Day 5 (Whitecourt AB to Fort St John BC)

• In 2017, likened this stretch of Highway 43 N of Whitecourt to the autobahn. It’s well-kept for the oil tankers and logging trucks.
• Hassled by low tire warning: rear 34 should be 40 (too low to ignore); front 35 should be 36 (OK). Tire pressure, especially for weight-bearing rear is impacted significantly by ambient / tire temperature, both of which can rise significantly in the first several hours / 20 miles at highway speeds. Yesterday filled to spec. As the temp rose warning light returned. Had to release air at a roadside stop.
• [No other entries, as I was spending all my time scribbling notes for APF during the day, and writing out-takes at night. They are out-takes because it’s difficult to write about Whitehorse before arriving in Whitehorse.]

Day 6 (Fort St John BC to Muncho Lake BC)

• Saw a teenage moose lope in a direct path across the road.
• Taylor BC: long metal bridge. The motorcycle behaves like a slot car on the  metal grooves. Moving the motorcycle across the grooves is unnerving. I’ve almost become accustomed to them.
• Sweetest Story 2017: It was on this stretch of the road that a grandmother gave N chocolate chip cookies while we waited in the rain for road construction.
• At Muncho Lake, Urs is here looking grumpy as ever. No Marianne? Maintenance Michael is on duty. Mgr Daniel is also prowling the lobby. The exchange help is missing . . .
• It’s only the Yanks who say ALCAN. Canucks call it the Alaska Highway.
• Urs, Marianne, and the boys have been beavering away. They’ve built about ten new cabins since our last visit.

Day 10 (Muncho Lake BC to Whitehorse YT)

• My reservations can be summarized as follows:
  • Edgewater Mon 14 Jul check-in; Mon 25 Jul check-out
  • Airbnb Mon 25 Jul check-in; Su 7 Aug check-out
• Return by 12 Aug? Denver Broncos preseason home: Dallas Cowboys 13 Aug; Minnesota Vikings 27 Aug
• Remember all the BC wildlife we saw in 2017?
• Avalanche won Stanley Cup: game 6  in Tampa on 26 June 22. After we won Stanley Cup, stayed in Denver for 4th July. Then the Broncos season tickets became my constraint for writing A Perfect Finish.
• Remember my first impressions of Whitehorse in 2017?

Day 22 (Whitehorse YT to Beaver Creek YT to Whitehorse YT)

I have to find the spot on the ALCAN where Steve saves Alamea from the bear. It has to be on a section which is riddled with frost heaves, it must be out of cell coverage and located on the most remote stretch. Also, I have to write the part where Steve retraces the route and recovers the gun and money from the tree. So I need to document the mile markers and so on as I go, keeping in mind the time of day, opening hours for gas stations, distances, and so on. Doing it in a round trip in the early morning adds the extra challenge: let’s not run out of gas today and get eaten by a bear. Anyway, that’s why I recorded a lot of goofy notes in my log:

• Vernon says, “The weather is right.”
• Off to the Beaver Creek: round trip estimated to be 10 hours. Have to research what it feels like to die on the ALCAN (wish me luck).
• 9:30 Haines Junction 18,364.
• 10:20 Lake Kluane 18,408; heavy new chipseal all around lake! 40 mph in 4th gear; road goes to hell.
• Still remember the first time I saw Kluane Lake , in 2017: fabulous!
• Two minute stop (took page picture–see above). Drop jackets, change gloves, eaten by bugs.
• Slims River Bridge: too windy for chipseal. Drop to 20 mph in 2nd gear to negotiate a straight path across the bridge.
• Thachäl Dhäl Visitor Centre  located at Kluane Lake; 1,652 paved.
• Willscroft Creek where C & N put on rain gear in 2017 ==> it was so cold that day. Today, sunshine, no jacket.
• 11:20, km 1684 – Destruction Bay 18,436; FasGas–pay inside. Open 7 am to 10 pm.
• When I first saw Destruction Bay in 2017, I wrote: “. . . it would be an easy place to die.”
• From Destruction Bay to Beaver Creek: 2 hr 14 mins; sign says km: Burwash 15; Beaver Creek 190.
• km 1700, 11:46, 18,446 ==> Burwash Landing fuel 24/7 but autopay “payment terminal inside” grocery and cafe opened 9-2 and 3-6 . . . hmmm sounds dodgey. Kluane Energy Tanks.
• Dips and double dips, but paved. Tongue buster for trailer homes: a busted trailer before Burwash Landing. Mountain whitecaps of Kluane Range.
• 12:00, 18,451 – past Burwash Landing: Kluane Range to the west ||||| Dawson Peaks to the east. 12:01 Duke River 18,452.
• 12:06, 18,457 – Burwash Creek; 12:13, 18,462 – Sakin Creek.
• 45 degree dip; bit my tongue when I landed. 1218 km Quill Creek 18,465. 12:22 Glacier Creek 18,466.
• This is very near the spot where, in 2017, N almost took me over the windshield when we hit a frost heave.
• At 1736 km, 12:29, 18,470 – turn around for picture of eastbound sign: Burwash 39; Destruction Bay 56; Whitehorse 323.
• 18,472, 12:33 – Swede Johnson Creek; km 1748, 18478 – roadwork stop for construction 15 minutes. I ask the flagger lady, “What are those mountains?” You would have thought I was asking for her phone number.
• Pilot car 1:04 km 1762 – amazing views of Kluane Range looking from bridge of Donjek River; 1768 km 1:13pm 18,491.
• Young black bear is pounding the crap out of a berry bush as I pass by (he ignores me).
• 1:28 Edith Creek 18,500: and there goes a school bus, heading east.
• 1784 km, 18,501, 1:31 – Sign: Beaver Creek 89; Fairbanks 612; 1804 (the km signs are all even!!!!!); Pickhandle Lake 18,514.
• 1:46 18,523 – Yukon Lodge Camping, hmmm . . . this could be the closest place to run for help?
• 2:05, 18524:  WHITE RIVER!!!!
• 2:11 km 1826 18,529: a sign from God? A young grizzly crosses the road in front of me, less than 100 yards away. This is the spot.
• 1,830 km (the famous first marker we see); 18,532, 2:25: 23 miles to Beaver Creek. Fog on lakes. Tall black spruce with a craggily tip. Fireweed. Berries.
• Proceed toward border. 3:02, 18,558 – Beaver Creek. Home to the most westerly community in Canada.
• Depart for my return at 3:30; Haines Junction at 6:35, 18,749
• Return to Whitehorse – 8:32, 18,846; that was a very long day.

Day 23 (Hanging in Whitehorse)

Can Do Meat & Sausage: I compare prices for: Bison Ground ($14.67 CAD / lb); Elk Ground ($10.75 CAD / lb); Bison Ribeye ($28.74 CAD / lb = $22.42 USD / lb). Used Denise and Vernon’s grille (gave 2x cheeseburgers to Denise). Blind taste test without cheese: elk is remarkably leaner and doesn’t shrink so patties look nicer. Both taste gamey; I love it; bison has more taste.

Day 34 Goodbye Whitehorse (Whitehorse YT to Fort Nelson BC)

• • Goodbye Vernon and Denise.
  • Between Whitehorse and Fort Nelson, saw some of the most fantastic scenery of the trip. Mountains, lakes, fog inlaid in valleys. Through the spectacular Northern Rockies rode through misty rain for hours; wet pavement but good visibility.
  • The chipseal is like marbles on asphalt. The method wouldn’t work in lawsuit-prone USA. When I slow down for construction and chipseal, the motorhomes ride my tail. They are probably cussing at me for going slowly; what do they want me to do, speed up and die? There’s nothing to do but to pull off as soon as the road allows to let them pass. Of course, the chipseal doesn’t make it easier. Once the chipseal is over, then I get to try to pass them, and they never make any effort to facilitate a pass.

• Stopped by Tetsa River Lodge, Cinnamon Bun Centre of the Galactic Cluster, for the World’s Finest Cinnamon Bun. Stopped to take off rain gear. So many insects splattered on motorcycle and helmet. When I returned, the entire fairing was covered in a SWARM of yellow jackets, dining on the dead.
• Stopped at construction site for 20 mins: in serious hunker-down mode (rain gear and helmet) trying to hide from clouds of mosquitoes and biting flies. Watson Lake for mosquitoes is like Miami Spring Break for teenagers.

Day 35 (Fort Nelson BC to Grande Prairie AB)

• Bucking Horse River Lodge has sold! For 23 years it was managed by Howard and Vel. In loving memory of Vel Shannon 1951 – 2021 (Kim’s mother-in-law). The kids seem to have grown up here. That must have been different.
• Grande Prairie roads are smoother but construction delays and more cities translate to more slow-downs. Traffic picks up at St Johns. Lots of oil and gas, long metal bridge at Peace River! They used to kind of freak me out, but now I’m used to it. Yesterday’s traffic ticket outside Fort Nelson forced me drive slower today.
• Paradise Hotel in Grande Prairie isn’t quite paradise.
• Hotel is full of oil workers. Between my sophomore and junior years in college, Roger and I headed to the oil fields of Texas to work as roustabouts. If we hadn’t stopped in Tulsa and taken jobs as plumber’s helpers, these might have been my people. Of course, a plumber’s helper is a ditch digger by another name. We never made it to the oilfields of Texas; what’s worse, instead of sticking with the plumbing gig, we quit and went back to college. Well, Roger quit, went back to college (for fifth year), then ran out of eligibility. On Sunday after our last game of the season, I found him sitting on the curb with his luggage, waiting for his mom to pick him up. “Of course I quit. Why did you think I majored in religion?” I never heard from him again: an entire summer digging ditches in Tulsa, living on the job site in a two-wheel camper, hopping fences for midnight swims in apartment complex swimming pools for baths, and then POOF ==> Casper. He was a tough guy. Very funny. A great tackler. He nicknamed me “Maynard.” I hated it.
• Saw a bachelor herd of deer–all antlers. Saw three fox cubs only ten yards off the road. Where was mom? Two ran to the woods, but the little hungry one kept eating. Saw deer three times. Parked roadside for a snack and saw a young black bear cross the road–I rode away.

Day 36 (Grande Prairie AB to Lethbridge AB)

• I wonder why the elevator in the Paradise Hotel smells like mj . . . oilfield workers getting ready for their workday. It must be a great life.
• Left late: had to write “Playing the Game”
• Southern Alberta is Nebraska on steroids. Rich province: logging; oil & gas; hay, wheat, cattle. Right wingnuts?
• Such a really long day of riding. Hit rush-hour in Calgary; almost stopped there, but pressed on to get a retake on Comedy Tuesdays.
• Stayed at Days Inn downtown so I could walk to the Owl Acoustic Lounge (no salad this time). Was the show worth it?

Day 36 (Lethbridge AB to Buffalo WY)

• Rode out in dark to border: zero wait.
• Twenty minutes into Montana, almost hit a doe laying across my lane. Was in the half-light of the early morning, it blended so perfectly into the light dapple-colored asphalt. That would have been quite the speed bump at 60 mph.
• EZ traffic all day; had to wait once after Bozeman.
• Gorgeous views the whole long way. Bluff above Billings, Sheridan WY is beautiful.

Day 37 (Buffalo WY to Denver CO)

• Waitress with pink hair at the Bozeman Steakhouse in Buffalo WY: “I want to move to Denver, but to get a house there, you need good credit.”
• Home again, home again, jiggety-jig