Alaska 2006: Day 8: Tok, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon

The night at the motorcycle camp in Tok was wonderful. I'm glad I stayed in their cabin- it was dry, reasonably warm, it was nice to be able to change clothes, wash up, etc without being out in the elements.

I got going fairly late- about 8:30. I didn't get far- about 4 miles- and a motorcycle pulled out from a roadside camp. It was in front of me about a half mile, so I increased speed a little to figure out what the bike was. Turns out I recognized the unique triangular dual exhaust- a newish VFR.

Just a few miles later, I was surprised when this bike turned north at Tetlin Junction to head up to Chicken. The bike pulled to the side of the road, so I pulled next to it. It turns out the rider was a female, she was headed up to Chicken, across Top of the World, and over to Dawson. She told me to lead, so I did.

We stuck together for the 60 or so miles to Chicken. She was slower in the rough gravel, but faster in the corners and nicely paved bits.

We planned on stopping at Chicken, and did- Kathrin needed gas, and I wanted to buy some touristy stuff. It turns out she is from Salt Lake (and Boston, and Munich, and more), took the ferry up and has been riding similar roads for a few weeks. We parted ways at Chicken, because the road is gravel for the next 100 miles, and the VFR doesn't handle it as well as the DL650.

My initial plan was to get up to Fort McPherson, but once I got to Dawson at 2:30, I decided to stay there. Why? I was hoping the stopping place was halfway up Dempster to Inuvik. It's well over half, which would have thrown my following day's plans off. Also, the GPS said I'd get in at 9:00, which would be okay, but I would need to stop for gas a few times, eat, and it would certainly take at least another hour or two past that before I arrived. Since Dempster is completely gravel, I decided it wouldn't be worth it.

There are more reasons- I "lost" an hour coming back to Pacific Time at the border of Canada, and I really wanted to poke around Dawson for a bit.

So I did. I rode the ferry across, talked to an interesting fellow on a BMW. I then stopped in at the visitors centers (one is for Inuvik/NWT/Dempster), then some gift shops, then down the street to eat. I parked my bike along the main road, since I wanted to see if Kathrin or Antonio/Carlos came through.

After eating (battered cod plus a ceasar salad), then having dessert (choco chip cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone), I crossed the ferry again to check in at the hostel. Again, I parked on the main road, then walked up to the hostel.

When I came back to the bike, I organized a bit and heard someone yell from a pickup with a boat, four wheeler, and trailer. Wha? Oh, it's Kathrin. Turns out she got a terrible flat, so she was headed in to town to get it towed. I finished organizing, then remembered *this* is why I was in town- to meet people, share bonds, and such. So I jumped on the next ferry crossing and rode until I found her.

We waited at this auto repair/parts/something yard. They had closed, but the grumpy fellow was trying to organize some sort of tow for the bike. We really didn't want to have it on the back of a sling-style tow truck, so some arranging was done until someone would drive out with a pickup truck to get it.

After some confusion, I went with them, since it is much easier to load a streetbike with three people. Getting the bike wasn't bad- old four-wheel-drive truck, so he just dumped it into a ditch so the loading process was nearly level. On back to town, dropped it off so the shop could work on it first thing in the morning.

The two of us then went to a local entertainment show. It was a silly little cancan, just to entertain the half-dozen tour buses full of grey-haired tourists. We sat over at the bar- Kathrin ordered some food, I had a drink. Mainly we chatted- comparing notes, realizing that people just assumed we were a couple, travelling together. It happened in Chicken, and happened at the service shop. Not a big deal, but after travelling alone for so long, it was weird to see the role others saw us in- especially since we really only travelled together 60 miles.

Walked back to the ferry, crossed (my 5th time today- eesh), off to bed. I'm a little anxious about tomorrow- it is raining now, and will probably rain some tomorrow and much more the following. So the trip up Dempster may take a while. I'm hoping to check in to somewhere nice in Inuvik- this is not me at all, but I really want to sit in a jacuzzi and relax, maybe scrape a few layers of grime off.

The trip up to Inuvik is supposed to take 12 hours, according to the smart gal at the visitors center. It is supposed to be in better shape than Top of the World, which was much better than Denali or Haul Road, so that is a good sign.