Prince George

Left Dawson Creek at about 7:30 a.m. with the weather on our side! Stopped in Chetwynd for gas and then on to the location in the Pine Pass where my brother Larry died at the beginning of April. We put a memory sign up in his honor. It made me feel closure. At Mackenzie Junction we stopped for gas and a snack and seemed to turn cold. But by the time we got to Prince George it was getting nice and comfortably warm. We are camping at Southpark RV for two nights and will be getting together with our family friend Ethel Rhodes for lunch at the Casino tomorrow.

Dodge City

Here we are in Dawson Creek what a great ride. We got in around 2 pm local time it was great picking up an extra hour. Got ourselves all set up at the mile zero campsite. The price was right, they gave us one pull through site for the 3 of us for just $10 per bike, not too bad. Most places have been at least double that. After having ourselves a shower we went over to Al & Shirley's for dinner. Man what a spread she put on for us. We had Elk roast with all the fixings's. To top it of she made a Saskatoon berry crumble. MMMM good!!!Everyone had a good time looking around Dodge and we caught up with some friends.

South Bound

What a great time in Yellowknife, 5 days was just too short however with the cold weather and rain it was time to move on. We had a good time celebrating their Raven Mad Days. There was a BBQ and dance that we checked out but was sold out. We thought just as well because the tickets were $25 each. Just for something to do we were showing the other guys around the old town when we came across the BBQ and dance so we stopped to check it out. To our surprise they let us in as long as we didn't want the BBQ. Great!!! Alex from the Ice road Truckers show was there so we introduced ourselfs to him and his wife Louise. What nice people. Then to our surprise we met a very friendly lady who could be a double to Darlene Byck. We also showed everyone the "Ragged Ass Road" that we have the sign for in our tent trailer. Brian and Rick got some "Sapsucker Birch Syrup" to savour.

We went over to Buffalo Air Express to meet "Kelly" but she wasn't there but we got to meet her niece who is also on the show. We all went out to "Bullocks Restaurant" and had an awesome fishkebab dinner. It was pricey but the ambience made it worthwhile. We celebrated Jerry's 72nd birthday with a black forest cake. While Brian & Joyce were out touring with their friends Rick and I took Dick & Jerry to the Prince of Wales Museum which is based on NWT history. It is definitely worth revisiting. We enjoyed it just as much as the first time five years ago.
Rick and I ran into Louise again at Tim Hortons and to our surprise she recognized us from the night before, what great people!
We missed the ferry at Fort Providence by about 30 seconds so got to wait for 20 minutes with the mosquitos for it to return.

Road down to Lady Evelyn Falls Territorial Park for the night. The falls were gorgeous but the mosquitos were not! We played cards in the shelter minus the mosquitos.

We left early in the morning and rode out to Enterprise NT for breakfast. Stopped at Louise and Lady Alexandra Falls which are the Twin Falls. They were spectacular. And we arrived at High Level AB at 2:15 and managed to get Internet at the Public Library.

Yellowknife & Bufallo Air!

We decided to get up really early from Hay River and ride a few hours before stopping for breakfast at Fort Providence after crossing the ferry. We met a young man from Montreal who was on his way to Inuvik. He rides about 1000 Km per day, he has been on the road for 6 days and is riding a BMW 1200. He was coming down from Yellowknife and planned to make the Alaska Hwy by nightfall! He found out you can't find gas at Checkpoint NWT and thought he would get it when he reached the Alaska Hwy, but Rick told him he had better fuel up at Fort Liard as there are no gas stations at the point that you reach the Alaska Hwy. Lucky for him that he talked to Rick.
One thing that Hay River and Yellowknife have in common!! the mosquitoes, both the size and number!!
Lots of bison on the side of the road on the way into Yellowknife. Dick had a seal go on his left shock and it way blowing oil all over his bike. He wanted to make Yellowknife by 2:30 and as we had to go into Rae to get fuel Rick decided to put our extra fuel from our jerry can into Dick's bike and sent him on his way. The four of us headed into Rae to get fuel and our gauge showed below E by the time we got there. We headed into Yellowknife on a very rough road with frost heaves. The highway is only 4 years old! We were in the campground and all set up by 4 o'clock. Good thing we sent Dick ahead as he got to the Yamaha dealer in time for them to contact the Edmonton Honda dealer and have the parts shipped for delivery on Saturday. They assured him they would be able to work on it on Monday so we can get away Tuesday a.m.
We found Tim Horton's in Yellowknife and visited it this morning.

BUFFALO AIR - ICE PILOTS NWT!

Wow this is the highlight of our trip, we met Mikey off the show and we had a real nice time. He is as much of a character in real as on the show. There will be a season two!
The weather today turned cold and wet, but they are promising warmer for the next few days.

Hay River and on the net

Wow!! at last we got on the net. After Clearwater it was on to Hinton. Mt Robson was almost out (perfectly clear) completely, not very often that happens. The campground in Hinton was the KOA and we got 2 tenting sites that we split the cost on. No power but free showers and lots of wind. We got away around 8:30 am and our next stop was Grande Cache for gas. Time to put the rain gear on. It rained off and on all the way to Grande Prairie. As we crossed the Wopati River a small black bear came charging out of the ditch and at first we thought that he was going to hit the trailer head on. He managed to miss us and then he went straight for Dick's bike but then veered off before getting hit. It created a bit of excitement. After doing some grocery shopping in Grande Prairie and fueling up we headed for Dunvegan for the night. We had power there but pit toilets. Lots of wind the next day up to Gtrimshaw, where the tourist info lady was nice enough to take a pic of all of us, after that we got into a few more trees and that gave us some relief from the constant wind. It was rather cool riding. In High Level it was cool but once again we had power for our heaters. When we left High Level it appeared as though it was going to be just cloudy however we soon got into rain but not enough to put on our gear. We stopped at the 60th parallel visitor center and had a free coffee there. The visitor info was a brand new one from 5 years ago when we were there with Don & Hazel. We stopped at Enterprise at Winnie's cafe and had a great lunch almost everything was homemade. It sure was good bread. This poster Rick is holding is of Alex Dubroski the "Ice Road Trucker"!
We got a 6 pack of butter tarts to go and boy were they ever good. A fellow came in holding a UMCI membership card and said to us "Did anyone drop this?". It turned out it was actually his that Dennis Leonhardt had signed for him years ago. His name is Eric Bartlett, and what a talker! He lives at Enterprise NWT and runs a pilot car service. In Hay River we had lunch at the Woodshed and had their white fish "Fish & Chips" real good. Time for the girls to catch up on laundry. We toured around town and saw all we could. Irene and I stopped in at the Canadian Coast Guard Office, boy was that ever interesting. Their territory goes all the way up the MacKenzie River to Tuktoyukto.

Dutch Lake

What a difference a day makes. Here we are in Dutch Lake the sun is shinning and it is about 25 C. We had a BBQ of country style ribs. Our friends arrived around 3:30 pm. Having a great time with them telling all kinds of tails.