Day 13

August 1. Lousy start. Great finish. I got a late start this morning because I wanted to stop by the Harley dealer and get a T-shirt (so I can just walk around in it, all casual like, and astonish folks with where I've been). It didn't open until 9:00, so I stayed up late, planning to sleep in and lazy around for a while before packing up. Except one of my earplugs fell out and a heavy equipment barn outside my window started backing out their rigs at 5:00 am, along with that really annoying beep, beep, beep--beep, beep, beep. Like there's anybody who works there wouldn't recognize the sound of a big whatever-it-was moving toward them! Anyway couldn't get back to sleep, so just lazed around a lot longer.

Now it was supposed to be raining early today, but it wasn't when I packed the bike. But it was when I came out to get on. Oh well...

Over at the HD shop, I met a couple of guys on their way to Alaska, who, of course, asked about the road conditions and weather. It was kind of fun to watch them transform from eager, happy human beings to devastated semblances of themselves.

So I left in light rain, but without my rain gear. And actually ran out of the rain (or most of it--a bit drizzly for a while). But it kept getting colder! So I had to stop to put my rain gear on just for another layer of warmth. I had on a T-Shirt, with an insulated long-sleeve undershirt over that, with a long-sleeved jersey over that, with a heavy denim shirt over that, with a cut-off sweatshirt over that, with a lined jacket over that. And I still was freezing!

I was sleepy from getting awakened too early, and really chilled. So I stopped in Watson lake around 2:00, ate some sandwiches I'd packed and went and found a picnic table in the Signpost Forest (more below) and lay down and napped for a half hour. When I woke up, the sun was out, I was alert, and life is good.

Altogether 495 miles to Toad River, BC (honest to god, there is a Toad River, a town of 75 souls--and they have wireless Internet in this little dinky motel a hundred miles from anywhere!). And the last half of the day was fantastic. Riding back through some of the mountains I'd come up through, but looking the other way was like seeing a brand new place. Great riding, great scenery, great weather. Hey, it's not about how many days it rains--it's about how many good rides you squeeze out of the trip.

The Signpost Forest is one of those things that sounds really dorky, but is actually kind of cool when you see it. About an acre or so of 12-foot posts stuck in the ground where people nail up their license plates, city limit signs from back home, street signs from all over the world, and just about anything else they can nail up. I didn't even stop on the way up, but it was the only thing resembling a public park in Watson Lake and a convenient place for my nap, so I went in. I'm glad I did.