Inuvik Trip
Friday Jun 9 2017, Delta BC to Prince George BC
Sunny day, drove up Fraser Canyon (Hwy #1) which is always amazing. Through the 7 tunnels and out into the desert, it is an amazing transition and highly recommended. I have been up this route too many times to bother taking many pictures.
Clouds started to build going up the Canyon.
Bike is running good, doesn't feel too heavy even though I know the back end is overloaded. Still getting used to the Anakee Wild tires. I have never ridden knobbies before and wasn't too confident with them at this point. Later in the ride I felt confident with them, even in rain they stuck well.
The only place I did not like the Wild tires were on those metal bridges, and only some of them. The ones that have a kind of X pattern were not a problem, but the ones with the straight wire lines had me squirming as the bike is moving a half inch left and right, and this feels like a foot of motion when riding, disturbing and I never got used to it.
The other area where the Wild tires sucked was after the ride, around 6000km, maybe a little more and the rear tire is pretty much done. Not too impressive considering the cost of these tires. I do not need knobbies for my normal riding anyways. The front Wild tire still looks great.
I stopped in Lac La Hache Campsite as the sky was looking dicey ahead, lots of dark clouds, but inside that campsite it was nearly empty and they have this reservation system where you need to check with the custodian if you did not reserve something so he can tell you which sites are available, which throws me off, so I continued up the road. I stayed in another Provincial campground (Twin Lakes), but this one had tags showing which sites were available at each pad, so I could just pick one and go pay for it.
It was dry when I set up, but it rained all night, I should have stayed in Lac La Hache. This campsite said it had showers, but searching in the morning revealed it did not, they were building a new shower building and it was not ready. They didn't have issue charging $25 for the night though, and had already added "showers" to their signs coming in, so rather misleading.
Not wanting to pack my wet tent fly in my bag the next morning, I folded it up and stuffed it under the cargo net on the back, and this worked out great and I ended up doing that the rest of the trip, wet or dry. It makes putting the tent back in its sack way easier too.
Day 2, on the road to Francios Lake.
I had a hard time deciding whether to go North or West when I got to Prince George, the Weather looked good West, but not particularly warm, with some chance of Snow in Stewart BC forecast. North was a crapshoot, so I went West. Followed my GPS plan.
I took 35 South at Burns Lake, toward Francois Lake. It was paved most of the way, with little traffic, and the last part was dirt and gravel roads, in good shape and easy to ride.
I thought about a stealth camp and started looking for places, but each pullout I stopped at had fresh bear poop. I am not interested in bear encounters so kept looking and eventually found a spot in an old clearcut section that had no noticeable bear poop, mostly a big empty field, so I set up the tent quite far from the bike where I have all my food, and did not eat anything before bed.
It is funny how camping in bear country changes my habit. Not wanting anything attractive to bears on me in the tent, I often skip dinner and do not even brush teeth until the morning. I just setup tent, crawl in, and go to sleep.
No bear encounters that I am aware of, slept like a log. Bike was still upright in the morning. There were many birds outside the tent in the morning, flying overhead and perching on nearby bushes etc. I think they were curious about me. Pretty much up with the sun out here, it was a little chilly, around 4c from what I remember, which can be a good thing since it means there are almost zero bugs.
Day 3, the road to Stewart.
An uneventful ride up Hwy 37 except for a baby moose that I noticed running down the highway toward me, so I stopped and watched and he came almost right up to me before freaking out about the sound of the bike and turning off into the bushes. No idea what had spooked him to run like that, but I could only hope his mom was OK up the road someplace. I did not see any dead moose further up so can only imagine what happened to her, if anything. Maybe they get together for tea and a laugh later? imagine what you like.
The road into Stewart was just as everyone mentioned, fun to ride, beautiful views, lots of mountains. I got in to town around 4pm and stayed at the King George Motel, which was pretty nice actually. Right downtown. I was kind of tired so layed on the bed and closed my eyes, then I started to think about the weather and pulled it up on my phone. Stewart is pretty dicey for weather, if it's nice you need to take advantage of it, since it doesn't last long. Sure enough, forecast was for rain starting that evening at 10pm and rain the next few days, so if I wanted to see the Salmon Glacier, it had to be today.
I pulled all the bags off the bike and headed out to see it. Into Hyder AK, and then it weaves through some mountains and back into BC where the Glacier is.
The road up wasn't too bad, some pot holes and loose gravel but no issues with a nice light bike.
I wanted to get right to the top, but part of the road was closed
I thought about going around that road closed sign, there was space there, but I was pretty much the last guy on the mountain so didn't take the risk. There were plenty of spots on the way up where the road could have been closed, snow, rocks, all kinds of places waiting to fall over that road.
It started to rain as I was coming back, just a sprinkle, but it was building.
I did not stop at the Grizzly overlook on the way down. There were a couple of people there, but I was tired and seeing grizzlies was not high on my list (have seen them many times).
I had a good sleep that night, it is nice to have a shower and rest in a real bed once in a while.
The next morning it was broken clouds, not raining as predicted, and 11c instead of the 1c that was predicted. There were some clouds around but no heavy rain.
Day 4, Telegraph Creek
The weather was cooperating when I got up to Dease Lake, so I gassed up and headed down the road to Telegraph Creek. This is another ride you have to do during good weather. It was only 112km of dirt road, but some challenging spots in there, and a few 20 deg hills where I discovered having non switchable ABS is not a good thing on an overloaded bike, but I did not go off any cliffs or fall over, although it was close a few times. A little unnerving.
Coming back up, on one of the 20 deg hills, a car came around the corner and I had to get over to the side quickly without falling off the cliff, stalling the bike or falling over in the deep gravel. A little nerve racking for sure. I was very happy to be back on pavement after that ride.
A spooky story to tell here. There are signs in this area about this being the Highway of Tears, where many women, mostly native indian, have gone missing over the years, and no trace has been found. Apparently they were hitchhikers mostly, anyways as I was driving up Telegraph Creek road, I passed a sign saying "Cariboo Camping". There had been signs all up and down that road saying beware of Livestock, and lots of poo paddies, non bear kind, on the side of the road in spots. I never saw any animals, but the evidence was there.
As I was driving past that sign I thought, I wonder if they would let me toss my tent up in here.. Cariboo Camping could mean it is some kind of camp site right? so I did a U-turn and went back and drove up a driveway that went to three houses. One of the houses on the left had a chain going through the door, I guessed it was some kind of garage, the second house had a white door on the front, a big propane tank at then entrance, a few pots for plants. It looked like the main house, but nobody came out to say hello. I walked in a bit and could see a large open field, no animals, but lots of places to camp if permission was given. As I was standing there I heard a click from the front door of the main house so I said Hello, but nobody opened the door. I envisioned some native woman inside thinking I am some scary guy, so OK, I guess this is not a camping place, so I started walking back to the bike when I heard chains rattling inside that other shed with the chain through the door and the hair on the back of my neck went up and I scooted out of there quickly.
I had this vision of some crazy axe murderer with people chained up inside that shed. Of course the idea is ridiculous, so I didn't report it to anyone.
That night I stayed at a Mormon campsite South of Dease Lake. It had nothing for facilities, but only cost $10 so I was happy. Helps offset my costs for Hotels.
Friday Jun 9 2017, Delta BC to Prince George BC
Sunny day, drove up Fraser Canyon (Hwy #1) which is always amazing. Through the 7 tunnels and out into the desert, it is an amazing transition and highly recommended. I have been up this route too many times to bother taking many pictures.
Clouds started to build going up the Canyon.
Bike is running good, doesn't feel too heavy even though I know the back end is overloaded. Still getting used to the Anakee Wild tires. I have never ridden knobbies before and wasn't too confident with them at this point. Later in the ride I felt confident with them, even in rain they stuck well.
The only place I did not like the Wild tires were on those metal bridges, and only some of them. The ones that have a kind of X pattern were not a problem, but the ones with the straight wire lines had me squirming as the bike is moving a half inch left and right, and this feels like a foot of motion when riding, disturbing and I never got used to it.
The other area where the Wild tires sucked was after the ride, around 6000km, maybe a little more and the rear tire is pretty much done. Not too impressive considering the cost of these tires. I do not need knobbies for my normal riding anyways. The front Wild tire still looks great.
I stopped in Lac La Hache Campsite as the sky was looking dicey ahead, lots of dark clouds, but inside that campsite it was nearly empty and they have this reservation system where you need to check with the custodian if you did not reserve something so he can tell you which sites are available, which throws me off, so I continued up the road. I stayed in another Provincial campground (Twin Lakes), but this one had tags showing which sites were available at each pad, so I could just pick one and go pay for it.
It was dry when I set up, but it rained all night, I should have stayed in Lac La Hache. This campsite said it had showers, but searching in the morning revealed it did not, they were building a new shower building and it was not ready. They didn't have issue charging $25 for the night though, and had already added "showers" to their signs coming in, so rather misleading.
Not wanting to pack my wet tent fly in my bag the next morning, I folded it up and stuffed it under the cargo net on the back, and this worked out great and I ended up doing that the rest of the trip, wet or dry. It makes putting the tent back in its sack way easier too.
Day 2, on the road to Francios Lake.
I had a hard time deciding whether to go North or West when I got to Prince George, the Weather looked good West, but not particularly warm, with some chance of Snow in Stewart BC forecast. North was a crapshoot, so I went West. Followed my GPS plan.
I took 35 South at Burns Lake, toward Francois Lake. It was paved most of the way, with little traffic, and the last part was dirt and gravel roads, in good shape and easy to ride.
I thought about a stealth camp and started looking for places, but each pullout I stopped at had fresh bear poop. I am not interested in bear encounters so kept looking and eventually found a spot in an old clearcut section that had no noticeable bear poop, mostly a big empty field, so I set up the tent quite far from the bike where I have all my food, and did not eat anything before bed.
It is funny how camping in bear country changes my habit. Not wanting anything attractive to bears on me in the tent, I often skip dinner and do not even brush teeth until the morning. I just setup tent, crawl in, and go to sleep.
No bear encounters that I am aware of, slept like a log. Bike was still upright in the morning. There were many birds outside the tent in the morning, flying overhead and perching on nearby bushes etc. I think they were curious about me. Pretty much up with the sun out here, it was a little chilly, around 4c from what I remember, which can be a good thing since it means there are almost zero bugs.
Day 3, the road to Stewart.
An uneventful ride up Hwy 37 except for a baby moose that I noticed running down the highway toward me, so I stopped and watched and he came almost right up to me before freaking out about the sound of the bike and turning off into the bushes. No idea what had spooked him to run like that, but I could only hope his mom was OK up the road someplace. I did not see any dead moose further up so can only imagine what happened to her, if anything. Maybe they get together for tea and a laugh later? imagine what you like.
The road into Stewart was just as everyone mentioned, fun to ride, beautiful views, lots of mountains. I got in to town around 4pm and stayed at the King George Motel, which was pretty nice actually. Right downtown. I was kind of tired so layed on the bed and closed my eyes, then I started to think about the weather and pulled it up on my phone. Stewart is pretty dicey for weather, if it's nice you need to take advantage of it, since it doesn't last long. Sure enough, forecast was for rain starting that evening at 10pm and rain the next few days, so if I wanted to see the Salmon Glacier, it had to be today.
I pulled all the bags off the bike and headed out to see it. Into Hyder AK, and then it weaves through some mountains and back into BC where the Glacier is.
The road up wasn't too bad, some pot holes and loose gravel but no issues with a nice light bike.
I wanted to get right to the top, but part of the road was closed
I thought about going around that road closed sign, there was space there, but I was pretty much the last guy on the mountain so didn't take the risk. There were plenty of spots on the way up where the road could have been closed, snow, rocks, all kinds of places waiting to fall over that road.
It started to rain as I was coming back, just a sprinkle, but it was building.
I did not stop at the Grizzly overlook on the way down. There were a couple of people there, but I was tired and seeing grizzlies was not high on my list (have seen them many times).
I had a good sleep that night, it is nice to have a shower and rest in a real bed once in a while.
The next morning it was broken clouds, not raining as predicted, and 11c instead of the 1c that was predicted. There were some clouds around but no heavy rain.
Day 4, Telegraph Creek
The weather was cooperating when I got up to Dease Lake, so I gassed up and headed down the road to Telegraph Creek. This is another ride you have to do during good weather. It was only 112km of dirt road, but some challenging spots in there, and a few 20 deg hills where I discovered having non switchable ABS is not a good thing on an overloaded bike, but I did not go off any cliffs or fall over, although it was close a few times. A little unnerving.
Coming back up, on one of the 20 deg hills, a car came around the corner and I had to get over to the side quickly without falling off the cliff, stalling the bike or falling over in the deep gravel. A little nerve racking for sure. I was very happy to be back on pavement after that ride.
A spooky story to tell here. There are signs in this area about this being the Highway of Tears, where many women, mostly native indian, have gone missing over the years, and no trace has been found. Apparently they were hitchhikers mostly, anyways as I was driving up Telegraph Creek road, I passed a sign saying "Cariboo Camping". There had been signs all up and down that road saying beware of Livestock, and lots of poo paddies, non bear kind, on the side of the road in spots. I never saw any animals, but the evidence was there.
As I was driving past that sign I thought, I wonder if they would let me toss my tent up in here.. Cariboo Camping could mean it is some kind of camp site right? so I did a U-turn and went back and drove up a driveway that went to three houses. One of the houses on the left had a chain going through the door, I guessed it was some kind of garage, the second house had a white door on the front, a big propane tank at then entrance, a few pots for plants. It looked like the main house, but nobody came out to say hello. I walked in a bit and could see a large open field, no animals, but lots of places to camp if permission was given. As I was standing there I heard a click from the front door of the main house so I said Hello, but nobody opened the door. I envisioned some native woman inside thinking I am some scary guy, so OK, I guess this is not a camping place, so I started walking back to the bike when I heard chains rattling inside that other shed with the chain through the door and the hair on the back of my neck went up and I scooted out of there quickly.
I had this vision of some crazy axe murderer with people chained up inside that shed. Of course the idea is ridiculous, so I didn't report it to anyone.
That night I stayed at a Mormon campsite South of Dease Lake. It had nothing for facilities, but only cost $10 so I was happy. Helps offset my costs for Hotels.