It
was another lovely sunny day as I emerged from the camper. Camped next to me
were two guys touring on bicycles. Due to space considerations they were forced
to travel very light and compact so their setup was pretty minimalist. One guy
was from England and the other American and they planned to cover 100 miles
today. I am so impressed with the stamina an undertaking like this requires.
After
packing things up I wanted to swing by the famous Sign Forest. Here is a still
shot but I also made a short video. The sign forest was started in 1942 by a
member of the Army Corp. of Engineers who thought it would be fun to put up a
few signs on a single post showing the mileage and direction to several cities
around the world. This was the start to what would become the sign forest we
see here today. There are thousands of signs and license plates etc. put here
over the past 75 years by tourists and other passers by.
I
had hoped to see Ed again and spend the day riding together but when I rode by
his motel his bike was gone at 8:30 am so he must have got an early start.
Throughout the morning ride I looked for him at every rest stop and gas station
but to no avail. He was only going as far as Whitehorse so I figured I might
see him there.
Here’s
a great photo I took along the way but there’s much more to this story.
When
I stopped to take this shot I was feeling a little chilled so because of my
cold I decided to put on my heated jacket liner which I keep in a large pocket
on the top of the camper cover. The pocket has a long zipper and over that is a
rain flap that is secured by a Velcro strip. After taking the photo and getting
into my heated liner I apparently forgot to close the zipper and flap. Down the
road a ways I looked in my mirror and noticed the flap was just flapping in the
breeze so I stopped and secured it. Not giving it another thought I continued
on my ride. At a place called Johnson’s Crossing I pulled in to fuel up and was
just sitting there in the parking lot relaxing and watching all the activity .
There was a large group of Harley riders who were part of a guided tour for a
bunch of Europeans over on holiday. I was just sitting there watching all this
when a young couple approached me with a neon motorcycle jacket in their hands
and asked if it was mine because they had found it on the road quite some
kilometers back. They opened the inner pocket and produced my Canadian passport
and I presume that’s how they figured it was mine from the photo. This totally
blew my mind and I thanked them profusely. Later the importance of this dawned
on me. Without my passport I couldn’t have crossed into Alaska. I had put it in
my jacket for safe keeping knowing that I would be wearing it while going
through the border crossing. When things like this happen I don’t know what to
think. I can’t describe the feeling. I could afford to lose the jacket but the
passport was critical to this trip. Some might suggest "divine intervention" but who really knows for sure.
I
eventually arrived in Whitehorse, spent some time at Starbucks finishing up my
blog and enjoying an ice coffee.
I had
noticed earlier that one of my two safety chains that connect the trailer to
the bike hitch had been dragging on the road and had worn right threw the steel
chain so I picked up three feet of new chain at Canadian Tire and installed it
back at the campground.
A
fellow named Ted was camping next to me in his Airstream trailer and wanted to
check out my camper. The next thing I knew we were having drinks and talking
like old buddies about life as single retired men.
Just to demonstrate how light it is at night, here is a photo I took of my campsite at 11:00 pm. Amazing!
I plan to cross into Alaska tomorrow and
possibly make it to Fairbanks.
Cheers everyone and I hope you are enjoying the read.
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