The Alaska Highway (Alcan)

The first phase of todays journey was to complete the crossing of British Columbia and arrive at the border with the Yukon Territory. The effort required to cross BC from South to North never ceases to amaze me, and this trip is no exception. At the Yukon border sign the odometer on the bike is showing 30584 miles or 1300 miles since the ferry from port Angeles first dropped me on BC soil. A few more miles and the Cassiar Highway was done and I have arrived at the Alaska Highway.

This last segment of the Cassiar was notable for all the recent and old fire damage, thats why the forest fire sign is included in todays photos.

At the Alaska Highway I turned right (which is the wrong way for someone headed to Alaska or Whitehorse) but I wanted to visit Watson lake to see the sign forest and to find a place for breakfast. The town has certainly grown since we were last here and the forest of signs and license plates is almost overshadowed by the rest of the town.

The good news was that Watson Lake had cell service and a good restaurant for breakfast.

The road from Watson Lake to Whitehorse is not exactly crowded either with other travelers or settlements, it is just miles and miles of light grey road surface amongst the never ending forest. I tried to capture the sense of this never ending-ness with the first image in the second group of images. You can just see the continuation of the road at the middle right of the photo. While I was taking this photo I saw a bicycle rider coming towards me so decided to wait and try to capture the same image with the rider in the frame. Riding this road at 60 mph on a motorcycle is a bit tedious at times I cannot imagine what it is like at 10 mph. Anyway the rider stopped and we had a chat, he started from Anchorage, via Fairbanks and his goal is to ride to Key West Florida. Of course he was German.

Not long after my chat with the cyclist I saw my second bear of the trip. It was in the grass beside the road. This one stayed put long enough for me to get the phone out but as you can see without a real telephoto lens the iphone is not the best instrument for wildlife photography.

In case you don't see it, the bear is the little black dot in the 3rd photo in the second group of photos.

Somewhat later I stopped at the town of Teslin (really just a couple of gas stations, restaurant and a few dwellings) for fuel and happened to see a guy wearing this jacket. There were actually two of these fellows. Yes, they have ridden from Sao Paulo Brazil and they are on their way to Prudhoe Bay.