Alaska Trip - Day 6, 7 and 8

We left Boya Lake early on the 7th of July (Day 6) and made our way into the Yukon!!  So far the bikes have been running flawlessly.

Our friends Terry and Marilyn Branthwaite who came up with the idea for the trip.

Yours truly!!

  While stopped for a short break we ran into a couple of Canadian Bikers who we have been leapfrogging for the last few days.  They eventually plan on heading up toward Inuvik or Prudhoe Bay, We rode along with them for quite a ways before separating around Whitehorse.

We made it to Whitehorse on day 6 and decided to spend an extra day there to relax and see if we could find a power block for the laptop.  I found one at a place called the Source for $149 CDN, but just across the parking lot was a Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart had a similar unit from Targus for $69 CDN and it included a separate USB charger!   The campground in Whitehorse was not really well set up for tents but all of the facilities were excellent.  While there it rained hard on us.  Sure glad I brought along the tarp for over the table.

We met a couple of groups of people during our two days there.  One was a group of 70-80 year old riders who have been riding together for over 20 years!!  They had plans to ride all the way into Alaska but decided to turn back because they were told the road conditions going into TOK were pretty bad.  The frost heaves tore the road up heavily this year.  The evening we met them they invited us over for "Camp Pies"  (Pie filling between two pieces of buttered bread toasted in a metal Sandwich Cooker over the hot coals).  God were they good after riding in the wind and rain that day.

Their bikes, 2 Victory Visions and 2 Goldwings

The other really great couple we met were from Quesnel, Darrel saw us sitting under the tarp working on the pictures for the trip in the rain and came over to offer us some coffee.  Darrel works as a logger (Buncher Operator), he and his wife Corrine had taken a few days off to enjoy some time away from work.  We talked for a long time with them, they are a fantastic couple.  Darrel and Corrine if you read this we wanted to say thank you very much for the coffee and hospitality.  If you get to Washington State let us know, we would love to return the favor!!

By waiting the extra day in Whitehorse the rain stopped for the most part and we enjoyed a mostly rain free day to Tok, Alaksa.  We did have to dodge the occasional rain shower.

The road got progressively worse the closer we were to Alaska.  Once we crossed the border it was new surface for about 15 miles and even after that the patches were much better than in the Yukon!!.  Of course the views of the mountains, small and large lakes were beautiful.  I quit counting the number of Black Bears we say along side or crossing the road.

Looking toward the IceField Ranges from a small rest stop along the Alaska Highway

Its hard to keep your mind on the road when the views look like this!!

Mosquito's as big as helicopters come from these small lakes!!!

It's almost like every rest stop in the Yukon has a beautiful lake next to it.

Another of the road hazards on the Alaska Highway!!

Well we finally made it to Alaska on the Alaska Highway.  We rode the rest of the way into Tok and set up camp for the night.  It poured on us hard over night and stopped just long enough for us to pack up in the morning.  We packed up our wet tents and headed into Fairbanks.

The Branthwaites have officially made it to Alaska!!!

Back again, but this time on a Motorcycle!!

Our soggy wet campsite in Tok.

The rain came down hard enough that the Terry and Marilyn got water in their tent.  I really appreciated the owners of the campgrounds use of wood chips under the tents.  It made for a very soft surface to put the tents on.  We had to wait till we got to Fairbanks to dry out the tents.