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Well – where to start on today???? It was a long one.



First let me say that everyone is OK – relatively speaking. We did have an injury accident in the group today – Mark hit one of the infamous “Black Clay” sections and he went down pretty hard. He had an obviously broken left wrist and some back pain – but was totally conscious and able to move his arms and legs OK (despite us telling him to lie still). We used the SPOT beacon and the SAT phone to call for help – but given our very remote location – they said it could take up to 6 hours to get a vehicle to him. After some additional calls, we ultimately found the Dawson town doctor was actually at the lodge we had just left and that was 27 miles back down the nasty dirt road we were riding out on. The doctor had just ridden her KLR 650 in from Dawson last night (on this same nasty road) to visit her boyfriend (who is the lodge owner).



The Doctor arrived in an ambulance from the lodge in about an hour and half and then we all loaded him into the ambulance and they were going to take him back to the Lodge for an air transport to a hospital somewhere (we did not know where at the time).



The lodge owner and the doctor told us we should continue down the road to pavement as another front was rapidly coming in and the road would be getting worse rapidly. It was against my gut to leave Mark – but it was the right thing to do as we had a very long – tough ride ahead of us. Shortly after Mark departing for the lodge – we started down the trail. We had 225 miles of tough dirt road awaiting us. To make matters worse, shortly after we started the ride the weather front hit and it started raining fairly heavily and the temps dropped from the 60’s to the low 40’s. Our visibility dropped very low with a combination of rain, fog and helmet face masks that fogged really badly in these conditions as well.



At about 4:30 we saw a helicopter flying toward the direction of the Lodge and assumed it was going to be Mark’s ride, then at about 7:00 we saw it fly over again on its way to Dawson Creek.



We finally reached pavement at about 9;30 PM – so we rode for roughly 6-7 hours straight through some nasty stuff. We went very slow on most of it as no one wanted to join Mark at this point.



When we finally got to the Klondike Lodge at the end of the Dempster Road (the dirt trail that has been our adversary for the last 4 days) – we called Liz to check on Mark and found that had been transported to Fairbanks and was being checked out. No official report at this time – but he has been talking to Liz on the phone and keeping her in the loop. He apparently told her he was p*ssed at the situation – so we are glad to hear is coherent enough to be pissed and take that as a good sign. Our predictions on his condition is that he certainly has a broken wrist and likely a couple of badly bruised or broken ribs- but we will hopefully know more in the AM.



The rest of group is going to try to get a good night’s sleep and discuss our options and plans in the AM with hopefully slightly clearer heads.



Stay tuned as we get more info and keep Mark and Liz in your thoughts and prayers.



Steve

I am afraid of Harley's and at my age cannot take cold or dampness anymore. They have my utmost respect.

I saw Mark's wife today at church. This is the info she related: Mark broke his left wrist, which will need surgery. He also fractured a vertebrae in his back, I believe it was T-6. No plans for surgery on his back as this should heal. His ribs are sore but not broken. The hospital in Fairbanks will release him today or tomorrow. He will have to take commercial flights back to the California. He will likely have the wrist surgery at Loma Linda Hospital and they are trying to arrange everything for that. His bike will have to be shipped back home in the future. Liz was very grateful for all the support she has received from the good peeps at GD.com. She wants to thank everyone for all your thoughts and prayers.

Mark - You always pick the strangest ways to celebrate your birthday! See you soon.

I am afraid of Harley's and at my age cannot take cold or dampness anymore. They have my utmost respect.

Tuesday July 22 - 8 PM

Today’s ride was from Watson Lake down the Cassiar Highway (430 miles) where we branched off 40 miles to the West Coast to Stewart, BC and Hyder. These are two very small towns on the coast and in the middle of nowhere. I am guessing the population of the two towns combined is probably about 100 people. The other very unique aspect of these two towns is that Stewart is in BC and Hyder is in Alaska – but Hyder is the end of the road and there is no way to get in or out beyond there – yet the Canadians have a border checkpoint when you go to Hyder and come back into Canada. Nearly everyone that takes the BEAUTIFUL drive down to these two towns goes into Hyder because that is where “Fish Creek” is. This is a place where they have a platform over the river where you can hand out and watch the bears feed on Salmon swimming upstream. It seems it is the very early start of that season, so we only saw one Grizzly and he was actually eating grass and brush on the side of the creek, not Salmon.



The ride down the Cassiar today was great! Road conditions were mainly good (despite some of the horror stories we had heard) and the sun shined most of the day as well – but it was in the lower 50’s this AM, so a little cool to start.



As you may have noticed, the Spot locater is still not working – It looks like it is on this end – but when I pulled up the web site – nothing is showing up – sorry about that.



Mark – if you are reading this we hope all is going well. We have tried calling a few times, but your phone goes straight to voicemail, so I suspect it is like most hospitals where they don’t allow you on the phone. I am sure we will hook up with you in the next day or two when you get home.



Tomorrow is a big ride day of over 600 miles as we are trying to get to Bob and Sawyers former class mates home for the night. We were going to roll out at 6 AM – but like fools, we did not gas up when got into town at 6:00 and the station closed on us and since the next fuel is 150 miles away – I guess we are now stuck until 7:30 AM when they open.



Steve