Day 4 Ride to Dawson City: To Whitehorse
After packing up our campsite this morning we climbed aboard our trusty steel horses and rode out of Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park heading west again over familiar ground.
Bison were all over the sides of the Alaska Highway again. Strutting around without a care in the world as we and several other tourists stopped to gaze at a respectful distance at the massive bulky beasts they are.
A lunch stop in Watson Lake was next. We thought it would be fun to tour the town and see what it’s about. It turns out there’s not much to it other than the crazy sign forest and a Chinese restaurant we ate at. With over 650 km between us and Whitehorse, we ate and pressed on ahead.
Several bear sightings were enjoyed along the way. They’re getting so frequent now it’s almost more surprising not to see a bear every hour or so. Primarily they have been black bears mixed with a few grizzlies now and then.
Suddenly I did see something unusual on the side of the road and I slammed on the brakes and jumped off my bike to investigate what turned out to be a porcupine trying to cross. He must have just been in a tussle with something because all his quills were missing on the back and rump area.
When he saw me pull up and head his way, he hightailed it as fast as his short legs could carry him to the tree line. I easily passed him and circled around in front to try and drive him back towards the road where Greg had now stopped and was trying to get a photo of the gong show I was putting on with my prickly dance partner.
Photo from Yukon Bird Observatories
Unfortunately, I didn’t grab my phone to get any close-ups of Mr. Jabby pants, but I enjoyed seeing one of these critters up close and personal. They have bulbous, black eyes and a funny Mohawk-style haircut going on. The photo above looks a lot like him.
I let him be after spending a few minutes taking a good look at him and jumped back on the Ninja to head west. In hindsight, it may not have been a smart idea to charge down into the ditch so brazenly in the grizzly bear country.
The weather today was really nice until just after lunch. I think Greg jinxed us by saying that he thought it was going to rain on us.
It did.
It rained on us harder than it has at any time in the last four, rain-drenched days in fact. I even noticed hail bouncing off my helmet. Wow. Possible hail damage combined with the scratches made from the tip over the other day might have lead to a complete write off of my new bike, but luckily it didn’t leave any more marks on the Ninja.
For the first time, my Joe Rocket jacket let me down by leaking water through the zipper area right around my navel! I was shocked because up until now it’s been absolutely rainproof. Hopefully, we don’t encounter any more tsunami type rain storms from here on out.
The next section of the Alaska Highway was really made for a bike like this Ninja. Huge sweeping turns with decent asphalt allowed me to stretch the bike’s legs and use all that horsepower a little more than I have been up to now.
It put a smile on my face.
That ended after about an hour as we encountered the dreaded “Loose Gravel Ahead” warning signs indicating chip seal work on the road. This is where they grind off the surface of the highway leaving behind a mixture of pavement, gravel, and dirt to ride through. They love to spray water on it to keep the dust down too.
I got to ride my already very dirty bike through that sloppy, soupy muck at low speed to avoid wiping out or launching stones off my front wheel through the rad.
I took some photos to show just how dirty my lovely bike has gotten on this trip.
We met a fellow rider at a gas station near Teslin who was headed for the Denali aboard his KLR 650. He wore a puzzled look on his face when he saw me ride up on the Ninja, but then excitedly gave me the thumbs up and said how great it was to see someone riding something like that up there. Yes! That’s been my whole mission doing this hairbrained trip on the H2SX. It felt good to talk to this fellow and hear his enthusiasm about the trip.
Made it to Whitehorse and found a room at the Days Inn. It’s sad that now Greg will head off to Fairbanks, Alaska instead of carrying on with me to Dawson City, but I’ve really appreciated having someone so experienced with me this far. I’ll definitely miss his good company, but the truth is I need to do some of the work myself to really know what I’m made of.
It’s another 567 km or 352 miles from here to Dawson City which really shouldn’t take more than half a day, but I’ll take it slow and enjoy the journey there. I’m going to be looking for a place to eat a special cinnamon bun and to check out some gigantic piles of tailings left over from the gold bonanza days around Dawson City.
That trip will wait at least one day though as first I’m going to rest up a bit, do some laundry, maybe give the bike a bath and explore the capital city of the Yukon Territory: Whitehorse.
