Not another Brit touring the Colonies.

Sorry folks, it's Placer Mining. It's those dodgy accents making it sound like Plaster.
I'm about a week behind on the updates, but had an off today, fortunately at a low speed, The bike's rideable, but now missing the screen, indicator lenses and screen mounts. I'be got a Grade 3 separated shoulder and my super snappy camera's toast. Four hours in A&E waiting for the confirmation, off to bed with some anti inflammatories and we'll see how i'm faring come the morning.

Fingers crossed a few days rest will sort you out Rich. :thumb

All the very best for a quick recovery matey
 
Sorry folks, it's Placer Mining. It's those dodgy accents making it sound like Plaster.
I'm about a week behind on the updates, but had an off today, fortunately at a low speed, The bike's rideable, but now missing the screen, indicator lenses and screen mounts. I'be got a Grade 3 separated shoulder and my super snappy camera's toast. Four hours in A&E waiting for the confirmation, off to bed with some anti inflammatories and we'll see how i'm faring come the morning.


Sorry to hear that Rich

Get well soon
 
Damned inconsiderate of you injuring yourself, I was thoroughly enjoying your tour reports.



Ps. Hope you make a speedy recovery and are able to continue your marvellous tour.:thumb2
 
Hope you are soon back on the bike Rich, been enjoying following your trip, see you when you you are back in sunny Devon.

Al.
 
There's a Lynx hiding in there somewhere, can you find it?



Another fine bridge



with views across the river



and, like many bridges in this neck of the woods, it has this awful steel mesh, with ridges, running along the deck, and it's bloomin awful to ride a bike on!



These shots are what's accumulated on my big camera, so i'm taking the opportunity to cathc up with them. They start when we joined the AlCan highway and continue through to Dawson City. This is the Klondike Sternwheeler, dry moored at Whitehorse.



Another scenic shot of the area.



and onto a few shots on The Dalton. Due to being a camera noob, i'm learning when to use and not use the lens shield. Today I should've taken it off for the closer shots.



like this one.



Here we go, that's better, The Dalton's just been completed and we're both intatct... at this moment.



On to the 'Top Of The World'



and leaving Alaska to go back into Canada.



which looked something like this.



and down the hill into Dawson, where the forecasted heavy rain showers never materialised.

 
In Dawson, there's a club called Diamond Tooth Gerties, which puts on a great Can-Can Show. I got Mark to sneak in for this shot.



Indoor setings at night, without flash, are not my speciality, so these photo's aren't the greatest, but they will give you a flavour of our enjoyable evening's entertainment. This was the band.



The girls don't just stay on the stage



which is great for the punters



and the lucky lead man.



There are three shows a night, the first one being for the coach parties.



which is a bit tame and family friendly, but enjoyable all the same



From our vantage point of the bar, we sussed out which seats not to be sat in



as certain one's get picked to go on stage



and the new dancers show their routine







The chap in the yellow top was completely bladdered.



and then the Pro's take over again



with each of the latter shows being more vibrant and energetic.



Just a few more from the late show, a bit blurry, but it'll give you an idea.







Yes, I know, they're blurry, but it was a cracking show Grommit.









 
After Dawson City, it was back on the road, which was cold and wet, and back into Whitehorse, but I did grab a couple of shots.



On our way South again



through the ever expansive countryside.

 
Ok, i'm spending a couple of rest days with a fellow Advrider in Laramie, so will attempt to catch up on the last, somewhat misadventurous, week or so. When we left Dawson City, with more than a hint of winter in the air, we headed South for Whitehorse agian and into The Hounds Of Hell.



Where we found this rather spiffing spot to stay for a night. Bar the occaisional howling, it was a great stop. There's only these photos of our day today, as you know the scenery by now and.... it was a very wet ride down, so the camera didn't see a lot of use.

 
On leaving Whitehorse, we travelled over familiar territory, on our way to Watspn Lake. Around our usual 100 mile butt rest and fuel stop, we found this old roadside store. Where...



outside, we found thes two Goldwings, which we'd spotted heading up The Dalton, when we were nearing the end heading South.



They belong to Hans Karlsson and Mario, who've been travelling together for a few years now. This is their fourth trip from Prudhoe Bay to Tierra Del Fuego. Mario's 66 and from Brazil, but Hans is 92! They also travelled 5000 miles in order to get to the start of this trip. If you look up Hans on FB, you'll see he's quite the traveller.



Following our lunch with the mega milers, we headed back on the Alcan to Watson Lake



where we found this point of interest that everyone - everyone that goes on a trip this way - knows about.



Doug, in Lodi, told me about Signpost and I did try to fond his sign. Through the main entrance, fourth or fifth row on the right, around waist high, he said. Needle and haystack come into mind here.



You could spend a whole week



and never read all the signs that are here



But it's certainly worthwhile stopping to take a look round



I thought it might be a but cheesy or even a bit of an eyesore, but it kind of works.

 
Leaving Watson Lake, we're heading for Prairie Land, so this will be one of our last days in The Northern Territory mountains.



which gave us some great views again.









Then it was up and over out last big pass



which also showed the steady decline in tourism at the top, where The Summit Cafe has lobg since closed its' doors.



However, the view remains the same.

 
Following a few miserable days of cold and wet, the sun decides to shine again.



I spot a small signpost that leads us to this historic landmark on the 'Old Highway'



I believe it's the longest, curved, wooden, trestle bridge in existence



with a nice view as you ride over.



It's quite some curve and a marvel to how traffic used to negotiate the old highway before the newer, straighter road was constructed.



It's also on a bit of a slope



I'm holding the camera level and certainly wouldn't want to ride my bike over this bridge if it was wet or icy



Yup, we're in Prairie land



on our way to Dawson Creek



and the start of The Alaska Highway.



Where we stopped off for the night with our wonderful hosts, Brad and Lisa. We took a bottle of red as a thank you, which turned out to be one of their favourites. We also got to sample some great home cooking and some lovely home brew.



When I contacted Brad about stopping over, I didn't know he was a fellow fireman and I hadn't planned on stopping in Grand Prairie. So our unplanned stop was a nice surpirse and no, we didn't talk shop all night. Local knowledge also came ot the fore and our next day's route was also altered for the better.

 
After spending so long in the mountains



we finally hit the plains of Grand Prairie



Where the nodding donkeys still hunt for oil



and somewhat spoil the view.... if you like the scenery that the big plains give you.



But the road from Grand Prairie towards Jasper, soon has mountains appearing on the horizon



The road's a long and winding one, great to ride on a bike.



But as we near the big mountains of the National Park, the clouds start looming



I tried a few shots over the shoulder and this one came out ok



However, I got Mark to stop for this one



The mountains around Jasper are quite something



and the roads are superb as well, but the speed limits are a tad on the low side.



We spent the night at McBride, on a campsite owned by a British couple. We headed into the town and had dinner at The Giggling Grizzly, which had some great old beer signs in the bog.











 
That run on the Alcan down past Muncho Lake is fantastic and my favourite part I think. I found the old highway into Dawson a few years ago and that bridge is a work of art.

Great pics as always Rich
 
Getting closer to my little mishap, but a few more days to catch up on yet folks. We woke to grey skies and the threat of rain, but we were up early, so got packed away dry and got on the road.



We were heading South to Banff, via Jasper and the Glacier Parkway. Due to the weather, we considered going down the valley route, but soon realised that meant a whole load more miles, so we stuck with plan A.



which didn't give us the best of views through the Glacial Parkway.



We did stop briefly for breakfast at Jasper and carried on, into the National Park.



and these were the best of the days shots





When we got to Banff, we grabbed a curry at the local curry house and then found our campsite. Next day, we spent at this local cafe, catching up on the internet, washing and shopping.



It was a great little cafe and I had reasonable wifi connection.



When we'd arrive on Sunday afternoon, Banff was packed solid with people. This is Monday and things were a whole lot more reasonable. I thought Banff was very nice, somewhat touristy (to be expected), but but I didn't like the shameless, over the top, sales of tourist tat.



When I originally posted my ventures on Advrider, Iain Hogg got in touch to say his son worked for the National Parks and to get in touch if we neede a spot to stay. We were already booked into Two Jacks Lakeside Campground and, lo-behold, Iain's son was on gate duty and duly got us sorted with a great camping spot for our four night stay.

 
After we'd had our rest and catch up day in Banff, we rode out to Lake Louise, for a walk up to the Six Glaciers viewpoint. It was really busy, but being on the bikes meant we rode straight into the main car park and avoided all the queues.



But we couldn't avoid all the people.



Some folks tried to get away from the maddening crowd



quite a way away in fact.



As we hiked, in the hot sun, up to Six Glaciers, the views opened up



and we made it up to the top, where six glaciers only appeared to be barely one.



So we had a photo shoot to prove we got there.



On the way up is this great little log cabin cafe, which was really busy on the way up, but was a welcome break for us on the way down.



After tea and apple cake - which was a very generous portion - Mark decided to carry on back to the bikes.



So I headed up and over a rather steep climb, to Lake Agnes, which was absolutely stunning.



Being more remote and less visited by the tourists,



I thought it was even nicer than Lake Louise.



There was this little waterfall on the way down



and the day was getting on, so this was the last shot of the day.

 


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