Wednesday June 8th Boya Lake to Stewart

Got woken up this morning at 5AM by the alarm on my cell phone - guess it knows we're on our way back and should be ready to go to work bright & Early! Was another chilly start but beautiful bright clear skies. Standing in the sunlight - Donnie ate beans for breakfast (I had a cinnamon bun)and some coffee - then we were on our way. Once again the mountains on this highway are breathtaking and huge! Saw another bear (this time I was able to get a picture) - we stopped at a restaurant and a few guys told us they saw a momma grizzly and 2 cubs just down the road. No construction, no traffic on this road. We turned off on a side road and headed to a little town of Stewart - this is a very tight mountainous passage where you see beautiful waterfalls and glaciers up close & personal. Truly worth the 40 mile drive out of our way. Stayed at a unique hotel in Stewart - they took a group of several historic houses and turned them into individual hotel rooms. Once again from the outside we were thinking perhaps we should have choosen a different hotel - but once inside - it was quite nice. Heading out in a few minutes heading towards Prince George. D&C

Tuesday June 7th Whitehorse Yukon to Boya Lake BC

today was once again a chilly start but a beautiful drive up and over the mountains of Northwestern Canada. Still encountered a few stretches of construction but not too bad. Starving for something to eat, we took a chance and stopped at the only restaurant (The Continental Divide) within 100 miles either direction. From the outside you'd never think you'd find inside a young women who makes everything (including the hamburger bun) from scratch and provides her customers with top notch service and huge portions! Just goes to prove that you can't judge a book by it's cover. We took the Cassiar Highway south just before Watson Lake - and almost immediately we saw a momma bear and 3 tiny cubs.....too bad I didn't have the camera ready yet. Although the road is rumored to be bear ridden, we did not see any more bears today. We spent the night at Boya Lake Provincial Campground and now that the fire hazard has been lifted - we were able to have our 2nd campfire of the trip.

Monday June 6th: Dawson City to Whitehorse

Monday june 6th: not unexpectedly we woke up to rain this morning and drove in that rain pretty much the entire way from Dawson city to Whitehorse. Despite the rainy conditions, the roads were in great shape…pretty much chip seal with a few short loose gravel areas - no more slippery dirt – yippee! Wasn’t able to take any pictures along the way (maybe should have purchased a water proof camera!) – most of the ride down there wasn’t much to see as the trees along the roadside were too thick and tall to peak over – but occasionally you could see the snow peaked mountains in the distance, the Yukon River or several lakes along the way. We made a quick stop at this tiny visitors center hut at Stewarts Crossing and were greeted by a real Northern Yukon character – when Donnie asked him if Stewart Crossing was his hometown – he replied “hell no – this town (population 25) has too many people – I live 25 kilometers North of here in a town with population of 4”. As you can imagine, the two of them hit it off quite well – so he offered us a cup of freshly brewed coffee and we chatted for at least 20 minutes – mostly about the insanity of US politics and Trump. Second stop was at Braeburn Lodge where, according to the Milepost they make the world’s best cinnamon buns daily – I have to say that the fresh baked aroma in that place was absolutely amazing – of course we sampled their baking by eating a few (still warm) pieces of carrot cake – then immediately purchased one of their cinnamon buns – thinking about eating that for supper.  To date we’ve logged over 6,000 miles since leaving home – now officially back on the Alaskan Highway heading east towards Watson Lake then south down the Cassiar Highway – which they say is 450 miles of a beautiful, bear inhabited (LOL), remote (yet chip sealed) road. D&C making plans for tomorrow...

Sunday June 5th: Wasilla to Dawson City

Sunday 1st half: Wasilla to Tok Beautiful morning, left around 630am in clear skies. Saw a lot of moose at the beginning of the day, raging rivers due to the melting of the snowpack’s, took the Glenn highway to Glenndale which brought us through rock peaks, rock slides and glaciers. It wasn’t long before the temps began to drop and the skies began to get darker – then the rain came. As most of you riders know when you’re cruising along you get used to the sounds of the engine. We were cruising along at 60 mph, cresting the top of one of the mountains, when the bike went silent, I felt the rear tire slide – then at the same time Donnie rolled back on the throttle slowly and pulled the bike out of the slide. Once the bike was under control again, he pulled over and we looked at each other and had a little chat about the event. We’re guessing that there was ice at the top - it took a couple of miles for him to get back his confidence in the road. WE eventually arrived in Glenndale, had breakfast – as we were leaving a few locals stopped us and asked which way we were going and said it was slippery going south so be careful as there is ice at the top. We assured them we were on our way north and had first-hand experience with the ice. The sun did come out again a little while later and we stopped at an information center in Tok to check road conditions before venturing off on the second leg of our journey. 2nd half Tok to Dawson City Yukon Question: if you were given the choice to travel over the 60+ miles of rock, loose gravel, water trucks and traffic delays we encountered on our way between Destruction Bay and Alaska - or – take the Klondike Loop, a 498-mile way around that construction with over 100 miles of narrow dirt roads, steep terrain called The Top of the World Highway? which would you choose? I’m guessing most of you would choose the first option. -of course, we choose the second one. We agree – we’re a bit insane. The first part to the town of Chicken, was good for the most part – but right outside the town we encountered the most nastiest washboard roads ever! When arriving at the town (little mining community) we knew we were most likely going to encounter more rough riding when the locals were pointing at the bike with the trailer and shaking their heads. As we left that town we started climbing narrow windy tight dirt road with hairpin turns, no guardrails, just a gravel road with 1,000 foot drops. We drove for miles and miles along the tops of the mountains, down to the bottom, then back up the next. At one point as we were creeping alongside a river when we came across a true Yukon gold miner. We could see that he had been panning in the water and must have heard us coming. As we approached he put both hands (including the pan) up in the air and greeted us with the most authentic welcoming toothless Christmas morning smile and waved as we passed. I sure hope he didn’t dump his fortune back into the river. Further up the river we passed by several commercial mining operations and then back to climbing up the next mountains. I didn’t think the dirt was ever going to end. However, 12 miles before US / Canadian border, the US paved the road in the middle of nowhere – a welcome “gift” from all us taxpayers. Finally arriving at the Canadian border, the agent told us that we had 65 more miles of dirt roads between us and Dawson City – and that we should go slow as they had recently received rain which as we know makes those roads slippery. Sure enough the rain came back as we were descending the last mountain down to the Yukon River where we had to take the ferry over to Dawson City. As we set up the camper for the night – I made Donnie promise that there would be no more off-road adventures this trip. Went for dinner at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling hall – then at midnight walked back to our camper with sunglasses on (21 hours of sunlight)! I really recommend you all google the top of the world highway – it’s insane! D&C PS I do have pictures but the Wi-Fi I paid for is incredibly s-l-o-w so will post when I can.... /AAAAAAAACzs/twqG_f2GqQIE9EeL2Lx8N0uawAP2NAtQCLcB/s200/DSCN0663.JPG" />

June 4th - Fairbanks to Wasilla AK

We got a bit of a late start this morning as we took time to do some laundry, wash the bike, plan the next destinations and chat with some other travelers who we've seen off and on throughout the journey thus far. We decided to venture down Route 3 on the Parks Highway through Denali National Park because Donnie said we can't miss Denali, we're so close. The mountains are more spectacular than you can imagine and they go on forever. We saw a lot of moose today, hit some rain, and skies were cloudy most of the day. We were able to capture a few photos of the top of Denali despite the heavy cloud cover. All and all the day was amazing! Off to Dawson City, Yukon, Canada tomorrow via the Klondike Loop - which consists of venturing over a 79 mile dirt road called the "Top of the World Highway" and a quick ferry ride over the Yukon River. Trip will be close to 11 hours and close to 500 miles but as the dirt roads get extremely slippery when wet and it's supposed to rain on Monday - we have to get over to Dawson City tomorrow or lose an entire day waiting for the roads to dry up again. Chat soon! D&C

more Arctic Circle facts & pics

the journey to the arctic was at the top of the bucket list. the photos don't the do the road or the scenery justice. the road in some spots were good hard pack with rocks, other times slippery, the chip seal and pavement was broken up - constantly needing to keep your eyes open as some of the cracks were close to a foot and a half deep craters~ it was a huge relief when we made it to the arctic circle sign - but more of a relief when we finally got back to the campground - it was truly a white knuckle ride all the way. We finished off the evening on our newly claimed bar stools at Chena's Alaskan Grill (http://chenas.net/) sharing the stories of our day with our new bartender friend Stacey and the rest of the crew! The local people here in Alaska are absolutely amazing - friendly, caring and willing to share life stories with us. They all seem to think that we'd fit in quite well in Alaska since we seem to be just as crazy and adventurous as they are. and everyone loves our little camper!