Lunch: Bannocks and Chili - Aboriginal Day in Canada

We are resting in Dawson City today. We putzed around this grand city of the gold rush era, chatting with folks, listening to music, watched more riders roll in for the start of D2D tomorrow, and enjoyed the music at the tr'ondek hwech'in heritage center in celebration of Aboriginal Day. We sat on the lawn and ate bannocks; very similar to Navajo fry bread in the southwest. The music was pretty decent, and I kept commenting how more contemporary the native music is in Dawson than in Alaska.

 Native pride in Dawson

Bannock and chili

Canadians recognize National Aboriginal Day (well..most do) as a day to honor the First Nations. amerika does not have a nationally recognized day set aside as a Federal holiday for natives, however the second Monday of October annually marks Columbus Day in many parts of amerika but not all states follow this observance. Instead, they celebrate other events on the day. For example, South Dakota's official holiday on this date is Native Americans' Day (also known as Native American Day), while people in Berkeley, California, celebrate Indigenous People's Day.

We met Wee, a dual-sporter up from California doing a solo trek to Anchorage round trip. He was sporting a nice jury-rigged hand guard set he rigged up along the way to protect his hands from the bugs. He was a nice fellow whose wife was tracking him using his spot. Aside from spot he was technology free, and I got the feeling that allow this was not ideal, he was enjoying the break. We also met a fellow that put a Texas flag on his bike when he left Dallas, his flag was shredded to less than half it's original size from the wind... we wondered if it would make it to Prudhoe Bay.. his final destination. He informed us that he had a second flag for the return trip. Got to love that wind drag from Texas!

A proud texan..

 Wee's modification... laundry soap containers turned hand guards..

The sun shone all day and we had to fight the urge to just sit still and soak in the rays. Don't get me wrong... we did a lot of that too. I also booked a Thai massage tonight, and we plan on getting dinner at the Drunken Goat Taverna... a left over must due from our last trip in Dawson. We sat around and drank cappuccinos at Riverwest Coffee and noted how timid the dogs in Dawson seem to be. They shy away from us... course it could be the road stench?

Bike after bike rolled in to town filling up the street sides with geared up diehards congregating underneath the Downtown Hotel. I looked around and saw maybe two women present so far in about 150+ men. Dual sporting seems to be one of those areas that women are still crossing into.

 Bikes line up on 2nd street as part of the Dust2Dawson 2012 event

We can't help but feel like we haven't stumbled into a British movie... there seem to be a lot of Brits in town. Everywhere you go you see a Brit (not the usual German). While having dinner at the Drunken Goat, we sat at the bar and were soon joined by 2 older British couples. Dottie ("call me Dot" for short) stuck to us like a magnet; she thought we were "lovely biker women" and wanted to know all the details of our adventure.  At some point her hubby came over and warned Jazz not to corrupt his wife... I think Dot wanted to be corrupted.

Tomorrow we hit the road for Whitehorse with a possible detour to Keno. Another British couple staying in at the b and b with us.. warned us to not go to Keno. We were told the road was too dangerous to do by motorbike and that it was only passable by 4-wheel drive. We both decided they were stuffy brits.. and we needed to check out for ourselves to see if it's true. I'm good with dirt.. let's leave the call to Jazz tomorrow.

Pups in Canada are shy, unless peeps are in cars... then it's okay. We watched this pup divert traffic for over 20 minutes before it got bored.

Making Mud - Showering Off the Dust 2 Dawson (D2D)

Whew! Let me start out by saying I had way too much Black Death tonight,,, so you have to give me more leeway than usual for typos and such (giggling). What a day! I am so tired I can't see straight. We pulled out of Chistochina this am to a gorgeous day and a gorgeous ride. I stopped to take a picture at the boundary of Wrangell- St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The we headed into Tok for a brief gas stop. The whole day we pushed because we didn't know what the day was going to be like. The mileage for the day was not that long (280 miles), but there was a lot of dirt. We were worried if the weather went bad it would be a very long day.  We wanted to stay ahead of the game.
Dust was thick in the air - I had dirt in places dirt should not be! Later when I took a shower at the b and b, all that dust became a river of mud!

Me at the start of the day in Chistochina, Alaska

2 things kept passing through my thoughts today: flowers and potholes.  Lupine were everywhere and the air was saturated with the smell of wildflowers. Potholes, they were everywhere too! I especially loved zigging and zagging around them. There were lots of dual sports on the road.  Dual sports are a different breed. We generally travel alone or in very small groups. We don't like crowds, rallys, or big cities. For this reason, it is rare to see so many peeps on dual sports in one place at one time,. D2D is an exception for Alaskan and Canadian riders. A small number of lower 48'ers show up, but it's still a local event.

Today I spent some time rubbernecking at all the dual sports. Holding true to their taste, they trickled in to Dawson all day one or two by twos.  The big dinner is Friday. Because I'm not a big crowd person, we are going to head out Friday morning...

When we reached the end of the road of the road, literally, we boarded a ferry to cross the mighty Yukon. I really like this river. I have spent a lot of time getting to know this river... I think we are on an intimate basis! The Yukon is nearly 2000 miles long. I have crossed it countless times, I have canoed it for 11 days, I have fallen into it at her banks in Eagle. I have read about it, and I have dreamed about pedaling here entire length in the dead of winter. Today, I crossed her again by ferry boat.

Ferry crossing

We chuckled at Zumo trickster GPS of the Raven clan... Zumo had us riding our motorcycles across the Yukon river,,,, we tread water.

Zumo shows my motorbike in the middle of the Yukon river...

At the end of that ferry stood Klondike Kate with the coveted Black Death... enuff said!

The end of a long day...

North to the Klondike

I have been negligent in my blogging duties... I have done some really cool trips recently that I have failed to share. I went mushing in Fairbanks and wore my Go Pro for the first time... and managed to film my crash... nice. I went to Minnesota and Seattle and saw the land of 10,000 rubber duckies... and last weekend I went to Talkeetna by way of the Burma road.. rode with a few new friends and had a blast... all without a peep.  Perhaps they can serve as fillers for a slow time?

But today... I headed North to the Klondike!
Jazz and I are back on the road doing a tour in our own backyard - The Klondike Loop.
I have the spot tracker running on this trip - click on "Huckleberry" link to the right, or click here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0QS9aMYSXoeqa10zZImLMjVlMJEvy6krY
 
Our Klondike dreams are not inspired by the search for gold however... we are in search of Black Death.  I have dreamed of Black Death since I first sipped this porter last year. The Russell Black Death Porter is a little higher in alcohol at 6.5% and it’s based off a wee heavy, with a blend of Canadian and Scottish malts. Problem is you can't seem to get it in the US, so off to Canada for the death, eh?

In addition to searching for death, this mini-epic trip rolls a touch of the Dust 2 Dawson into the mix - we will be in Dawson on Friday. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=735855

We rolled out of Anchorage in the afternoon today with the sun shining and the tunes playing. We pulled into Palmer, Alaska to the welcome of a single protester demanding Obama be impeached.  We topped off our tanks and then went over and chatted the man up. He had some grand ideas on how to run the country. We praised him for his passion and and sign his petition to run against Yon Dung, our only congressman. More power to him.

 A passionate Palmer-ite...

 shares his thoughts...

The view coming into the Matsu Valley was spectacular and it was very tempting to try out the new zipline by the Matanuska Glacier. We passed this time, but maybe on the way back. We spent a bit of time photographing the glacier. I discovered the first item I forgot to pack (this is Erin's fault) - the camera clip for the tripod.  I brought the camera and the tripod, but without the clip I can't use them together...sigh. This means I'm packing around an useable tripod for about 1600 miles.

Matanuska Glacier

The weather turned ugly at MEureka and we hunkered down for torrential rain all the way to Glennallen. We needed a break and food, but unfortunately there is no where to eat in the City of God except the Caribou. Against our better judgement, we did it.... and no sooner did our food arrive before we both realized what a stupid idea that was. We figured if the food didn't kill us, the christian's would. I hope we sleep tonight!

More rain to Gakona, then a nice rainbow popped out at the end of the ride. We are holed up in Chistochina... I'm going to go put an ice pack on my arm. By the end of the day holding the handle bars, my arm is tender right at the place I broke it.

Tomorrow we hope for a dryer road over the Top of the World Highway into Canada. Well... Jazz wants dryer roads.... I like the mud!



A motorcycle at the end of the rainbow...