Wednesday June 11. Dease Lake B.C. to Whitehorse, Yukon. I am awake at six and putter around until about eight in the hope that the temperature would rise above forty degrees. It is a beautiful morning and it did not rain as predicted. This is good. Now I don't have to worry about riding on a mud covered dirt road. My Dunlop 205's have worked well to this point but I am sure the engineers that designed them did not foresee them doing a thousand miles on slick dirt and gravel . These are tires best suited for well maintained asphalt.

The morning ride is great and I did not see another vehicle for over an hour. This is great! I see a bear. I see a moose, and I almost hit a very big rabbit.   But I do not see another human being!   

Latter in the morning I leave British Columbia and cross into the Yukon Territory.   This is another milestone on my ride. I have read many stories of the Yukon and the folks that settled here. I am in awe of its scale and beauty. It covers over two hundred thousand square miles of area yet has only about thirty thousand residents.  In land area, it is twenty five times larger than California but California has almost thirty-five million people! Add to that, the fact that seventy percent of those living in the Yukon live in the area of Whitehorse. That means that except for the area around Whitehorse you are not going to see a whole lot of people anywhere else during your travel through the Territory. If you are looking for solitude the Yukon is a good place to find it.            

The Cassiar intersects with the Alaska Highway west of Watson Lake. The ride from Watson Lake to Whitehorse is about three hundred miles. I caught a rainstorm for most of it and missed most of the views. The storm had a few periods of moderate hailstones and it took all of my attention to stay on the road. Although I was only on the Alcan Highway for a few hundred miles it felt too tame for me after the drive on the Yellowhead and the Cassiar Highways. Tame was a welcomed change in that you only had gravel at controlled construction areas, but I did not see the usual animal life nor feel the same sense of adventure while on the Alcan Highway.    

 Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory and is the Territory’s most populated town. I need a good meal, hot shower and comfortable bed and find them in Whitehorse. The Klondike Bar-B –Q serves hearty dinners and has the local brew on tap. I get a hotel for fifty dollars [Canadian] and dry out my wet gear.  I am     told by another rider that the Honda shop in town stock tires that fit BMW’s GS but I do not know that first hand. I now have three thousand miles on my Dunlops but my rear tire looks like it has considerably more miles. I think the heavy load I am carrying along with the extremely course texture of the roads wear tires faster than the mileage indicates. It is to soon to think about new tires so I skip the Honda shop. Other than tire wear the RT continues to run strong. I added a half a quart of motor oil to it today. 

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