Not an XS ride report

[Pain]

The first book, covering my departure until I tried to ride the Arctic Circle, will be out in a couple weeks. If you have Facebook the whole series has a pages - Pain, Curiosity and a Bear.

The book isn't a copy of what I wrote here, and (sadly) has more words and fewer pictures. It will be available in print (which will (even more sadly) be black and white with a free ebook or pdf you can download for color), kindle and every other format I can manage. If there is a preferred method chime in and I will work on it.




And I am pretty bummed about the black and white, but color pictures would force the price over $25, probably over $30 for a 200page book. I have a hard time charging that. I might do a color version if there is enough interest at that price, so don't be afraid to speak up.

[Pain]

Finding Hyder, Glaciers, Bears, and Brits.

I headed south, back through Whitehorse and into Watson Lake, where this time I stayed in the Air Force Hotel. Run by a german, it's a converted Air Force barrack, but warm and clean. It had been cold and rainy for the previous few days, and I welcomed the chance to warm up.

In the morning as I was packing to leave there were three more bikes parked outside. A big BMW, new KLR, and a small Tenere, the 660 not available on this continent. I hadn't seen the riders, and thought about staying to see if I could catch them, but decided to press on. I was heading for the Cassier Highway, which led due south from Watson Lake towards Seattle.

With my speedometer still not working, and having ridden through rain for the previous few days, I was determined again to fix the bike. The rain was making it impossible to use the GPS for anything, the screen was being confused by the water since it had delaminated before I even entered Canada. I had called my mechanic and arranged for him to ship my spare wheel hub to friends in Seattle, and I was headed there to change it out. Of course, Seattle was still a ways off.



Most of the days were chilly, and even though this day started out without rain, it was raining again before long. The Cassier was another one of those roads without a lot of services, but I was confident I could make it without any issues.



I stopped for fuel at the last place before the Glacier highway, which led to Stewart and Hyder, and there met the BMW rider. Named Mark and from the UK, he was freezing and soaked. It seems he had left the waterproof liner for his riding suit somewhere, and the cold rain was gong right through to his skin. The gas station, more of a lodge really, gave us both free coffee. Apparently he was riding with the other two bikes I had seen that morning, but they had left early and he was trying to catch up. After wringing out some of his inside layers and drinking some coffee he got back on the road. Not long after I followed.

I hadn't been sure about going to Hyder. It was a dead end road, and in the cold and rain I had a desire to keep moving south, but when I got to the turn I took it. Glacier Highway is probably one of the nicer highways in North America, even in the rain and fog. I couldn't see much, but the cold was enough to let me know there were glaciers around.



I caught up with the other three bikes in Stewart, where we found out there wasn't any rooms left in the hotels. This meant we rode to Hyder, where I headed to the campground and they went to the one place we had been told still had space. In the campground I decided the cold rainy weather just wasn't tent weather, and I headed to the same place.

They had taken the last two single rooms, so I got the cabin in the back. Usually it was more, but since it was the last room I got it for the same rate as one of the standard rooms would have been. And I got my own bathroom (and kitchen, but I didn't use that). I met Mark and his two friends, Brian and Richard for dinner. They were all from the UK. Brian and Richard had ridden the America's before together, but bike issues had kept Brian from finishing the whole route. He had come back to fill in the missing bits, and Richard had flown over to ride with. The KLR was a rental. They had met Mark on the road and the three had been traveling together.

All the windows in my cabin had been open when I entered it, and since it was in the 40s and raining I had closed them. All my riding gear and wet clothes I had hung up around the room, and I thought the cabin was nice and toasty when I crawled into bed. When I woke around 1am, it was beyond toasty and the thermostat read 90 degrees. I had it set for 60, but apparently the heat won't shut off. I guess that was why the windows were open.

I was up early, enjoying my shower. Unsurprisingly all my stuff was dry. The night before we had all talked about going to Fish Creek to look for bears, but their bikes were still sitting in the parking lot when I rolled Curiosity out to the street. I guess I could have gone knocking, but decided they were adults and could sleep in if they wanted.

Later I found out they had been up, but their stuff was still soaked and they were giving it extra time to dry. All well.

I headed for Fish Creek. The road in Hyder (there really is only the one) is mostly potholes. They start almost as soon as you cross over from Stewart. Entering Hyder doesn't require you to show your passport, but leaving it does. I thought that a bit strange, but I guess Hyder isn't really convenient to get to.

I got to Fish Creek in time to catch the bear fishing.



And while taking pictures in the rain my camera stopped working. I wasn't very worried, figuring it just had to dry out, and I just watched the bears for a while from the elevated walks.



I wonder if those would really stop a bear.

As I was getting ready to leave Jeremy on his VFR came pulling up. He had managed to get a room in Stewart, and crossed over to Hyder to see the bears. We got caught up on where we had been, then I headed back for the Cassier Highway and he headed into Fish Creek.

Some time during the night part of the Glacier Highway flooded, but I managed it okay, the water was just over the footpegs. Once headed south again the weather started to get better too.

I ended up in a town called Smithers, and since it was my third month on the road I went out to dinner (I had camped in the city park. They were going to have showers...in a month maybe). Leaving the restaurant I met up with Brian and Richard, who had taken a room in a hotel. Brian had taken off on his own, speeding south for warmer weather. After some chatting I agreed to meet them in the morning for the ride to Prince George. Brian had arranged a couchsurf for three and they had an extra spot.

[Pain]

Yay books!

The first of three book is done, and available in color, black and white, and for kindle. The black and white version comes with a free pdf download from my website, though you can also buy the pdf there if you like.

That's a lot of embedded links!