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I woke up at 0630 and had some water and Tylenol. Tiny little bit of headache from the R&C's and my upper body and arms were very sore from the workout yesterday. I woke up again at 0959 and started loading the bike immediately, finishing about a quarter after. Bill, gawd bless him, was not pounding on my door at 1001. His patience is amazing!
We shoot a departure video, dedicating the previous day's ride to our DHE driver Carol. Not because it was uncomfortable but because I had, gently, ribbed her a bit about driving slow, then we had a whole day of driving slow!
At departure Bill noted that his bike's computer was telling him that his rear tire pressure was at 25 bar, down from the recommended 26 bar. It didn't seem to be affecting anything so we left it at that, making a mental note to top it up at the next gas station.
Having fuelled up the day before upon our arrival to DC we were able to drive straight out of town southbound on highway 2, The Klondike Highway. This road is typical Yukon pavement for which I have a whole new appreciation for, our speed is quickly up to a buck twenty, and we settle in to what should be a fairly light day. We are going to Whitehorse, just over 500 kms.
It is a beautiful blue sky day, light winds and blessed Yukon seal coat, of which we used to curse, but in comparison to yesterday, a blessing. I experimented with mounting my GoPro onto my gas tank using a suction cup. In that position it sorta peeks over the handlebars and while still not perfectly stable, it is not as shaky as being mounted to the bars. Here is one minute of Yukon seal coat from the front seat.
A re-occurring frustration is that there are various signs warning of construction ahead, road work and prepare to stop and then when we slow down there is nothing. There are no signs indicating the ends of the road work zones so you just gotta guess when to go back to speed. Occasionally there might be a vehicle in the ditch, but there were prolly 5 instances of this leaving DC that didn't come to fruition. Like I said, frustrating, but I guess it is all a matter of perspective, yesterday during the red clay downhill toboggan runs I would have given anything for this frustration.
As we approached Stewart Crossing the all too familiar degradation of the road started, the loose gravel patches became more frequent, the pavement in between became less and less, then the dreaded pavement ends sign. Oh brother, not again?! Luckily the gravel was exactly that, no red clay and no rain, so all that happened was our speed dropped to about 60 kph at first, until we became more comfortable then we were up to about 80 kph. Without the rain, the road was extremely dusty, especially when a vehicle passed in the other direction. I will take dusty over slippery any day, at least in this context!
The road stayed gravel as we came to Stewart Crossing, and as we would be passing through a few spots devoid of services we decided to top up our fuel, and buy some snacks. I also checked out the Lost Truckers Gloves section, but I didn't find anything interesting despite the many options. Bill noted his rear tire pressure had fallen another bar, but as it was not affecting his bike's performance we didn't address it. This gas station did not have an air pump.
The nice lady at the counter said we had about half as much gravel left as we had travelled already, maybe 10 kms. The pavement started on cue and we were underway at normal speed again. We had mostly left the mountains and the road often ran straight and flat for kilometers at a time, or long sweeping S curves. It was nice to be making progress for a change! Then the inevitable road work and prepare to stop signs started up.
There were a few cars already stopped and we brought up the rear. The flag lady came to us and asked if wanted to be at the very front or the very back, we chose front. We were stopped for about 20 minutes and when we finally got underway following the pilot truck we found a grader spreading, wait for it, red clay at the top of the pass! Red Clay of Death! I see now they do that on purpose!
Nice!
Now I know who to sue!
Luckily when the Red Clay of Death is dry it is only about 60% as scary as when wet. About 200 yards of RCoD lets up to fresh deep gravel, which is pretty tough to drive on, but that only lasts 2 km then changes to old loose gravel which is manageable. It lasts maybe 5 kms and we are back to Yukon Pavement again. I will not miss driving on substandard surfaces. We'll come back North one day, but perhaps the passage of 15 more years will improve Yukon roads.
We top up again in Carmacks Landing then head out on a 170 km stretch of zero habitation, which will end in Whitehorse. We stop about halfway through next to Fox Lake which had suffered a 22 million dollar fire in the 90's due to a careless campers campfire. Bill's rear tire was down another bar, we were starting to get a little worried. It didn't look deflated, nor did Bill think it felt any different, so again we didn't do anything, mostly because there was nothing we COULD do!
Join us for a fuel stop at Carmacks Landing where you can see a quick shot of Bill's face when we are discussing his tire. He looks pensive, to say the least!
As we pulled into Whitehorse Bill suddenly surged into the lead and took us into a Canadian Tire parking lot where he picked up a can of tire seal/inflator. Apparently he was down over 5 bars now and at that point his instrument panel changes to a warning screen that locks out all other information until it is fixed. I know that tire goo must be driven on for a certain distance after it is used so we put it off for the morning. Upon reading the instructions on the can we find out it is for emergency use only, used to get you home but not a permanent solution.
I suggest we look at seeing if a local bike shop will do us a solid, and help us out. I have been helped many times in the past on bike trips dropping into a bike shop, they are usually pretty receptive to travellers. A quick web search comes up with numerous options for bike shops and Bill will try to develop an option in the morning.
He tells me if it can't be fixed and a new one needs to be shipped up here, that I can leave him here. I quote Maverick from Top Gun: "I will not leave my wingman" and I mean it. When I tell BuBu about the situation she agrees, friends don't abandon friends, especially in difficult circumstances. I was left once in the early '00's, in the desert, by a riding partner, when my Intruder 1400 wouldn't start after gassing up. It is not a good feeling.
It takes a little bit of driving around, and a couple of false starts, but we find ourselves a nice mo'tel, just around the corner from a bar & grill so room & board is taken care of. Back in my room at 2100 I write Monday's blog and put in a couple of hours on the Prudhoe Bay submission. I do yesterdays submission this morning. Almost caught up!
Here is Bill's version of the day's events:
Bill here, Before leaving I used my electric air pump to re inflate my rear tire. We were a little late getting going today as we had a late night last night.
As I lined up behind Lou, all of a sudden Manfred Mann's song came to mind: Blinded by the Light. Lou had actually cleaned his brake and signal lights. Thank you Lou.
I had previously offered to clean them myself but he refused as he has rules about cleaning his bike and his leathers, only at home once the trip is over.
I kept an eye on my rear tire pressure and watched it fall until, just as we reached Whitehorse, a warning triangle on my dash came on. If that wasn't stressful enough my tire pressure began to flash as well.
We stopped at Canadian Tire and I bought a can of liquid rubber as a last resort. Tomorrow, bright and early, I'll try to find a motorcycle shop that will look at my tire.
Wish me luck
So when I awoke this morning I had an email from Bill saying he was on Plan C, A & B didn't work out. He has a iPad, but not a cell phone, nor the ability to text, if he doesn't have wifi at the bike shop we are out of touch, so I am kinda in the dark. As I write this check out time is fast approaching and I don't know what is happening, I guess I will wait until the last minute then go look for him!
Dawson City to Whitehorse
528 kms today, 8083 thus far
8 hours in the saddle
We shoot a departure video, dedicating the previous day's ride to our DHE driver Carol. Not because it was uncomfortable but because I had, gently, ribbed her a bit about driving slow, then we had a whole day of driving slow!
At departure Bill noted that his bike's computer was telling him that his rear tire pressure was at 25 bar, down from the recommended 26 bar. It didn't seem to be affecting anything so we left it at that, making a mental note to top it up at the next gas station.
Having fuelled up the day before upon our arrival to DC we were able to drive straight out of town southbound on highway 2, The Klondike Highway. This road is typical Yukon pavement for which I have a whole new appreciation for, our speed is quickly up to a buck twenty, and we settle in to what should be a fairly light day. We are going to Whitehorse, just over 500 kms.
It is a beautiful blue sky day, light winds and blessed Yukon seal coat, of which we used to curse, but in comparison to yesterday, a blessing. I experimented with mounting my GoPro onto my gas tank using a suction cup. In that position it sorta peeks over the handlebars and while still not perfectly stable, it is not as shaky as being mounted to the bars. Here is one minute of Yukon seal coat from the front seat.
A re-occurring frustration is that there are various signs warning of construction ahead, road work and prepare to stop and then when we slow down there is nothing. There are no signs indicating the ends of the road work zones so you just gotta guess when to go back to speed. Occasionally there might be a vehicle in the ditch, but there were prolly 5 instances of this leaving DC that didn't come to fruition. Like I said, frustrating, but I guess it is all a matter of perspective, yesterday during the red clay downhill toboggan runs I would have given anything for this frustration.
As we approached Stewart Crossing the all too familiar degradation of the road started, the loose gravel patches became more frequent, the pavement in between became less and less, then the dreaded pavement ends sign. Oh brother, not again?! Luckily the gravel was exactly that, no red clay and no rain, so all that happened was our speed dropped to about 60 kph at first, until we became more comfortable then we were up to about 80 kph. Without the rain, the road was extremely dusty, especially when a vehicle passed in the other direction. I will take dusty over slippery any day, at least in this context!
The road stayed gravel as we came to Stewart Crossing, and as we would be passing through a few spots devoid of services we decided to top up our fuel, and buy some snacks. I also checked out the Lost Truckers Gloves section, but I didn't find anything interesting despite the many options. Bill noted his rear tire pressure had fallen another bar, but as it was not affecting his bike's performance we didn't address it. This gas station did not have an air pump.
The nice lady at the counter said we had about half as much gravel left as we had travelled already, maybe 10 kms. The pavement started on cue and we were underway at normal speed again. We had mostly left the mountains and the road often ran straight and flat for kilometers at a time, or long sweeping S curves. It was nice to be making progress for a change! Then the inevitable road work and prepare to stop signs started up.
There were a few cars already stopped and we brought up the rear. The flag lady came to us and asked if wanted to be at the very front or the very back, we chose front. We were stopped for about 20 minutes and when we finally got underway following the pilot truck we found a grader spreading, wait for it, red clay at the top of the pass! Red Clay of Death! I see now they do that on purpose!
Nice!
Now I know who to sue!
Luckily when the Red Clay of Death is dry it is only about 60% as scary as when wet. About 200 yards of RCoD lets up to fresh deep gravel, which is pretty tough to drive on, but that only lasts 2 km then changes to old loose gravel which is manageable. It lasts maybe 5 kms and we are back to Yukon Pavement again. I will not miss driving on substandard surfaces. We'll come back North one day, but perhaps the passage of 15 more years will improve Yukon roads.
We top up again in Carmacks Landing then head out on a 170 km stretch of zero habitation, which will end in Whitehorse. We stop about halfway through next to Fox Lake which had suffered a 22 million dollar fire in the 90's due to a careless campers campfire. Bill's rear tire was down another bar, we were starting to get a little worried. It didn't look deflated, nor did Bill think it felt any different, so again we didn't do anything, mostly because there was nothing we COULD do!
Join us for a fuel stop at Carmacks Landing where you can see a quick shot of Bill's face when we are discussing his tire. He looks pensive, to say the least!
As we pulled into Whitehorse Bill suddenly surged into the lead and took us into a Canadian Tire parking lot where he picked up a can of tire seal/inflator. Apparently he was down over 5 bars now and at that point his instrument panel changes to a warning screen that locks out all other information until it is fixed. I know that tire goo must be driven on for a certain distance after it is used so we put it off for the morning. Upon reading the instructions on the can we find out it is for emergency use only, used to get you home but not a permanent solution.
I suggest we look at seeing if a local bike shop will do us a solid, and help us out. I have been helped many times in the past on bike trips dropping into a bike shop, they are usually pretty receptive to travellers. A quick web search comes up with numerous options for bike shops and Bill will try to develop an option in the morning.
He tells me if it can't be fixed and a new one needs to be shipped up here, that I can leave him here. I quote Maverick from Top Gun: "I will not leave my wingman" and I mean it. When I tell BuBu about the situation she agrees, friends don't abandon friends, especially in difficult circumstances. I was left once in the early '00's, in the desert, by a riding partner, when my Intruder 1400 wouldn't start after gassing up. It is not a good feeling.
It takes a little bit of driving around, and a couple of false starts, but we find ourselves a nice mo'tel, just around the corner from a bar & grill so room & board is taken care of. Back in my room at 2100 I write Monday's blog and put in a couple of hours on the Prudhoe Bay submission. I do yesterdays submission this morning. Almost caught up!
Here is Bill's version of the day's events:
Bill here, Before leaving I used my electric air pump to re inflate my rear tire. We were a little late getting going today as we had a late night last night.
As I lined up behind Lou, all of a sudden Manfred Mann's song came to mind: Blinded by the Light. Lou had actually cleaned his brake and signal lights. Thank you Lou.
I had previously offered to clean them myself but he refused as he has rules about cleaning his bike and his leathers, only at home once the trip is over.
I kept an eye on my rear tire pressure and watched it fall until, just as we reached Whitehorse, a warning triangle on my dash came on. If that wasn't stressful enough my tire pressure began to flash as well.
We stopped at Canadian Tire and I bought a can of liquid rubber as a last resort. Tomorrow, bright and early, I'll try to find a motorcycle shop that will look at my tire.
Wish me luck
So when I awoke this morning I had an email from Bill saying he was on Plan C, A & B didn't work out. He has a iPad, but not a cell phone, nor the ability to text, if he doesn't have wifi at the bike shop we are out of touch, so I am kinda in the dark. As I write this check out time is fast approaching and I don't know what is happening, I guess I will wait until the last minute then go look for him!
Dawson City to Whitehorse
528 kms today, 8083 thus far
8 hours in the saddle
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