Day 11 - I made it to Alaska!

After riding for 12hours and 506 miles, I finally crossed over into Alaska!

It was emotional and thrilling to say I did it!  It was neat because an Asian couple from San Francisco, who I had met earlier in the day was there too.  I had taken their picture overlooking the Kluane valley and they reciprocated with the above picture of me and Red Velvet.  We talked about how amazing the Alaskan Highway was constructed during WWII by 30,000 Army Soldiers and it was completed in 9 months.  They were very nice and it was great running into them again.

So my day started early and Red Velvet and I busted out of Watson Lake pointed towards Whitehorse, about 440 kilometers away.  The sky was blue without many clouds and it was 53F.  My spirits were in high gear and so was Red Velvet.  The roads for the first 100 or so kilometers were great and I had the throttle pegged.  It was interesting to see all of the messages people have created with rocks along the  road.  I saw them all day long and one particular one of "Serge loves Karen", very cleverly done probably at least 10 different times.  That Karen must be pretty special or Serge pretty determined.  Anyway it was fun to read them.  I had to have seen thousands of them.

Then the roads started to become more gravel than pavement.

Riding on this stuff can be unnerving but by the end of the day, me nor Red Velvet flinched when we came upon it.  Sometimes it was muddy, sometimes dusty.  The sights along the way were fantastic!

Of course it rained a few times, but nothing real bad.  The slow leak in Red Velvet's front tire continues but I monitor it and fill it when needed, she lets me know!

We stopped and had dinner at Buckshot Betty's and she made me nervous, so I let her order what she felt like cooking and I think it was some kind of hamburger with all kinds of stuff on it.  It was good but I rushed it down because Buckshot Betty does not take any crap from people from the lower 48.  As I rode afterwards I identified mustard, relish, Canadian bacon and some kind of sauce as being on the sandwich with some mean indigestion.  

Here are a couple of shots of dirty/dusty Red Velvet.  She likes to get down and dirty...

Everyone who meets Red Velvet, is impressed (probably because she hauls my butt around)!

The roads looked like this on to Tok, Alaska and that is where I am bedding down for the night.

I rode 13.5 hours 656 miles and those were not easy miles! I am tired and going to try to sleep with the sun still out...its 10:30 PM Alaskan time which is 4 hours behind you all.  The sun will be out another hour or so... Goodnight my friends in the Lower 48!