Day 4: Forest fire--Dease Lake to Teslin

August 3/2010: We got up really early this morning, riding through epic mountain mist (visibility 10-15 feet) and freshly graded loose gravel. It took us an hour to ride just 40kms.

Inside the only store in Jade City.

At the bottom of the hill we came to Jade City, population 34. Isn't there some sort of rule that you have to actually be a city before you can call yourself one?

Next there was the fuel issue. Motorcycles have small fuel tanks and there are few gas stations on that highway. The last one on the route had run out of gas. So by the time we arrived at the fire barricade we had just enough fuel to get through the fire and not enough to make it back to an open gas station.

Four hours later we're at the road closure, waiting with 40 other vehicles to travel through the fire to the Alaska Highway. Some of these people have been waiting for two days!

Abi, Marc, Fiona, Hailey, Maria

We met some cool folks while waiting for the road to reopen. We hung out together for two hours and then rode through the fire. Check out Marc's blog. http://www.frenchysrant.com/

Riding through the forest fire at the top of Highway 37. Thanks to Fiona for snapping these photos from the back of Marc's bike.

Once we made it to the Alaskan border it was time for a treat and a ride in the sunshine.

Another photo courtesy of Fiona.

Watsons Lake.

This is the Nitsutlin bridge on the way to Teslin. At 0.6km,  it is the longest overwater bridge on the highway AND it's grated! No surprise that there's a bar at the other end of it.