Day 19 - Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon. 281 miles today. 4,118 miles ridden since departing from Indianapolis, Indiana.

A short ride from the motel brought the guys to the Sign Post Forest.  What is the Sign Post Forest?  This place was started in 1942 by a homesick G.I., as he worked on the Alaskan Highway.  The original sign listed the number of miles the G.I. was from home.  Soon other people followed suit and the forest was born!  Today, people still post signs in the forest.

David, Joe, Stu, Fred, Mike

and Ron, at the gate of the Sign Post Forest.

Back in 2000, Fred and Pat were here in this very place with Fred's sister, Linda and her husband, Frank.  They were on a motor home trip.  Even with the locating directions that Fred had, the guys could not find the sign that, Fred, Pat, Linda and Frank had put up on that trip.  Fred was very disappointed.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign.  Blockin' out the scenery breakin' my mind.....

Thank you Five Man Electrical Band!

Fred searches the area for one particular sign.

The guys put two coins on this steel post in order to leave their mark.
Stuart, Stu's son, had these coins made to commemorate this trip for the six adventurers.
The coins are a beautiful creation.

Stu also had a Quality Deer Management Plate with him.

Shhh....Fred must be the Godfather, but don't tell anybody.

All six of the guys signed the back of the QDMA sign, added this blogspot address

and hung the thing up!

A very hygienic way to mark your territory don't you think?

When the adventuresome six left Watson Lake this morning they took the Alaskan Highway, or Alcan Highway.  This road was built to connect the contiguous US to Alaska through Canada.  Construction of the highway began in World War II and was completed in 1942.  At that time the road was 2,700 km or 1,700 miles in length.  In 2012 the road is 2,232 km or 1,387 miles long.  Why the difference, you ask?  The discrepancy in the reported kilometers, or mileage, has occurred as the road has undergone reconstructive work over the years.  Portions of the roadway have been redirected and numerous sections of curves have been straightened.

The road begins in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and goes all the way to Delta Junction, Alaska via Whitehorse, Yukon.

The Alcan Highway had a bad reputation of being rough and difficult to travel.  Its entire length has been paved.

The guys had lunch at the Yukon Motel's restaurant.

At the same spot there was a wildlife gallery.  The gallery was full of amazing full mounts of...wildlife.

Looks like you can eat and get gas, all in the same spot. That's either convenient, or disturbing.

Fred, David, Joe and Stu ready for lunch.

The mounts in the Wildlife Gallery.

There were also full mounts of Black Bears, Grizzly Bear, Caribou, Muskox, Mule Deer, Wolves just to name a few of the different species.  The guys really enjoyed seeing this place.

Here they approach Teslin Lake.  They ran along side of this lake for almost ten miles.

They remarked that this area was very beautiful.

Most of the day, the group still rode with the coastal mountains on their left side.

The guys ended their day in Whitehorse, which is the capital of the Yukon.

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.

Day 17 - Burns Lake to Stewart. Total miles for today - 301. 3,414 miles have been ridden since leaving Indianapolis.

Six iron horse adventurers left Burns Lake under gloomy skies.  At kickstands up, 7:30 a.m.,  the temperature was a cold 35 degrees.  Today's weather forecast called for 100% chance of rain.
 But, you just have to go on!

Fred, wearing his waterproofs, is ready for rain.

The roads are starting to consist of more rolling hills, rather than being full of drastic inclines and declines.
Occasionally the guys will see a farm crop up here or there.  But, what they see the most is uninhibited acres that are full of towering pine trees.  Sometimes they will ride for a half hour or more without seeing any signs of human life.  The country is very desolate.

The coastal mountain range was evident to their west.  Snow laid thick on those mountain tops.

Fortunately, the guys had the good fortune of staying dry until almost 11:00 a.m.

Mike shaking the skunk tail.  That's universal language for, "hope my roommate does his laundry soon!"

   Then the rain came and decided to stick around.  All day.













The group ran parallel to the Frasier River for hours.

David's bundled up, anticipating the approaching rain.

The driving force of the economy in the area that they are riding in today is timber.  They have seen several huge saw mills.  Logs are still floated down the river to the mills.  This is the easiest method of getting the wood to the saw mills.







A mama Black Bear with her two cubs provided a little entertainment for the fellas, as they stopped to watch her for a while.

A close up of mama bear.

Don't these guys look like tourists?

Depending on which direction they're heading out, somebody needs to turn around!

Following the advice from the guy at the Harley shop (from yesterday), the guys took a 30 mile side trip, a deviation from their planned route.  This side trip took them down, into a huge gorge between two mountain ranges.

They saw several glaciers in this area and were glad they heeded the advice from the Harley shop guy.

Mike in the gorge.

This glacier came down the mountain to meet the road.

They ended the day in the small town of Stewart.  Stewart used to be a mining town.  The economy was driven by the mining of gold and silver.  A huge silver vein existed in the upper Salmon River basin.  That was in the early 1900's.  By the years surrounding WWI, almost 10,000 people lived in Stewart.  As of 2005 fewer than 500 people called Stewart home.  Mining has almost ceased to exist.

Stewart

After a wet day, this little hotel was a welcome site.

Since the guys rode in rain almost all day, they spent some time trying to get their gear dried out.  Hmph, some good staying at the Sunshine Inn did them last night!

**The guys had no telephone service (they are using cell phones for communication).  They were not able to send text messages either.

***They did have internet and managed to communicate that way, although they were unable to email images.  I will edit this page and add photos when they have the ability to send them.

****The photos finally arrived by email at 10:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.