First Three Days

6/23 - Seattle to Williams Lake- 432 miles
6/24 - Williams Lake to Smithers - 387 miles
6/25 - Smithers to Hyder - 217 miles

Day 1 - this was the get out of town day. The two way communication with the radios is very nice to have. Saves a lot of stopping. We had a little rain, a little sun, and mostly overcast. Crossing the border only took about 10 minutes which was nice because sitting in line on your bike in the rain is not much fun. A couple of basic questions and we were done with that.

We talked to a couple of riders in Cache Creek. One on a big BMW, the other on a Kawasaki 250 Ninja. They were headed to Prudhoe Bay also. The guy on the 250 was trying to set a new Iron Butt record for smallest displacement bike to complete the Ultimate CC. The Ultimate Coast to Coast (CC) is a ride to go from Key West in the Florida to Prudhoe Bay in 30 days. . He had recently completed that basic 50CC riding from California to Florida in under 50 hours. We talked to him right after he had lost three hours to a broken rear chain. This lost time may have been enough to not let him finish in time, but he was still going for it. The 250 Ninja is the first bike I got my daughter so she could learn to ride on little bike. I think it has as much horsepower as my riding lawn mower and the guy riding it was at least 225 lbs.

Day 2 - A weather repeat of day 1. Down to about 40 F in rain the showers and up to 65 when the sun came out. Wearing my rain suit to keep dry and warm and I have had the heated grips on almost all the time. Gas in Canada is running $4.00 - $4.30 a gallon. I'm getting about 44 miles to the gallon. The posted max speed is 100km/hour ~ 62mph.

Day 3 - Cool again today. Wore the top of the rain suit just for the warmth. No rain today. So far this trip has been cooler than anticipated. I think I will wear the heated vest tomorrow. The stopping point today is Hyder, Alaska. This is the closest point in Alaska you can drive to and is the location of the Hyder Seek. There is another competition to ride your bike in each of the lower 48 states plus Alaska in 10 days or less. The end point is Hyder. Each year at the end of May riders from all over the US ride to Hyder for dinner. A small percentage of them are completing the 49 state ride. Last month there were 200 bikers in this very small town of under a 100 people.

We rode to the observation platform a couple miles out of town to see the bears eating salmon. We are a couple weeks to early. No salmon=no bears. I did take a walk down to the city dump and saw a black bear. He stayed about 30 yards away.