Post date: Jul 3, 2016 4:41:48 AM
When the bike ran its diagnostic check this morning, it said that I have a headlight out, the passenger side. Chalk another one up. I've replaced at least one headlight every year for the past three years. I'm writing Sylvania! The act of changing the bulb takes about 30 seconds. Getting to it is a collosal pain in the ass. You have to disassemble the entire front end of the bike. There's nothing I can do about it now. Moving on.
I left Fort Nelson, BC headed for Whitehorse, YT. The Alaska Highway north of Fort Nelson is largely the same - straight, flat, and boring, at least until you reach Tetsa River Regional Park. Then, it gets good. Lots sweepers, twisties, switchbacks, and elevation changes. I saw four, female Stone Sheep while passing through the area.
I have to say that the roads in Canada are good for the most part. The shoulders are very wide and 20 yards to the sides of the road have been cleared so that you might see Yogi or Bullwinkle popping their head out to cross the road. That's not always the case though because the grass on either side of the road is higher than it looks in some places. A couple of times I spotted bear at the last minute munching in the grass. I even saw a single bison grazing by the side of the road. There is a lot of construction up here right now though, likely because of the short window of opportunity.
A sign on the north side of the road near Muncho Lake said, "Road surface varies for next 200 km." What that means is asphalt, chip seal, gravel, and dirt or mud, if it's raining. I saw it all, but the dirt was the worst. It was so dusty it was like taking a dirt bath like bison do in Yellowstone. Both the bike and I were covered. Add in some rain, and the bike was covered in a thin layer of mud. I couldn't even see through the windshield.
I had to wait on the pilot car at a construction site for 20 minutes. A couple guys from Yellowknife were on their way to Whitehorse for a First Nation gathering. They were artists that made figurines out of soap stone. We talked to pass the time.
Once, I thought that I smelled fire in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden, I couldn't recall the telephone number on the myriad forest fire signs posted everywhere. A short while later I counted seven RCMP vehicles speeding that direction all at different times. Maybe there was a fire. Maybe there wasn't. I guess that British Columbia experienced one of the largest forest fires in history recently.
In Watson Lake, BC, I stopped at the Sign Post Forest. It was started in the early 1940's by a gentleman working on the highway who was homesick. He nailed a sign to a post stating his hometown and distance from the that point. Today, there are over 55,000 signs posted there.
I arrived in Whitehorse, YT and got a room at a dump hotel adjacent to the river. They had garage parking so I didn't have to work in the rain. Instead of relaxing and blogging, I tore into the headlight problem. I ended up pulling the bulb for the brights and putting it in the burnt bulb's location. My auxiliary lights should work fine for brights, if necessary. Total work time: 1:35:00 minutes. The crapping thing is that I'll have to do it again when I get a new bulb and the part to fix the windshield.