Haines Junction

The Filthy Five (the siblings riding together I mentioned earlier, our new friend Derek, and myself) rode together from Watson Lake through Whitehorse, BC. About 50 miles west of Whitehorse, Derek caught a rock in his radiator and started leaking pretty badly. Ritchie, Matthew, and Julee rode on to Haines Junction to secure rooms while Derek and I tried to ensure his bike was rideable. After putting some more water in (or so we thought - I'm still not sure what Derek was pouring water into, since he found the REAL filler hole the next day!), we took off and hit another monster construction site. I decided to try dropping the air pressure in my tires and it seemed to help on the soft stuff quite a bit, while Derek just blasted ahead on his FJR 1300.

I finally rolled into Haines Junction and checked into the same hotel as the rest of the Filthy Five. Within minutes, we all had a drink in our hands and we proceeded to wage war against that scourge of civilization, sobriety. A couple of hours later when we were properly fortified, we all went to the hotel bar and hung out with the locals. Everyone we met was very friendly and we had a blast (well, what I remember of it - ouch!).

The next morning we took off to ride the rest of the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway. I can't speak for the rest of my companions, but I still had a little bit of a buzz on when we took off. Always remember kids: drinking and driving don't mix. Every time we hit construction and I got bounced around (and my brain banged against the inside of my skull), I swore I would never drink the night before serious riding again. Have I really learned my lesson? We'll see...