we had our eyes on the Rockies, some great advice that we are taking is look outside of the square and don’t just look at the big notable areas, take a look around OFF the main drag to see some real beauty with really groovy helpful people.
1 comment:
Great reading U2:)....good to live the trip thru your experiences & images & inspire me for future rides....safe & happy trails...tumbleweedboy (aka pat "the nice guy: who rides the klr;..:))
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