Sunday, June 15, 2014

Day 14 - 15 June 2014

"Real Bad roads" equals lots of construction with wet deep gravel, poor pavement with lots of wash boards and pot holes and setting in the rain waiting for the pilot vehicle to arrive so we could get through the construction. Both Jim and I were nervous about this stretch of road. We had heard from several sources how bad it was and were not looking forward to todays ride. In addition the forecast was for rain showers.

We left the hotel at 7 am after a breakfast of which neither of us were in a mood to eat. We knew we were heading to one of the worse stretches of the ride; the infamous Destruction Bay area of the ALCAN highway. This section always gets hit by winter destruction by frost heaves and the snow plows. This is also one of the sections that washed out and stopped our AK1 attempt in 2012. We had 50 miles of fair weather then hit the rain showers just before getting to the AK/Canada border. About the same time my CB radio decided to stop working. Right when we needed it the most to communicate while riding this section. It never came back the rest of the day; thanks Midland radio.

I saw several moose and swans on our ride to the border. One good thing about moose (my opinion only) they don't seem to jump in front of cars like the Arkansas deer. They just watched us ride by while munching on whatever moose munch on.

We arrived at the US border and they just waved us through. We arrived at the Canadian border 20 miles later in the rain. The guard asked us a few questions then sent us on our way with no hassle or searching. The road at the border immediately changes from pavement (US side) to gravel (Canadian side). A short way down the gravel we hit the first road construction. We waited about 15 minutes in the rain setting on our bikes until the pilot vehicle came from the opposite direction. This was nasty with gravel mixed with mud and not a clear path to take. My Super Tenere (S10) handled it fine but I even had a few tense minutes. Jim had to work harder since his HD didn't like this road surface at all. He did great and made it look easy but I know he was not having fun.

We went into rain showers and encountered bad road spots all the way to Destruction Bay; about 115 miles. After Destruction Bay the road improved although the weather remained crappy. We finally arrive at Whitehorse after riding 388 miles.

Hotel is nice but room was hot. I called the desk and asked how to turn on the AC to cool the room and was told " room doesn't have AC, there is a fan in the closet." At least we are past Destruction Bay.

Tomorrow is another problem. It is only 200+ miles to Watson Lake and 580+ miles to Fort Nelson. First is too short and the 2nd is a long haul at 55 mph (speed limit). We plan on going to Watson Lake and if making good time leap frog to several small communities who say they have motels. Fuel and motels is the big limiting factor riding the ALCAN.

Pics in following post

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