Day 3

(Am Internet challenged this morning. Sitting outside a café in a ghost town trying to use a wifi connection I found, but not working very good. Will upload more pictures later...)

It was a real nice morning in Prince George. Got the bikes loaded up and ready to go. The BMW looks like a truck.

We got on the road and started putting some miles behind us. Both sides of the highway had these two-rut ATV trails in the ditches and I envisioned the GS floating effortlessly, up and down and winding around the obstacles, beautiful tabletops, and splashing through the mud. Incredible fun imaging it.

We fiddled for about an hour trying to get the intercoms working and finally pulled over to read the instructions. While we were hunched over the documentation Graham looked at me and asked if I had noticed the ATV trails. I said yes, but then slowly realized from the glint in his eyes that he wanted to ride these to Alaska instead of the pavement. "This is why we own dual-sports right?" "Hmm... why don't you ride them for awhile and we'll catch up." Before he was out of intercom range we saw the stuff flying, tires, top box, jackets, fuel cans, everything laying on the trail. The top box broke off from the stress of the load and the bumps.

Graham strapped everything back on and decided to make sure it was actually secure by continuing down the ATV trails. I followed along to pick up the gear if it flew off again.

Video

We stopped in Smithers for coffee. Everything was closed but one of the pedestrians told us of a coffee café down the street but after driving the wrong way on the one ways, u-turns, going through alleys, we couldn't find it and went to Safeway for a coffee. West of Smithers is where the post card companies get some of their pictures.

Then it started to rain so we found a cool deserted weigh station to pull on the rain gear.

We would need gas and a place to dry off and warm up so we drove into Stewart. The scenery was magnificent. The combination of twilight, the rain, the fog, the twisting roads, mountains and streams made for an unbelievable surreal experience.

We found a "5-Star" bistro in Stewart.

Someone made a restaurant out of an old delivery truck, a free-standing canopy, and clear plastic vinyl walls to keep the rain out. The food was excellent. Graham had rhubarb juice with fiddlers? (fern roots?) for an appetizer, followed up with buffalo steak. I had the best bacon burger I can remember with the recommended rootbeer, and Risto had a "game burger" with the recommend cherry soda.

This was dining! The motorcycles at the curb, the delivery van kitchen, the canopy, the plastic, and the rain made it close to the top of my cuisine experience.

The owner was very talkative and filled us in on the local hotels and attractions, and after weighing the possibilities decided to drive across the border to Hyder Alaska for the night. There is no US presence at the border - just drive right into the US from Canada. The first hotel we stopped at didn't answer the door and we ended up at the Grandview. The upper floor rooms with the cigar deck was unbelievable. We couldn't believe how perfect it was. Might be a guy thing.

In Alaska. For one night.