Picto Diary - 05 June 2017 - Alaska (sort of)
440 miles.
Prince George, BC to Stewart BC/Hyder AK.
Above: BMW F800 GS Motorcycle. BC route 16. 05 June 2017.
West bound.
BC 16. The Yellowhead Highway. Also an arm of the Trans Canada highway as it starts on the Pacific coast at Prince Rupert.
BC 27 is a turnoff running north, to Fort St. James, a former fur trading post on the vast lake Stuart. Elk, Joe, and Mwah (sic) rode the 40 miles, up there and back, ten years ago.
RIDING REFLECTIONS
1. Don Imus requested "my five favorite songs."
I Can't Help Falling in Love With You - Elvis
Convoy - C. W. McCall
Take it Easy- Eagles
Die Moldau - Smetana
Organ Symphony- Saint-Saens
2. Riding "kilometers" always seems shorter than riding miles. When I see a kilometer distance sign, my brain instinctively thinks it's a "mileage" sign. When I make the calculation from "klicks" to miles (1km = 5/8 mile), I'm pleased that the distance remaining is much shorter than I first "thought."
3. I love the highway names. Today, The Yellowhead Highway. Highway names give rise to a special, iconic feel about the ride/journey.. Same with trains: Orient Express, Delhi Mail, Rajdhani Express, The Ghan, The Trans Siberian Express.
4. Crack sealing technique on Canadian highways is far superior to the US method. In Canada, after the sealant is put into the crack, sand is generously layered on top of the new seal. The resultant seal develops a similar adhesive quality to that of the road surface. US crack seals, with no adhesive applied, are slick and squishy, particularly at high temperatures.
5. Fuel. On this ride I'm carrying 5 liters of extra fuel in my panniers. Beaucoup peace of mind when there are many ride segments up here with 150 miles plus distance between fuel stops. The F800GS, all other things being equal (speeds not to exceed 70 mph and no head wind) has a 180 to 200 mile range. Extra fuel means greater flexibility.
6. Ear plugs. I put a taller, after market wind screen on the F800 GS. Notwithstanding, cavitation makes for nasty wind noise in the helmet. I started using ear plugs. What an invention! Quiet and smooth riding experience. Because of years of customary riding sans using ear plugs, I always forget to insert the plugs when I start riding. Once I start riding, I sense the noise. So, I stop at the first safe place and insert the plugs. Goal for this trip is to regularly insert ear plugs when I first start out. Don't need ear plugs when riding the Duc. Better fairing arrangement there.
Above: BMW F800 GS motorcycle. BC 16 westbound.
Highway 16. Yellowhead Highway, part of the Trans Canada highway system. I am riding the road today between Prince George and Kitwana. There, I take BC 37, the Cassier Highway, north, as far as BC 37. I'll turn east on BC 37A to reach Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK, the end of today's ride.
Not an atypical view. Trees, trees, trees, and underneath the canopy, bears, bears, bears.
10 years ago, while motorcycle riding on The Yellowhead Highway, Joe, Elk, and Mwah (sic) saw considerable forest ruin from pine beetle infestation. Not so today. All green....everywhere... green, GREEN!
Above: Smithers ski area. Smithers, BC. 05 June 2017.
Hudson's Bay Mountain to the right.
So far away. Who comes here? Locals only?
Guzzy, I'll give you $100 if you come ski here.
Above: Bulkley River. Telkwa, BC. 05 June 2017.
Everywhere, beaucoup water. Nearly overflowing rivers never heard of, flowing to who knows where. Reroute flow to Las Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego. — at Telkwa, Bc.
Above: Bike at Kitwanga Junction. BC. 05 June 2017.
North to Alaska.
Above: Bear warning sign. BC 37. 05 June 2017.
85 miles up the Cassier Highway, from the turnoff from the Yellowhead Highway, Kitwanga, BC, I saw this sign. 5 miles before the sign, I saw my first bear, a full sized black bear, foraging below the road shoulder on my side of the road. Having been admonished last year by John Galt about my foolish stop for a photo op of a brown bear cub, I continued on this time sans stopping.
Above: Bear Glacier. BC 37A. 05 June 2017.
The eighteen mile descent down BC 37A, from 1300 feet elevation at Bear Glacier, to sea level, through a glacially carved canyon, is a marvel. Plenty of curves, the raging Bear River on the right, and snow patched, glacially carved gum drop mountains , enshrouded in mists, on the left. Unworldly motorcycle riding sensation. — in Stewart, British Columbia.
Above: Hyder, AK. 05 June 2017.
Above: Portland Canal. Hyder, AK. 05 June 2017.
Above: Pylon remnants of Portland City. Hyder, AK. 05 June 2017.
Bishop back home in US...uh...wait..
How many places can you legally walk in to the US with no immigration control point? Canada, par contre, has a full immigration check point for individuals leaving Hyder and entering Canada.
Portland Canal leads into Hyder from North Pacific (entrance is very near Prince Rupert, BC), 90 miles distant. Think Norwegian fjord. The canal forms the border between southern Alaska and British Columbia. 5 miles further out the Portland Canal from here is Misty Fjords National Monument, visited only by air or sea.
Old pylons supported Portland City (former name of Hyder), gold mining days pre WWI. Portland City shut down in 1935 when FDR pegged price of gold at $35.00 per oz.
Ketchikan is only 40 miles away by air from Hyder.
Hyder today is more or less a ghost town. A couple of gift shop's, a seafood restaurant in an old school bus. Sealaska Inn, where Joe, Elk, and Mwah (sic) stayed 10 years ago looks more beleaguered now than it did then.
I'm staying at the King Edward Hotel in adjacent Stewart, BC.
HYDER VERSUS STEWART
Ten or more years ago, shortly after my first motorcycle ride to Hyder, a piece was published in the Wall Street Journal which used Hyder/Stewart as a metaphor for how Americans and Canadians, generally, are different from one another.
Hyder: Rough and tumble. Brash. Noisy. Crazy. Entrepreneurial. Free wheeling. Couldn't care less, devil take the hindmost, rampant individualism.
Stewart: Sedate, orderly, quiet, cooperative, docile, obedient.
Authors conflated the Hyder/Stewart dynamic to describe the difference between Americans and Canadians generally.
The chaotic, boisterous, independent, American paradigm, as compared to the "boring" Canadian model, was seen by the authors as a seed bed for energy and creativity. Canada, par contre, was seen as a docile, adaptive and dependent place.
Authors said it started with the American revolution. Not all American colonists wanted to buck George V. So, rather than fight in the revolutionary war, the "royalists" head north and continued in their loyalty to the king i.e. go along get along. And so it is, that docile Canadians pursue their boring, listless lives, even today... or so say the authors.