Chris' Ultimate Coast to Coast Ride

Chapter 6

Day Three

            The routine was the same as I awoke a short time later.  I showered, dressed, had my power bar breakfast, loaded the bike and headed out in the pre-dawn light around 6:00 AM CST (7:00 AM EST).  I quickly became accustomed to measuring everything by kilometers instead of miles.  Though I will admit that adhering to a speed limit of 100 KPH, became somewhat of a challenge, given the higher limits in the US.  Still, I managed to cross Manitoba without incurring the wrath of any of the Canadian Mounties.

              Entering Saskatchewan, towns became fewer and farther in between.  I also noticed that Saskatchewan had a particularly good crop of large and colorful insects at this time of year.  My windshield quickly became a bug encrusted haven.  The screen was soon somewhat disgusting, but still very colorful.  Anyone who could ride through these swarms in an open face helmet would be a truly tough rider.  This would not be me though.

            The winds picked up as I approached Regina.  Then it got really windy and even windier.  This quickly became very fatiguing.  The wind came from the sides, came from the back but rarely from the front.  It seemed to come from both sides at once.  It pulled at my clothing, dangerously ballooning up my jacket on several occasions.  My chin became bruised as the wind constantly tried to rip off my helmet.  I rode leaning into the wind and it still would push me across two lanes.   There was very little traffic so I rode to give myself as much reaction time as possible.  But as the hours droned on, I was tiring from fighting the wind.  I began to look back fondly on those times when I had ridden through thunder storms around Atlanta.  It was a close call as to which was worse.

            I stopped in Regina.  Trash cans were blowing across the street.  Anything not nailed down or secured was at risk from being uprooted.  I parked the bike very carefully, so the bike would not be blown over.  The lady working at the station told me a particularly strong front was passing over western Canada.  I would find out how strong the front had been later in the ride.

            I pressed on into Alberta.  I rode through Edmonton, passing the home of the Oilers, their NHL team.  The winds had finally calmed and the weather again was fairly perfect.  I banked more time as I crossed western Alberta and headed into British Columbia.

            The Alaska (formerly known as the Alcan Highway) Highway starts in Dawson Creek, BC and continues over 1400 miles to it’s terminus in Delta Junction, Alaska, south of Fairbanks.  While it is advertised as being 100% paved, this can be misleading.  The Highway is littered with ‘construction zones’.  These are parts of the road that are being repaired, straightened or just being worked on for whatever reason.  Because of the short summer season, all such construction is compacted into just a few months.   These zones can be a few hundred yards or stretch on for miles.  They can also be of varying composition ranging from hard packed dirt (good) to light gravel (okay) to heavy gravel (not so good) to mud (bad) to heavy mud (very bad).  And of course, the conditions also cover everything in between.  Conditions can change frequently depending on what day or even time of day you are there.    

            There also seems to be some type “oil” which is sprayed on the Highway when construction crews are putting the finish on the tar chip roads.  Very nasty stuff that makes your brakes useless until you can get it all off your brake pads.  But other than all of this crap, the Alaska Highway is 100% paved!

             As I pulled into Dawson Creek, I knew none of this, other than there might be construction on parts of the highway.  My idea of construction definitely had an east coast slant.  I would learn to hate construction zones on the highway for an entirely different reason.

            I happily rode along the Alaska Highway, feeling the adventure was really about to begin.  I was finally on the road I had read so much about.  This was very cool.  I still felt very strong and pressed on.  I had planned on stopping east of Dawson Creek, but I wanted to put some more time in that time bank before stopping.  I continued on into Fort St. John and finally checked into the Quality Hotel around 10:00 PM PST (1:00 AM EST).  I quickly unloaded the bike and fell into bed.  I had ridden another 1100 miles toward my goal.  More importantly, I was still around 100 miles ahead of schedule.    Once again, I set the Meanie for 3 hours and fell into a deep slumber.

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