Day 6: OFF TO WHITEHORSE

I woke up and it was light outside. I had the sense that I had over slept. I packed up the tent and loaded up the bike. Come to find out it was not even 4AM yet. As I headed down the road , not even 200 yards from my campsite, I see a big black bear. If I would have seen him the night before I would have packed up and left.

I had ridden for a few hours and was getting hungry. I liked to stop for breakfast, snack for lunch , and cook for dinner. It was a system that was working well. I pulled into the Northern Rockies lodge for breakfast.  A couple of Harley Riders hit me up that were having breakfast and then I met a couple that use to live in Texas but had recently moved to Arizona. It was a busy place that offered airplane rides into the wilderness with a bush pilot. I am not sure how much more wilderness one would need to see.

Along with seeing lots of wildlife you get to see a lot of signs. Like this one:

 

 

It means that the shitty road you have been driving on is about to get worse. This sign is often used in conjunction with the "loose gravel" sign. When I saw the loose gravel sign I thought someone must have stolen the ones for the last 100 mile stretch of gravel I've been riding on but nope. "Loose Gravel" means ankle deep gravel. Sometimes you get one of these signs:

If you are on a motorcycle and you see this it means "Good Luck"! These are pretty common as well

Don't get me wrong the views are worth it, Oh, and the sign was right on the Money

 

 

 A little while later I would come across my first buffaloes.

 

 

I crossed into the Yukon and saw my first Grizzly, it was just me and him so I kept going. No picture taking. I stopped at the sign post forest to stretch the legs.

I met a ton of people at the sign post forest amd again later when I stopped for fuel. People were always so nice. It was hard to believe how small a world it is.

This is Greg and Elaine. They had been on the road since May 20th, were from Georgia and were headed to Denali.

 

I met these yahoos when I stopped to fill up with gas. The man in Yellow was from Denton, Tx. The other 3 were long haul truckers moving Ski-doos and a Spider.

 

I was unclear where I was going to stay the night. I saw a huge RV camp sight that looked nice and looked like it might fit the bill. I pulled in and asked if they had tent sites. They told me yes. I paid my $20, took my map, and rode my bike to the worst tent site ever.

I went back and asked the guy if I had gone to the right spot and he said yes. I told him he should give each tent site a rake so the rocks could be cleared. He looked at me and said "There are rocks at your camp site"? I told him yea , I am camping on a pad made of crushed rocks . He said "Oh, I get it". I was too tired to argue or ask for a refund. I did the best I could. It wasn't long till a couple of Canadian bad asses named Peter and Windell tore through the camp site and slid there KLRs in next to me.

 

 

We visited for a long while and I found out Peter (the guy on the right) taught motorcycle classes and did something with skins in a pipe band.  I had him clarify what the hell he was talking about and realized I wasn't going to have to move my tent. He plays the drum in a bag pipe band, Kilt and all.

The guys left to go get food. I had already had 2 soups and about 3 whiskeys. I decided to stroll around the park and see what was happening. It wasn't long until I found myself  sitting at the table eating pistachios and passing the bottle with Mr. & Mrs. Ruff from Florida and Toni and Chris from Roanoke, TX.

I even made a new friend (although I forgot his name)

We had some good conversation. Both couples gave me their contact info and told me if I found myself in their neck of the woods I would have a place to stay. They had dinner to do so I moved on.

I talked to a few more people and I met a French Canadian that had had as much to drink as I had. I couldn't understand a damn word coming out of that guys mouth and he had no clue what I was saying. We repeated the same thing to each other for about 30 minutes and we laughed and laughed.  That's when I found out Apparently I'm immune to venom. I am pretty sure he left thinking the same thing to.

Pete and Windell were back by the time I stumbled back to the tent. We visited and called it a night.

NEXT DAY: Day 7