The sounds of a winding up helicopter across the road accompanied our packing the bikes, leaving the Cedar Lodge Motel on the edge of Watson Lake with Whitehorse our goal for the day, a solid 6 hour ride ahead.
At the morning stop for gas, Kim came quickly out of the bathroom and said there was an official sign on the wall saying not to drink the water in town or brush your teeth as it was contaminated.
The gas station clerk confirmed the bad water and said his friend was vomiting and very sick that day. Our motel manager had said nothing to us about water issues and of course we'd drank the water and brushed our teeth with it.
The Butterfly wanted to return and burn down the motel, but I wanted to get to Whitehorse ASAP and get another room in case we'd have to be holed up doing the technicolor yodel for a couple of days.
On the way out of town we said a prayer and hoped the motel had been on well water and not town water...
A stop at the "Sign Forest" outside Watson Lake was well worth the time... what a cool place that was! 61,000+ signs...
I found a sharpie on the ground, which seemed to be a sign from God we needed to leave our mark. Scrounged a piece of plastic and made a sign...
The rain began a few miles out of Watson Lake and continued for the next couple of hours. The Butterfly's boots continued to leak, though the plastic bags we'd put her feet in helped somewhat. It was fun and almost surreal to be riding on the "Alcan" after hearing about it all my life.
After a long time in the rain we reached Teslin and the long bridge across the Yukon with metal grating was quite the uncomfortable crossing, the wet grates moving the bikes around and knowledge of how slick wet metal was. At the gas station we decided to get coffee and warm up. The coffee was hot and good, topped with a piece of pie for comfort, I mean our “effort”. Several folks talked with us about weather, routes and their adventures in Alaska and the Yukon.
Finally, we had to get back in our wet gear for the stretch to Whitehorse. I fueled up both bikes in the rain and watched the RCMP cruise the parking lot. We've seen almost no law enforcement, so it was interesting to see them questioning a guy in a camper.
The road to Whitehorse was in great shape and the views were great as has been the entire region.
Upon arriving in Whitehorse the rain stopped, as did we, at a Yamaha shop on the edge of town to search for waterproof boots for Kim and a can of chain lube for her 700. The lube we'd bought a week earlier at a Harley shop looked to be nothing but rebranded WD40 and we wanted something substantial.
Before getting into a motel we hit a couple more stores to look for boots but had no luck. My stomach was beginning to feel rumbly and odd so we gave up on the gear search and headed back to the motel.
The lights went out with my weird feeling stomach and I waited for the midnight wakeup call from Ralph...