There is no accumulation of strength without making choices that stretch you.
I ended up leaving Whitehorse a bit later than I had wanted because I was waiting for a light shower to die down. The ride to Haines Junction was pretty uneventful until I got closer. In the distance I started seeing mountains from Kluane National Park, but I also saw a grey veil that indicated heavy rain. I kept riding and luckily made it to the junction without a drop on me.
At Haines Junction I stopped for gas and grabbed lunch at Frosty’s. When I got there I saw two other guys with BMWs who looked like they were heading to Alaska as well. Errin and Nathan had been on the road for less than two weeks. I thought I had been traveling from a far distance, but Errin had come from Los Angeles and met up with Nathan in Seattle.
I was trying to make it to Tok by the end of the day and it turned out Errin and Nathan were heading the same way. I decided to tag along with them. It would be nice to have someone set the pace and there’s strength in numbers when you ride a motorcycle.
The ride around Destruction Bay was awesome. We road ride along the lake and had mountains all around us. When we stopped for gas there were two guys heading in the opposite direction who told us to get ready for some serious road construction. This is where the day turned for the worse.
After destruction bay we started to hit unpaved and gravel stretches in the road. I held up pretty well and had a confidence boost after remember my trip up to Salmon Glacier. However, then it started to lightly rain. It still wasn’t too bad, but to make matters worse, when we hit the road construction we had to wait to be escorted through the construction zone. We ended up waiting in the rain for 10 minutes before the guide truck came.
We finally made it to the border of Alaska and Yukon. Although I had technically been in Alaska a few days prior, it felt like a huge accomplishment. At the border they have a bench with a line demarcating the Alaskan Yukon boundary that you can straddle and say you’re in two countries at the same time. There’s also a international boundary statue that if you look beyond you can see where they’ve deforested a long row of trees to make physical border.
While we were there an old guy riding a Harley Ultra Classic rolled up. He had left five days prior from Missouri. I couldn’t believe it when he told us. That’s a long and hard ride.
After filling up in Beaver Creek we made the last haul to Tok. At this point it had rained on and off during the day, but nothing too bad. I thought the worst was behind me when we went through the construction zone, but I was wrong. About 10 miles out from Tok the heavens opened up and it poured.
Errin and Nathan were well prepared with their gear. I was not. I had my rain jacket sitting on the back of my bike but it was probably already soaked by the time I thought to stop to put it on. My rain pants did a good job of keep my pants dry, but they were too big and didn’t stay tight around my ankles so water started to get into my boots. To make matters worse, it was 54° outside. Needless to say, I was pretty miserable by the time we got to a Shell station a mile from where we wanted to camp.
I was debating about just going to a motel for the night but the rain looked like it was letting up and I was already soaked so I followed Errin and Nathan to Sourdough Campground. Luckily, they had a laundromat where I could dry my clothes and a pavilion where I could set up my tent. Only problem was, I had to wait until after a pancake toss to set it up.
Explaining the rules of the pancake toss
The pancake toss had become a tradition at this campground. Every night people would come to the pavilion to socialize and take their luck at throwing pancake into a bucket. If you made it, you got free breakfast. Unfortunately for me, it took about an hour until the event ended and I was still sitting in my wet clothes.
I finally got my chance to set up my campground, took a hot shower, and threw my clothes into the dryer. While I was at the laundromat I met a mother and son who had driven all the way from Jacksonville, FL. He was just starting to look at colleges and was in the same IB magnet program I was in. I passed along some words of wisdom and headed back to my camp.
I didn’t make this very clear earlier, but Errin and Nathan were awesome guys. A perfect example was at the end of the day, Errin came over and invited me to their campsite to eat dinner. I think they felt for me knowing I had a pretty miserable ride into town.