Return Motorcycle trip to Alaska

July 22 - we left the Northern rockies Lodge at Muncho Lake at 8am today. the road for the first 5 miles travels along the very edge of the lake. the lake is very light bright blue color from all the minerals in the water. the road was wet from overnight showers.

shortly after reaching the end of the lake, there was an embankment along the right edge of the road.
as tony approached that point in the road he observed and pointed to about 6 mountain goats on the embankment about 10 feet above the road. i was trailing about 50 yards behind him. as he went by them, they got spooked and all started to jump down onto the road. several crossed the road right behind him. but i was concerned about two that were running along the side of the road. i recall last time we went to alaska a caribou was running along side the road and then did a 90 degree turn to cross the road directly in front of tony. he missed it by inches. so i knew this was not going to be good. sure enough as i slowed down expecting them to cross the road, they darted across the road directly in my path and about five feet in front of me. i applied brakes and attempted to swerve to the right to miss the first one but due to the wet road, the rear wheel started skidding to my left. this is not gonna end well. so i had to release the brakes, and i managed to pass behind the first goat and in front of the second goat. missed both by a goat's hair. the fact that they were running like hell helped as i squeezed between them. they scurried down the left side of the road down to the river and i continued ahead, realizing how close to disaster that was.

forty miles later we stopped at Toad River lodge for gas and a quick bite to eat. as the clouds ahead looked ominous i went through the hassle of putting my rain pants on, ensuring that we would not hit rain. we didnt.

for the rest of the ride we continually hit road construction sites, loose gravel, mud, potholes. this slowed us down considerably. at the construction sites we had to queue up and wait about 15 minutes as traffic is only one way, and is guided by pilot trucks.

the road from toad river over to fort nelson is a great road to ride (except for construction work) with a lot of winding curves along the side of the mountain. along the way tony spotted a black bear. i stopped and got a nice shot of him as he ignored my on the side of the road.

At one point we spotted something running along side the road. as we approached we saw it was a deer, with a fawn. the mother darted into the woods on the right, but the fawn was confused and turned left, right onto the road way, between tony and car ahead of him. since we all saw the deer in advance we were all going relatively slowly. the poor disoriented fawn kept running down the road for about 100 yards, right in front of tony. then it made a left turn, crossed the road and went safely into the woods on the left. i hope he found his mother later.

when we got to Dawson Creek, we made a quick stop at the famous alaska Highway sign for a photo. then we continued our journey to Grand Prairie, Alberta. total mileage today was about 550 miles.

hotel, car wash to clean the completely dirty bikes from the dusty, muddy roads we were on, called home, went to dinner, and back to the hotel.

tomorrow we head to saskatoon or further depending.

ps first i need to extend my deepest condolences to joyce, her husband tommy who is janes cousin, passed away the other day. he was only diagnosed a few weeks ago after having pains in his stomach with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. he was a great guy and i am truly overwhelmed. that is why i need to take these rides.you never know when your number is up. if you dont do the things you love while you can you never will. remember, you are here for only a split second but youre dead forever.
all i can say is the riding has been great. yes the roads have been under construction and muddy and gravelly and twisty and hilly and a bit scary with a herd of bison in your way and bears and goats and deer and they are just perfect. they are in the yukon and british columbia. i wouldnt change a thing except i wish all of you were here doing this with us. im sure tommy wishes he was. dont wait to do tomorrow what you could do today. you may not have a tomorrow. say hello to sal for me tommy...