July 30th 2011

We were prepared for pests of all sorts! Leslie has her bug terminator arsenal, and we pulled out the  bear spray for the first time on the trip. We slept with it inside the tent, but fortunately we were not visited by any angry grizzly bears during the night. Cheryl considered scaring off some very noisy camper neighbours who were partying late into the evening, but she refrained ;o).

We woke up and SURPRISE AGAIN, it was RAINING! The picture below is Cheryl’s tank bag map holder underneath her (well used) rain cover.

We ate breakfast at a little cafe at Kathleen Lake lodge which was about 1/2 kilometer away from our campsite. As we sat down, the owner lady tells us how it hardly EVER rains here and that she was so thankful for the rain so she could finally turn off the sprinkler to her garden. We informed her that she could thank US for the rainfall as it has seemed to follow us around wherever we go.

After breakfast we hopped on the bikes once again and headed towards Haines. Approximately 3 miles into our ride, we observed a grizzly bear meandering across the road in front of us about 25 feet away! We then saw that the grizzly bear was travelling with a friend …. right behind the grizzly was a black bear who decided he was not going to chance his luck by crossing the road in front of two crazy motorcyclists. We sat and watched the bears for about 5 minutes until they both wandered away.

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Rain and more rain but we had a surprise once we got closer to Haines.

We are really beginning to learn how to envision what we should be seeing other than low clouds!

Million Dollar Falls about 90 KM from Haines Junction and they have a great campsite there too!

This was after we got into BC for just a bit after the Yukon and right before we entered Alaska again.  The BC road was under construction and we got stuck behind cars and RV’s and got the mud and crap all over the bikes and us yet again.  I tell you we will not miss this cement like glue that makes it almost impossible to get cleaned.

As we got closer to Haines the skies were beginning to look promising.  Yet, as the title of this post says, Chasing the Sun, that is what it felt like.  Kept raining on us but we could see sunny skies.  I was picking up the pace to see if we could out run some of the rain and Cheryl kept saying we are “Chasing the Sun.”  We caught it by the end of the day.

The border guy dude YELLED at Leslie from the little booth thinger “NO PICTURES!” but she managed to snap a couple before getting scolded.

Had to stop and take a look for eagles.  Way too soon in the season but worth a shot.  Bald Eagles migrate here for the salmon spawn and it can get quite busy in October, November through December with thousands of eagles all here.

See the day we rode into?  Welcome to Sunny Haines!

A fiddler coming back from the Haines Fair … he was pretty good! The whole town was shut down, closed for the fair.  It was SATURDAY and nothing was really open!

Just trying to get some of that BC road off our bikes, familiar to us are car power wash stations.

We had about 6 hours to kill before our ferry ride to Skagway so we went out to the Chilkoot River and got to see all sorts of Fishermen and gals and some bears!

This is where they count the salmon daily and they count everyone that passes through the hole in the gate.

One lucky guy who actually caught a Salmon.

Then these grizzlies shows up and surprised us!  Gorgeous!

We will be posting a Grizzly page because we took so many pictures!  Just amazing to see in real life, up close and personal!

Cheryl’s boots. DIRTY!

The bikes looking oh so pretty while waiting for the ferry to arrive and take us to Skagway.

This is Mark from Richmond, BC.  He made the ride up to the Arctic Circle on the Dalton Highway on his Harley.  He feels great about his accomplishments and seems to have really enjoyed himself as a solo rider even though he was supposed to have a group.  All his riding buddies bailed at the last moment.  Good for you Mark and nice to have met you!

Getting ready to board the ferry for the one hour ride to Skagway which would get us there at 2130 hrs.

A Holland America cruise ship we passed on our ferry ride to Skagway.

Good Evening Skagway!

This is when my bikes stalled coming off the ship and stalled up to the motel.  But not even a stalling bike would stop us from getting some beer!

Day 31 was a great day even though our tent is soaked and started out cold and raining.  In the end we got some sun, a little warmth, we got see Grizzly bears, eagles, met some nice people and had a smooth ride over to Skagway.  The bike stalling did put a kink but we can work with it and will make the rest of our trip.