An early-Fall motorcycle ride to Skagway
My motorcycle hasn’t gotten much use this year, as I’ve already spent about 80 days in the motorhome, far from the bike. But yesterday, I put about 350 km (217 mi) on it riding to Skagway and back.
The feel of Fall has been in the air for a couple of weeks now, and Fall colours have begun to arrive in many places.
Every bus, and most rental-car drivers, stop at the “Welcome to the Yukon” sign. The nearest bus is from a brand-new company – after 15 years guiding for other people, Raymie Eatough has set up her own operation, Midnight Sun Excursions. My reason for stopping was to have a chat with long-time friend Jacqueline St. Jacques, who sells her handcrafted stone-and-wire jewelry here.
An excellent new interpretive sign has been installed near the Welcome sign this year. It describes the Dall sheep and mountain goats that are commonly seen on the slopes directly above that spot.
Another sign change – the “Welcome to British Columbia” sign has been moved to the parking-lot side of the highway to avoid the dangerous situation of having people crossing the highway. Actually, the sign says “Welcome. The Best Place on Earth. British Columbia. Canada”. Speaking of that sort of danger on the highway, what’s with this new fad among Asians to get their photos taken with the centre-line of highways??? GET OFF THE ROAD!
I got an email earlier in the week from a researcher wanting to hike to the grave of Fred Whitcomb Jr., and had sent him detailed directions to the remote site. After seeing near-flood-level waters in all the lakes, though, I had to send him a follow-up note last night, telling him that the site is inaccessible except by boat now.
I haven’t shot a motorcycle selfie in a while, and this pullout at a little lake provided the perfect spot for it. The bike is a 2009 VStar 1100 Classic that I bought new to celebrate my 60th birthday – after 6 years, I still think that it was the perfect choice. When I was shopping, I was looking at older, smaller (and much cheaper) bikes. Cathy finally said “why don’t you buy the bike you really want?” – and a few hours later, the VStar was in our driveway 🙂
I also went for a short hike at that pullout. The light wasn’t great for scenic shots, but the ground offered lots of subjects.
I’d heard at the “Welcome” signs that the weather turned nasty at Fraser, and stayed that way right into Skagway. It had improved a bit, and I stopped at the Fraser interpretive lookout for a few shots of a train loaded with new ties – the line must be close to having 100% new ties now.
I rode into fog near Summit Creek, and it got fairly thick near the summit. The rain that I’d been told to expect never happened, though.
The new “signature wall” at the summit. Some people wonder why there’s such animosity between locals and seasonal employees. Here’s a good example – “SPM” notes his 3 summers here (all 3 years were painted 2 weeks ago), and now other disrespectful morons are joining in.
I went for lunch at the Skagway Pizza Station, and despite the fact that they were extremely busy, it was excellent as always. Then I went for a wander on the bike to see what’s new. Every now and then, seeing the ships gets me a bit wistful, and this was one of those days. That have have been because, 6 years ago, Cathy and I went on a particularly fine cruise in the Caribbean on the nearest ship, the Noordam. Last week, we got asked by friends to think about going on a European river cruise with them – we were going to stay close to home with the motorhome for a few years, but…
I keep track of the bike’s mileage by taking photos of the odometer rather than writing it down. Even with 2 slack summers since bying the RV, I’m pretty happy about having put 29,000 km on the bike with zero problems.
We haven’t decided yet where to take the motorhome this weekend, but looking at the weather forecast, I may be back in Skagway tonight!
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