Day 18 - Stewart to Watson Lake. Today's ride - 420 miles! 3,837 total miles ridden since leaving Indianapolis.

Cloudy, but dry,skies prevailed as the group departed Stewart at 7:30 a.m.

They had to go back through the huge canyon that they had ridden through yesterday.

This canyon is enormous and is 40 miles long.

Joe in front of the glacier.

Yet another glacier.

Luckily they didn't have to be concerned with the avalanche warning.

Everyday someone is responsible for leading the rest of the group for the day.

The winner of paper, rock, scissors is awarded the leader of the day position. (just kidding.)

Four different bear sightings occurred through this canyon.

Joe approaches the bear cautiously.  A hog is no match for a bear!

The Moose sighting was a first!  This cow happily munched on vegetation from the little pond.

She didn't seem very concerned about the six pairs of eyes that were fixated on her every move.

They watched her for almost 15 minutes.

She looks longingly after the fellas, as they continue on down the road.

Ron read up on the information about Stewart, British Columbia during a travel break.

More open country this afternoon instead of tight canyons.

Evidence of the forest fire in 2010 near Watson Lake surrounded the six as they traveled almost 15 miles through scenery just like this.  Depending on where you research this fire was the third most expensive in the area's history costing $220 million dollars.  The fire started from by lightening strikes near the end of July.  In just 24 hours 100,000 hectares had burned.  That is the equivalent of 247,105 acres. 

 The conversion:  1 hectare = 2.471 acres.  Oh, that pesky metric system.

Residents in the area were evacuated from their homes and businesses.  Two pilots lost their lives fighting the blaze.  By the time the fires were completely controlled 330,000 total hectares had burned in 2010 in this British Columbia location.  That equals over 815,000 acres!

The guys exited British Columbia, 

and reached the Yukon!

They reached Watson Lake.  Well, Fred did anyway.

The arrival in Watson Lake was welcomed after a long hard day of travel.

Watson Lake

The group was on the road today for a total of 420 miles.  It took them a solid 12 hours to travel that far.

Road conditions continued to deteriorate as the day wore on.  Blacktop or pavement gave way to short sections of gravel.  There were many pot holes to dodge the way around.  These six experienced motorcyclists agreed that the riding today made for a tough day on the road.