South Canol, YK – August 23, 2018
Aug 29th, 2018 by rallyadmin
We made it to Watson Lake last night by about 8 PM and got dinner in the bar. Spring rolls and a donnair wrap with plenty of beer. The dining room and the bar are packed with Alcan rally people and that has displaced some evacuees from the hotel. The evacuees aren’t happy and the rumor is that they have some mischief planned for the rally vehicles. Jerry gets some security for the parking area and we hope for the best.
Normally, we wouldn’t take the rumors very seriously. It’s quite rare for there to be any mischief or problems up here. But yesterday we had a scary situation on the 11% Grade TSD. Steve Perret and Katherine Hansen were manning a hidden checkpoint and had parked there car in a pull-off about 200 meters down the road from where they were hiding. Within ear-shot of there hiding position, a truck pulled up to there car, broke a rear window and stole their clothes and computers. Luckily, they missed there passports, credit cards and money.
The RCMP were called and took statements but we have to move on and Steve and Katherine need to get some clothes and find a Best Buy to get new computers. No computers and there’s no Scoring from Timing and Scoring. They’re understandably upset but fortunately no one was hurt and computers and clothes can be replaced. My how things have changed.
Today, the theft is receding into the past and the rally moves on. Just not in the way that the route book has in mind. The route today for the cars is up the Alcan to Whitehorse. For the motos, the route is up the Campbell Highway to the North Canol. Then across the Pelly River at Ross River, up the North Canol to almost the Northwest Territories border and camp for the night.
The problem is that the Campbell is closed because of a fire that’s straddling the road between KM marker 16 and KM marker 40. Plan B is a 200 mile detour up the Alcan to Johnston Crossing and then up the South Canol to Ross River. That’s going to make for a very long day. We decide to scrap the ride up the North Canol and find a suitable camp site on the South Canol for the night.
Colin, David Fox and I leave and lead the scouting expedition on the South Canol. We’re only 10 miles out and the rain starts ever so gently. By 20 miles, it’s full-fledged rainy day. The rain is a welcome break for the firefighters but it’s probably not going to help much. The fires really need a good drenching and this isn’t that kind of rain. It’s enough to make the riders uncomfortable but not much else.
We turn north onto the South Canol at Johnston Crossing and the rain starts to ease back to drizzle. And less than 30 mile up the rain starts and the skies clear. It turns into a beautiful day on what turns out to be a much prettier road than the North Canol. Now if we can just find a good campsite.
The road is just beautiful. It’s more wide open than the North Canol and that openness gives the occasional stunning panorama. We 50 miles or so up the road and we crest a ridge with a plain from horizon to horizon laid out in front of us. It’s turned into a gorgeous day and the varied greens and browns of the plain and the brilliant blue of the sky with its odd puffy, snow white cloud is just stunning.
And then we come up a hill at about 75 miles up the South Canol and just as we start down there’s the perfect campsite on the side of the road. It’s a scalloped pad cut out of the hill on the left side of the road with plenty of room for the tents, the bikes and both trucks.
We park the truck at the north end of the clearing and start to empty the U-Haul trailer. We’ve loaded the trailer with tents and sleeping bags, tables, stoves and food. Everything we need except water. Kevin whose sweeping the route better have water.
The first bike shows up and as a joke thinking it Steve Alley, the motorcycle leader, wave him on as a joke. But as he goes by we realize that it’s not Steve. I start waving frantically to stop him but he doesn’t see me trying to stop him and goes blasting past. A serious screw-up.
The next bike shows up about 30 seconds later and I get him stopped. I explain the screw-up with the lead bike and ask him to chase down the first bike. No problem. He blasts off in hail of gravel. More than an hour goes by before they return. The two bikes were actually racing each other and as the second bike started to close on the first bike the first bike sped up. The second bike finally caught the first and explained the “joke”. When the got back to the camp, I apologized as sincerely as I could but no one seemed to matter. What a surprise! A couple of bikers didn’t mind racing up an empty gravel road in the north of the Yukon. Who’d have thunk it?
It takes about 2 hours for all 18 bikes to arrive and everyone is smiles and not really willing to stop. But we do stop and, when Kevin shows up, we setup the tables and stoves. As soon as we’re done, we start boiling water (fortunately, Kevin had a 6 gallon jug of water) for the freeze-dried beef stroganoff and chicken and rice that are going to make tonight’s dinner.
David Fox takes pictures of the bikes cresting the hill and rolling into camp. Then he fires up his drone and gets some overhead shots of the camp. Finally, just before sunset he climbs up on the U-Haul trailer and gets a group photo.
At first, we thought that we were short of sleeping bags. We had plenty of tent space but not enough bags. Then we found a coated bag that had at least 8 bags in it. Everyone goat a foam pad and sleeping bag. Disaster averted again.
As soon as the sun went down behind the mountains to the west, the temperature started to plummet. We stashed the garbage and food remnants that we had accumulated down the rode about a quarter mile to avoid luring a bear into the camp overnight.
The wind also dropped and the mosquitoes and fly started to attack in force. That and darkness drove everyone into tents and down for the night. Colin and I slept in the U-Haul. The temperature kept slowly dropping overnight but no one seemed bothered by it. Soon all that could be heard was the odd snoring rider and nothing else. It seems that four days of riding and 2,300 miles is a pretty effective sleep aid.
Obi-wan