Day 16. Fort Nelson BC to Dawson Creek BC

On to the penultimate day now, and it's all winding down far too quickly! The way I feel at the moment, I could stay on the bike for a lot longer yet. Well, that was right up until a couple of hours ago!! More of that later.

We'd had a good rest at Fort Nelson, and stayed in another lovely hotel. The nice big room was quickly littered with all of our soaking wet riding gear, scattered about to dry overnight. I thought I had been clever standing my boots up on end to drain in a drip tray, but all they did was suck up all the water which was draining out of my riding pants & jacket. Wendy was very smug about it, as she had suggested that this what would happen & placed her boots elsewhere. Don't you just hate it when they are right!!!! Again following another of her suggestions, I used the hair dryer & got gloves & boots dry enough to wear again. It wasn't raining, so I figured everything would dry out in the wind as we rode. Everything packed, I got a luggage cart and we headed down to the bikes. I'd managed to park them under the entrance awning, so they were dry and close at hand. Pretty well practiced now, the bikes were quickly loaded and we were heading off for gas.

Fueled up, me good for about 600 km which would just about see us into Dawson Creek, we headed out of town. The scenery was quite different now, the mountains and hills had given way to vast open land covered in endless forests. The road undulated, but for the most part was pretty straight. This looked like it could be a boring ride...... I had told Wendy the importance of constantly looking into the drainage ditches while we rode. For the benefit of folks in the UK who may not have seen these before, they are not little gutters at the side of the road. They are often 20 feet plus wide and 5 feet upward deep. After heavy winter snowfall, the melt has to go somewhere and these ditches are often running very deep in water. This is where you are likely to see all manner of wild life, who have no idea on rules of the road and safe crossing practices! At night I have often seen big Moose running in the ditch beside my coach. So, pretty important to keep an eye on what may be in there. As it was, it was me that spotted another Black Bear laid out in the ditch munching away. Very tempting to stop for a photo call, but I know better! So on we rode making good time, in weather that was improving and better still, temperatures that were climbing!

After a couple of hours or so on the road, we came across the Buckinghorse River crossing and the opportunity to get gas and breakfast. We pulled up at the pumps to see a notice attached to the pumps - 'Out of gas'. The holiday weekend had probably cleaned them out. However, someone stood outside the cafe building, pointed across the road to the other small gas station, and indicated they had gas. We decided to stop for breakfast, then head over the road to fill up. As we pulled up in front of the cafe, we spotted a large Greyhound sign on the building. I also noticed another BMW bike with GB number plates! Not a common sight in Canada! As we stood taking helmets and gloves off, a 'Hound' with pup trailer pulled in - wonder if I knew the driver? Turns out I did, quite well as it happens. His face was a picture when he looked over & saw me in biking gear and not in my GH grey uniform. At about the same time, a guy in BMW riding gear came out of the cafe, spotted Wendy's Spyder and said something like, "What is that". Obviously BRP are not big in the UK! As a major manufacturer of sleds, not too surprising really. Turns out, the chap was also called Brian, and was making a trip from northern Alaska, to South America.......... made our adventure seem like a trip to the end of our drive and back!! We got some breakfast and chatted with Brian for some time, it turns out he is doing his ride for charity and also has a Blog. Take a look folks, should be a fascinating journey: http://www.bri-journeyforhope.blogspot.com/ Please take a look, the guy has an amazing journey ahead of him, and he is using some video coverage to document the trip - well worth the look.

After the chat with Brian over breakfast, we headed across the road and Wendy filled up 'Sydders' and we rolled out onto the highway once again. The countryside was changing again and in the distance tall peaks were once again dotting the skyline. The hills were growing more distinctive out to the side of us, and we were once again climbing. Brian had got ahead of us, as he had refueled before we had got over the road, courtesy of 'Gertie' not starting once again! Here we were out in the middle of no where, and my damned BMW with all of it's sophisticated electronic wizardry would not fire up. After my problems at our night stop in Hazelton, Ron had loaned me a set of home made jumper cables for such eventualities. We positioned 'Sydders' as close as possible, only to find the cables were too short. Out of desperation, I tried starting 'Gertie' once more and reluctantly she fired - phewwww. So with that behind us, we were charging down the road toward Fort St John our next stop. Although Dawson Creek our night stop was only about another 100km away, 'Sydders' just doesn't have the range, so stop we must.

Not too far down the road from Buckinghorse River, was the Sikani Chief river and the first of the 'big hills', quickly followed by Pink Mountain. Wendy had been anxious out the big hills - not so much the going up as the coming down. Because the riding position on the Spyder is like a sports bike, you tend to lean more on your hands, especially going down hill. I had suggested she shift her weight through her 'butt' into the saddle and take weight off her wrists. It seemed to work and she had no trouble with either of these big hills. In fairness, I knew about them from a couple of trips up and down whilst training with Greyhound. It is a little different driving a standard (manual) shift 45' coach up and down these hills, than it is riding a motorcycle - power to weight and all that crap! Anyway, safely over and down both of these big hills, we forged on to Fort St John. Along the way we passed a gas station and noticed Brian parked up. I looked over my shoulder trying to see if he was ok, then we powered on.

First indications of arriving back in civilisation was the huge increase in traffic. It was a holiday weekend and I'm sure many folks would have tagged in Friday as an extra day to give them selves a nice long weekend. The roads were packed. We pulled into the first gas station to come into view. Wendy headed for the pumps, and I moved out of the way, not needing any fuel. Not long after our arrival, Brian turned up on his BWW GS650. Once he had refueled and moved his bike off the pumps, he came over. 'You two are moving aren't you"? was his opening comment. Couldn't deny it, but I'm not going public on how quickly we were going...... Again, the three of us sat and chatted, Brian asked where we were staying and suggested he may pop round for a beer with us that evening. As he was heading in a different direction from Dawson, it seemed a great idea.

After our little break, it was back on the road for the last leg of the day, a short run to Dawson Creek and another big hill - Taylor Hill. Again, I am more familiar with driving a bus up and down this one that riding a bike. However, I knew there were a few 'juicy' bends going up the hill so I was looking forward to a little 'sport'. As we crossed the river bridge, I said to Wend that I'd see her at the top, as I was going to have some fun! It appears that my comment was taken as something of a challenge to hers and 'Sydders' integrity! Half way up Taylor whilst cranking 'Gertie' over to get round a lumbering truck, I looked in my mirrors and to my absolute surprise, there was Wend, not that far behind! I had to laugh, she had come a long way in the two weeks we'd been on the road, she was now a damned fine little 'pilot', handling the Spyder very well indeed. At the top of the Taylor, we headed on into Dawson Creek, which happens to be mile post 0 for the Alaska Highway. We thought this would be a great final photo session for the trip. We headed off the main highway and found the Mile Post in the middle of town. parked up and went to take photo's.

The mile post sits on a plinth in the middle of a cross road controlled by traffic lights, so not too accessible. We started by taking photo's from the roadside, with the mile post as a back drop. Ok, but not what we really wanted. Then a passing motorist stopped and shouted out, "most folks go onto the milepost"............. That was enough for me, I picked a gap in the traffic and ran into the middle of the crossroad! Up on the plinth, Wendy took photo's. Then a passing pedestrian offered to take our photo, so Wendy dodged the traffic and joined me at the milepost. We even have a photo of us both running back to the safety of the curb! We both agreed these would be perfect photo's for the blog. All done, we headed back to the bikes and the last mile or two to the hotel and the promise of a nice meal for our last night on the road. Then the world turned to crap!

As those of you who have followed this blog will know, I'd been having intermittent starting problems with 'Gertie' from before we departed on our trip. I'd been assured that the 'computer' couldn't find anything - well that's ok then isn't it!!!!! The bike would not start. It turned over, but no hint of firing. I even tried bump starting down a side street which had a slight slope - nothing. Wendy rode round the corner to join me, and it became apparent that I wasn't going anywhere soon, so off came jackets and helmets to cool down. I thought if we left the bike for a while, it may start - it had in the past. Not this time, and now there was real danger that I'd flatten the battery. Once again Ron's jump leads came out, we jammed the bikes next to each other, taking off one of 'Sydders' panniers. No matter how long we tried - nothing. So here we were probably a mile, mile and half from the hotel with a dead bike. Fortunately we have membership with a motoring organisation, so I called them for recovery to the hotel. Our wait wasn't very long & we were soon outside the Best Western Dawson Creek. A pretty ignominious way for a BMW to travel, and we have the photo's to prove it - in case BMW Motorad Canada are interested!!!!!!!

We decided there wasn't much else we could do for the day and we both needed showers and a nice meal, so we tried to put the problems with the bike behind us. I had one more card to play in the morning if the problem continued, I have 2 years of BMW road side assistance which includes recovery. I'd call them and suggest they come and remove the bike from the hotel car park and deposit it at the nearest dealer. Which as it happens, is in Edmonton where I bought the bike! Anyway, as I said, we tried to put those thoughts behind us and get showered and changed for dinner. Whilst doing so Brian called us to say he was downstairs and would see us in Tony Roma's (chain steak bar famed for it's ribs). We knew Brian had already been having a rough time on his trip, and had just discovered he's lost his cell phone............ My heart went out to the guy and I asked Wend if we couldn't stand the poor guy dinner - of course we could. So, we all met up in the restaurant and had a very pleasant evening. Brian got to try proper ribs, not the poor imitation found in the UK, and thoroughly enjoyed them. We sat gassing for ages, and eventually decided to call it a night. We exchanged email and Blog addresses, and parted company. Good luck Brian, we'll be thinking of you & following your Blog. Time for bed and try not to think too much about the problems with 'Gertie'..........