First, I need to give kudos to my
youngest daughter, she is a trooper and is playing it tough. Riding in the rain in not fun. Going to bed
in the rain and waking up in the rain, loading the gear and then starting the
day off in a steady rain is not motivational, but she did it without one
complaint. That’s my girl!
Our 8th day on the road and we pass the half-way point. Like I said, we started the ride
in a steady rain and it lasted for 2 hrs, but after that, it was mostly cloudy
with brief periods of sun and we ended the ride with mostly sunny skies. Oh and did I mention I miscalculated the
miles, we needed to ride 300 miles to enjoy the hot springs in Liard. British Columbia is a beautiful province,
lush green landscape and a lot of wild life.
We encountered a lot of road construction, but today was the high-point so far. The Alcan takes on a different topography in BC, it is a small 2-lane paved road winding through the mountains and valleys. Great for riding a motorcycle, but amazing that it is the main in-land route to Alaska. There is considerable construction on the 75th anniversary of the road, for miles at a time they have removed all the pavement (concrete and asphalt) and we’re riding on gravel or right now mud, water and man eating sized pot holes. The pilot car operators are great about letting motorcycles follow behind them rather than eat the dust of dozens of cars in the parade line through the construction site. This is great preparation for the Dalton Highway (from Fairbanks) to the Arctic Ocean. It is 900 miles (round trip) of dirt road to the Ocean, treacherous at best with big semi’s hauling equipment and supplies to the oil fields.
Today was our day to see wildlife, we saw 2 black bears, 1 moose, 4 woods buffalo and 10 mountain goats. The woods buffalo are near extinction, they mostly live in BC, the total population is 250 and their number 1 predator is the automobile. Annually 25 are killed by cars. We were fortunate to see a female and her baby. Unfortunately we saw all 4 of the woods buffalo along the roadside.
Destination for this ride is the hot springs in Liard, which are awesome…the clouds parted, the temperature soared to 70 degrees and we both started to sing “We can see clearly now the rain is gone….” Come on you know the words to that song, if not your to young to be reading this post J. We thoroughly enjoyed the hot springs, then ate our dinner in a bag, played crazy eights (I dominated 10-4), she isn’t happy and I see revenge in her eyes. After all that we slept like new born babes. What a day!
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| We are more than half way.... |
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| Where is the rest of our family? |
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| The Hot Springs felt good on my old bones... |
