Panam Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Round the World by Bike

We are just having a day off at the Bear River Camp in Steward. With WI-Fi, hot showers and a sheltered place. It was time to check the motorcycles, a proper cleaning of ourselves and our clothes – and of course to keep you informed on how and what we are doing ;)

So far we had a great time during our first 3 weeks of the journey. We already have seen many incredible places, met a lot of nice people and camped in beautiful and free places. We love cooking and sitting at the fireplace and enjoy the scenic landscapes while driving. In one place Sascha cought a GIGANTIG pike (he would say 1,5 meter ;))) and I have to say it was the most delicious fish I ever had! The next day we passed a crashed and rolled over truck which was loaded with 40 tons of fresh salmon on ice and we took one out to pimp up our dinner.

Nothing really bad happened so far but we had one really Lucky Day – 3 times luck: On the way down we heard about the Canol Road, a 230 km gravel road winding through 2000 meter high mountains and we decided to do it. The opinions where different when we were asking people if it is open and OK or not… so there was no other way as testing it. We crossed the sign `closed road´ and already after the first meters we met a bear mother with her calve on the road just 50 meters in front of us. She was turning to us and evaluating if we will harm her or not several times. I, Kerstin, was in front and had already the bear spray in my hands and my knees turned into gum and were shivering. I knew we do not have a chance to turn the bikes that quickly on this narrow gravel road if she starts to run – but finally she decided it will be fine and she walked away into the forest.

The first Lucky time! I think I was doing pretty well on that road, speeding around the turns (this is at least what Sascha said). The ground was pretty compact, not too loose and not too muddy. But suddenly, out of nothing, there was a muddy part which made me tumbling and jumping and I just made it while standing up and opening the throttle. Sascha had the camera running and we had a look at it later – I could not believe I did it!

[Sascha: I couldn’t believe it as well! I already slowed down and was in disaster recovery mode… And then? Unbelievable! She did the only right thing FULL THROTTLE! Whow, what a SAVE that was! Congratulations….]

The second Lucky time! The landscape was beautiful and we were the only one on that road. At one point Sascha was saying: `Strange, I do smell gas!´ and I was replying: `I do not and we are in the middle of nowhere, there is nothing the next 100 km in all directions!´ A few seconds later I did smell gas as well and somehow my left leg felt wet. I looked down and I could see a little waterfall running down over my leg and boot out of my tank. That was not a funny situation at all. First of all the gas we had been just enough to reach the next upcoming gas station, second the smell of gas attracts bears (actually all kind of smell attracts them as well toothpaste – good to know). Third there is NOBODY around here. [Sascha: Last but not least it was gasoline all over the place and lucky us we did have a cigarette stop just one minute before and the engine AND exhaust was still some kind of cold… if not the bike would just have burned down at this time…) Sascha luckily combined rapid and right, it is the 2nd tank pipe (Benzinhahn) which broke and we closed it as quick as possible with a screw. We looked in the tank and were hoping that we are going to make it. And we did!!! Third time LUCK! [Sascha: What a day that was….]

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Below you can find the photos from our travel down from Dawson City to here Steward/Hyder. A highlight for Sascha was the Dredge No 4 and of course the fishing success [Sascha: AND THAT KERSTIN WAS DRIVING LIKE A PRO!!]! Both we were enjoying the freedom, the wilderness and the breathtaking landscapes – especially the Salmon Glacier were we went up yesterday afternoon when we arrived here. [Sascha: Loose, and at times deep gravel… Well done Kerstin!]

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See you soon and take care!

It was time go further north – the most northern part we wanted to visit on this journey is the Arctic Circle. The Dalton Highway was pretty ok and Sascha said it is a trip of about 350km from Healy to the Arctic Circle. After being about 6 hours on the road we reached the point he entered in the GPS but we could not even see a sign. A car came towards us and we asked where the Arctic Circle is and they told us it is another 90 miles (150km) to go and the road will be really muddy and slippery. So what to do – we continued, got coffee and fuel (not really cheap up here) at the Yukon River Roadhouse and finally reached the Arctic Circle. A great place, much warmer than expected and we settled at the free camp site and lightened a fire to fight the monster mosquito’s (the only bad thing at this beautiful place). On the way back we proudly picked our “I crossed the Arctic Circle Certificate” and decided we deserved a SPA-day at the Chena Hot Springs. What a good feeling to bath and hang around in this hot water again and again after all these long riding days. And additional we had time to check the bikes and doing the laundry.
Now it was time to check out the real gold rush area! In Tok we had a nice chat with two gold miners at the liquor shop (where else ;) and settled at “Thompson´s Eagle´s Claw”, a motorcycle camp. A really nice place done by heard. As we are early in the season we stayed alone for that night. The next morning we enjoyed our coffee in the sun and planned to ride the “Top of the world highway” TOW later. But suddenly a thunderstorm with (3 to 4cm) hail appeared and covered everything in white. Unfortunately it continued hail/raining for about 3-4 hours. So we decided to stay one more night. Therefore we enjoyed the great company of 4 other motorcyclists (greetings to Jaakko, Alf, Jep and Philip) this night at the fireplace. They did the TOW that day and did not even see a drop of rain the whole day.
So the next day we went for it. First we had a look at Chicken, an old little gold miming settlement when dark clouds came across the mountains. Kerstin became a little bit nervous as everybody was saying the TOW is awesome but the road will become narrow and winding, with steep dips and can be very slippery when it rains. Nevertheless we went for it. In the end it was a great ride on a well graded wide gravel road. The scenery was nice, the sun was shining and we arrived at the Canadian Border. Just shortly before Dawson we could see the Thunderstorm in the Rocky’s and caught a little rain. We took the ferry over the Yukon and arrived in the famous Dawson City. It is a really nice place with open minded and friendly people and it is a lot of fun to straw around and catching the spirit of this historical gold mining place. We joined the yearly Commissioner´s Tea (who personally welcomed us to Dawson!) at the Commissioner´s Residence and enjoyed speeches, music, tea and homemade dainties. For sure we will have a great evening before we leave tomorrow. See you soon! – Oh wow we just had an earth quake… everything was tumbling but nothing to worry…