We could have gone to Dat Lake but chose Dease Lake instead.  Okay – that was a fairly lame attempt at humor on a day with very little in it.  John’s bike will be finishing the trip on a trailer.  It’s had a knocking in the rocker box that sounds to us like a rocker arm & it was so bad at the end of the day that he decided he wasn’t going to ride it anymore.

I planned a short day today because we had to put Rich’s bike back together before we could go anywhere and we needed to get some hose clamps to help hold everything together.  Wallmart opened at 0800 and I was there but they don’t sell hose clamps at Wallmart so we waited for the Home Hardware to open at 0900.  We patched things up best we could and were on the road by 1030.

It was a bit of a rainy day but the roads are in much better shape down here.  We did hear that when we turn off the ALCAN the 37 has some of those frost heaves on the first 100 miles or so.  They were right, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some we’ve seen.  There were a couple stretches of gravel road and that’s never fun with a top heavy bike – but we all made it through the difficulties.

Oh yea – one more little issue today was the moose.  She was a big one and had a calf with her.  Came from nowhere out of the trees on the side of the road; she was coming at full speed too.  It looked like she was going to pass behind me but not by much, it looked like I could reach out and touch her.  She turned away when she realized something fast and loud was going to be very close to her and her calf which is a good thing because had she passed behind my bike, John would have probably hit her – lots of people die when that happens.  We were all wide awake for the last 45 miles.

I almost forgot – hail too.  It wasn’t all that bad but it sure hurts when it hits your face.  It only lasted for three or four minutes and was nothing like the hail we got outside Williams, AZ on the way to Sturgis in 2000.

Dinner was at the only restaurant still open and she only had one serving of the lasagna left so Rich and I had soup & a sandwich.  It was good – but then just about anything is good at the end of a riding day.  Back to the room which has Wi-fi but no cell phone coverage.  I doubt that we’ll be staying at the Arctic Circle Inn next time around.