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Published: August 21st 2015
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That Bloody mud snake got him.
Radar and his Oops. A few seconds is all it takes. Extreme road conditions take down a Harley.
We left Dawson City in a thick misty fog around 9.00am,these conditions lasted for around half an hour,when we then had a clear but crisp ride down to Carmacks.
We refuelled and checked into our hotel and after a great dinner in the local restaurant everyone was keen on an early night as the next day was to be a bit of challenge as we tackled the Campbell Highway to Watson Lake.
Well,the local 'First Nation' folks decided it was partly time and some of them had started long before we got there. They yelled and argued well into the small hours along with a visit from the local Mounties in their cars not on horseback,I am not sure that actually achieved anything,but somehow we all got at least some sleep.
The morning dawned to a promising day,except that Pete had been yodelling down the big white bowl all night and was not feeling the best,so they decided to take the sealed option and head to Watson Lake via Whitehorse on the sealed road. Turns out to be a good decision for them on their Harley Ultra.
We all set off with a rendezvous
Pick the leaders bike.
More muck and mud on the Campbell highway. for lunch and fuel at Ross River,which was approximately half way through our 612 kilometre day. The road was a mix of good tar seal,old damaged seal and good hard packed metal surface bound together with Calcium chloride to keep the dust down,but treacherous in the wet.
We all made it to lunch and fuel as the weather closed in a bit,so we took our time and headed off on the last leg. About 60km out of Watson Lake we ran across some major roadworks that had been dumped on overnight turning this section into a mud bath with many cars and motor homes having to be towed through by big 4x4 trucks,
This section was about 500 meters long and looked daunting enough to me and I was not on a Harley Davidson!!!. At first I held back,but then saw Nikki fishtailing all over the place,so got up closer to help if she got into trouble, Radar was having his own battle with the mud snake before it grabbed his front wheel and spat him off, all in about one second flat!!, I managed to park my BMW and run to give him a hand to pick his bike
up out of the mire, but not before grabbing my camera and snapping a photo after he confirmed he was OK.
All this time I am thinking 'Thank God Pete was ill this morning and went the other way' He would have been beside himself in this crap. It is a huge credit to Radar and Nikki's riding skills that got them through this huge challenge.
Once on the hard pack we topped up our tanks from the fuel on the truck as we wouldn't make it all the way to Watson Lake .
The rest of the day's ride was uneventful with everyone making it to our hotel.
Most of the riders found this section to be a bit of a challenge,but all making their way through with good riding skills and a dollop of good luck.
We all took turns at the local car wash to remove at least some of the Goob that was stuck to the bikes.
After a good nights sleep we were ready to hit the road again with a paved ride to Fort Nelson.
The following day was another big ride down to Dawson Creek and I totally misjudged the weather when we
left,as it was fine with a few wispy clouds,but within an hour the temperature had dropped to around 10 degC then moved down to 6 with threatening rain. We all stopped for coffee,soup and muffins and put on more clothing and wet gear, then headed off into the cold and wet,this was the first time that I had to put on my yellow Scott wet weather jacket on the whole adventure so far.
We needed to refuel on the way and we pulled into this small place and parked in front of the pump,only to find the attendant was away for half an hour, with that, Gerardo rode off as I was putting on my helmet, I clicked 1st gear and went to ride off, but I forgot there was a steel post by the pump and I ran straight into it,knocking me off my bike,lucky Wayne was there and ran to give me a hand to pick it up,it's always good when you have a buddy close by.......
We had some great mountain riding today with only a few roadworks to contend with, I took a loop along the Old Alaskan Highway to check out the old curved wooden
bridge before descending down to Dawson Creek and our hotel.
We have two nights here before making our way south to Jasper.
Cheers for now. Rosco
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Rob Mueller
non-member comment
Mud men
G'day, The photo of Radar with his Harley down reminded me of HOGHK tours up into China. I'm planning on making the same trip but in my GMC motorhome.