telegraph creek, to camping on a lake... life's good.

June 18th

I got upat 8am, went out for a smoke, but was so tired i went back to bed. I finally got up at around 9:30 and left the motel at 10:30 or so. i need to stop getting up so late. no way of getting far up the road today, especially since i wanted to go to telegraph creek.

Leaving Dease lake, there was a bear in the middle of the road. i hit the brakes but he was already on the move and hit the ditch real fast. he didn't like the looks or sound of the bike. heh. who needs pepper spray when you have a motorcycle.

I took a ton of pictures on the way to telegraph creek. i'll upload the rest when i get home, and when i can upload the large versions of them.
This was an 18% grade. holy steep. crazy ass road with no guard rails. crazy.

oh look, there's the road i'll be on down there.
same road, around the first bend above. so many switchbacks. hope you motorcycle folks know how to corner well and are good on loose gravel. that's all it was. after my crash on the dalton, loose gravel scares me a bit.
more views from the road. the road i'll be on is down there somewhere
that's the same road i'm on below... it hugs the mountain, switches back to go all the way down, then back up, then down, then up... etc.

Canada's grand canyon. I didn't know about it until i talked to the info ladies at Watson lake. A wealth of information there. it's really big, but the camera doesn't capture that. there's a man on the top left, it'll give you some perspective.

again, people used for perspective

it was really nice sitting on the ledge looking out. makes you feel small. hah.
see that road on the right, that's where i'm headed

but first i have to go down a 20% grade switchback, across a small bridge and through the tahltan reserve.

back up on the other side, looking back where i came from. you loose traction and slide off the road, it's a long way down to the Stikine river below

Beast looking down at the river below
The Stikine river
got to Telegraph Creek. i needed 4 things; gas, coffee, a smoke and lunch.

I wanted to go to telegraph creek, since i read about it in Neil Peart's book Ghostrider. go pick up a copy. it's a good book about travelling, motorcycling and human healing. kinda the same trip i'm on now, except i'm not trying to heal myself. heh. I feel bad because i kept forgetting to lend my copy to steph at work. i'll have to do that when i get back.

I had a good lunch, and bought a tshirt. I talked to the cute chick working there (who cooked my food) about me not knowing about this place until i read a book about it. he face lit up when she asked me what book, and i told her. She was told about the telegraph creek bit in it, so she got the book and liked it. she would, it's a great book.

It turns out she's the owner's daughter. heh. In the book, neil peart wanted to get a room for a night or two, and the owner was leaving for the weekend on a river excursion. The owner essentially told him to lock up when he leaves and left Neil alone for the weekend. How cool is that. neat place, i'd go back.

The ride back up the road was quicker. funny how that is, it didn't just seem quicker, it was quicker.

It was still tricky going over those switchbacks though, but i felt more confident, yet not over confident. still scary though.

Got back to dease lake, filled up on gas again (you never know what will be open down the road) and got some food for camping out. i had a bit of rain coming back from telegraph creek, but nothing major.

In dease lake there were a group of guys going north, and i was going south... as usual, we exchanged road and weather condtions. I told them about the dalton highway... one guy thought that was cool, the others looked at me like i was a crazy man. hah.

I met up with an ADVrider (Wallyworld) and chatted with him for a bit. Now that i've done the dalton, i don't care what i ride, i still consider myself an adventure rider. hah.

I headed south where the group of guys said they had a lot of rain.

looks like some of it over there

nice views, but menacing clouds.


I planned to go a bit further than Iskut, but as usual, Iskut was closed for fuel as it was 8:30. dammit.

I got fuel a little bit further down the road at Tatogga lake resort. really nice place, nice lodge, etc. i walked in asking for fuel and interrupted their meal. hah. Mother and daughter were actually just finishing up. The daughter helped me get the fuel and i was off. Hot daughter. damn.

I decided to risk it and camp at the government campsite i didn't know if it would be a good site or not, etc. turns out it was great. spoke to the park person and she said that the telegraph creek road was a lot worse back in the day, and narrower. i would not have gone with my bike in those conditions!

at any rate, it was $15 and she gave me some free wood. i don't need much. awesome spot and even had a wooden box to put the tent up in. nice and soft.
the spot was about 15 feet from the lake. seriously. how sweet is that.

spot #7 at Kinaskan lake. awesome. park person said it was one of the best spots.

I bought this nifty waterbag in fairbanks at the sportsman's warehouse. you put water in it, and you can set it down. and you can pick it back up again.

nifty. remember kids, always have water on hand if you are building a fire.

walked the 15 feet to the egde of the lake for some pictures

the clouds were mor purplish. really cool looking.

taken from my campsite. seriously, 15 feet.

I saw these too loonies on the water. the one in the back kept looking over at me, but kept paddling along. I like Loons.

I wish i could have stayed there a few more days, but alas i need to head back home. I was looking over different routes on how to get back home. so far i've done 13164km on the trip and the shortest distance to get home without sidetrips would be 5538km. heh. Poor beast is getting a workout.

I'd like to try to see what the fuss about Stewart bc/hyder alaska is all about, but don't know if i have the time. we'll see how it goes.