Alaska Trip - Day 21, 22 & 23 - Heading Home

We woke the morning of the 22nd of July and rechecked the weather news.  The weather to the North and East of us will be wet and rainy for the next 3-5 days.  The weather to the South (toward home) is clearing and in the 80's.  It's time to head home, we will do Banff and Jasper next year, probably in August.

We stayed in a hotel last night and it rained pretty hard on us.  However this morning it looks good for traveling south.  We were a bit worried by the fact that just 2 weeks ago Hwy 97 was closed due to slides and washed out bridges (did I mention that it had been raining for awhile??).

It didn't take long for us to get to the washed out parts, we had to stop for about 35 minutes for the construction crews to give us the go ahead to follow the pilot truck through the area.

Waiting for the pilot truck, friendly work crews!!

Hill Side Sliding onto the road

Road bed dropped 4+ feet here

Bridge washed away, drove down to creek level on the right.  Scary on the bike!!

We passed a lot more damaged road and lots of construction.  We made it to Prince George and continued on to a great RV/Campground alongside the Fraser River.  The Fraser was running very high and muddy.  The host of the campground were fantastic and maintains a beautiful campground.

Camping alongside the swollen Fraser River

This picture does not do the Fraser justice, there is a lot of water flowing by, the current is very rapid and the water is up to the top of the shoreline.

Swollen Fraser River at our campsite

We lucked out and it did not rain on us overnight.  We passed some beautiful mountains and were having a great time riding through the countryside without it raining on us!!

Amazing rock formations

We passed through the town of Quesnel (Hi Darryl and Corrine) and just as we were out the other side Terry's bike stopped running.  The alternator had given out and we were still 488 miles from their house where Terry keeps his spare.  We had very few options at this point, shipping the spare would take about 10 days to get it through customs, having his son come up and trailer the bike home would take 2 days to get to us, Honda dealers will not work on a bike older than 10 years so that option is out.

Luckily I had installed a spare battery in my trailer to act as a power source while camping.  We swapped the battery into his Goldwing 1500 and headed on down the road with his battery charging in the trailer.  It lasted about 1 1/2 hours so we swapped his battery back in.  That one lasted only 25 minutes or so.  We decided to swap out batteries between the bikes since mine was a new one and I could charge my spare in my bike while driving.  We did this all the way to our next camp site which was also alongside the Fraser River.

Swapping out the battery so we could get home!!

I did not get a picture of our next campsite but it seemed ideal at first.  Above the river in a quiet small high desert town.  Nice and dry...our tents dried out nicely.  After we went to bed the trains just kept coming through blowing their whistles and clanging and banging....not much sleep for any of us except Edie....she slept through it all!!

Before we went to bed Edie and I walked over to a pub nearby for a bite to eat.  Just as we were getting there a couple came in on their Harley looking for a gas station.  This small town does not have a gas station and they had been on reserve for the last 10 miles.  It was at this point I got my chance to pay back the last guy who stopped and helped me out.  I had 5 liters of gas in the front of the trailer and I put it in their tank.  That would get them the 25 miles to the next town where there is a gas station.  The only thing I asked of them was the same the guy who helped me asked of me.  If you see a motorcycle rider broke down on the road stop and help them out, that would be my repayment.  They left very happy.

We left the next morning to ride down through the Fraser River Canyon.  It is a beautiful ride and if you ever get a chance you should include it on your list of must do rides.

Fraser River Canyon

Train Tracks running through tunnels on the sides of the river

Hard to concentrate on the road when the scenery looks like this.

Further down the canyon and beautiful

Coming out of one of the many tunnels along the canyon.

Terry and Marilyn near the end of the Fraser River Canyon

Clouds near Sumas.

Border Crossing just ahead, almost home!!

It wasn't long after we exited the canyon that we headed for the US border at Sumas Washington.  It was warm, about 80 degrees as we neared the border. 

 

 As we pulled up to the line at the border crossing Terry shut off his bike to conserve the battery.  Marilyn jumped off and pushed him up to the border, we took a picture with her camera but she won't let us post it!!

We were treated to a great view of Mt Baker as we departed the border crossing, one of Washingtons tallest mountains (Volcanoes).

We swapped Terry's battery back into his bike just before they headed off to their house.  They had about 50 miles to go and since the battery had been charging for 2 days we thought they would make it.  The battery died in Dumas and with the assistance of a neighbor they were able to trailer the bike the rest of the way home.  

We made it home and parked the bike for the night.  We decided to wait until the next morning to unload everything.  It has been a wonderful trip even with the rain.  We met many amazing people and would do it again in a heartbeat!!    I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and our adventure.