Friday – Watson Lake, Yukon
I got organised a bit late but I did not care, I only had a short day for riding as I was only intending going to Watson Lake. This would be the last bit of the Alcan Highway, I have done the other bits, in various directions, in fact I did the end before the middle 🙂
I had made some hot chocolate in the motel room and 4 cups of that and a muesli bar was breakfast, so I headed off into the cold, with all my heated gear powered up of course, but did not get far, I was not happy with my air pressure in the tyres and after all that hot chocolate I needed to unload some. The ground here looks wet, but is actually just the sun reflecting, I nearly dumped the bike here as I lost my footing turning around, no doubt I will pay for that with another strained leg muscle!
The roads were fast and smooth for a change and there was some nice scenery but not as much as I expected, maybe I am getting used to it all 🙂
I stopped again for yet another leak and this is where I understood the comments about the black flies on the Alcan Highway. As I had done the dirt last time through this country I had missed all this, so check out the 2nd photo, what does it look like to you?
Well, I was parked by the side of the road and all those small brown smudges that look like dirt are flies, millions of them, in fact it was hard to breathe without inhaling some! The cloud followed me everywhere, but they did not bite or anything, so I have no idea what they were after! I kept on going and after a while, thankfully I arrived in Teslin. I was down to the bottom of the tank as I had forgotten to top up in Whitehorse, so after I fuelled up I grabbed a hamburger and fries, that was a nice feed 🙂
After an hour I plugged back in and headed off again, I left the Yukon and entered British Columbia, but this was short lived, I went back and forth, not by choice mind you, that was where the road went 🙂 There had been a massive forest fire here a few years ago by the looks of the dead trees, but there was green starting to appear again.
After some more scenic roads, I arrived at the continental divide, here was some interesting information as well. There are some riders I met who rode the divide, that would be an awesome ride, maybe next time as it looks like full on dirt only.
After this is looked all downhill but it wasn’t, but for some reason I was really tired and took no more pictures. I eventually somehow found a rest area near Watson Lake and pulled over for small nap, there looked to be Tepee type shelters here as well, but no coverings.
When I woke up the big map said I was about 30km from Watson Lake, I would be going there but I also would have to backtrack as I wanted to take the 37 down to Prince George, I had already done from Watson Lake to Dawson City on my way up.
The last leg and after a short while I got to Watson Lake and the official end for me of the full length of the Alcan Highway Yahoo 8)
So, I was back amongst the sign forest at the visitors centre where I asked about weather and camping. It was going to be in the low teens overnight so I chose the campground with showers and internet and headed down there to make camp 🙂
I started off sitting at my table sorting emails etc but was soon sitting in the shop getting power and doing some work. I had paid for two nights as I intended spending most of the day here getting the blog caught up. I also needed to find a bank, it was closed today, and a hardware shop etc, so I will do that tomorrow.
I cooked up some dinner afterwards and had an early night as I was still tired, maybe I can catch up on some sleep 🙂
Day 285 miles and 459 km
Trip – 31,319 miles and 50,503 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 