Northern British Columbia

We started packing up along with some little birds that were picking around at the bottom of a tree in our campsite and headed south. The scenery was even more impressive than the day before since there were barely any clouds in the sky. The mountains were all 'perfect' since there was little logging activity so far north. The reason is that the trees are too small. With a short growing season even a fully mature tree is pretty small, and the ones in Alaska were downright "scraggly" - it was obvious that it's a harsh climate. The further we rode this day, the bigger the trees were, and soon we began to see signs of logging.

About an hour into our ride I started seeing bicycles and got very excited. Dad wasn't sure why I was photographing these riders, but I knew exactly who they were. It was the Austin to Anchorage riders from UT, raising money for cancer research. I saw on TV when they left for Alaska on June 4, and although we were leaving over a month later I knew we'd easily catch up with them since it is a 70 day bike ride but only a 10 day scooter ride. They were amazed that we were actually coming back after having been up to Alaska already, but we went 300 to 600 miles per day while they averaged 60.

I was really hoping to be able to stop and talk to a few of the riders, but after we passed a couple dozen I knew my chance was probably over and I didn't see any stopped that I could stop near. We pulled in for gas at a little outpost (just a general store and mail stop and a few other buildings) and after I finished getting gas in pulls one of the support vans. Took a photo of it and the girls inside probably thought I was nuts, but then I introduced myself and it was obvious that they missed home because they were really happy to see someone from Austin, even if he was dressed like an alien in big puffy pants. (I had 4 layers of pants on trying to stay warm)

We chatted for a while about what we'd all been through on our amazing experiences, and exchanged information about the road and how to get in touch later, then I was back on the bike for another few hours to the next gas station.

As we rode further south the roads gained shoulders, then the vegetation was trimmed back, and finally, we were seeing striped roads and things were looking a little more civilized.

These were great motorcycle roads, with long straight sections with beautiful scenery, punctuated with long sweeping turns. Fun for the seat of the pants and the eyes, and easy to make good time on.

At our next gas stop, there was a really neat "ski lodge" and I didn't think much about it until the helicopter showed up. There are no ski lifts at this lodge, you get on a helicopter and they take you out to the mountain and drop you off at the top. Looked like fun but on this day they were using the chopper for moving some construction materials into the back country. I imagined that they were building some shelters for the skiers somewhere on the mountain. As we were getting ready to leave someone pulled up with what looked like a boat trailer, but that was no boat on the back. I imagined they were going to have an amazing time flying through those mountains somewhere up north.

We left the lodge and met a few more bears crossing the road. We also rode across a very long wooden bridge.

We saw dozens of wooden bridges and loved how smooth they were, but imagined that they would be slick when wet. A german tourist saw us taking photos of it and asked if we'd like a photo of the two of us riding across together. Since we didn't have a photo like that from anywhere else we happily agreed and rode across together for the picture. Unfortunately, she snapped the image a little early but it's still the only photo with both of us riding together.

We called it a night at the Glacier View campground after a long day of riding and I set up my tent and tarp to incorporate the picnic table instead of the bike for extra storage because there were so many dead bugs on the Burgman that it smelled!