June 20th The ferry docked at Prince Rupert just shortly after 5 AM. Once we were let down to the vehicle deck, we needed to repack our bikes and unfastened them, all this while cars, RV's and truck drove by while the ship began to unload. The motorcycles basically left the ferry last. As soon as I drove up the ramp I could see the customs plaza and the lineup of vehicles waiting ahead of us. Just to make it interesting, it was also raining. The whole customs process took roughly a half hour, 29 mins of which were spent waiting [View Full Entry]

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After our long day of Kayaking, sleep came quite easily for me. We managed to get out of Valdez the next morning by about 9:30. We rode most of the day on very nice roads, backtracking on a 175 km stretch of the Tok Cutoff in order to get back into the Yukon. Our goal for the day was to get to the border town of Beaver creek, YT. The roads were just beautiful and the warm weather made the 580 km ride a breeze. We passed the US customs building, and, in what can be described as an oddity, the [View Full Entry]

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The ferry got us to Valdez at 8:30 sharp. The campground and our cabin was just a couple minutes drive from the dock. That night we just crashed after I took a quick walk around the city. At 8:00 the next morning, we were at the offices of Anadyr Adventures for the much anticipated kayak expedition. Our guide Kate, who hails from Wisconsin, got us outfitted along with 3 other would-be paddlers: Doug, from Rochester, NY, Junalee, from Anchorage and Les, a 52-year old hitchhiker from Edmonton, AB. After a quick briefing on safety procedures, we hauled our gear to the [View Full Entry]

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June 12th We left Chicken after a hearty breakfast sandwich at the camp cafe. Only a few miles of dirt road remained to be negotiated until the pavement reappeared. The night before I had spent a considerable amount of time cleaning and adjusting the drive chain on my motorcycle. The succession of rain and dust and various other dirt had made quite a mess of it. Normally I have a gadget to make quick work of the task, but on a road trip like this, it is accomplished with a can of WD-40 and a rag. The first 80 km or [View Full Entry]

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We left Whitehorse at about 8:30 on the 10th of June heading north on the Klondike highway. We've left the Alaska highway behind for a while but will link up with it again in a few days. First stop was 80 km north of Whitehorse at a little outpost called Braeburn Lodge. They are apparently famous for their giant cinnamon buns which allegedly feed a family of 4. I ate half of one. On the way there we had passed a Holland-America tour bus. Good thing too, they pulled in to the Braeburn Lodge a few minutes after we did and [View Full Entry]

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We got on the road at 8:30, with about 650 km ahead of us. We were still playing catch up from the whole tire fiasco in Grande Prairie. We had fallen about 80 km short of our intended destination of Liard River provincial park and their hot springs. So the first order of business was to stop at Liard and have a quick soak in the sulphur spring pool. There are 2 pools there and depending which one you go to, and where you sit in it, the water temperature ranges from 40 to 65 C. These are completely natural pools [View Full Entry]

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I left Grand Prairie at about 8 o'clock Monday morning bound for Dawson Creek, BC. The 130 km ride was very enjoyable, there was not a cloud to be seen and the temperature was about 10 C. The single lane highway was in good shape and provided a few wildlife sightings, a deer that got a little too close and what I think was either a wolf or a large coyote. Pat R stayed behind to get a new tire for the back of his ride. At 10:30, I received a text message from him telling me that he had located [View Full Entry]

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We left Dawson Creek at about 1 o'clock. Pat R had arrived about a half hour before that. I asked him what he thought of the giant roadside beaver (see previous entry) and he admitted that he hadn't even noticed it. I think the stress of having to lose half a day because of the tire affair had gotten to him. To ease him back into holiday mode, I rode up front as we headed north and kept the pace light. We had an ambitious ride ahead of us. Originally I had hoped to make Liard River Provincial Park, just south [View Full Entry]

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Day 1: Saskatoon-Edmonton: 524 km Day 2: Edmonton Grande Prairie: 459 km Total to date: 983 km Here we go again, another trip, another blog. If you missed the last one, you can catch it at www.mytb.org/patanderin. Pat R and I left Saskatoon on Saturday at noon, as we had planned. The weather wasn't that great, it's been an odd spring weather wise, with overnight frost in early June. So I bundled up, plugged in my vest, turned on my heated grips and set off for Edmonton, a ride that is just over 500 km. Pretty uneventful trip, we stayed at [View Full Entry]

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Ferry reservations are made, bikes serviced, gear purchased, weather could be better, but we are ready to go! [View Full Entry]

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