Day 16 From Tok to Dawson City

Well, as predicted, when I started my bike up today it wouldn’t run right.  It was missing a lot on what seems like one cylinder. 

We left Tok and headed towards the highway to Chicken.  The map said it was mostly paved and we found out it was mostly dirt!

But it was mainly dry.  In some spots where it was wet, there was a lot of mud and that wasn’t fun at all.  If the road had been paved, it would have been a spectacular road to ride on.  It was so isolated out there and very few people live out there.  I thought we would see a lot of animals but not a one.  It took us longer to get there then we anticipated but we made it without any problems. 

As I said,when I started my bike in Tok , it was missing a lot.  We drove to the Chicken highway (ab0ut 13 miles) and then went up the highway another 2-4 miles and all of a sudden, my bike starts running like it’s new.  It was really running well and it continued to run well all the way to Dawson City. 

We gassed up at Chicken and looked around at nothing!  That is the poorest excuse for a bike destination I have ever seen.  There is nothing there.  So, we headed on to the border crossing at Boundary, Alaska and then on to Dawson City. 

Our books all say the road from the border crossing to Dawson City is “mostly paved”.  Well, no surprise to me, but the road is actually “MOSTLY DIRT”.    And, I must say, a dirt that is not fun to ride for any distances either.  We actually had to stop for a muscle break before we got there.  We were both whipped by the time we arrived in Dawson City.  

We arrived and checked into our room at the Westmark Inn. A nice hotel but fairly expensive.  Since we’re now back in Canada again, everything is fairly expensive. 

We had a dinner that was also “fairly expensive” and we’re turning in now. 

New Update on Bike Symptoms:

It seems to run poorly when it is first started up in the mornings and after running for a while it seems to start running correctly.  No idea why.  And rain may affect just how long it takes it to start running properly too.  Coming from Tok, we rode for probably five hours before getting over the pass where it started to warm up and the rain quit before the bike started running right. 

This morning, the weather was really nice but not quite warm and we only had to go about 15 miles before the bike started working correctly and then it remained “healed” until the end of the riding day. 

After it starts running properly, it continues to run well for the rest of the day. 

Tomorrow will give me another chance to see just what it takes for the bike to start working right.  This could turn out to be a sparkplug wire needing replaced or something else like that.  Something that moisture is getting to until the bike is totally warmed up. 

Tomorrow I’m going to do a new test.  I’m going to totally warm the bike up before we start out.  I’m going to let it idle until the temperature gauge warms up to the top before we start off and see if that makes it run right from the beginning. 

We’re off to Haines Junction tomorrow and then on to Haines.  Or maybe we’ll go to Valdez instead and then take the ferry over to Haines to see what it looks like and then back to Valdez.  We’ll make it up as we go.