June 4th, 2007
Whitehorse, Yukon Territories
GPS: coming soon!
Distance Traveled: 1221km

Even after declining a shower 'cause it was thick, we had another hard day getting started.  First, of course, we needed breakfast.  

Halfway through breakfast, a group of BMW riders pulled over off the highway when they spotted our bikes, and after some cursory introductions  they joined us in the hotel restaurant for some coffee and story-telling.  

Their plans included riding the Dalton Highway all the way to Deadhorse, and this made me feel much better.  See, their bikes were huge – none of them smaller than 1000cc, and heavily loaded.  That, and the fact that their leader had bum knees and had hard times getting on and off his motorcycle made me feel very confident in my ability to do the haul road.  Our bikes are much lighter and more maneuverable, and with the exception of dad, we're all in reasonably good shape.

After some friendly chatting, they got back on the road, and we finished up packing.  There are motorcycles EVERYWHERE.  Mostly BMW motorcycles, with KLR650s and various Harley-Davidson cruisers fighting it out for second place.  

Wildlife is everywhere along these roads – we spotted several black bears, mountain sheep, and even another moose late at night that Justin damn near creamed as he came around a corner.  I managed to grab some good pictures of the mountain sheep, but i didn't dare get close enough to the bears to get anything decent, which is a bit of a shame.  Ah, well, if it keeps up like this tomorrow there'll be no lack of opportunities for wildlife photography.  Justin, braver than I, stopped in the road to grab a closeup of a black bear with her two cubs.  Robbie wasn't paying attention, plus he tailgates like he's from South America or something, and sped right past him before coming to an ABS-assisted stop several dozen metres up the road.  Unfortunately, this spooked the bears, and they scampered off into the forest.  Justin was pissed, and yelled at Rob for tailgating.  Unfortunately, despite numerous brake-flashes, verbal warnings &amp; insults, Robbie steadfastly refuses to give more than a few metres clearance between the unlucky soul in front of him.  At least he can say he's committed to it.

Also of note is the fact that today we start hit the end of the Rocky Mountains, apparently leaving them as we cross the Liard River, and enter the Selwyn Mountain Range.  We hadn't really been riding the Rockies, though – we'd just occasionally see them in the distance.  The Selwyn range is starting to get impressive, though, and it's kind of nice to leave the boring, flat prairie roads behind (sorry, Alberta, but prairie is boring stuff to ride through).  

Today promised to be a good day 'cause we included in our schedule an hour at the Liard Hot Springs.  I've been there once before, and it was awesome – a natural spring bubbles into a creek, and you can vary the temperature of the water you're soaking in just by moving up or downstream.

By the time we got there, the temperature had climbed all the way into the high twenties, and we were dying in our black gear &amp; thermal underwear (the morning started out cold enough for me to put on my flower-decorated long johns).  We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant right outside the entrance to the hot springs, and had some really great buffalo burgers accompanied by some exceptionally bad service.  Ah, well, our food eventually came, and that's what's important.

After lunch, we headed over to the Liard hot springs, where we ran into a group of three riders who planned to take the Dempster Highway through the Northwest Territories all the way up to Inuvik.  They were smart, and had remembered to bring spare tires.  Robbie, apparently in charge of the spare rubber (the buck passes here), had actually not packed any tires, and I felt a little jealous when I saw that.  Of course, it's not all Rob's fault – any one of us could have chucked some spare rubber on our bikes, but we were in such a disorganized rush leaving Red Deer that it slipped all our minds.  Hope we don't need 'em, but I've got a large rubber patch &amp; some rubber cement courtesy Dick Fish, and Justin's got a puncture repair kit, so I'm optimistic.

After that, we headed up the long boardwalk up to the Liard Hot Springs.  Apparently the springs have created a wetlands kind of area that the boardwalk crosses.  Most of it is slough, and as Justin and I were traversing the boardwalk behind Rob, he suggested a $20 prize to the first person to throw Robbie into the sloughy muck.  I agreed, and Justin sneaked up the walk behind Robbie.  I guess he's got good hearing, 'cause he turned around just before Justin caught up to him, and they wrestled for a bit on the walkway.  Of course, neither of them were really serious about dunking the other, but it was funny.

Wanting to join the fun, I clomped my way up the boardwalk, hoping they would be distracted and not hear me (i was the only one of the group that didn't pack sandals, and was marching up the boardwalk in my motorcycle boots).  Rob heard me, though, and turned around to charge me.  I stopped and braced myself (with his low centre of gravit and rugy &amp; football training, Rob's a hard guy to tackle).  I guess Robbie realized that I'd expect an attack with his shoulder or arm or something, 'cause he charged me.  It's important for you to know that I was very stationary.  I kind of just stood still, and Rob ran his face into me.  Seriously - in a surprise tactical move, Rob struck me face-first, driving his face into my shoulder.  I guess he puffs air into his cheeks when he charges someone, 'cause when he struck me he let out this very loud, startling quack - a surprisingly good Donald Duck impersonation that had me rolling on the boardwalk, laughing, after I disengaged from him.

Anyways, the rest of the walk was uneventful, and we soaked for a bit in the springs.  Our last visit here we'd stayed in the main (Alpha) pool, and we decided to take the five minute walk up to the 'Beta' pool.  To our delight, it ended up being a very deep pool, also heated by the springs, and we splashed around in it for a while.  Justin climbed up on the railing around the pool, and flipped himself into the pool, sinking to his shins in the muck at the bottom.

Anxious to get back on the road, we reluctantly climbed out of the relaxing pools, and eased ourselves back into our riding gear and back on the bikes.  About an hour and a half after that, Dad pulled us over in Watson Lake so we could take a look at the Signpost Forest.  Apparently it started when an injured solider added his hometown to a signpost, and from then on people from all over the world bring signs to nail up on posts.  Information plaques at the site suggested that four years ago there were approximately 50,000 signs nailed up.  We didn't have time to look really hard, but the furthest south sign we found was for Santiago.  If i'd've known, I would have tried to bring something from Ushuaia.  Damn.

We had a long way to go, 'cause we had to make up for lost time yesterday, and thus by the time we were approaching Whitehorse, it was closing on midnight.  And it started to rain.  I HATE the rain so much.  At least there was an open hotel in Whitehorse, although it seems to be kind of a wide spot in the road – the hotel clerk kind of laughed when we asked if there was any place to eat still open, and suggested that we check out the Tag's.  Thoroughly sick of gas station hot dogs &amp; whatnot, we declined, and went to bed hungry.

Speaking of midnight, we gained nearly an hour and a half of daylight today, and the sun didn't set until close to midnight.  Tomorrow, we're in Fairbanks, where it shouldn't even get dark (although the sun will set), and the day after that we hit the end of our ride on the Dalton Highway, 700 kms of the worst road we're supposed to hit this entire trip, and land of the three-in-the-morning-sun.  I'm getting worried about it, but hey – it can't be much worse than that mountain pass in Ecuador, right?

Ryan Noble,
Whitehorse, YT