We got a late start from the Shepherd Inn (AK HWY MM 73), getting on the road about 9:45. We rode out a tank of gas, 150 miles, before stopping for gas at a place in the middle of nowhere, a place that didn’t even have restrooms, indoor or otherwise. A Hoka Hey rider stopped for gas and we visited with him. (Google Hoka Hey.) He said he hadn’t changed his clothes for ten days.
Back on the road. The highway is starting to get a little rough in places, but all in all, not that bad. Not much traffic; most of the car traffic is locals. A few RV’s and lots of motorcycles. By the way, we have yet to meet a police car while on the road, since leaving home. Saw a deputy sheriff at a gas station in Iowa, highway patrol at gas stations in South Dakota and Montana, and no law enforcement in Canada so far. 2745 miles as of Wednesday night, our 6th day of the trip.
Cool Wednesday morning, 44 degrees . We hooked up to our Tourmaster heated vests and find that we are plenty warm with the setting set on low. The beaded seat cover we bought at Walmart for $8.95 and modified slightly to fit the Ultra’s seat and painted black seems to be helping a lot. After passing Fort Nelson, the road was being chip-sealed and there was lots of loose gravel and dust for about 30 miles. Not much traffic, so we got through ok. The landscape is incredibly beautiful. I don’t ever tire of the ride. British Columbia is as beautiful as almost any other place I’ve ever seen.
Today we saw three black bears, some big horn sheep, a moose and two moose calves, and about fifty buffalo. Saw lots of deer crossing signs, but no deer. Tonight we are staying at the Liard River Hot Springs Lodge, AK HWY MM 477.

 

We went to the Hot Springs last night and enjoyed a dip in the 110 degree water. There was a very small man made waterfall and a person could sit under the falling water and get a great back massage. Very relaxing. We slept like baby rocks.
But our luck with the weather ran out this morning. Woke up to a steady rain. Foggy, cold and windy too. The air temp gauge on the Ultra said 40 degrees. Might have been a little warmer than that but not much. We passed on filling up at the Lodge where we were staying; $1.65 Canadian a liter. We loaded our gear on the bikes in the rain and headed north. We stopped at Fireside, about 45 miles on up and filled up for $1.45. Nice guy there; he had a RV park as well as a gas station and got his power for the whole place from a diesel generator. The radiator for the generator was in the shop adjoining the station and he used it to heat the whole building. It was about 85 degrees inside and felt really good.
We stopped at Watson Lake, got gas and put up the sign we had brought along for the sign forest. Stopped again at Rancheria (AK MM 687) and got gas. Great little restaurant there; we had cheese burgers and fries and good hot coffee. Finally quit raining a few miles on up the road but it seemed to get colder. Those heated vests are worth their weight in gold. My wife said she wasn't cold at all, even in the rain at 75 mph. One nice thing about the chip sealed roads is water doesn't pool up . Traffic was light and we rode 75-80 mph as much as possible. Gas at Teslin and then into Whitehorse. Got here at 5:00 pm. We wanted to go another 100 miles to Haines Junction but we called ahead and couldn't find a room. So we're at the Westin in Whitehorse. Went to the HD dealer here but they're closed 'cause its Canada Day. There are three Hoka Hey riders camped at the dealership and we talked with them for quite a while. Do they ever have some stories to tell. It is cool that we are riding along the road with those guys. 768 guys on the Hoka Hey ride. We did a little over 400 miles today.
This is a fabulous ride through Canada but I can't wait to cross the border just so I can take off that damn helmet!!! Should get back into the States tomorrow.

 

Glad you are enjoying the trip. What is the speed limit in Canada on the interstates or open road? 65?

 

We haven't ridden on a Canadian Interstate. All the two lane roads are posted 100 km/hour or a little over 60 mph. Speed limit through towns is always 30 mph, through road construction 30 mph.

One in a while there are 100 mile or so stretches with no gas. But for the most part gas can be found about every 50 miles. Those spots may be mom and pop places with very high prices but there may be no choice except to fill there.

A Hoka rider was telling us last night of the two guys he knows for sure that have died on that ride. One guy's wife was tracking her husband at home on the computer while he rode through the Canadian mountains at night. Suddenly his blip disappeared. She called the RCMP and they found he had driven off a mountaun curve. He died. Another couple guys stopped for gas and argued about going on or getting some rest. The one guy wanted to keep going and left his buddy. He pulled out on the highway in front of a car (while his friend watched) and was killed instantly.

 

Really enjoying your posts. Keep them coming.

I did some of your same trip 2 years ago and also saw very few cops. However, north of Kitwanga on Rt 37 there was a mounty standing in the middle of the road with a radar gun! Out in the middle of friggin nowhere and I mean nowhere. I couldn't believe it! They were stoping everyone. He asked me if I had been drinking and I asked him if he was nuts. He told me to watch out for the animals and wished me well.

 

Interesting postings. Heard you were at the acrtic circle. Have fun! Be safe! mrv0524

 

We left Whitehorse about 9:30 am in a light rain. Posted speed limit is now 90 km/hour. Just a few miles out of town we came upon the first of many ‘loose gravel’ signs. This meant a chip seal repair was ahead. A coat of a tar-like substance is laid down and then covered with pea gravel. These repair areas can be 50 feet to 1000 feet long. Cars and other 4 wheelers make a set of two tracks in each lane. These tracks have just a thin layer of pea gravel but between the tracks and along the centerline and the shoulders the gravel can be up to 4 or 5 inches deep. It’s not hard keeping the bike in one of the two tracks. Just make sure to stay in the track you start out in. Gravel stretches along curves are more dangerous because the two tracks are less defined, and we go around these curves with white knuckles. It’s best to duck behind the windshield if a semi is met on one of these repairs. They don’t slow down.
We stopped at Haines Junction and filled up with gas. A guy in a car asked which way we were going. North I said. His eyes got wide and he said there were areas up ahead where the gravel was six inches deep. He didn’t think we could control the bikes in that deep gravel. I asked if he had seen a bunch of crashed motorcycles along that part of the road. He realized then we weren’t going to be the first bikes through there. Kind of funny but we appreciated his concern.
As we traveled up the road towards the border, we saw the same group of riders over and over who were also filling up at the only available gas stations. We talked with two guys from Pittsburg who were riding the Hoka Hey event. One of them was riding a 2010 Ultra Classic Limited. He said as they were coming into Kootenay Park back down in Alberta a big bull moose ran out in front of them. The guy on the Limited swerved to the left and gunned the Ultra trying to avoid the animal. The moose hit his fairing and broke off the wind deflector on the right side, then hit the front brake lever, smashing the guy’s hand. The guy’s saddlebag protector hit the moose and got bent but Pittsburg kept the bike up! The Ultra knocked the moose down. The two guys didn’t stop but looked back long enough to see the moose get up. We also heard of a couple on an Ultra who hit a 400 pound black bear. They were thrown off and bruised up and the bike was damaged but still rideable. The collision took the bears life. Some people make fun of those of us that ride the big, heavy Ultras, but it’s nice to know sometimes they’ll give as good as they get.
As we drove around Lake Kluane we saw a brown spot along the road up ahead. When we got closer we saw it was a grizzly. The bear was small, maybe 250 pounds and it was intently eating purple flowers along the road, ignoring us and a car that had also stopped. We were only ten feet away and took a few pictures. Chriss got off his bike and walked towards the bear to get a closer shot. (!) Finally the bear looked at us and curled his upper lip so we moved on. Only the second grizzly I’ve ever seen.
The road got progressively worse above Lake Kluane. The frost heaves were terrible and there were lots of ruts in the asphalt, 12-18” wide and four to six inches deep. RV’s were rocking back and forth like ships in a storm. Back in Hinton, the Silver Fox had told us of a couple who had hit a frost heave and been thrown off their bike. They weren’t hurt too bad and watched as their bike rolled down the road without them before finally going into the ditch. Hermann, I’ll bet that happened along this stretch. The deep pea gravel we’d been warned about wasn’t much worse than any we’d already driven through. Canada and Yukon were doing all they could do to keep the road patched up. As bad as it was, it was still a great ride through some breath-taking scenery.
The last 15 miles to the border were just gravel. It was dusty but smoother that the hard-surfaced road we’d just been over. We reached the border and stopped and took some pictures. The weather was clear and cool. We passed through US customs with no delay.
That morning in Whitehorse, Chriss had gone to Wal-Mart and bought a tent and a sleeping bag. He told us now at the border he was going to go split up from us and go on his own. He had been on lots of bike trips in the past but always on his own, by himself. He had told us several times that he liked getting up when he wanted to, stopping when he wanted, eating when he wanted, etc. He didn’t eat breakfast, didn’t drink coffee and didn’t want to stop for lunch. He said he liked riding 700-1000 miles a day. Not the best fit with my wife and I. So I shook his hand and my wife gave him a hug and he took off. We hope he makes it ok. He has no rear brake at all, no brake light, no turn signals, and the rubber is gone off his front motor mount, making his whole engine shake.
We stopped at Tok and got gas. We called the Alaskan Aviator and told him we’d made it. The AK Aviator (Thumper) had invited us to spend the night in their rustic guest cabin. We got to their home on the Indian River about 8:00 pm. 500 miles that day.

 

Had to smile at you saying Criss had to get closer to another bear for pics. No cubs with this one though. Hope he has no problems on the rest of the trip. Ride safe.

 

As soon as we got to Thumper and Julie’s place he took me for a ride in his airplane. He parks his plane in his front yard and when he wants to fly, he just taxis across the road to a dirt airstrip. The plane is light and has 150 hp and seems to need only 500 feet or so to take off. We flew over the Copper River and saw several fish wheels working in the river. We spent about 30 minutes in the air but could find no moose in the spruce or shallow lakes below. After we landed we spent a few hours getting to know our hosts, had a few beers and went to our bunk beds in their guest cabin about 11:30 pm. It was still light enough out that you could read a newspaper. It really never gets dark, always a sort of twilight, even at three in the morning.
The next morning we awoke to rain. We went over to the main house around 8:00 and had coffee and a great breakfast. We checked the weather and saw southern Alaska was socked in with rain. We waited until 11:00 am for the rain to let up, but it never really did. So we loaded up the bike in the rain, said goodbye to our gracious hosts and headed back towards Tok, 80 miles away. The rain quit about halfway to Tok. We filled up there and headed for Delta Junction. Delta is where the AK highway ends, 1422 miles from the ‘0’ milepost back in Dawson Creek, BC. We ran into a t-storm in Delta and took a couple quick pictures of that mile marker in the rain. We headed for Fairbanks and had to ride in the rain for another 40 miles. We saw a moose very close to the road with her two baby calves but didn’t stop and take a picture because of the rain and some traffic. We finally broke out into some sunshine and made it to Fairbanks around four pm. We got the last room at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, a nice hotel here in Fairbanks that has a great Sunday brunch.
The next morning, July 4th, we did some laundry and got a ten o’clock brunch reservation. The brunch included peel and eat shrimp, salmon, halibut with lobster sauce and all the other food you’d expect at a good brunch. There was also a large table covered with about 50 kinds of dessert. We took our time and spent an hour and forty-five minutes eating. The brunch even included champagne.
We got on the Harley and headed up towards Fox and got on the Elliott Highway. The Elliott takes you north of Fairbanks up towards Livengood and the Dalton Highway. We stopped at the Hilltop Truck Stop about ten miles north of Fairbanks because a sign there said no gas for the next 112 miles. I sent Rhonda in with a twenty to pre-pay the pump and it took her about ten minutes to come back out. She told them we were going to ride up to the Dalton and everyone in the place, who all looked like locals and truck drivers, told her we were crazy to drive up the Dalton on a motorcycle. We were actually just going to ride to the start of the Dalton, not the 100 miles (80 of which are gravel) or so up the Dalton to the Arctic Circle. But she didn’t tell them that and had fun with them letting them think we were going to attempt this harrowing trip by ourselves, that late in the day. I would have tried it if Chriss was still with us, if the weather was clear and no chance of rain and if we could get an early start. But by ourselves, no way.
The Elliott is a pretty good road with a few frost heaves and a few rough spots. It is really just a series of nice 35 to 45 mile an hour curves, which we took at 50 or 60 mph. As we worked our way up the road we had our first encounter with one of Alaska’s finest. He came up behind us in an unmarked black sedan and felt the need to scold me over his loudspeaker for touching the double yellow centerline as we went around a sweeping left hand curve. No on-coming traffic and great visibility on this curve. Touching the yellow line didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me but I suppose it is a violation of the law. Or maybe he just doesn’t like bikers. We got to the end of the Elliott and rode a couple miles up the unpaved Dalton. We got off the bike to take a few pictures and the mosquitoes were just swarming all over us. I can’t imagine camping in a tent up there the way Chriss was planning on doing. Tomorrow were going to Anchorage.

 

Wow, what a super trip!! Thanks for sharing it with us. The narrative is great. I hope you are able to post up some pics.