The following day we got more rain and chilly weather. We came to a junction and the road signs said the next town was over 100 miles away. We didn't have that much gas, so we went 40 miles out of our way to Stewart to get gas. We later found there was a service station 60 miles down the road from that junction, which we could have made it to. Live and learn.
On the way to Stewart we stopped to see Bear Glacier. It was slowly cutting its way through a couple mountains, making its way down to a small lake. Those things are really impressive to see up close. We finally made it to Stewart, which was a very small town just east of the Alaskan border. I can't imagine what it's like to be there during the winter. We got gas and a bite to eat and then rode the 40 miles back to where we'd started. We were on the Cassiar Highway by this point, which goes through central and northwestern British Columbia. It's not as popular of a road as the Alaskan Highway, so the road was in pretty bad shape at some points. Lots of potholes and gravel sections that can get really rough, which slowed us down a lot.
As we rode along, we went over a small bridge that had a concrete barrier on each side. I was riding on the right side of the lane, and directly on the other side of the barrier was a black bear that was eating something. I didn't even notice it until after I'd passed it. It could have stood up, reached over the barrier and pulled me off the bike if it had wanted too. That was the first bear we'd seen, so we turned around to get another look as it ran back into the woods. I saw two more black bears on the sides of the road that day, and Cyrus caught glimpses of another two. No bears the whole trip and we see 5 in one afternoon. We just kept riding, not thinking about the time since it was still so light out. When we finally stopped at a campground it turned out to be 11pm. There was a beautiful lake there with water like glass. Everyone else was asleep in their campers and tents when we started a fire and cooked dinner.
June 14th was a slow day due some very bad roads. There were lots of sections where the pavement was severely damaged by the repeated freezing and thawing of the ground beneath it, leaving huge dips, ruts and bumps in the road. Instead of trying to repair the road, they just put a small flag next to the road where the problem is, so we had to keep an eye out for those. It was cloudy all day, which made it harder to appreciate the scenery.
Finally made it to the Yukon that day. The Alaskan Highway starts right after the border, near Watson Lake. We rode into town to get groceries and stopped at the Signpost Forest, which is a sight to behold. In 1942, a GI from Danville, Illinois repaired a road sign and added a sign of his own that pointed to his hometown. People have been adding their own ever since, and it now takes up two acres and holds over 50,000 signs. There are license plates, folk art, anything you can imagine. Even a 6' x 10' sign from the German autobahn. You could spend weeks walking through this place.
We stopped at a campsite a little ways out of town. It was about 8pm, but we had 5 hours of daylight left. We played frisbee for a while, then sat around the campfire, drinking, joking and laughing. It was a good night.
"If I could sleep with a beautiful woman or ride my bike a hundred miles, I'd ride a hundred miles... cause you don't have to sit and talk to your bike afterwards."
-Cyrus Goodhart
Forgotten River Towns Tour
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