Emerald Waters, Prostitution and Pizza, and Jazisms

Today was one of the most beautiful drives! I give the Klondike Highway a 5 star rating in roads I have driven. The road had spectacular scenery that was constantly changing. It had windy turns and curve after curve with lots of pull outs to take pictures.  There were beautiful lakes that are the gorgeous teal green color on account of marl, there was snow, and there was the world’s smallest desert.

Emerald Lake on the Klondike Highway - note the teal colored water

 The headwaters of the mighty Yukon River (almost 2000 miles - 3rd largest river in North amerika)

The day started with Jaz cooking my breakfast. We stayed in a “B and Cook your own Breakfast” last night in Dawson. It was a decent place within walking distance of downtown Whitehorse. We opted for Sanchez’s Cantina for Mexican and a margarita. The food was the best two borders north of the border! Amazing that Whitehorse would have such a gem. We learned later that the women that runs the place spends winters in Mexico with her family.

We hit the grocery store on the way out of town and our observations on Canadian’s still hold true… they only have two speeds: slow and very slow. The Canadian guy next two us overheard us talking about this and added this was the case unless you were from Vancouver or Toronto, and then you were a little faster. He said folks from smaller parts of Canada go to the city for a vacation to speed up temporarily. He was frustrated too.

We headed out of town with a Canadian Mountie on our tail… we were very careful not to speed! The last thing I wanted was a ticket in Canada – he lost interest. Not too far down the road we tuned south and left the Yukon Territory. There were no “Oh Crap” or “Oh My God” moments on this road… nice chipseal all the way. There were less bugs, but also less flowers.  Yesterday on the road from Dawson to Whitehorse the roads were lined on both sides for a couple of hundred miles with wildflowers… purple lines of dwarf fireweed. I failed to get pictures of that.  Next time.

We passed into amerika and into the town of Skagway, Alaska. We rolled right up to the Red Onion, parked and walked in and ordered pizza. For those of you that do not know the Red Onion, it is a must see while visiting Skagway. It is a historic brothel turned pizza place… you can still tour the cribs upstairs for $5, apparently what a client paid in 1898 for 15 minutes.  I picked up a couple of garter belts for souvenirs and we headed out the door to walk the town. The Soapy Smith parlor was sporting a new roof, but the building has a long way to go before it’s finished.

 Inside the Red Onion, Skagway

We caught the early evening ferry for Haines and were checked into the historic Halsingland Hotel at Fort Seward for the evening. We spent the evening dining on lamb and sipping cosmos. Afterwords we walked the National Historic Landmark Fort Seward and took photographs. I took one in particular that made me chuckle. Here is the photo… can you guess why I chuckled? 

 Why is this photo ironic? (Hint: it is a photo of one of the old officer's housing buildings at Historic Fort Seward)

 Ferry approaching Haines dock

 Parked on the sidewalk at the historic Halsingland Hotel in Fort Seward

The Halsingland has historic plumbing too. I messy shower got the floor wet… then Jaz walked in and we almost had a “women down”! It would be a shame to travel as far as we have and her slip in the bathroom and hurt herself. Most accidents occur in the bathroom. I think I will increase my motorcycle mileage and decrease my baths.

Some of my more favorite Jaz (Jazisms) quotes this trip:

“Do right but lean left”

“It’s not what you ride, but how you ride”

“I’m going to reach through the phone and down your throat and rip your lungs out Jim… if my credit card doesn’t work tomorrow” (overhead while she was on the phone)

Off to someplace near Kluane National Park and Preserve… we reserved a place out there… the proprietor  said it was “rustic”… if we want to eat food we should pack it in. Hmmm. Rustic as defined by a Canadian could be interesting! I’ll let you know in Tok.. the day after tomorrow. Chances are that if he doesn’t have food… he doesn’t have wifi.

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...

A Summer of Possibilities...

So I’m sitting at home contemplating an entire of summer activities and possibilities and it just brings a smile to my face! It’s not just about doing, although that’s most of the fun, but it’s also about thinking about the possibilities. And the air is filled with possibilities…

What to do when you want to do so much, but sometimes work and health get in the way? My guess is that you close your eyes, click your heels three times and… do the best you can.

                                                       Photo: www.heliummagazine.com

This summer will be a mix of motorcycle riding and bicycle riding… two of my most favorite things.

Now, those of you that know me well, know I am like a kid in a candy store… there are so many wonderful things to do.  I don’t like repeating the same trip, so although every bone in my body wants to take a second crack at Inuvik, not this year.  Instead my big summer ride will be the Klondike Loop added to the Dust2Dawson. This ride will start in Anchorage and head North over the wonderful pothole filled Top of the World Highway to Dawson, drop down to Whitehorse, over to Skagway, Alaska, a quick ferry to Haines, AK then on to Kluaine, Tok, and back to Anchorage.  The ride will be Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada and cover roughly 1500 miles.  It will be with trusty Ice Gal.

                                             Photo: http://www.travelintheyukon.com/Kluane.cfm

I also want to ride out to Manely Hot Springs… where a friend in Fairbanks advised that “Standing under the grapes naked is memorable”… I have no idea, but I will find out for you… later in the summer.

                                                                       Photo: www.allposters.com

Another shout out to Cordova, although I did this last year, and I am breaking my earlier stated rule… it is worth a re-visit for the Cosmos at the Reluctant Fisherman!

If I can find a volunteer with a couple of 4 wheelers and rifles to escort me back all the way to the ghost town of Petersville, right at the fork… I want to really do this ride.  This is big bear country though, and I am not about to do this one by myself or unarmed.  Takers (email me)? I don’t carry a weapon, but it would be piece of mind and help me squash the image of me looking like dinner riding way back into that area by myself.

For cycling, I am toying with the idea of doing a small relay for the Fireweed 400 (the 200 mile race), commuting as much as possible to work, and maybe even the ride to Seward again.

Out of state, Minnesota, Utah, Phoenix, and Seattle all have targets on them.