AK1 Day 7

MS Day 7 – 10 Jun 12, Sunday

Fort Nelson, British Columbia (down day due to road closure in Yukon)

Mileage – 100 mile local ride

WX – rain and cold

States – British Columbia

CA 97 ALCAN, CA 77 to Northwest Territories

Note 1: Yukon road was still closed and estimates when it would open were several days from now. Weather was wet and cold with more expected.

Note 2: Just past Ft Nelson the road splits; one fork (the ALCAN) to Alaska which was closed and a 2^nd fork to the Northwest Territories 100 miles away which was currently open. We decided to attempt to ride 200 mile round trip to the NW Territories and started out with full gas tanks. About 35 miles into the ride to NW Territories we started talking on the CB about what we were doing. It was raining steadily, road conditions were of course wet, and the road had no shoulders and was built on an 8-foot berm. The trees and brush were much closer to the road than on the ALCAN so we were riding at around 35 mph in case some animal jumped out of the brush. We had no confirmation where the next fuel source would be but knew we may have to backtrack with only the fuel we were carrying. Every stream we crossed was running at maximum flow through the culvert under the road. Lastly, we were only occasionally passing other vehicles (large oil field trucks high-balling it southbound). The remoteness of the area and the potential that the road would wash out behind us finally drove the decision to return to Ft Nelson. If anything happen on this road, it could become serious very quickly.