June 28, 2008: 470 miles, from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada to Liard River Hot Springs, British Columbia, Canada
This was the day!
We were really looking forward to getting into the northern Canadian Rockies and crossing the continental divide, on our way up the Alcan/Alaska Highway.
We headed out on the Alcan, on our way to Liard River Hot Springs, which is a natural hot springs on the Alcan roughly halfway between Dawson Creek and Whitehorse. Beautiful day….blue skies, a little breezy (the ever-present headwinds from the West, which continues to kill our fuel mileage), but all-in-all a glorious day for riding adventure!
About 40 miles out of Dawson Creek, we stopped to take some pics of a pretty mountain vista, and the unfortunate juxtaposition of the ugly industrial complex of Peace Island in the midst of all the beauty. Necessary industrialization, I’m sure….but ugly nonetheless for anyone looking at the natural scenery.
Pretty…..
Not so pretty…..
On we rode, heading almost due North up the Alcan, and taking in the beautiful British Columbia scenery, which was mixed flat and open roads with occasional mountains.
Some of the flat stuff, showing Mike and Jaryd up ahead…
We also started to get into the ever-present northern highway construction zones, where the Canadian road crews start repairing the roads after the winter thaw, and there are many, many areas where one has to stop and wait for the single-lane oncoming traffic to pass, before your own direction of traffic are allowed through. This is manually controlled by flag waivers, bearing 2-way radios.
The interesting thing here, is that MANY of these flag-bearer traffic controllers are young ladies (college-age young women, many of whom do this as part-time student jobs). More than a few have also been very attractive….I’m sure that Jaryd was wondering about the possibilities of a quick chat with a couple of them! His Old Man being parked right next to him probably put the breaks on any such advances, however!!! 
Somewhere on this section of road, I (being the lead rider of our small group of 3), rode past something in the water on our right. It looked like an animal, but without a head!
What was it???? I couldn’t figure it out. It was dead still, but looked like the body of a cow or something……so I rode on.
It was later that Mike said he came upon it after I’d ridden past and he stopped to check it out.
Here is the thing that I’d seen…
Well, after a few seconds, the mystery was solved!!!
…..because up popped it’s head out of the water. It was a fully grown moose, that had been grazing on the grass or something under the water! It took a look at Mike, and decided it didn’t like what it saw, and promptly headed out. Mike said he did not stick around to find out if the moose wanted to come and say “hello” to him or not. Can’t say I blame him, as they have a reputation for aggressiveness. Well, at least to us city-slickers!!
I think it was also along this stretch of road, that a very large wolf ran across the road, from our left to our right, just as Jaryd was riding past. It ran across immediately behind Jaryd, who actually didn’t even see it, but Mike said it was very large with a long body and tail, and missed Jaryd by a few yards as we rode along at 60 MPH or so. Mike grabbed the brakes but it was gone by the time Mike’s bike reached the spot, so no pictures. Pity. It would have been the first wolf I’ve seen in real, life, in the wild.
Onwards we went, until we needed to stop of gas and a bite to eat for breakfast, at a little place called Wonowon – basically just a gas station with attached little restaurant and store and a very grubby looking motel. We were hungry enough to chance the food, and ordered the usual 2-3 eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast and coffee. Actually, the food ended up being quite good.
We filled up with gas, and it was here that Mike noticed that right-hand chain adjuster nut and plate had fallen off my bike, presumably from the constant engine and road vibrations. This would not cause an immediate problem, as although the chain adjuster helps locate the rear wheel axle in the suspension swingarm, as long as the axle nut itself is tight enough, the rear wheel will stay put and not fall off! BUT….it would make adjusting the axle to perform a chain adjustment (tightening the chain that is needed to counter normal chain wear and “stretch”) a little bit more complicated and difficult.
I resolved to fix it then and there, so looked in my parts box for a suitably sized nut and large washer, which could work as a decent substitute for the proper parts. Unfortunately, I had neither a large enough and strong enough washer, nor the right sized nut in my stash of spare nuts and bolts, so I asked at the general store if they had any, and of course they only had a few SAE (American non-metric) items, none of which would work on the Japanese metric bike.
Luckily for me, a couple of contractors arrived in their truck, and I spoke with them, and they let me go through their stock of parts and had a good large washer for me, but no metric nut. I took the washer and offered to pay, but they wouldn;t hear of it. Typical, friendly, helpful folks from up north. This friendliness and willingness to help strangers was something we had read about and are seeing from our own experiences on the road. Folks realize here that a vehicle or other breakdown can cause a major problem for anyone stranded, especially in the winter months – and they always help each other out. It’s really a different type of person, who lives up here, than what we’re generally used to encountering down South (and yes, I know this is not a politically correct thing to say, and that there are definite and strong survival reasons for this behavior having developed, but it’s valid commentary, nonetheless, and a very nice safety net for anyone traveling the more remote roads up north…..and each of us, in turn, is expected to also help out when the roles are reversed!)
So, I had a washer but still needed a nut (besides the one sitting on the seat!) to fix the chain adjuster problem, but that could come later. We rode on after our satisfying late breakfast in Wonowon.
We were really starting to now see some beautiful landscapes. I wish I were a better photographer to make better use of my camera, which is a fairly decent non-SLR super-zoom camera (a Panasonic FZ-7 with 6MB and a very fast, nice built-in 12x optical F2.8 lens with a decent optical stabilizer to avoid the shakes when zoomed in) with a 2GB SD card for storing quite a few hundred pics in ultra-fine JPG format at maximum resolution.
I was starting to get real impressed with Mike’s photography, on his little Kodak super-zoom. He has definitely got a better knack at extracting a nice pic from a scene, than me – and I must say that I am very impressed with his Kodak, which seems to pull more detail despite its supposedly more humble design parameters. Perhaps the main advantage of my FZ-7 (the super fast and strong lens) is a little out of its element with these static scenic shots, whereas the Kodak (and in Mike’s hands) is providing the best it can offer in this type of photography. The Kodak is clearly providing more detail from its higher resolution than my FZ-7, and provides more color saturation, for more “impact” in the pics. Perhaps I should set my FZ-7 for maximum 3:2 aspect format, with a higher level of color saturation, for similar results?
What do I know….I’ve got a lot to learn from this stuff, and as long as I can take a decent pic which gives at least a glimpse of the real view and scenery we’re seeing out here, I guess I’m OK with that. Perhaps….
Some pics of the landscapes….
Notice the extra detail from Mike’s pic of the same scene but slightly different viewpoint, below…
Mike, the man…doing his thing with his camera!
and a pic of Jaryd, who is starting to feel wary from the long, long hours on the bike – but has not complained ONCE yet. He really is a tougher young man than even I give him credit for, and is surprising me and pleasing me with this endurance. I really thought I’d be hearing the “Dad, I miss the PC games and Video games” kind of stuff by now. But not a peep! I’m really proud of my boy (or rather, of my young man!)
We soon came upon Prophet River, and filled up with gas, before heading out north again on the Alcan, for Fort Nelson, where we would follow the road West through the Stone Mountain National park, before reaching the famous Toad RIver restaurant with it’s thousands of caps hanging from the ceiling.
We had been warned this morning, when we stopped on the side of the road and spoke with a group of riders who were waiting for one of their riding buddies, to be very careful of the wild-life in the Stone Mountain park, as we could come across Moose, buffalo, big-horned sheep or Caribou at any time, either standing in the road, or running across it. Speed limits are low, and there are LOTS of signs to warn travelers to keep a look-out for the animals. It would NOT be good for any of us plough headlong into one of the larger specimens!
BTW, one of the guys in this group, a BMW rider, gave me the right sized nut that I needed for my chain adjuster, so I quickly fixed the problem on the side of the road, and felt much better about being able to adjust the chain again without hassles, when it’s needed. Thanks, Mr BMW rider! I’m sorry I did not record your name. I owe you a beer if we ever meet again!
After passing through Fort Nelson, without stopping for gas, because we’d only filled up 57 miles ago in Wonowon, we road for some time, until I glanced down at my GPS to see where the next town was, and became a little alarmed that there did not seem to be much of anything anywhere up ahead, within gas range of us! I stopped and checked the GPS again, and tried to work out whether we could reach Liard River or not. It seemed to be about 244 miles from Fort Nelson, and my range with this load and headwinds was a calculated 243 miles, from the “real” tank capacity of 5.8 US gallons (22 litres).
(Kawasaki claim a gas tank capacity of 6.1 gallons, but that is not achievable unless one lays the bike way over on its side, to allow the fuel from the lower “wing” of the tank on the right hand side, to shift over to the left side where the fuel line is located, as there is no inter-connect between the two lower sides of the tank!)
This was going to be tight…unless there is gas available at some spot between where we were and Liard River. We weren’t sure if there was anything at the Toad River restaurant or not.
We decided to stop the next vehicle and ask! We stopped a guy in a Chevy Impala (a very popular car up here….every thrid car seems to be one!), and he gave us the customary road distance measure, in hours (as seems to be the custom up here, rather than actual miles or kilometres!) – “There is gas about two hours up the road". We figured that was within 130 miles or so, so decided to chance it, and continued at a slower pace, for better fuel consumption.
We got to Stone Mountain park, with the weather turning dark and promise of rain, with the wind picking up, but interspersed with bright sunlight every now and again, and we soon experienced the many animals on or near the road, especially the many big-horned shee[.
Sheep up ahead!
It was just after passing through Stone Mountain park, with our gas running low, that Jaryd and I needed to stop for a quick break (bio break), to relieve all the coffee and juice we’d drunk earlier.
We hadn’t seen another vehicle for quite some time, and the mountains (with snow on the low peaks) lent an almost eerie feel to our surroundings, so much that we checked around us for bears and moose before walking away from the road to do the “wet break!”
(We are such wussies, eh! )
Some nice pics during the stop….
Mike taking a picture of me taking a picture of him, with an amused Jaryd looking on…
Hey…there’s a road sign!
We soon came across the BEAUTIFUL Muncho Lake, which is bright green with glacial salts reflecting in the water. It’s a pity that it was somewhat overcast at the time, so you can’t see the real beauty of this setting, but believe me, this was pretty!
Jaryd hopped off to see how cold the glacial lake was. Answer…..VERY cold!
and Jaryd mooning around behind the bike, before we headed on down the road!
We finally pulled into the little turnoff for the Toad River restaurant and THERE WAS GAS!!! Much relieved, we filled up and then sat down for a very late lunch, and to enjoy the scene of the thousands of caps from the ceiling, the great food AND the VERY attractive waitress! Note that as the days of men-only company piled up, all three of us travelers started to miss being with our better halves, or in Jaryd’s case, our female friends. I wished Karen was with me on this trip, but of course, I was already overloaded on the bike and Karen does not ride herself, so this was never going to be possible. Oh well, a pretty waitress is nice (but poor substitute), for the old eyes! 
After the lunch at Toad River, it was starting to get quite late, but with the sun setting so late up here, we had plenty of riding possible in the daylight, without worrying about traveling in the dark amongst the almost invisible buffalo (at night).
Talking of buffalo, we soon came across a large herd of them on and off the road, either enjoying the warmth from the road, or grazing and mock-fighting amongst themselves. They seemed quite nervous, or perhaps just frisky, but we stopped to take some pics and figure out decide how safe it would be to thread our way through this lot.
It was right then, when a large logging truck came barreling down the road towards us, with the buffalo on the road between us. The driver was clearly in a hurry, as these guys seem to always be, and he simply held his hand on the horn and flashed his lights at these huge buffalo on the road, while barely slowing down! They started to scatter….straight towards us! Somewhat panicked ourselves, in case they stampeded into us, we watched while ready to accelerate to avoid a potential giant buffalo-burger happening, but the large animals veered off the road a few yards from us, at the truck ran past us at about 40 MPH in the middle of the road.
THANKS, guy. (Not!!!!!!)
Another RV traveler, who had previously stopped like us, took the chance to move on as well.
With little further excitement, we eventually came to our goal for the day – the Hot Springs campground at Liard’s River.
We paid the young lady for the campsite, who took the opportunity to try to embezzle a few extra bucks out of us for some beer money for their staff party later that night, which we willingly obliged, so that we were assured of a place to stay despite the campsite being completely full! She directed us to the kids play area, and said we could pitch our tents anywhere we could find a spot.
We looked for the driest spot amongst the very damp and wet ground (which was accompanied by swarms of attack squadron mosquitoes as usual!), but we were just happy to have a place to sleep in this grizzly country. We know there are lots of bear around here, and the park attendants told us that due to some issues in the past, they’ve installed motion-detector activated loud speakers all around the campsite, to ward off any potential wildlife from entering the camp. We should, of course, not have any fruit or smelly toiletries with us in our tents – as is usual precaution in any bear-inhabited countryside. More on this later!
After setting up camp and covering the bikes, we walked across the road to the sole restaurant / gas station, for a much needed dinner. This place had a quaint little log-cabin restaurant, with slow, but friendly service…and we were in no rush. The food was good, other than the chips (fries) were obviously cooked in very well-used oil! Anyway, that did not stop us from enjoying the meal, with a coupla mugs of coffee.
Mike looking fairly well worn out after the long day!
A pic of the front of the restaurant/store, which was surprisingly busy.
and us walking across the road, back to the campsite afterwards.
As we got to our tents, the guy camping next to us, with an old Harley-Davidson, asked us if we’d seen the large grizzly! We said no, and asked when and where he’d seen it. He said it crossed the road just a couple of minutes ago, right near the campsite entrance, which is exactly where we’d walked across the road from the restaurant and stopped to take some pics of the entrance to the campsite! We must have missed the large grizzly by seconds. He was probably watching us as we were taking the pictures!!! (and I did check the pics on my camera, but no sign of him)
Tonight, both Jaryd and I took our bear spray (very high-strength pepper spray) with us into our tents, made sure to leave our toiletries away from the tents, and settled down for the night. It was a few hours later, that Jaryd woke me up to say that he was freezing cold in his wet sleeping bag, despite layering himself with two t-shirts, a fleece jacket, a pullover, long underpants, jeans, long socks, gloves and a balaclava!
Our choice of the cheap 20 degree (-7 degree C) rated sleeping bag from Walmart, is proving to not be a good one. It is obviously not providing the warmth it is rated at. I swapped my nice bag with Jaryd, and found the bag was really not wet at all…just cold.