Relaxing in Whitehorse
04 July 2018
I could live here.
Photos:
I ended up spending a couple days in Whitehorse, and I might do it again on the way back. The main motivator keeping me around was my cold and avoiding the aforementioned helmet sneezes. But, that gave way to fiddling around with the bike (there’s a million ways to pack it), exploring town, catching up on blogging, and talking to people in camp. I keep having to remind myself that I’m on vacation and that I don’t have to spend every day moving from one place to the next. If I had really planned this trip out ahead of time and had a schedule to stick to, I would have needed to build in some days off. But, since I’m mostly just winging it, I have to remember to dial it back on occasion, especially since I’m travelling by bike and camping.
The Camp Office and Wifi Hotspot
Whitehorse is historically one of the major hubs of the Yukon and its present day capital. It is also the farthest point from the ocean that is navigable on the Yukon River and also the highest elevation in the world you can drive a boat to from an ocean. With the completion of the highway to Dawson, they no longer ship goods by boat on the river, but there’s still lots of business here, tourism and otherwise. There’s another hot springs right out of town, every kind of tour imaginable, hiking, paddling, good food, and even a walmart.
This means that its a good place to be stuck. One of the campsites in the campground was taken by a group of New Zealanders who travelled from Eastern Canada in an early 90’s VW Eurovan, aka a VW Bus. This bus happens to be water cooled, and their water pump failed near Whitehorse. They tried getting a new pump through the local NAPA and a mechanic, but nobody had it and apparently nobody could get it. So, they’ve been here for 3 weeks with no actual repair in sight. Last I heard, they were willing to sell the van for $6000 CAD because their flight back to New Zealand was booked and they were going to have to just store it here somehwere then fly out. I thought about it for a good 10 seconds, but I’ve never heard real good things about the reliability of those VW buses. Sure, they’re cool, but thats about it. Besides, where would I put the bike?
Also while I was there, another motorcyclist pulled up in the campsite next to me. His original plan was to stay with his buddies and ride the Dempster Highway. But, his chain was getting noisy and so he looked into it; his front sprocket was worn out. That isn’t something you want to rely on for 1000 miles of dirt, so he parted ways and came to Whitehorse in search of a repair. As seems to be usual, nobody had parts. He called his daughter back home in Edmonton - nobody there had parts. Apparently, he couldn’t find anyone in Canada with a front sprocket for a 650 Vstrom, one of the most common bikes out on the road. That seems weird to me, but he ended up just leaving for Edmonton, hoping to make it. He was a very patient guy and figured that at worst he’d just have to thumb a ride home, get his truck, then come back for the bike. Oddly enough, only hours after he had left, I was approached by a couple of riders outside of walmart. They gave me all kinds of advice on my journey, and then I asked them about front sprockets for a vstrom. One of them had a spare one sitting in his garage at home. Go figure.
The last person I ran into with mechanical problems was a guy on a mid-90s BMW. He was from Nebraska and was on his way back from Alaska. Somewhere along the line, he had some work done and the mechanic hadn’t completely tightened the bolt that holds his rear shock. It had snapped further on down the road and while he managed to wire it together and make it ridable, he wanted to get it fixed. He was running into the same issue I had though - all of the dealers were booked up or didn’t want to touch it (since none of them were BMW dealers). I ended up referring him to the guys at Old Motorcycle Shop in Calgary since they helped me out, hopefully that will work out for him.
Talking to all of these people with mechanical problems reminded how much I appreciate the lack of major trouble I’ve had. As is a theme with this bike, keeping oil in the right places can be a challenge, but other than that, it’s been smooth sailing. I hope that continues.
I also did a little walking while I was in Whitehorse. The Robert Service Campground is right on what they call the Millenium Trail, which runs up and down the banks of the Yukon with a bridge at each end. Its got great views of the Whitehorse Dam, a healthy population of mosquitos, and some historic markers. I walked the whole thing, learned about the paddlewheeler Canadian which had been used on the Yukon, then was retired, then was sunk as an artificial reef, then was finally hauled off when they built the Millenium Trail. For historical purposes, they have its boiler and a steam cylinder sitting along the trail. They also have some re-creations of various parts like the bridge and paddlewheel that look less like parts of a boat and way more like playground equipment. Hmmmm.
With the not-to-surprising death of my old waterproof camera at Liard Hot Springs, I was in the market for something new. I really wanted a camera that could both take video as well as stills, had decent image quality, was rugged and waterproof, and could also do time lapse photos. I spent a good 20 minutes at Walmart looking at their options, all of which were knockoffs of the original GoPro. The reviews all came across as “Well, its not as good as a gopro, but for $xxx, it’s not terrible.” That wasn’t quite what I was interested in. I asked at a local computer store if anyone in town sold actual GoPro cameras and they referred me to Sports Experts on main street. I rode up, and sure enough, they had a sign out on the sidewalk saying they had the Hero 5 Black on sale. I looked at the Hero 4 they had, which was $100 more, and the Hero 6, which was something rediculous like $600, and settled on the Hero 5 Black. It ended up being the exact same price as it would have been on Amazon back home, so I’m pretty happy. So far it seems like a nice piece of hardware, ruggedly built and absurdly small. The software running on it seems a little quirky though, but time will tell.
This might work?
Testing the helmet mount
Another gopro image
Another gopro image
Lastly, while I was in Whitehorse, it was the Fourth of July. The Canadians seemed indifferent but tolerant of the jovial Americans in camp. I had birthday cake ice cream with red, white and blue sprinkles, yay!