July 1 - gw

Temps today - 50-s and 60's until late afternoon then about 70 degrees. Very cloudy during the a.m., thought we were going to get rain but luckily no rain again! Rumor has it we are getting rain day after tomorrow - we'll see.

First, a couple thoughts I forgot to put down yesterday:
1. Dawson City - the roads end at Dawson City and, get this, all the streets are dirt. The sidewalks are all "board walks" about 8 inches up from the street level. I would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it. Another tid bit is the entire surrounding areas is riddled with large piles of rock that were the remains of the gold mining/sluicing machines used to mine gold there. They have done a wonderful job of maintaining the old look of the town - as you can see from the photo's.
2. Travel from Dawson City to the Boarder and crossing the boarder was interesting. Picture the a 3 hour drive from the Yukon river to the boarder. All of a sudden you are up in the clouds and you see a border crossing sign. Then you pull up and have to wait for the border guards to get ready for us. Then you ride in mud / gravel / blacktop for another 3 hours to get to the next town. (Chicken is really a gas stop with a lunch counter; not really a town per se). I mean, you just don't get up a say I'll run to the store for a dozen eggs or a gallon of milk. This is out in the boonies. How do you get people to take that job?

OK, now for today. We left Tok this a.m. in hopes of getting to to Fairbanks by 10 a.m. We wanted to get knobbies put on our bikes for the trip to Prudhoe Bay since it is to a large degree gravel for 500 miles. Well, we got here on time, only to sit in line at the bike shop and wait our turn. We finally got out tires changed bay about 3:30 p.m. We are trying to get a room in Coldfoot so we could ride 250 miles there today and finish the trip North tomorrow, but that isn't goint to work. We are taking a break for the rest of the afternoon and will make the 500 mile run up to Prudhdoe tomorrow and return to Fairbanks the following day. For now, we are sitting outside our cabin looking at the river and getting a bit "relaxed". In fact, Pearse is so relaxed you might call him "taken to his Scotch" this evening - though I don't think he is Scottish.