Day 8 - Teslin to Ft. Nelson

Everyone strap on your adventure boots for today's blog is going to be unlike any that I've experienced.

We camped the night at Teslin, Yukon Territories at the Yukon Motel. The campsite was literally 3 feet from the water's edge and about 6" higher than the lake level, but woke up to rain. We decided to delay our departure and have breakfast at the Motel as it opened at 7am. Mistake. We were there at 7am and I had a feeling that it wasn't going to go well when the waitress wiped Neil's fork off with her fingers. Then it went from bad to worse. Every order was wrong and the hash browns weren't even cooked. Sorry there's no picture of those bad boys.

We headed on out for Watson Lake and that part of the trip was pretty uneventful except that we began seeing vintage British touring cars from the 30's, 40's and 50's. It was way cool to see them heading north. Arriving in Watson Lake, we noted that the Cassiar Highway was closed due to a culvert washout (fortunately we made it through that area several days ago. We refueled the bikes and grabbed a quick burger, and took pictures of Yukon animals so that we would at least have some pictures of the animals we weren't seeing. We enjoyed a great laugh over that one. Neil and I also picked up an appropriate bumper sticker with wording to the effect, "Yukon mosquitoes are not single, they are all married and have large families." Is that ever true! Here's a UNIMOG that refueled with us. I've always thought they looked pretty cool.




Leaving Watson Lake we started playing "Bear or Critter Bingo" once again. We started seeing bears along side the highway and the road was really good. By the way, Tom became a pretty fair announcer to our little game.



However, the smoke was getting worse and worse from a forest fire of some type. Then we rode by an area that was burning along side the road. We stopped for some pictures, but we were buzzed by a helicopter that flashed lights at us to get out of there.



Just as we arrived at Llaird Hot Springs, they closed the road behind us. So we motored on to the Northern Rocky Lodge for refueling (and very poor customer service). Just after refueling, we saw a couple of small herds of mountain sheep and watched one come down a 75% rocky slope to the edge. It was impressive.



Riding on, we started to see a weather change, so we stopped to don our raingear. Good thing we did as we rode through a hailstorm with near zero visibility. Fortunately we did ride out of it to then encounter a very nasty road construction project that presented some harrowing riding on a Wing. Leaving that challenge we went back into Bear Bingo mode and proceeded to see several bears including one that just wouldn't leave its spot along side the road. It was then only a 45 minute ride into Ft. Nelson.

Arriving in town, it was packed for two reasons: the road was closed going north because of the fire and the local oil plant was shut down for a tri-annual inspection and all the workers were in Ft. Nelson. Not good news for getting a room. We stopped along a frontage road and a couple of ladies (Judy in particular) tried calling B&B's for us which was a kind gesture. But we really were blessed when David Moore the manager of the local hotel, Woodland Inn, pulled up and said he was a motorcycle enthusiast and were we looking for a room. His hotel was full but he had a meeting room and 4 hide-a-beds available and would we like it. We didn't hesitate and said "YES!". He called ahead and arranged for Yvonne to receive us which she did.



Below is a picture of our accommodations. Nice and cozy and it's the first time we've slept in a conference room!



Our total miles for the day were about 487. We experienced a forest fire up close and personal. We saw 2 new species of critters in 2 1/2 rounds of "Bear Bingo". We rode the knarly roads. We experienced some of the best in human kindness. And we slept in a conference room. Yes, we're living the dream!