In the morning we continued south where we got back on the Alaskan highway. We retraced our route through Whitehorse, back into British Columbia and through Watson Creek on a cold and cloudy day.
Cyrus, using his tailpipes to warm up a corndog he bought at a gas station.
It got late, but we kept moving, looking for a place to camp. Lots of wildlife seems to come out at that time of day, and we saw another moose on the side of the road and then a couple bison. Finally found a free campground called Whirlpool Canyon. It was next to a really cool spot on the river where it turned sharply, creating some giant rapids. I think that was our highest mileage day, at 520, since we were trying to make it back to the states by the 4th of July.
The next day was probably my favorite day of riding. It was absolutely beautiful. Blue skies and a warm sun. Right after pulling out of the campsite we saw a small black bear on the side of the road. We circled around and took some video of him, then pulled up a little closer. He was maybe 30 feet away, just sitting on his butt, chewing on some grass. We revved our bikes to try and get a response from him; he just looked up for a second, then back to the grass. All the animals on the road have been like this. They must just be so accustomed to people pulling over and taking pictures that they don't even care anymore. We saw at least 4 more black bears, a couple moose, mountain goats, lots of bison and finally a few grizzlies. That was all in one day. The scenery was great as well, with some big mountains and valleys, and good roads to boot.
Above is Munacho Lake, which was a brilliant blue. We rode closer and walked to the shore to take pictures. As we stood there, Cyrus simply stated "I'm gonna have to jump in that." So we got down to our skivvies and dove in one at a time. We weren't in for long, on account of the freezing water (fed by a glacier). It felt great though, particularly because I hadn't had a shower in about five days.
We filled up on gas in Fort Nelson and then kept riding after dark, to make up for all the time we spent filming wildlife and swimming. It wouldn't have been a problem, but none of the gas stations have "pay at the pump' features, so when they close around 10pm, there's no gas to be had until morning. We still didn't feel like stopping so we decided to see how far we could get. After 191 miles since refueling I had to switch to my reserve tank.
At 238 miles I was dry. Luckily I'd brought a gallon of spare gas in a plastic tank. That was the first time I'd used it during the trip besides helping some Canadians who'd run out of gas a couple miles from town the day before. Cyrus and I split the gallon of gas, which got us down the road a little farther to a campground. There was a gas station across the road, so we'd be able to refuel in the morning, but the campground was closed, with a big gate blocking the entrance. However there just so happened to be a little bit of space between the edge of the gate and a ditch, just wide enough to get a motorcycle through. It was a tight fit, but we both made it through and tried not to make too much noise as we drove by the Camp Host's RV and found a site. No one came to yell at us, but we skipped making a fire; just made dinner with my stove and hit the sack.
June 30th we rode through Fort St John on another beautiful day. It got pretty hot, around 85, which the locals said would set a record for that time of year. We rode through some beautiful mountains and saw a caribou and more mountain goats. The next day we got to Alberta, Canada and rode through Jasper and Banff National Parks. I'd heard great things about these parks, so I was very excited to see them. Unfortunately the weather didn't hold; it was cloudy most of the day and poured on us for a bit. The place was still beautiful though. Lots of mountains with big glaciers creeping by, and more crystal clear lakes.
It was a Tuesday, but for some reason the place was absolutely swamped with people. We got to the city of Jasper and it was ridiculously packed. There were cars and RVs lining both sides of every street. There must have been something going on that week. As we drove through the parks, we were constantly getting stuck behind RVs, which would pull over randomly to take a picture of a rabbit or something, and not even bother to get completely off the road.
The scenery was worth the drive, but we were both fed up with the crowds after that and decided to skip going through Yellowstone and Teton National Parks on the way back, since they'd be even worse due to the 4th of July weekend. It rained several times that day, but stayed hot, so we'd shed our rain layers when it looked clear, then around the next turn it would pour on us again, so that was fun. We were hoping to make it to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho that day, where Cyrus' sister lives. But it got late and we were still in Canada, so we found another campground for the night, just north of the border.
Forgotten River Towns Tour
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