Our Southern Migration

We had a great time in Dawson City with our host Melodie and her friends. This historic gold rush mining town still has all dirt streets and wooden sidewalks to keep pedestrians clean when the dirt turns into mud. Sharon spent lots of time delving into the history and I (Chris) spent my time working on our beleaguered motorcycles. I was aided greatly in the work by two angels named Walter and Charlie. We met Walter at the annual ‘Outhouse Races’, which was as interesting and funny as it sounds. He invited me to stop by his workshop and offered to help in any way he could. Well, the forks on Sharon’s motorcycle were still leaking badly, but no parts were available for repair. Using the Internet I found a fix that involved constructing a tool out of an old milk container – I figured it was worth a shot. With Walter’s help and the aid of his friend Charlie we were able to get to the fork seals and use the homemade tool to fix them! Since there was no fork oil available in town we used Automatic Transmission Fluid instead to replace all of the fork oil that had leaked out in the last 400 miles of rough riding. Not one step of the process was ‘by the book’, but the end result was a motorcycle we could keep riding as we headed south. After the bike work was done Walter, Charlie and I sat down and had a great conversation about Jesus, faith, religion, and what it means to love others.

With the forks ‘fixed’ we followed the wise Canada Geese as they headed south. We needed to go as quickly as possible to avoid more snow that was on the way and were forced to change our planned route accordingly. It was during this next leg that we rolled over the 10,000 mile marker for the trip. Because we travel slowly and stop for many days at a time it took us quite a long time to get this far. Our daily average is less than 100 miles a day. On ‘travel days’ we usually try to cover around 200-250 miles, but sometimes must go farther to reach our destination. Since we were running from the snow we covered more mileage in this section than at any other time on the trip so far.

Our first interesting stop was the Rancheria Motel & Cafe. It is the oldest roadhouse on the ‘Alcan’ (Alaska – Canada Highway) and the motel rooms were converted army barracks used by the soldiers who built the highway in 1942. The history surrounding the construction of the Alcan highway is supremely interesting. We were told when we arrived that the hotel was closed, because there was no water in the rooms. We really didn’t want to travel any farther that day so I bargained for a reduced price on the room and a five gallon jug of water to flush the toilet ($25 instead of the usual $90+)! One other motorcycle traveler stopped as well and we shared hours of stories, adventures and adversities.

The next stop was very exciting – Liard Hot Springs! Hot springs always sound good to us, but when the temperatures drop to 30 degrees at night they are downright incredible! We spent most of one day lounging around the beautiful pool and talking with people from all over the world. This is definitely one advantage of ‘tourist’ locations – meeting people. One couple we met, Art and Pat, were on an adventure of their own in an RV. And because there are so few roads in the far north we met them two other times in our travels and ended up being invited in for a hot lunch on a cold travel day.

From the relaxing hot springs we embarked on our longest ride day of the trip – 339 miles to Pink Mountain. The weather was no help at all: bitter cold, with rain and wind. We arrived just as it began to get truly dark and were so exhausted we went out to dinner (a rarity) and then fell into bed. The reason we pushed so hard was because snowstorms were forecast for the following day. With that in mind, we woke up uncharacteristically early (4:30 am), packed up our gear and got on the road with the idea of arriving in Hudson’s Hope before the snow started. We just made it! The snow started coming down about 15 minutes after our arrival!

Chris’s cousin Julie and her husband John live in Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia and welcomed us with open arms and generous hearts. They provided us with a great place to get out of the snow, recharge our batteries (literal and figurative :), and enjoy time with family. John gave me a wonderful and warm work space for doing some long overdue maintenance on the motorcycles. They also gave us a great tour of their beautiful town, fed us homemade pizzas, and provided a great place to change our planned route due to unseasonable snowstorms in September (we would have to reroute twice more as the weather worsened in the weeks to come). All in all, the days we spent with John and Julie were a Godsend and turned potential miserable into marvelous as they blessed us in so many ways. We are so grateful!

From there we returned to Prince George and stayed with David (the same Couchsurfing host we stayed with three months ago when we were heading north!!!). It was great to reconnect and share tales from our summer adventures.

Nest stop was Barkerville where we stayed in a heated cabin. There was no water, but the price was great! The town was the site of a historic gold rush and is now run by the national park and has been mostly restored to its original state. In addition, there are actors who enthusiastically portray individuals from the 1800s found throughout the town. The weather was miserable cold and wet, but we were so thrilled that we were NOT camping outside in our tent it did little to dampen our spirits.

Our last stop in Canada was Fernie. We stayed with a Couchsurfing host named Chris who was super welcoming and started making us a delicious shrimp dinner five minutes after he met us! The town itself has an interesting history, especially in regard to the time of Prohibition and all the bootlegging that took place because of its proximity to the US border.

Leaving Canada was bittersweet. We had been dreaming of visiting Canada and Alaska for so many years and now we had done it and it was as amazing and beautiful as we had imagined. But now it was over and we were leaving and we don’t know if we will ever return. We would love to go back and see Jasper and Banff National Parks – trip highlights we were forced to forgo – but who knows? Our sadness at this section of the trip being over was lessened by the thought of all the adventures that still lay ahead of us.

Our next stop…Glacier National Park!

Sincerely,

Chris and Sharon

p.s. – A quick update on Sharon’s migraine headaches. Overall, she is doing very well, so well in fact that she recently finished a several month process of weaning off ALL of her daily, preventive headache medications. The last few weeks have seen an increase in headaches and she did have one very severe headache last week. We are hoping that this increase will end as her body adjusts to being off the medications. Please pray for this! That said, we are so thankful for how well she has been doing overall, an absolute answer to prayer.