>North to Alaska – 12
>
>July 1, 2007
>
>Jim didn’t loose a bit of sleep last night. He didn’t even wash his 
>bike this morning. Maybe he’s ill. I’ll have to watch him today. He 
>could have even washed his bike last night. We are high enough so that 
>it never gets dark. He could have washed all night!
>
>Today it was raining when we woke up. In fact, it’s still raining. All 
>the locals say this is the wettest it has ever been. It seems wherever 
>we go it is always the hottest, coldest least rain, most rain, 
>whatever. It never seems to be normal….oh well. The rain did let up a 
>bit just as we were loading our bikes so everything stayed a bit dryer. 
>It was cold most of the day but Jim’s heated stuff and my layers kept 
>us both warm. Jim’s boots leaked so he had cold feet but other than 
>that it was like riding on a spring day….almost. We have to concentrate 
>more, be more careful with turns and road conditions, duck when trucks pass us and wear more cloths.
>
>We saw 5 bears, a couple of moose and a rarity, a wolf, plus two herds 
>of buffalo with a huge bull in the middle of the road. Jim also had a 
>kamikaze attack by a bald eagle! It missed but Jim doesn’t know how. He 
>swears it passed between his face and the windscreen. The moose were a 
>cow and a calf. They came running up a hill to the edge of the road and 
>stopped. I think the cow was teaching the calf to stop, look and 
>listen. It worked, they let me pass. Jim stopped to let them cross the road.
>
>Today was Canada day and we were lucky that most of the gas stations on 
>the Alaska Highway were open. We did about 420 soggy miles. We are in 
>the town of Whitehorse where the celebrations are in full swing. 
>Because of the holiday most of the stores were closed so we’ll try 
>again tomorrow to see if we can find Jim some boots.
>
>We decided to go to Dawson City tomorrow. While that may not seem 
>significant to you, it means that we are committing ourselves to 60 
>miles of gravel roads as we enter Alaska on the Top of The World 
>Highway. We may need to spend a day or two in Dawson City waiting for 
>good weather. The gravel road probably needs a day or so to dry out. 
>We’ll see what the weather is like 400 miles northwest from here. 
>Actually the rain has been getting lighter so the road may be OK. We’ll 
>check with some bikers coming back when we get to Dawson City.