July 16: Eleven Days

I’m sitting in a laundromat at a campground in Toad River, BC.  It’s in the middle of nowhere but somehow they have an internet station, which just so happens to be in their laundromat, and I’m going to plug their interweb cable into Motocompy and give it a whirl.  No Wifi, no cell phone…I find a way!

So in eleven days I will be home, so the title of this post could come from that…but it doesn’t.  I road from Whitehorse, YT, to Toad River, BC, today and had not a single drop of rain…not one!  That hasn’t happened for eleven days.  Eleven days!  It was so nice to see and feel the sun.  I had clouds for good portions of the ride, but the clouds didn’t rain on my parade…um, sorry for that.  What did rain on my parade slightly was some good ol’ fashioned Whitehorse thievery.  I walked out to my bike this morning and found it coverless.  They didn’t take anything else…my tent, sleeping bag, camelback…not even the bag for the cover.  Just the cover.  Stinky.

The ride from Whitehorse to Fireside was pretty uninteresting.  I think I’m a bit jaded and desensitized to beauty at this point.  I’ve seen so much in the last month, and driving down roads that I had already been on during this trip just wasn’t too exciting.  But, no rain and no mud/gravel/potholes…I was happy.  I did cross over “Brook’s Brook” and “George’s Gorge”…thought those were a bit funny.  I also drove through Watson Lake, which is a town of some smart folks.  They figured out that if you don’t have any natural tourist attraction, you should just make one, especially if it’s one that you don’t have to maintain.  They have what’s called a “Sign Post Forest” and it’s a place where people from around the globe have stopped to tack up their own, unique signs.  Fascinating.

I stopped for gas and a bite to eat in Fireside, BC, and started back out on the road.  These last 110 miles have been some amazing ones.  I’m back in the mountains, which I really dig, and the wildlife I saw today was much more than the rest of the trip combined.  Bears, buffalo, wild horses (who’s gonna ride them?), moose (one just ran through the campsite next to mine), deer (or dear…whichever you prefer), and even a roadkill porcupine.  I road by Muncho Lake, which aside from having a great name, is one of the largest natural lakes in North America and sits right at the beginning of The Rockies, which span 1,850 miles through Canada and the U.S. down into New Mexico.  Maybe I’ll see the bottom of them some time later on in this trip.

Ok, one quick funny story before I call it quits.  As I was arriving here in Toad River, I saw a camping area and decided to pull off into it.  I applied the brakes, whilst entering the gravel drive…you see what’s coming.  Both tires locked up and started skidding and I was heading towards a short drop-off into a grassy area below.  The bike started to tip and I was sure it was going over.  I came down the short slope, up a bank, and somehow came to a stop in the grass…no harm done.  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t dumped the bike.  Crazy.  Picture of my 9.8 landing below.  (The German judge docked me for the bugs on the windshield).  Speaking of bugs on the windshield…none of my bike video came out too clear through the mess of mosquito guts, so only video from my camera…of my awesome riding skillz.  GPS here…here…and HERE!!!! More pictures on Flickr. Out.