Brits in Columbia

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Or Should that be Yukon not be serious...

Anyway the tale moves on. What can we say about the Yukon. It's not smokey anymore. The scenery is vast, huge, enourmous. Its really difficult to try and explain it. Suffice to say in two days we rode from Haines Junction to Bell II Lodge (Really a Heli Ski'ing resort but this is the summer) we had covered 775 miles or Lands End to John O'Groats. The Yukon is slightly more than three times as large as the UK and has a population of 30,000 or about a third of Jersey! We passed Whitehorse the capital (population 20,000) and stayed outside Watson Lake (Third largest town population 750). Big days riding that were very tranquil. We spent all of the day from Nugget bear spotting to no avail. Although they are out there and some people have got great photos, we saw nada.

British Columbia's slogan is "The Best Place on Earth" and it is easy to understand why they think so. Off from Bell II Lodge after a lay in for a short day to Stewart. Past lakes and mountains, glaciers and water falls, and passed by a Honda Goldwing Trike and Trailor, with the rider dressed in shorts! We were alone in defending the UK's honour by showing him the error of his ways by having too many wheels. However shorts or not he was making 80mph+ round the curves of the Stewart Cassier highway, which was a sight in itself.

In Stewart we have checked in to the very quiant Ripley Creek Inn. It has a toaster museum. The town is a one main street wooden building logging town of 300 people, just two miles from the southern tip of Alaska. So we went to Alaska for lunch and then later returned (proper border with Canadians asking lots of questions about guns, tobacco etc) to go Bear watching at fish creek. The salmon have reached the end of their journey and spawn in the river and then just remain in the water stationary swimming against the current seemingly waiting to be eaten. However after two and a half hours with one brief bear sighting and a very graceful Eagle, we gave up. As we rode off at 9.45pm camera's flashed in the dark. Two minutes after we gave up a Black Bear came up the stream one way and met a juvenile Grizzly who after a moment thought better off it and retreated down the road. We missed it all! Obviously Spunky would have sorted the pair of them out and made off with the Salmon, only to have Heffy nick it.

We have a rest day in Stewart and were planning to ride to Salmon Glacier, but the road is washed out, so the local Chopper pilots have laid on tour flights for $100 Canadian. Wow! Flew up to the Cambria Ice Field. The climb is 4000 feet from Stewart and we land in soft crunchy snow. Four to a the chopper, out we get, in get the last four and off he goes. We are alone on the ice field. The silence is absolute as the chopper fades tp the edge of the field and our horizon. It takes him 6-7 minutes to get to the edge of the field at 85 knots. This place is big. After 15 minutes he does come back for us and the return flight is equally if not more dramatic. When you cross the edge of the icefield the ground under your feet goes from 30 feet away to 3000 feet in a split second. Definitiely not for those with vertigo!

Big miles day the following day to Prince George (435 miles) marked by a return to civiliasation as we join Highway 16. Cars, campers, petrol stations, no gravel sections. We are back to the world. Prince George is a veritable metropolis compared to everywhere else we have been. There is McDonalds, Dennys, Subway, oh dear we are really out of the wilds. What a difference 435 miles makes. Good night in Maxies Classic Grill with Ed and Al's birthdays well celebrated. Al is not a frequent drinker and it showed after he suggested some of the ladies of the group could "do well to work on their bodies a bit more" - He is and will live to regret it. Easy day to follow through now rolling but wooded farmland. Industrial size bails of hay litter the fields, but despite this the groups still spot a number of Bears and an Eagle or two. Arriving in Jasper we are reminded of a Swiss Ski resort. It is after all a Ski resort just round the corner from Whistler. Very chic, coffee shops, out door clothing shops and a wide choice of restaurants. Barbeque in the evening abled handled by Kevin and Julia. In lovely cooling night air.

So another rest day today and an opportunity to explore. Rode to Mailgne Lake (How do you find it? Just follow Maligne Lake Road...) all very pretty, but capped by an up close and personal Bear spot on the way back. Beautiful young black grazing on berries and bushes right at the side of the road. Karen ably photographed away as I kept the bike idling and in gear, just in case Mama decided she didn't like us. Great photos although it seemed he was much less worried about us than we weer about him. At his full stretch before falling on his back, he was maybe 4 feet so a real youngster.

Two weeks in, all is well, actually better than well, all is bloody marvelous!

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Photos

Its Huge
The Yukon

Hyder Alaska
It almost looks like US theme park version of frontier town except its real and a long way from any tourist track

Juvenile Black Bear
Just remember somewhere in the bushes is mama bear