View Larger MapWe woke early to the sound of mosquitoes in our ears. Who needs an alarm clock when the DEET wears off! We had tried drying the wet camera out overnight, but our digital camera was still dead. We put one more load of laundry in the washer before going to breakfast. We ate a hearty (unhealthy) meal of Eggs, Toast, Hash Browns, Bacon, and then went back to the room to pack up. We checked Jennifer’s tire and it was still OK.
While packing the bike the 3 guys from NY came in and bought gas. They had stayed the night at Watson Lake at an Airforce barracks-like place that they said was nice and clean.
We checked out and continued our journey north on the Alaska Hwy towards Whitehorse (enroute to Carmacks). The weather was gorgeous, no fleece liner or heated liner/hand grips were needed. We stopped in Teslin for gas.
We made a stop in White Horse at the Canadian Tire Auto parts store and the next-door Wal-Mart. We bought some spray Teflon lube for Jennifer’s chain, Meguiars "Plastix" plastic polish (that didn't work)for Eric's face shield, and an exact replacement camera for ours that got wet. We got gas on our way out of Whitehorse then continued on.
We passed the spots where forest fires from 1958 and 1998 were both marked. The 98 fire regrowth looked better than the 58 regrowth. Winters must be cold here!! We saw several historic sites, old log building ruins. There were also signs that we were passing through an Elk range, but no Elk were visible to us.
We arrived at our destination, Carmacks at about 19:30. Carmacks is named after the guy who first discovered gold in the Yukon/Klondike. We continued past the town hoping to find a B&B, which we did but they were booked. Jennifer dropped her bike trying to make a u-turn from a stop on a steep hill. She just freaked out. We picked it up no problem. Her cheap Highway pegs mounted on her HB crashbars and her GIVI sidebags protect her bike well! We eventually went back and checked into the Carmacks Hotel Cabins.
They had a sign on the door to the General Store near the hotel that they sell Bear Spray to responsible people 19 and over. Maybe we should have unpacked our Bear spray if there were bears?
We went to dinner and had to listen to some jerk whining about how bad the US was after he heard that we were from the States. It was good that he didn’t like the US because we wouldn’t want him anyway.
After dinner we walked around town a little. There were interesting opinionated locals who are Caucasian and some poor natives who were "under the weather".
The favorite local sport seems to be everyone drives pickups and burns out in every parking lot and at every stop!!! Makes for dusty Parking lots and streets.
There was a cool breeze blowing through our nicely screened windows and no mosquitoes. We should sleep great.
