Alaskan Highway:Fort Nelson BC to WatsonLake,YT

Wed, July 7 2010
Since daylight begins up here at about 2:00am.. we decidedOn to rise early (4:30am) and get on the road hoping we could see some wildlife. We were rolling at 6:00 (took forever to load the bike and trailer) all gassed up and headed north.

Our plan worked for us today as it was bright and sunny and we were rewarded with 5 bear sightings, a mommy and baby moose running down the river bed, 2 big horn sheep (not sure if my photo turned out or not), several mountain goats on and alongside the road, 3 elk in a field and a large group of bison, (mamas, papas, and babies)..That was a little scary for me..I saw that they were getting skittish..starting to move around and I decided to put my camera away and get the hell out of their way as they were grouping and moving toward me.. luckily,in my hurry to start my bike.. I killed it and they stampeded right in front of me.. Gene had moved his bike a little further ahead and they went right between us!!!.. They were moving fast and went right across the road!! Those of you who know our “Terror on the treeline” story will now know this as my “Terror on the Alcan” story 

Of the bears, Gene made me move when one of the bears we saw was getting closer to my bike…but he was just eating things on the ground and not paying much attention to me. Another bear was so cute as he lay down on his back and started licking his feet but by then I’d put my camera away as Gene was telling me to move up to him.

About 2 hours into our ride this morning, we made a stop at a gas place..old time looking and an “old time looking” gentleman came out to gas us up..cost $51.10 to put gas in our two bikes..my was ½ empty and Gene still had a 1/4 tank left but since we didn’t know how far it was to the next place for sure we didn’t want to come into town empty again like last nite. ..It was actually a pretty neat place. We had an awesome bacon and egg sandwich on bread that looked like ½ a loaf and bacon so thick you really had to chew it, good hot coffee and wonderful conversation with Herm.. who had served 20 years in the Canandian Air Force.. and now is a big game guide..he has 4 planes that he uses to fly people into the bush..said he has gone from hunting terrorists to terrorizing tourists..We also had a nice conversation with a couple of Harley riders who had come from Key West to Homer Alaska on the Hokahuy Challenge.. a race that had a winning purse of $500,000. The winner will be announced at Sturgis 8/11/10 and it wasn’t these guys..:)

We decided to camp tonite as it’s not supposed to rain ?? No campfire but we do have our LIT  eating cold pizza from last nite or peanut butter. At $21 for this tentsite.. it makes up a little for the $75 spent at Herms and the $ 170 hotel in Jasper..Dang..wish we’d win a million.

Rode 340 miles today and from 6:00am to 2:pm..all in all a very good day 'nuf
for now