Picto Diary - 11 June 2016 - Alaska Highway
Day 4. Grande Prairie, Alberta, to Liard River, BC. 580 miles. 2012 BMW F800GS motorcycle. We pick up the Alaska Highway, mile one, at Dawson Creek, BC.
Above: Wyatt Earp works on Galt's 93 BMW Paris Dakar motorcycle. Grande Prairie, AB. 11 June 2016.
Ignition problem. The bike's key wouldn't turn to ignition mode.
Oh... no, I thought. A month previously in Texas, I had had a problem with the hands free ignition and key fob on the Ducati Multistrada. I was able to use the failing, erratic emergency start code procedure to get the ignition on, whereupon I rode the bike 420 miles, never turning the ignition off, to PJ's, the Albuquerque Ducati dealer.
At the time I extolled to anyone who would listen the virtues of the traditional key ignition, and decried the high tech, unreliable hands free ignition on the Duc.
And, what? Here we have a real key problem on the beemer.
Galt and Earp took the bike apart and hot wired the ignition. We were delayed by an hour... but, were able to continue the trip. Forward progress, at least for Galt, looked grim for a while. Galt had organized the trip and had covered the territory ahead several times. The three of us could go ahead, but, in some respects, we would be flying blind.
Galt stopped up the road at a hardware store 80 miles up the road in Dawson Creek, BC, the start point of the Alaska Highway, to buy some parts. The parts would facilitate turning the ignition on and off without unwanted tinkering each time.
Hand it to Galt and Earp. Skilled guys in working the fix.
Girls like guys with skills.
Napoleon Dynamite
Above: Alaska Highway beyond Fort St. John, BC, mile 42 of the 1422 mile long Alaska Highway. 11 June 2016.
The highway is carved through boreal forest... a sea of green conifers visible to the horizon in any direction.
The setback from the trees is very wide in order to enable motorists to be aware of animals near the road.
Above: Galt donning rain gear. Summit Pass, circa 4000 feet elevation, mile 393, between Fort Nelson, BC and Toad River, BC on the Alaska Highway. 11 June 2016.
Above: Unnamed motorcyclist. Summit Pass, circa 4000 feet elevation, mile 393, between Fort Nelson, BC and Toad River, BC on the Alaska Highway. 11 June 2016.
The pictured motorcyclist rides a 2012 BMW F800 GS, which, coincidentally, is the same bike that I ride.
Henry Gibson?
Above: Alex. Toad River, BC. Mile 422, Alaska Highway. 11 June 2016.
Five miles before reaching Toad River, we noticed a BMW F800 GS (like my bike) parked at the right side of the road. The bike was missing its rear wheel. Its drive chain was hanging to the ground.
The disabled bike belonged to Alex. Alex, a German, approached me at the gas pump and asked me how I liked my bike. He noted that he had been in Toad River for three days waiting for a new tire for his disabled motorcycle. Yes... that was his bike, parked back up the road.
Alex, on his way to the Dust to Dawson motorcycle rally, said he had had three flats and couldn't fix his old tire. His new Hidenau tire, flown into Whitehorse, Yukon, would be delivered tomorrow.
If you are in the middle of nowhere and run into some uber tourists, my experience says there's a 75% chance they will be Germans.
Above: Alaska Highway. Mile 480, near Muncho Lake, BC, between Muncho Lake and Liard River. 11 June 2016.
Motorcyclist near the end of the road, in image, is Cal Poly on his Harley Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle.
We are riding down a valley carved out by a glacier during the most recent ice age, circa 20 thousand years ago. Periodically, we ride past the glacial moraines coming from smaller, lateral valleys on either side of the road.
There have been five ice ages on earth in the last million years. The last ice age more or less ended ten thousand years ago, though today's northern hemisphere glaciers are residual from that earlier period.
Ice ages are primarily a northern hemisphere phenomenon. Best guess as to how they start is that earth is radically cooled in response to massive volcanic eruptions where ash is so prevalent that it blocks the sun and cools the surface.... or, a comet collision with the earth creates atmospheric dust.
There is less speculation about how the ice ages end.
As I ride down the valley pictured here, I wonder when/if the next ice age will come. In anticipation, it would probably make sense to keep a modest position in earth warming fossil fuels. Put your in a multi generational trust, just in case the next ice age doesn't start next week.
As much is made of ongoing receding northern glaciers, many southern hemisphere glaciers accrete. Voire, Moreno Glacier in Patagonian Argentina pushes out.
Also, Antarctica, location of over 90% of the world's water, grows by millions of tons of ice every year.
Above: Bison. Roadside. Liard River. BC. Alaska Highway mile 496. 11 June 2016.
Word to the wise. Stay away. Mama bison don't (sic) like outsiders playing with the calves.
Yellowstone, eat your heart out.
Above: Cal Poly, Wyatt Earp, and John Galt pose in front of Liard River bridge. 11 June 2016. Liard River, BC. Alaska Highway mile 496.
Bridge spars are from the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, "Galloping Gertie," destroyed by a harmonic convergence in 1939.
Laird River flows 15 million acre feet annually... slightly more than the Colorado River. Rivers and water everywhere. The Liard drains into the Mackenzie River in Northwest Territories. The Mackenzie flows to the Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean.
There was no restaurant at this stop, so we snacked on crackers and nuts. Galt and Earp tried out the hot spring while Cal Poly and Mwah (sic) jabbered with Ed (see below).
Above: Liard River gas pumps. Liard River, BC. Mile 496, Alaska, Highway. 11 June 2016.
Fuel at far north gas stations is often held in above ground tanks.
My 2012 BMW F800 GS motorcycle is in the foreground.
Above: John Galt, returning from a Liard Hot Springs session, poses with Alaska Highway motorcycle tourer, Ed, from Anchorage. Liard River, BC. 11 June 2016.
Ed riding to Utah on a beemer F800GS (like mine) before heading west to California and north to home.
There are a lot of touring motorcyclists on the Alaska Highway. There is a great comradery amongst riders on the Alaska Highway. All the riders seem to know that riding the ALCAN (old name) is a special ride...in a special place... not frequented, because of its difficulty to access, by most motorcyclists.
Addendum:
Wow! Saw the comment from Heat about TMDT being pregnant so, I went back a few blogs to find out where & when I missed the announcement 🎈wow🎈
Safe journey
Spago🍼
Marina del Rey, CA