Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Pilot Car Follow Me


Huckleberry made us scrambled chicken eggs and toasted English muffins. I made us koffee. We ate, cleaned up the mess, and started to load the bikes.

We are north bound heading home now and going back over the rough under construction for 30 years parts of the Alcan. I am really not looking forward to this section, but if it stays dry it won’t be too bad I am thinking…

As we finish loading it starts to rain. Now I am really not looking forward to riding this nasty section of road, but then Huckleberry’s bike won’t start. Humm I am thinking that it will most likely take all day to get her bike going, the weather report shows sun tomorrow, and even if we have to spend the night sleeping standing up next to our bikes, that would be better than riding in the mud that surely awaits us.
Then her bike starts. Dam, and so does mine. Suited up in thousands of dollars of riding gear, that should protect us from everything; we head to the automated gas station…

Vintage Fuel Pump Haines Junction Yukon

North bound we ride out of the rain and the chip sealed rode surface is dry.

Coming around  Kluane lake the water is flat, the road is dry. This might not be too bad after all I am thinking…
Kluane Lake In The Morning
The first two sections of gravel are damp, not slick and no dust for Huckleberry. We approach the southern section of construction, the section that was soft mud going south and well we had to wait…

Really!

Waiting at a red light in the middle of the Alcan you wonder, is this for real? Are those actual construction machines making that noise you hear in the distance,  or is the sound coming from the  orange box, and  is this is all some kind of test to see how long you will wait? To see if the bugs will drive you mad. To see if they make you wait long enough will you go pee in the middle of the road?
Finally the mud encrusted pilot truck comes and we amble along over mostly dry packed dirt.

After a short wait at the second pilot car section we are soon at the Beaver Creek gas pumps. A couple of riders going home to Illinois ask how my bike and I stayed so clean. Pure of heart mostly I answer…
Metal Raven Haines Junction Yukon

 

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