It was about 3am when I found myself staring up at the top of the tent. It was pitch black but I could just barely make out the seams above me. Apparently I had been staring up for some time but was only just then waking up. I do that all the time, my body wakes up before my mind does creating an awkward gap of vulnerable consciousness. It's typically harmless and I rarely wake up in random places, but today would be one of those days when I do. I know I'm on the road, but I couldn't quite say with certainty where I was. Not yet.
After some time goes by, I slowly start hearing the rain and I realize it's been raining for a while, keeping me up enough to be restless but still tired. I had left the earplugs in the bike and it was too late to get them now. I roll back to sleep, only to wake up a few times thereafter. My confusion gets compounded by the dreams of rain mixed in with the rain against our tent.
The rain had kept me up most of the night, but even laying down for those few hours felt rejuvenating. Eddie had remembered his plugs and didn't move most of the night. The sun had come up but I think it was still only 6am or so. The bikes in the spot next to us had left already, they had better morning discipline then we did. We wait an hour or so to try to wait out the rain, but it never stopped and after some time it felt hopeless and silly to go against Mother Nature like that, like playing a game of chicken with a player who never yields.
I get out of the tent to find one of my boots had fallen over in the tent's vestibule, getting it a bit wet in the rain. I don't see my overpants, then it hits me that I left them on the table outside the night before. They're totally soaked! I'm not starting this day off too well...
To make it even worse, I check the bike over and my left saddlebag is full of water from the rain cover holding in all the water on the inside. Fortunately most of my clothes are wrapped in smaller dry bags which kept them mostly dry. I poke holes in the bottom of the rain covers, to hopefully end this madness once and for all.
It was still raining when we had to pack up and start the day, Eddie was not pleased:
I was able to manage a fake smile:
We get back on the road and despite the overcast day, the rain had stopped which was okay with us. We still weren't sure what the weather outlook was so we appreciated the break in the rain while we could.
Our first stop was at Coal River for gas and breakfast. The old gent running the station gives us a handwritten note with our gas total to give to the lady running the store. I can appreciate the simplicity and the honesty here. I pick up a chocolate muffin and a coffee, and we snack on our quick breakfast on some park benches by the gas pumps. We never had to move the bikes, we were the only ones on the road it seemed.
Coal River, winter population of 2:
Liard River:
Get used to stopping for construction on the Alaska Highway:
We make another stop at Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, a required stop!
The origin, from Wikipedia:
"In 1942, a simple signpost pointing out the distances to various points along the tote road being built was damaged by a bulldozer. Private Carl K. Lindley, serving with the 341st Engineers, was ordered to repair the sign, and decided to personalize the job by adding a sign pointing towards his home town, Danville, Illinois, and giving the distance to it. Several other people added directions to their home towns, and the idea has been snowballing ever since."
While gassing up in Swift River, we met a few older guys on touring bikes that were going the other way. We chatted with them a bit, as I was interested on their opinion of the construction near Destruction Bay, which we were warned about a few times already. They warned of the ruts in the road and to be alert, as the ruts sometimes wandered from side to side, causing the bike to wander. Overall they said it was not a problem but just to be careful and alert.
I begin to think about home. I hadn't gotten a chance to cut the grass before I left and that fact had stuck in my mind. I knew Tiff would have to deal with all these things but had to trust that she was taking care of them. I couldn't think of much else other than what was in front of me now. I couldn't even think about my bank account. I had learned to just trust the credit card will go through with every swipe. Aside from a few bills stashed away, I didn't have much of a backup plan, and somehow I was okay with that.
Things had gotten different for me in these past couple days, since Banff, I began to worry less about trivial stuff and found myself thinking more about what really mattered to me in the moment. Where the next gas stop would be, if I should change into the rain gear, should we sit down and eat or grab something to go. These otherwise seemingly simple details became high priority and it was hard to think of anything else. The only time I thought about back home was when I compared the experience in front of me with the experience of living back home, and how much different life feels between the two. It made these places here feel special and I couldn't help but think of how presumptuous and superficial life seems sometimes when in a different frame of mind.
What else would I be doing if I wasn't on this trip?
Probably nothing worth remembering.
After another stop in Teslin we continue on towards Whitehorse. We're making good time, finally in a position where we were not racing the clock, and I can finally rest assured we'll be able to make out stop tonight with plenty of time left to spare. It would feel nice to relax in Whitehorse and check out the town. The road to Whitehorse takes us by various lakes, winding through the wilderness of the Yukon.
Couldn't ask for a better day:
Tonight we would be staying in a hostel. This would be my first hostel experience so I was a bit unsure what awaited us there. I was hoping it would be a good mix between camping and staying at a formal hotel. The price couldn't be beat, at $30 per head. Even if the beds there were not the greatest, it surely would be better than the camping setup we had the night before. Especially considering the overnight temperatures were starting to get a bit chilly, despite it being summer still. I began to start thinking about dinner, since we hadn't had a real meal all day, so finding a nice dinner would be priority number one.
Pulling into Whitehorse was almost a bit of a shock, having not really seen a proper city since Grande Prairie, if you could call Whitehorse a city at all. We head straight for the hostel and find we are not the only motorcyclists staying there tonight. I feel we will have good company here at this place. They look comfortingly familiar.
I kept peering over while unpacking the bikes, and sure enough they look identical to the pair we stayed next to last night at camp. Getting into the hostel, before meeting anyone else, "Aren't you the guys at the hot springs last night?" We were busted.
We chat for them a little while longer and finish unpacking. We've got a shared room and desperately try to find enough space around it to store all of our stuff, a difficult task compared to the backpackers around us. We unpack the still wet camping gear and spread it all out on the front lawn, and while this dries we head out to find a good restaurant in town. After wandering around Whitehorse a bit, we settled on the Klondike Rib & Salmon restaurant which turned out to be some good food with great atmosphere. Maybe even too much food! Both our plates ended up being a little more food than we had anticipated but we (eventually) finished.
Back at the hostel we find a decent group sitting around the campfire talking about the world's various problems and issues. Our gear is dry now so we pack it up, and it all feels 30 lbs lighter now that it's not soaked. We chat a bit further with the guys on the bikes, who are from Saskatchewan and on their way to Alaska. They did not really have much concrete plans and I had to respect them for that.
We have a long day planned tomorrow, and there is a pretty good chance we'll be getting in pretty late into Anchorage. The alarms get set early. We head to bed but I can't sleep from anticipating seeing both Alaska and Tiffany tomorrow so I write in my journal and listen to the snores of those around me before falling asleep myself.
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