July 4, 2008: 367 miles, from Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada to Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada
Woke up to the sound of some bikers leaving the campground, had a shower, and retrieved my camera battery charger and battery from the men’s toilet, after leaving it charging overnight. We packed-up our stuff and hit the road, turning left at the main intersection in town, where the slightly comical painted plyboard police car dummy was “patrolling” the intersection. Rode past the little icecream and fastfood place with the pretty ladies from yesterday evening, and we had an uneventful day, other than to stop for some pics and gas, as usual.
By this time, we’ve started to get lazy with our notes and pics, and so much of the remaining trip is from memory (or lack thereof), maps and the pics themselves.
Somewhere on the road between Haines Junction and Watson Lake, probably around the Jakes Corner-Teslin Area, we’d stopped and we were joking about how scruffy we were getting with unshaved beards. When Mike took a close-up of my 18-year old son’s few scraggly hairs, we had a good laugh!
The “old men” had a few more on our faces….
Some pretty scenery…..
We crossed the hated steel grated bridges without incident, and then shot past Whitehorse without stopping on our way to Watson Lake (the place with the signpost forest), where we were going to stop for the night, if we could find a decent campground.
Somewhere after another stop, my right ear plug came loose, and I waved Jaryd and Mike through, indicating I was OK but needed to stop quickly. Shouldn’t take more than a coupla minutes for me to remove gloves, helmet, fix ear plug, and fasten the helmet and put on the gloves again, right? Well, it didn’t take long, but by the time I’d kitted up again, the others were over the hill and gone. No problem, I’d catch them up soon enough!
Well, I rode and rode and rode, and then went past a small gas station or something on the right (after having a quick glance to ensure they had not pulled off the road to wait for me), and continued. After 30 minutes or so, I started to doubt whether they could be still up ahead of me, and perhaps they HAD stopped at the gas station, but I knew it was the riders in front’s responsibility to always check for the guys behind, and if they’d pulled off the road, they would have kept a lookout for me, and waved me down, if necessary.
By bow, it was about 45 minutes since they’d past me, and still no sign, so I thought they MUST be behind me, and I slowed down to about 60 MPH. After another 10 minutes or so, I realized they must have still been ahead of me, and now probably further ahead, unless they’d stopped somewhere to wait for me.
I wasn’t worried, of course, because we’d decided that we’d sleep over in Watson Lake, and I’d find them somewhere in town, as we had not identified a camping ground yet.
I settled down and enjoyed the road, and the solitude, and thought to myself that riding solo in these beautiful places also has its merits. I’m not the bravest of souls, but the thought of doing a ride like this solo also had some appeal, although I was thoroughly enjoying this trip with my son and my riding buddy.
It wasn’t much later that I came upon a little gas station/restaurant place, and there were the two of them. Jaryd had stopped to relieve himself, and they were ready to hit the road again.
We entered Watson lake and found a economy looking little hotel in the light drizzle that had started, but it was clear that it was still being built and there was no-one around anyway. We headed off down the little road that runs past the signpost forest, to see if we could find anything there, but eventually turned around and retraced our steps and continued along the main road to the other end of town, where we found a campground on the left, next to a store and a gas station/repair shop place.
We entered as they were about to close up shop, but managed to secure a tent site, and we did our usual camp setup in a few minutes, before heading back into town to find a place to eat.
We road up and down the road a couple of times, before selecting a place that had a number of bikes out front, mostly Harleys. The place seemed to be a popular biker hangout kinda place, with pool tables, bar and two dining areas, We selected the quieter area, away from the large windows overlooking the bikes, and ordered a meal from the young waitress, who was as clueless about the menu as she was cute. Looking back at my notes, it seems that I have reported a relatively large number of pretty young ladies on this trip, and while this may seem to be almost a case of the “dirty old man”, it really was true! 
After our meal, we headed back to the mosquito infested campground and had an uneventful evening and night.
Tomorrow will be a long day, as I think we’re going to try for Wonowon, about 500 miles or so. We need to make-up some time, as we are planning to take the longer route back to Michigan, through the upper states of the USA, after heading down the US-93 along the Rockies (something I’ve been wanting to do for years).