2 Pats riding north

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 in line. Once clear, we headed for downtown Prince Rupert to find a service station, Pat's rear tire needed air. Once that was taken care of, we hit the Yellowhead highway headed east. It rained ... read more

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 dock and loaded it onto a water taxi that also was carrying the 3 double kayaks we would be using. The boat took us on a 1.5 hour trip up the Prince William Sound to ... read more

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 40 or so Texans came into the lodge for their very own cinammon bun. We carried on for another 100 km or so and stopped for fuel in Carmacks where I met a fellow from ... read more

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 of the Yukon border on the BC side. The park features natural pools fed by hot springs. We were looking at about 750km to Liard River in addition to the 130km we had each covered ... read more