Day 14: Whitehorse to Beaver Creek

Greetings all
Another great day today. We were pretty mellow after a lovely dinner at Antoinette's in Whitehorse. Shirley had the tilapia (a kind of fish) and I had NZ lamb shanks!!!

Some lovely quirky sculptures as we walked home.

This is actually a bicycle park.

We got on the road at 8.30 and made good progress up the Alaska Highway. This is the road that the US Army Engineers built in 1942 to get troops up to meet the Japanese. The road was built on top of the permafrost so it was interesting in parts. Lots of roadworks on the road.


Also some amazing whoop-do-doos!!!
And some stunning scenery on the way.


At about 4.30 we arrived at Beaver Creek where we booked into some cabins.







We then went for a walk up to the local catholic church.


So tonight the sun sets at 12.10am. Yes! 12.10am not sure how long it stays set for but my guess would be ... not for long! We are now at 62 degrees north at an elevation of 679m. Tomorrow .... Into Alaska and two nights at Fairbanks preparing for the launch up to Prudoe Bay.
Today: 447kms
Cumulative: 3070kms

Location:Beaver Creek

Day 13: A rest day in Whitehorse

Kia Ora to all of you!
A quiet day today to do a bit of maintenance, shopping and resting up. It was a nice warm day here with the temperature at about 17 degrees. We leapt out of bed at at least 8.30 with the sun having been up since around 4am. Shirl went to the supermarket for breakfast while I did some urgent something or others. We had beautiful strawberries and yoghurt.

I then went to do some work on the bike - basically just checking that the work we did in Vancouver was still tight. A good idea because I fou d some bolts had loosened a bit. I also found that when we had our tip over I broke a windscreen mounting bolt so that will have to be replaced. Might explain where the rattle was coming from. No hurry because we have been on some serious potholes and gravel since then without anything noticeable happening.

Lovely chat to a guy on a KLR650 who has been riding the dirt. On the back of his bike he had a spare tyre and a pair of crutches. Apparently he had a fall some weeks ago and broke his fibula. Nothing stopping some people!

We then went for a walk and wound up in the local supermarket at the NZ Lamb section. Look at the prices!


Accepting that the NZ dollar is .80c Canadian or so that is hugely cheaper than we pay at home. Weird!

We had a good walk around town and bought some Icebreaker clothing - again probably a little cheaper than in NZ. .also the mandatory sticker for the panniers.
Back to the hotel for a snooze and then the Committee Meeting. :-) All good. We have the next few days planned out and accommodation booked. We will camp tomorrow either in Canada of the US and then go up to Fairbanks on our Sunday where Shirl has booked us into the university hall of residence. Two nights there and then .... ummm north to Alaska I guess.

Today: 0kms
Cumulative: 2623Kms

Location:Whitehorse, Yukon.

Day 11 & 12: Dease Lake to Nugget City to Whitehorse

Hi everyone
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We have had some great days.
The bikes are showing some signs of our excursion to the Salmon Glaciers.

From our campsite on Dease Lake we rode up the Cassier Highway to the Alaska Highway and stopped off at Nugget City. A great ride if a little tricky because the road metal was white and there were no centre lines and metal on the sides of the roads. Lovely flowers though on both sides of the verge. It was cool early so I put on my silk balaclava. With the new still-bristly beard it was not a great look. Yes that's beard poking through the silk!

We had lunch at Jade City - we don't know this much in NZ but much of our pounamu/greenstone comes from British Columbia.



We then arrived at SH1/Alaska Highway and booked into the Nugget City Motel.

While Shirl and Diana were getting organised Dick and I rode the 20kms to Lake Watson for urgent supplies ... like beer and red wine. We also rang ahead (with some difficulty) to Whitehorse to book a motel for tonight. Lake Watson has a feature they call Tag which is a triangle between two streets festooned with street and city signs from around the world.


Back at the motel I loved the squirrels.

And this one!

Today was pretty much a slog. We had 438kms to go to Whitehorse so we pretty much got on with it. A good road with some great scenery. Again lots of forest and lakes. Also lots of convoys of HUGE RVs/camper tricks also on the road.
Into Whitehorse and through to book in at the Yukon Inn. I went to get my specs fixed and buy new headlight bulbs then went (as you do) to the bar. Dick's turn to organise dinner and he took us to the amazing Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ. It was great with huge servings, quirky service and delicious food - google it!

Dick and I enjoyed ourselves.




That's about it for today. Amazing having the sunrise at 4am and set at around 10.30pm!
Day 11: 226kms
Day 12: 438kms
Cumulative: 2623kms

Location:Whitehorse

Day 10: Stewart to Dease Lake

We were up early again today and getting ready to leave Stewart and head north. Not quite sure where we would end up but Dick had heard of a lakefront camping ground near Dease Lake so we headed in that direction.

First Shirley had a bit of a look around Stewart. This is the inn we stayed in.








We had a good run out of town and stopped for petrol at Bell II before lunch at Tatogga. This was a really quirky place with lots of animals. Stuffed.












And a mosquito trap.




We then came through to Dease Lake and checked out to campground. Big tick of approval so we got set up.









Well, some of us did anyway!





We had a lovely camp site right above the lake.









We left Kiwi in charge and went to town for petrol and supplies.



Dick then cooked an amazing meal with steak, tomatoes and onions, and cole slaw.crackers, carrots and dips for starters and fresh fruit for dessert.




Diana had some trouble eating while wearing her mosquito veil but seemed to manage ok.



That's about it. It's cooling down. With the time at 945 the sun is just setting. Another good day.

Today 404kms
Cumulative 1959

Location:Dease Lake

Day 9: Stewart and into Alaska (briefly)

Today was a stunning day but now we are stuffed! We got away from Smithers quite early and up the road to Kitwanga.





We then turned off onto 37 for the run up to Meziadin Junction. On the way we saw two bears! First a small black bear on our left who rose up and looked at us before turning and running off down the bank. And then a larger brown bear which just ignored us completely. A great steady ride with a few light showers and the temperature sitting between 10 and 15 degrees.

We then turned off to Stewart and our first amazing glacier.










We then arrived in Stewart and following the advice of our biker friends from last night booked into the Ripley Inn. Well tried to really. The management have lunch between 12 noon and 2 pm so we had to wait.

We then decided to go to Hyder which is in Alaska to see some more glaciers. This involved crossing the USA Canada border which had no one on the USA side. Just as we came through two kiwis on a DR650 came hosting up behind us. It was the Two Moto Kiwis!

Www.twomotokiwis.com

We were rapt to see then because they come from Wanaka and we have been following their blog all the way up to Prudhoe Bay. Andi and Ellen were in great form.













Fantastic and what a coincidence.

We then rode on up the road to the glaciers. Which was interesting! The first five Kms were really soft gravel from road works and then we hit the pot holes. But when we finally got there we agreed, it was worth it:

















So now we are back in Stewart and have had a few beers/wines and some food and are whacked.

Total for today: 400kms
Cumulative: 1555kms

Location:Stewart