Back to Whitehorse

That evening I meet the Last Frontier Motorcycle Club who are going for a ride. They're an eclectic bunch with motorcycles of several brand names. The ride is going to be 2+ hours long and it's already 7 P.M. An early departure is in the plans for me and I reluctantly head back to the motel.

The weather is cooperating and it's going to be a beautiful day as I head out. Man, the feelings of relief at having the bike back wash over me. The ride north to Palmer is good. Heck, riding through a firestorm would be good at this point. The Glenn Hwy. runs east out of Palmer and my camera is getting a workout. I add this road to the Brooks Range and Kenai Peninsula as the best roads in Alaska. Along the road there are large, upside down L-shaped bars. In the winter, these help define where the road is as the snowfall quickly hides the highway.

Wrangell-St. Elias is a World Heritage Site and contains North America's greatest collection of glaciers and peaks over 16,000 ft. Mt. St. Elias is the second highest peak in North America and one glacier is larger than the state of Rhode Island. I'm surprised to learn that much of Alaska was not covered by glaciers during the last ice age while most of Canada was covered. Further down the St. Elias Range is Mt. Logan which is the highest mountain in Canada. Traveling north there is another visitor's center for the park on the Tok cut-off. Since there are very few roads into the park, I check out the two visitor's centers and head out.

Once again, I'm in Tok which is boring, boring, boring. I spend too much money on a portable CD player to replace the one I unceremoniously threw on the ground as I was packing my motorcycle that morning. They do have a good bakery in town which is of the utmost importance to a BMW rider. Ride to eat, eat to ride.

I'm counting the miles to the border. Surprisingly, traffic is light. At the border I have time to talk to the border guard. If you can gain their confidence, they are a wealth of information. In this part of the world, it's easy to get lonely and the relish conversation. Their job tends to be a source of conflict in this regard. I ask the ranger if I should go to Skagway or Haines. He recommends Skagway as a very scenic road. Little did I realize how right he would be.

Passing through Burwash Landing I notice that the fire I passed on the way up almost got out of hand. The buildings just barely missed the ravages of the fire. It wouldn't take much to wipe this small town off the map. Most of the surrounding trees have been burned and there must be several fires in the area since a haze has been hanging in the valleys all day.

In Destruction Bay the road parallel's Kluane Lake and provides some fantastic scenery. The lake is 30+ miles long and rests at the base of the mountains. Traffic is so light that I'm able to stop in the middle of a bridge and take some pictures. On either side of the road, the shoulder's are ablaze with purple flowers. A landscaper couldn't have done a better job. Life is good. This area is were you'll find Soldier's Summit. When the Alcan was completed a ceremony was held at this point. Temperatures were well below freezing so it can be assumed that the ceremony was a short one. Just past the lake there is a turn-off for picture taking. The route takes you several miles down a dirt road and you begin to wonder if you missed a turn. The view at the end of the road is worth the extra time.

Back in Haines Junction I'm surprised at the amount of snow missing from the previously covered mountains. Less than 2 weeks ago the mountains were white. Now they are barely covered at all. Regretfully, I elect not to sleep above the bar again.

This time through I do a quick tour of Whitehorse. It's now 11 P.M. and this seems to be the best time to tour this town. Downtown contains the typical tourist fare, but they have a Tim Horton's, which is Canada's answer to Dunkin' Donuts. Is there any time that isn't appropriate for a bagel and cream cheese? Outside of town I find a campsite and call it a night.

I haven't talked about the bear issue because the darn things scare the heck out of me. Being North America's largest carnivores doesn't help to endear them to me. Being in a tent worries me and I barely fall asleep when I'm camping in these areas. Some scratching on the side of the tent send me into a noisy panic, since I assume a bear is about to make me his plaything. After a few minutes of silence, I peek out of the tent to see a squirrel sitting on a picnic bench. His heart was beating so hard that I could see his chest expanding and contracting as he sat on his hind legs. The look on his face was clearly one of "What the heck were you thinking?"

For the quintessential Canadian experience, use one of their pit toilets first thing in the morning. Trying to concentrate on the job at hand as a voracious swarm of mosquitos do their best to extract their pound, sorry kilogram, of flesh is something everyone should enjoy. I would be a lot thinner if I had to do these aerobics every morning. I search for the campground attendant to pay for the night, but can't find anyone. The mosquitos must have got him or her. This Canadian exchange rate is the best of all even though it carries a pile of guilt. I'll stop at the next government campground I see and leave my money there.