Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek

Today the terrain flattened out and we spent the day riding through spruce forests, farms, and areas of previous wild fires right up to the road. The day started out gloriously sunny, I had reservations the previous evening, as there were a whole front of thunderstorms moving through, but the day dawned a little overcast, but no evidence of storms!

Soon enough the clouds burned off, and we had some strong sun and it felt great.

As we rode down a slight hill - I got my first glimpse of two giant thunderheads in the distance, They were maybe in our general direction but slightly off to the North, about 100 km away.

First glimpse of the Storms

The closer and closer we got to the storms, the more an more it looked like they were going to shit on us in a BIG way. were two main ones, one had LOADS of vertical development and looked to go over 80,000 feet and it was pitch black in its guts. Full of anger and destruction!

I really didn't want to put on our rain gear again, it was such a nice day right now, and our riding gear was finally getting a good air out. I know I've said it many times - but wearing rain gear sucks!!

ooh shit....

Pretty soon we had to stop for fuel, we'd done about 250km, and our bikes only have a range of about 320km on this shitty North American fuel (premium fuel is only 91 octane!) back home we get 350km + a tank on 98 octane.

We fueled up, all the while keeping one eye on the sky. I was confident that if we booked it, we could thread the needle between the two storms. If it did dump on us, we would likely have to stop and find shelter somewhere, it would be too dangerous to ride in. We could see the rain actively pouring out the bottom and it looked very heavy.

Threading the needle. Note the rain shitting out of the storm to the left.

We jumped on the bikes and flogged it, doing 120-130 as the storms closed in on us,  The closer we got, the more and more it appear that we were going to get shit on from a great height. It looked as if our track would take us right under the very largest storm. It was always there off to the left, it was like we were racing a freight train to the crossing.

OOOOHH SHIT!!!

We got closer and closer to the storm and it was more and more obvious we were going to get fucked.
 We overtook cars and trucks as we came up fast on them, barely hesitating to move out to the left around them, more like a swerve than an actual lane change. We changed down gears for corners, hammering it out the other side. Seconds saved would add up to minutes, and even half a minute might be all we needed to avoid getting stomped.
We kept pushing very hard and manage to ride right under the very edge of the the first storm as it passed across the highway.

passing under the edge of the first storm

I breathed a sigh of relief,  we had made it by the skin of our teeth past the first one, Hopefully we would pass the second one as well, it seemed to be set further to the east, but we had lost sight of it while passing so close to the first cell. I was quite hopeful,  and then we came out from under the cell and rounded another corner:

Fuck.

 The storm closed in around us, and we got hammered by a few seconds of very large drops of rain, no more than an annoyance, but they sounded like rocks hitting my helmet they were that big. A direct hit on your visor was like being shot by a sniper and scared the shit out of you. There were lightning flashes and thunder claps that you could hear over the bike and wind noise.

Caught under the 2nd Storm cell

 We pushed on, and after a another few seconds of heavy drops, we came out from under the storm and into bright sunshine. We had JUST made it through before it shat down with rain. Looking in my mirror, we could see the storm towering behind us and lighting forking to the ground. and just a solid wall of water hammering the road behind us!

It probably does not translate into words as exciting as it was, we were pushing the bikes hard, loaded up at 130 through corners and overtaking trucks and cars without slowing. It was a blast and I loved every second of it.

After the excitement of the last 300km, the remaining 150km seemed rather dull, we passed through more agricultural towns, past fields of crops, tractors working and countless people with quad bikes and side by sides.

We rolled into Dawson Creek about 2pm and checked in to our motel. Megans bike had run fine, with no troubles from yesterdays fix.

The Alaskan Highway starts at Dawson Creek for people heading North. We had started on it all the way back at Fairbanks a weeks worth of solid riding, and it is one of the most amazing pieces of road I have ever ridden. I could quite happily turn around and ride the whole thing again in the opposite direction, even just to see what the views are like in the other direction. I feel ambivalent, elated for the achievement, but sad that it it's now over.

Seeing as how my bike had my back today (that'll do bike... that'll do) I treated it to a photo in front of the Alaska highway sign, and then a wash.

That done it was then time for beer and more route planning! the next few days will see us head to Jasper and Banff and some great scenery and time off from riding!

We're having a lie in and a VERY short day tomorrow, only 170km to shorten up the leg to jasper. we are very tired still, and still not sleeping well, despite being shattered at the end of everyday.

Start of the Alaska Highway. Hope you like roadworks :)

Well.. it's a little bit cleaner anyway...