Nothing fantastic happened today, but we did enjoy a nice ride through the Yukon.  Eric, Kevin, and I slept in a little bit, then slowly packed everything up. The other three had gotten up earlier and decided to hit the road sooner. So we got some breakfast and took our time leaving town. I'll miss Dawson City, we really had a good time there. We gassed up for the 300 plus miles trip down to Whitehorse. The weather today was a nice sunny 75 degrees, perfect for motorcycling through the Yukon. We rode for about 40 miles before we came up on a two mile long sections of gravel road. The road was well packed so there were no issues with traction. There was one more section the same as the first and again we sailed across the gravel with no problems. We continued along, passing though huge areas of forest that had burned over the last few years. There are signs that tell you when the fire happened. In ten years the tree have only grown about 4 feet tall. Sad when you think about how long it will take for them to re-grow fully. We stopped for lunch in a small town called Carmacks (not Car-max). The only restaurant was "Cafe". So we ate there and had really tasty pizza subs and Dr. Peppers.  After riding for another 100 miles we saw some rain clouds ahead and I made the call to keep riding through it, since we were about ten miles outside of Whitehorse. Then the rain began to fall heavier and heavier soaking us to the bone. I had dressed for the warm 75 degree weather so now I was a wet cold mess in 54 degree rain.  But the rain stopped before we got downtown. We pulled into a hotel on main street and got a large room for the three of us. Once again we are all on our laptops typing away to family, it's a funny sight considering we are supposed to be roughing it here in the Yukon wilderness.

 I'm not sure where we are headed tomorrow, we'll get the maps out at dinner and pick a town. There are only a couple of roads to take here so I'm sure we won't get lost.

It was nice meeting all the new people I have talked to along the way, you are what makes this trip so real. I love telling our story to anybody we meet at restaurants, or scenic pull-offs. Please stay in touch.

                                   Crossing the Yukon River

                                   Dusty bike


                                   Big skies here







                                    The Cafe

Summer Solstice 2008 
Tonight's gathering was more than just fun. Over 150 bikes lined the main drag here in Dawson. I spent all night talking to new people. We all gathered in the Palace Theater for our steak dinner and door prizes. After some speeches and announcements a few of us went out for bummbleberry pie with ice cream and an espresso. We needed the stay awake for the midnight photo and biker games. The biker games consisted of slow races, blindfolded riding, and some passenger games. Fun to watch but they seemed to drag on toward the end. We got our sticker and photo taken and rode a block back to the cabin. Kevin and I arrived together but had no key to get in so we decided to head back up to the Midnight Dome to watch the five minute sunset/sunrise. A group of my new Alaskan friends showed up and we hung out in the cold and fought off swarms of huge mosquitos. We took some great shots of an incredible sunset.

 We got up there around 12:45 am and hung around the Dome until 1:30. The sun didn't move very much but the light did change slightly. There were pretty rain clouds off in the distance and even a nice rainbow following a cloud.  Now we are at the cabin and the time is 2:25 am and we have to drive a long day tomorrow to get to Whitehorse YT. Dawson City is a great place and we have had a blast.