Day 11 the race to Fort Nelson and Goldwing Down!!

Oh no, Goldwing down!!

I'll tell you what happened later in this post.  Both the Wing and I are OK.

I woke up bright and early in Teslin and loaded the bike up.  I walked over to where they highway workers were to find out what was going on.  They advised the road was clear and that I was good to go, but advised the road could be closed at any time due to rising river water and the threat of more slides.  I decided I would hustle and get through this section as quickly as possible.

Luckily the rain had stopped, and the sun came out.  I headed east out of Teslin, over the bridge and into the unknown.

I caught the sunrise just outside of Teslin.

I reached the area where the bridges had washed out.  I was a little apprehensive about driving this stretch as I did not know what to expect.  Luckily, the flag guy was the same guy who I stopped for a few days earlier at another mud slide.  He told me that the road is actually pretty good right now and not to worry.  This put my mind at ease.  As I drove through the area, I was amazed at the amount of damage the slide had done to the area.  The forest was leveled, absolutely amazing.

As I headed to Watson Lake, you could see where the river was starting to claim land.  Here is someone's home that was flooded.  There were several areas where the river was within 6-10 inches of coming onto the road.  I drove at a much faster pace through this section, and made it through without incident.

I reached Watson Lake, here are the photos of the sign post fores that I promised.  I did not get out and walk around.  I wanted to, but there was also threats of flooding near Muncho Lake.

The rivers in the area were very swollen.  There were several places where the forest was flooded.

I stopped for gas at the Liard Hot Springs.  There are cabins there like this one.  I would like to take Devon there and spend about a week exploring the area.

The next series of photos were taken at Muncho Lake.  Even though there was a threat of flooding in the area, I simply had to stop to take some pictures.  The water is a very turquoise blue color, very stunning.

In this photo, you can see how high the lake is.  There were a few areas where it was within inches of the road.

As I continued on, I saw a large group of motorcyclist heading in my direction.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as I was.

Shortly after this photo was taken, my speedometer stopped working.  I thought for sure the cable must have snapped.  I figured I would look at it when I got to the hotel tonight.  I decided to stay at a hotel for the night as I have camped out the past two nights, had not taken a shower yet, have started growing a beard, and have picked up a Canadian accent.

I made it into Fort Nelson at about 3 pm local time.  I gassed up and secured a hotel room.  I am exhausted and cannot wait to go to bed.

I looked at the speedometer cable.  It appears some of the road gunk got past the seal as the cable was completely gunked up.  I am concerned that the speedometer drive may have stripped out when the cable gunked up, but will not know until I get home and check it out further. No more odometer photos as for now it is not working.  I have four things now on my fix list for when I get home; speedometer, cruise control, one of the wires for the show lights split, and one of the decorative caps for the right rotor cover fell off somewhere.  This ride has been hard on the Wing, particularly due to all the rain.

Oh yea, what happened here?

When I was in the planning stages of this ride, I read somewhere that you are pretty much guaranteed to drop your bike at least once on this trip.  Well, today was my once.  I was pulling into a gas station and a motor home started to move towards me, so I moved to the side.  Unfortunately, there was a huge pothole in the way as I slowed the Wing.  The rear tire wound up on the side of the pothole and I could not hold her up to prevent her from dropping.  Luckily, I was basically stopped when this happened.  There was no damage to the Wing, the crash bars did their duty.

Wildlife count:

Bears:  1
Moose:  3
Buffalo:  More than you can possibly count, they were everywhere today.

Buffalo crossing the road.