July 6th 2011

(We heard a Tiger XC made it to Prudhoe Bay we think by today.  We might not be the 1st to get there.  Congrats to the Tiger owner)

I know we talk about the temperature a lot especially in the morning but here is another comment as to what the temperature was when we got up in Ross River. Brrrrrrrrr!!

Cheryl has 3 pairs of socks on, her Gerbring jacket wrapped around her calves and feet, numerous layers on and of course her dew rag on her head.  She said she was warmer.  Maybe I need to learn something about using all my socks and clothes in temps like this to sleep more than a few hours.

I got up around 0530 and took a little hike down to the river before any of the campers at the river sites were up.  So quiet except the great sound of rushing water.

I’ve got a thing for skies and cloud pictures especially in the morning hours.  Something so peaceful about the skies we have been seeing when it is not raining.

My attempt to get artsy with a picture.  I would never claim to be a photographer.

We got camp packed up really early today for the long ride to Dawson City.  First stop was Faro for a quick bite to eat.  More dirt roads and some nice views on the route.  The dirt was damp from the rain we got over night so no dust for Cheryl.

More metal bridges which are now just a common crossing for our bikes

We were greeted in Faro by this 65 Tonne truck at the entrance of the town.  Wish the WIFI was better to just post short videos of things we are seeing.  Maybe when we get to Fairbanks we can upload some videos.  Here is the BIG truck and Cheryl just loved playing around in it in all her gear.  She is such a kid sometimes but in a good way.

The official welcome sign to Faro

After playing around in the humungous truck, we headed down into the “town” of Faro and found the one and only restaurant so we could have breakfast.

As we were parking our bikes, we noticed this mangy pooch wandering around. It seems to be a common thing up here to let your dogs just roam around. This little guy looked like he could use a bath and a haircut!

Our waitress Morgan was a friendly sort and seemed interested in our adventure and agreed to have her photo taken.

Breakfast was delicious!

We filled up our bellies, but we couldn’t fill up our gas tanks as the town gas station had run out of gas! We still had over half a tank though and we set off for Carmacks.

General Store and gas station in Carmacks

Views and more views from the Klondike Highway

This is at Five Finger Rapids

Seems like a lot of pictures of the two of us….cool we say! We love our Gorilla Tripod!

Met a cool little dog named Jack from Kamloops.  A young couple just touring around for a week.

Once again as we ride north to Dawson we begin to see less and less of sun and blue sky. Seems like a daily occurrence, blue sky to this

By now we are not really too upset if it were to rain.  The bikes and our gear needs a washing from the Robert Campbell and we did indeed get wet heading all the way up to Dawson City. A shot of some pretty road side flowers.

We both had to stop at the obligatory picture at the welcome sign for Dawson City.  All along the road into town there are huge mounds of road mulch.  We are certain this is used not only on the Dempster but all roads around here.  There are so many of them.

this is one way we take together pics without having to rely on others.

Dinner at Sourdough Joe’s we had great sandwiches and pea soup.  That ended our day and tomorrow we will spend some time doing laundry, trying to lube the chains, get the bikes hosed down, and take a steamboat trip down the Yukon.

(All pictures on any of the posts can be clicked on for larger sizes)

July 5th 2011

Got a late start today because we have been a little cold at night with the temperatures almost reaching freezing.  Although we have a lot of clothing to try to bulk up and stay warm, we are still finding it hard to actually be warm.  In any case, we finally got ready to leave around 11 after eating at camp and repacking everything.

Bad picture, we are very tired here but who cares, still a picture of the 2 of us! 

Cheryl trying to stay warm in the freezing morning air.

Our organized chaos in the morning. Somehow everything does end up back where it should.

Before we took off for the Campbell highway that takes us from Watson Lake to Ross River via this “dirt’” road, we needed to pack extra fuel.  We have two 1 gallon rotopax containers on our bikes for the time our bikes can’t make the trip before we reach another gas station.  In this case it was a good thing we had the extra gas because we would have never made it to Ross River with only our 19 litres on board.

The Robert Campbell “Highway” is 572 KM if you take it all the way to the Klondike Highway which we did.  But on this day we ended at Ross River which was 374 KM give or take a few KM.  The road is mainly dirt and very well groomed.  Some loose gravel, larger rocks, pot holes, loose dirt and when wet some slippery areas.  Having said this it is an easy road to ride for most bikes with suspension and a rider who does not worry about being alone.  We saw only a handful of trucks and NO motorcycles on this road the entire time.

Very quiet and no traffic or people.  Some really nice scenic views and lot’s of treed straights that shelters you from the wind.  We got up to speeds up to 90 – 100 KM/hr on some sections.  Averaged about 75.  Our gas mileage got really good on this trip road.  The Tigers seem to like speeds less than 110KM/hr in order for them to get decent mileage.

Some views and highlights from the Robert Campbell.

In the beginning of the ride the road was very dry and dusty.  Cheryl rode behind me the entire way saying “way should both of us get trashed by the dust”.  I felt badly she could hardly see for about the first 200 KM.  After while it began to rain on us.  Seems to be doing this everyday in and around mid day. Rain for a bit and then clears up.

Once the rains came Cheryl could see and I could see her behind me.  Made the road even that much more enjoyable to ride. Here the bikes still look little clean.

getting dirtier.  This stuff they put on this road, not sure if it is Calcium Chloride on this section but whatever it is sure loves to stick like cement to the bikes. Cheryl saying LOOK at me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am very dusty!

Then me, not so bad. What a I doing in this picture?  Modeling?

Some info as to what these roads do for the areas

Bikes by now are just getting caked with this crap….

Some sections of the road is sort of paved.  We both can not figure out why pave a few KM of road and not the rest?  At times you are on and off pavement on the Campbell quite a bit and see signs like this all the time.

We both agree this was an enjoyable way to get to Ross River and really stay away from all the RV’s and tourists.

More pictures showing Cheryl’s dusty KLIM suit

we took snack and pee breaks along the way.  The one time Cheryl goes to pee a truck actually passes by. Like the first one in hours. That is her face in the above picture as well as showing how dusty she is.

We had to use our extra fuel.  We dumped both gallons in the tanks.  Actually not a full 2 gallons had to leave some room for expansion in the containers but it gave us another 170 KM each to ride when we needed about 80 KM.

There are many spots to capture and take in the views throughout the highway.

there is a bridge in the above picture…the Yukon love these bridges with metal grates.

Notice the beautiful blue sky?  This is what we headed into as we got nearer to Ross River.

The next picture was taken at the same just in the other direction

we arrived in Ross River to really not find a town at all.  Went to the only grocery store where a bunch of kids were running it and seemed to not like the “intruders”.  We just wanted to know where to camp and if we could buy beer.  Well, no one knew where to camp and there was no beer in the store.  Maybe Ross River is a dry town?  We did not ask.  Some guy while we were getting gas pointed us into the direction of the camp ground.

It’s raining on us here.

Kind of a sad little town to be honest but I bet those who live there are happy?

Once we got to the campground right outside of town, the rain stopped and the skies cleared up.  Just in time for a camp fire and dinner.  Funny thing is once we got the fire going, actually Cheryl, I decided I wanted to move sites because there was a nicer one across the way so we could hear the river.  Cheryl literally carried over embers from the fire she worked so hard on to start another fire in the pit at the other site.  I had to carry the tent I all ready set up.

here is our first site.

then the second and better site!

When we get better WIFI I will post the short video of Cheryl explaining why we are moving camp sites.  Plus, the bathrooms were closer.

This was the end of day 6 and a good day it was.  We are not really minding the rain because our gear is really working out great.  We just hate setting up when it is raining or breaking down camp.  I will try and get Day 7 up tomorrow.

This trip is turning out to be something else to be honest.  The riding has been awesome, the weather up and down, the views and experience priceless.