July 29th 2011

Woke up in the cozy room of the Young Motel in Tok … looked outside and SURPRISE … it was raining! Oh well …. we got ourselves dressed and ready and headed into Fast Eddy’s for some caffeine and breakfast and saw THIS guy! Cheryl loved the sideburns and snapped a covert photo.

After breakfast we got on the bikes and headed towards Haines Junction, Yukon. Even with the clouds the views were outstanding.

Just before we crossed the Canadian border, we happened across the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Centre.

700,000 Acres BIG!

Through a scope they had at the visitors centre.

Some cool exhibits they had inside the Visitors Centre.

Sylvia and Teddy – Run the visitors center and live about 20 minutes away from the Visitor Centre. Sylvia agreed to have her photo taken, but had to approve the final shot before allowing it to be posted on the blog.

Amazing once we crossed over into the Yukon the paved road disappeared and the road from the border to Destruction Bay was how we say, a disaster of a road.  Fun for our type of bikes, not so much for cars, RV’s or cruisers.  The frost heaves were out of control, loose gravel patches everywhere, pot holes and some could eat up a small car went on and on.  The Tiger’s sucked up all the bumps and loose stuff like a champion. It was super fun! In fact at one point, Leslie let out a “wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee” when flying over one of the frost heaves.

Waiting at this not so busy border.  We think the guard must have been on his lunch break.  When we went through the guard looked like he was 10.  Nice young man but young looking!

I think we were only supposed to be doing 50 KM per hour.  Hmmmmm.

We made a quick pit stop at a place called White River to munch on a few snacks and lube our chains. Interesting little campground.

The following chain lubing technique originated on the (very narrow) gravel shoulder of the Top of The World Highway and has been perfected over the course of approximately 5500 kilometers.

Very reasonable signage!

Destruction Bay

While riding down the main highway in Destruction Bay we came across this one dimensional plywood RCMP cruiser! From a distance it really looked like the real thing and it likely serves as a deterrent for speeding vehicles!

Destruction Bay continued

Raining and completely fogged in

The road around Destruction Bay was very smooth and views all around.  I know I have said this before but every area we go to seems to have a beauty that we have never seen before.  Although we have seen many mountains and glaciers, the weather, timing and our moods makes each place special and different.  Not sure if that makes any sense.

When we got to Haines Junction the rain let up a bit but not for too long.  We headed to the visitors center and decided to not go to Whitehorse just yet but to head down to Haines and then Skagway.  Our plans are always changing at this point. By the way, that is a real mushroom!

Went over to the bakery near the visitors centre in Haines Junction and had a quick bite to eat and use their WIFI. Mmmmmmmm …. rhubarb pie.

Me looking tired as always and hard at work on the update

Birch trees are all over the Junction.

After Destruction Bay we headed into Kluane National Forest

Headed towards Kathleen Lake campground for the night.  At this point the rain had stopped but it was really overcast and looking like it would rain again.

The above is the view from our camp site

Went to hear a nature talk about Bears and how to be safe.  The First Nation’s gal had many stories about her people and their respect for bears.  Cheryl did not find her too interesting and at the break we both took off to go down to Kathleen Lake for a walk.

The mosquitoes at this campground were really annoying but at soon as it got to be around 2100 hrs they all disappeared after trying to drive us nuts.

Kathleen Lake allows little boats and Jet Ski’s

Had a great camp fire going, ate some marshmallow’s and went to bed.  All in a days work.