July 26 - Beaver Creek, Yukon to Haines, AK - 360 miles

We started in the rain again, and rode 200 or so miles with light rain on and off.  This was also a day to test our gravel riding skills.  

Yukon Territory uses the same method of repairing roads as do the other provinces we had ridden in, Alberta and BC.  And, there were lots of repaired spots, so we got tested in riding in wet gravel, sand, and whatever the binder is that makes this combination hard with an oil under-base.

Then we got to ride through heavy construction, in the mud and rain.  For the rest of the day, it was a combination of mostly rain and some clearing.

Boy, it sure is fun riding in the far north!

We were rewarded though, in the beauty, ruggedness, and snow covering of the mountains as we came closer to the coast and Haines.  We rode a very long series of passes getting over the mountain ranges separating the interior from the coast.  The ride took us up to high enough elevations that we were above the tree-line and we could look at many snow patches at our level.

Finally coming to and over the highest mountain range was just breath taking!  This had the most snow on top of any mountains we've seen yet.  We had found that Alaska has 10,000 glaciers - well, we probably saw 100 or more, from long distance.

Interestingly, many rivers in the interior of Alaska and the lower Yukon that we saw coming down from Fairbanks are wide, shallow, braided rivers whereas the ones closer to the coast and in upper BC were big deep rivers.  We read that Alaska has over 3,000 rivers, and now we believe it.

For the Wildlife Report, we had a great day.

First, we saw a big cow moose swimming in a good sized, deep river.  Somewhere we learned that moose are very good swimmers, and can dive up to 20 feet in search of tasty plants growing on the bottom.  We watched as this one swam about a quarter of a mile, and then she passed on down the river from our view, still swimming.

Then we saw quite a large brown bear, by the side of the road.  We believe it was a Black Bear (they come in black, brown, and even blonde) because it did not have the characteristic shoulder hump of a grizzly, even though it was very big for a black bear and about the size of a medium size grizzly.  In any event, we kept our motorcycle engines running while at the side of the road, and the bikes in gear, just in case it liked to eat riders of red motorcycles.

Next we saw a deer fawn, but it was too far away to really identify it.  Last, we had a treat and saw a Lynx.  He ran across the road just in front of us.

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