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Distance driven: 400 miles / 640 km
Cumulative distance driven: 992 miles / 1,587 km (only 16,000 miles to go!!)
Today’s trip: Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada to Liard River, British Columbia, Canada
Wolves I almost run over on the road with my motorcycle: 1
Fellow PanAm riders encountered: 1 Scottish rider headed north, who had started in southern Argentina and was now finishing his PanAmerican highway trip.
The midnight sun finally got to me. I woke up at 5:30am in my hotel room in Whitehorse, with a feeling that it was in the middle of the day. That’s because when I peeked out of the window, the sun was as bright as it normally is at noon time. It appears the sun never really does set in the summer here. After an early breakfast, I started riding at 6am. In the first few hours riding east on the Alaska highway, I only met about 5 vehicles. There is a special feeling riding alone early in the early morning and being surrounded by beautiful nature and no traffic whatsoever. I guess that there is a sense of peacefulness to it.
Already after a
few hours of riding, I spotted a young brown bear by the side of the road, curiously looking at me. Barely had I passed by the bear, when suddenly a wolf stepped out of the woods and decided to park itself in the middle of the road. I had to brake hard and swerve, in order not to run it over. The incident reminded me that humans don’t own the forest and that there are lots of animals that consider this vast northern Canadian territory their home. Just a few hours later, as I entered British Columbia, I was suddenly confronted with half a dozen Bisons standing on the road, not having the slightest inclination to move. And why should they? I did the only reasonable thing I could think off; I stopped and took a couple of pictures!
It is interesting to know that the Alaska highway, on which I have been driving for a few days now, was constructed during the Second World War. The 1,700 miles long road was built by the US Army, with the goal to connect the contiguous lower 48 states with Alaska, through Canada. The Japanese threat to the US
west coast, during World War II, combined with the Pearl Harbor attacks, increased the urgency to build and finish the road, so that military equipment and army supplies could be moved to Alaska, should there be a Japanese invasion. So in a sense, one could say that the Alaska highway owes its existence to the Japanese.
The highway was built in record time, in just less than 6 months. To this day, it remains a piece of engineering marvel, not only because of its ultra-rapid completion, but also because of the tough geography and the harsh climate conditions throughout British Columbia, Yukon and eastern Alaska that had to be dealt with during the construction. Though most of the road today has been upgraded since the Second World War, and is for the most part paved, it is still rough at a number of sections. Riding on the Alaska highway today on my motorcycle, and experiencing its mighty length, makes me even more impressed over the herculean effort the US army Corps of Engineers put in during war times.
During my lunch time stop at Lake Watson, I discovered the most amazing forest, unlike any
other forest that I have ever seen (or read about) before. I found the "Sign Post Forrest". In the middle of Lake Watson, there are hundreds of wooden poles in the ground, each filled with hundreds of signs. Anybody travelling though Yukon who has a sing post with them (and who doesn’t always bring a street sign from home with them when traveling in such a remote and distant location?!?) is free to mount that sign on a pole. The result is thousands and thousands of signs on hundreds of poles, which combined, form a forest you can walk in. And there are signs from literally every corner of the world. Amazing!
My ride today ended at a place called Liard River at milepost 496 on the Alaska Highway. I decided to stay at the wooden lodge here, which incidentally is the *only* building in this location on the map. That’s it, just this one lodge. I finished the day by visiting the hot springs which this location got its name from, and spent a very relaxing (and badly needed) half hour in over an 40C (120F) hot natural pool in the middle of the woods.
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Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0697s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wellcraft19
Per-Ola
Keep on Rolling!
Fun to follow your adventure Christer from afar (although I'll gladly admit I'd rather be there up with you, assuming I had a gathered the needed riding experience). Trying to check in every day as time allows.