Day 9 and you guessed it !

Where to begin?

I said I wasn't going to discuss it any more but it was raining when I got up and it continued to rain until very late in the day. 

There's so much to report today I hope I can remember it all. 

I started out from Pink Mountain. If you ever go there, don't stay in the motel on the right as you first get to Pink Mountain. It's too "low class" ! If you go a couple miles further, there is a much better place to stay. 

If you are going to camp, then you want to stay at the first place you come to on the left. It's the best.

Not too many miles after leaving Pink Mountain (in the rain, I might add, in case I didn't mention it before) I saw a coyote just standing on the opposite side of the road. Right on the edge of the road. He just stood there watching me as I cruised by. He wasn't spooked at all. 

After leaving ,Pink Mountain, I ran into a construction area where the sign said there was gravel road ahead. I thought "gravel, no problem. I'm almost ready for Dakar so worry about gravel? Not me!" Well, big mistake. They should also have had on the sign that there were big potholes there too. I was cruising along pretty good and at the last minute I saw the potholes and I thought S*IT ! ! These were BIG potholes too. I thought the bike was going to go one way and me the other way. I managed to keep it upright but just barely. What a ride!

Just after the construction ended, I turned a corner and I could see way up the road that something was standing in the road and it was licking the road. It was a fairly small moose. I slowly went down the road and the moose would move down the road away from me a little and then stop and lick the road again. I kept going and he keep licking. Finally, I got tired of this and sped up and he moved off the highway a little until I went by and then he got back on the road and started licking again. I found out later that moose like to lick the salt off the road. 

Quite a few miles later, I came around a turn and I could see a big moose standing off to the right in a turn around area that backed against the side of the mountain. There was no where for that moose to go except towards the road if it got spooked so I slowed way down and watched it closely. When I got up real close, I saw what looked like a calf moose carcass on the side of the road. I didn't get a good look at it as I was watching the big moose too closely. The moose may have been a cow and the calf got hit by a car or truck. 

I stopped at Toad Lake for gas and to send an email to Sharon using my pocket PC. I had to do that because the dump I stayed in at Pink Mountain didn't have wifi. The cheap no goods. 

I noticed as I was gassing up that I had lost a water bottle and a quart of oil that I had bungeed to the bike. There were really secure and had been there for over two thousand miles. They must have popped off when I hit that gigantic pothole at the construction site. I wonder how high the bike went in the air when I hit that pothole? I wish I had a video of it. 

I talked to a couple of Harley riders who were gassing up and heading North also. I asked them if they had seen a quart of oil laying in the road and they asked me if it was Castroil. That was the brand I lost. They also saw a water bottle in the same area. So I know they were "dislodged" by the potholes. 

I also met an older guy on a newer GS like mine at Toad Lake. He said he thought every BMW GS in North America was on the way to Alaska. I think he might have been right. There have certainly been a lot of them on the road. 

I saw the Harley riders again when I gassed up at Lizard Lake (not its real name but I can't think what the name was. Something like lizard though) As soon as they saw me they yelled, "You didn't lose anything else did you!". They were definitely Shriner clowns on vacation. 

After leaving Lizard Lake, I saw my first Grizzly Bear. He was on the East side of the highway and about 50 yards away from the highway. I didn't have my camera ready so I went on by him for a mile or so and then turned around and got the camera ready. Then when I went back he wasn't on the East side any longer, he was now on the West side of the road and down low where I couldn't get a very good picture of him. So, I went on by for a mile or so and turned around again and came back. I could see him from a long distance and it looked like he was moving back towards the highway. Whoa! Is the picture going to be TOO good?? I kept my speed up and clicked several pictures of him while cruising by. I hope they turned out ok. He wouldn't have made any record books but he was still a fairly large bear. I would guess maybe seven feet tall when standing.

Then I proceeded on towards Watson's Lake. About five miles past the Grizzly, what do I see but a Black Bear. It was a fairly small one. He was quite a ways away from the road. Then about another mile down the road there was another Black Bear and a much bigger one. He was right next to the road. Just beside the gravel shoulder and he was eating the wild flowers. I didn't see him until I was right on him and then he looked up with a mouth full of wild flowers like he was saying HUH? Who are you? I was by him too quickly to take any pictures. Then a little farther down the road there was a small Mule Deer. I can't believe I saw so many critters in one short time. 

I'm seeing a lot of crows. I don't know why, but they are spaced along the highway in different areas like sentinels. Like they're just waiting for something to happen. If you could read their minds, they're probably thinking "you can ride that GS fast but if you crash, you better be wearing a full face helmet or I'll be feasting on your lips while you gasp your last gasp"! 

I also saw a murder today. Yes a real murder, of crows that is. They were also just sitting beside the road in a group, not doing anything. About eight of them just sitting. Weird ! ! 

Coming into Watson's Lake (more on this subject tomorrow) I was following the Harley riders and they were staying at the Big Horn Motel so I cruised into the parking lot to check out if they had a room available. As I get off my bike a guy comes up to me and asks if I'm going North or South. I told him North. He said he as heading South. The guy looked so familiar to me. I was thinking on it as I was taking off all my gear and then it came to me. He's one of the Arkansas guys who comes to the BS rally at Bull Shoals. His name is Bill Winger. Now is that weird or what? Here I travel over 3,000 miles and run into a guy from our area that I know. He's here with his wife and a guy from Arkansas and another from California. They've been riding all around Alaska for the last couple of weeks. We talked about bikes and Alaska for quite a while. He rides a GS like mine. We were examining all the bikes in the parking lot and discussing the merits of each. Quite interesting conversations. But of course we decided the GS was the absolute best bike to be on up here. But then we knew that already, didn't we? 

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