Southbound to nicer weather

July 27^th, 2026

Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Woke at 8:00am and did the usual routine of sit, shower, dress, and pack.

I then started to load the bike, again talking with the group staying in room next door about their upcoming ride northward.

Once I finished all the packing, I updated some maps on the phone to avoid issue from yesterday, and then plotted my route.

I decided I would fill my spare gas today as the distance is just on the edge of possible, and not too many fuel stations in the first half, so this will relieve any fuel anxiety and let me ride without having to constantly watch the range.

I got on the bike and rode down the street a few blocks to a station at the edge of town.  Finally, a nice modern station that you can pay at the pump with a nice canopy overhead to block the sun or rain and a full convenience store if you wanted it.

Once fueled and the spare bag filled and secured, we hit the road south.

The skies had been really dark with clouds this morning, so was expecting rain again.  But as I headed south, the overcast started to lighten up, not had dark as it has been north of town this morning.

No rain came and in time the clouds started to thin out as well.

I kept the speed low to conserve fuel, even with the spare I still cannot go too fast or might come up short.

Road was pretty empty first few hours, but then it got really busy, in both directions.

I stopped at rest area for a bit and thought about removing some of the gear, but while the skies had cleared, the temperature was still only in the low 60s, so gets cold at speed.

I kept going and we went over a few small passes, but things stayed nice, could even say the got better.  Skies cleared up and only white puffy clouds floating by (really fast, wind was blowing hard today), and the temps started to go up again.

I had not had anything to eat yet today, so I pulled off at a fuel stop with a store attached and bought a bag of chips and a drink.

I stood in the lot and ate and drank while I tried to decide if I should get fuel as well.  Decided to wait, want to see how close I can get this, right now its almost even with arriving on my last fumes. (So, I will fuel up before hand, but will get good idea of range).

I did remove the rain pants now though, they were starting to get a bit warm, and also trapping moisture inside like they do was going to get worse as the temperature rose.

Ended up hitting a big road works area, I was first car to come up on the flagman, and this was a pilot car setup, so sat and waited, and waited.  Finally, cars from other direction came, but there were probably 50-60 of them.  I was first in the line, so we finally got going and then the route took about 10 minutes to get through.

Once on the other side then everyone had to pass like crazy as driving the speed limit for a few miles was unacceptable.  I even pushed it a bit so I was not going as slow as before, and left plenty of space, but a few still took chances to get by.

I kept going till eventually reaching the town that I had targeted for a fuel stop if I could make it.  Stopped and filled the tank, but left the fuel in the spare for now.

I was now about 45 minutes away, and with enough fuel I could ignore the fuel conservation and ride a bit faster, I was getting passed way too often (Canadians seem to think the speed limit is 30kph over the posted limit at least, though a few US plated vehicles doing much the same).

I ran it up to the speed limit or a bit above, still getting passed, but not as much. 

Then soon as we were past the city and all the lights, we hit road works, and a huge hill.  And stuck behind a truck that could barely go 20mph.

Passed finally in a passing lane, and just made it past another slow truck, crested the hill and had to come to a stop for more road works and a 1-lane road.

Not a huge wait, and was only a ½ mile section, then we could hit the road again.

Eventually arrived on the edge of Dawson Creek, BC.  This would be my stop tonight, but before I looked for a place to stay, I had one stop to make.

At the highway junction in the middle of town is the Mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway.

This was the point where the highway officially started and where construction began in the early 40s.

There is a big sign on the corner stating this, so I wanted to get a photo with the bike there.

Technically I ran the highway backwards.  I drove some of the road going to Alaska, but skipped a section as well.  Rode the rest of the Alaska part when I left Fairbanks.  Then from Whitehorse I rode the remaining sections I had not been on yet to get here.

So, the marker was more of finish line than a starting line for me.

I then checked around for some places to stay and found a few to check out on the road heading out of town that I would take tomorrow.

I went to one that looked okay online, but it was a hotel, and really prefer the motels as it is much easier to get gear in and out.  I had passed a motel on the way there, and it did not look bad, so rode back up to that place.

They had rooms, so decided to stay here.

It’s an older place, and while some updates have been done, some stuff is still a bit aged.

But the location is good, price was fair, and staff was nice.

I unloaded the bike and got it all inside the room.

Then I pulled out the tools from the pannier and was a bit annoyed to find everything wet and soggy.

The bike cover which I put away wet 2 days ago had leaked all over the inside.  I had thought the bag the cover goes in was somewhat water proof like the cover, but must not be.  Soaked out and everything was damp.  My repair manual now as warped pages, the roll of gorilla tape is no longer round, and the box for my spare chain is ready to fall apart.

Pulled everything out to let it all dry overnight, then found my tools to clan the fork seals.  Yeah, they are leaking pretty bad again.

Pulled up the dust covers, and using new shop towel cleaned up the oils, ran the seal cleaner through the seal 3 times on each side and cleaned the area and the dust cover well.   Will see how that goes on the ride tomorrow, otherwise might be having fork seals serviced (my next stop will be for 4 nights as I am hoping to get the bike in for a few things that need done).

I had so much oil on the towel now I just tossed it, no point in keeping it.  I will have to start putting the shock socks on when its raining, that seems to be where the worst of the dirt comes from.

I then secured the bike and put the cover on, mainly to allow it to dry out since it is warm and not raining here.

Next, I oiled the chain as it was dried out again from riding in the rain so much.

Once down, I changed out of the riding gear and then walked across the street to Busters Pizza and Donair for dinner.

Had a chicken donair and mozza sticks with a soda.  Good change of pace.

Then back to the room and called back home to get an update on one of my cats which had gone to the vet that morning for some small issues.  Nothing so far to worry about, but will know more in a few days when tests come back.

Then we got online to type up the blog and will probably update a few social things and maybe work on some video, but really tired today, so might call it a night.  I will have more time to work on videos at the next stop anyway.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: