Uraling to Alaska - Day 14: Stuck in Watson Lake?

Late start today, went to do a short ride to warm things up so I could drain the final drive fluid and the accelerator cable behaved as if the portion leading to the junction with the throttle cables going to carburetors was broken!  Damn, thought somehow the cold had done it though it really hadn't been that cold overnight.

Ice-coated Valencia in the morning.

Luckily, I thought, I was carrying spare throttle cables!  I started dismantling things in order to get at the junction tube where the cables meet up.  In the process of yanking on things, I discovered the throttle cable was working again!  On the one hand, great!  On the other, I should have checked for frozen cables first before dismantling things and getting all my tools out!

So, I repacked everything, took Valencia for a warm up run and spent the time draining the still slightly contaminated FD oil and putting new oil until it ran clear out of the drain hole while I spun the rear wheel.

Buttoning her up, and packing up all my crap, I said goodbye to Allison and Don (the inn owners) and headed out around 10AM.  The roads were not bad at all in terms of snow coverage though there were stretches where it was snow-packed and caution was required.

I noticed my throttle wasn't returning to idle though, so I pulled over at a rest stop, worked the cables some more and sprayed some WD40 into the cable junction tube.  All seemed well after that!

I was now running over the same ground I'd covered yesterday afternoon before I discovered my wallet missing and noticed there were actually mountains visible now that the weather had cleared somewhat.

 Near Cottonwood Creek

It started lightly snowing about 50 kilometers south of the junction of the Cassiar Highway and the Alaskan Highway.  The roads started to get more and more snow-packed though still the were mostly clear so going was not impeded.

I thought, this stretch of snow would be the last.....how wrong I was.

So, now about 40 kilometers from the junction, it started snowing pretty heavily and the roads were completely snow-packed!  Valencia started acting a bit weird, her pusher tire doing a lot of fish-tailing.  Soon afterwards, while climbing a small hill, much more pronounced rumblings coming from the rear tire, rumblings I unfortunately knew only too well.  I had a flat tire.

I pulled over as much as I could, ended up in a spot just before a curve and with enough rooms for the occassional truck to get by me safely.  Dammit.

Due to angles and such, I could not get the rig onto its centerstand so I used my bottle jack instead.  I bit less safe but that was my only option.  Small issues, snow falling, cold tools all contributed to it taking over three hours before I got the pusher wheel swapped with the spare wheel (with a used tire on it).  

Yep, should have put a new tire on the stupid spare wheel, my fault and lazyiness.  Anyways, the air compressor's plug was missing parts, dammit, so I cut it off and rigged a new power connector using jumper cables.  What a pain, thankfully the air compressor worked and I inflated the spare AND it held it!

You see, in order to fit the new tire, you have to deflate it so you can squeeze it past obstructions.  It's a pain.

Anyways, three fun-filled hours later (during which no truck stopped, to include DOT trucks) and one cager later who did stop but had no tools.....I was done.  Packed everything back onto Valencia and proceeded onwards.  No way now for me to even try to get to Whitehorse, almost 500 km or 300 miles away.

I mentioned the spare wheel had a used tire right?  Traction was a bit hit or miss as the snow was now thicker on the ground.  I had to engage 2WD soon and it was pretty much that for the remaining kilometers till I got to the junction.  Man, that was a long, long, long 33 kilometers!  I sure didn't want to swap in a replacement inner tube by the damn side of the road!

Got to the junction, inquired there after amusing a couple of the locals by just being there on a sidecar in the middle of a snowstorm, and found out there was a mechanic 22 km away in Watson Lake, YT.

Off I went, heading away from Whitehorse along the Alaskan Highway.  Got gas first, then found the shop.  They said they didn't work on motorcycle tires!  Damn.  Still, one of the techs took pity on me and said he'd give it a shot.

Trouble was, he wasn't familiar with inner tubed tires and he managed to damage the first spare inner tube.  I took on a more active role from that point on and basically taught him how to change out the inner tube.  It was really the use of a semi-dry work bay that ended up being what I paid $20 for.  Oh well, inner tube changed out and now I theoretically have a working spare.

I left and found a room in a nearby motel: The Big Horn Motel.  Kind of pricy but when its snowing heavily outside and one is exhausted.....

Went to dinner, chatted with RichardM via text for weather conditions and such.  He thinks I should wait an additional day, I am not sure as the hotel clerk told me they don't plow on weekends unless conditions are really bad.

The "word" I heard is that the road to Whitehorse was a mess, lots of accidents and cars/trucks in ditches.  No proof or news coverage that I can find yet but that's the decision making environment I am presently in.

I examined, after dinner, my pusher's thread vice the repaired tire's thread, they're remarkably close which means I was not going to get more than say 5000 from the new tire I got in Washington!  Damn.

So, we'll see how things look in the morning.  I do have snow chains but really, can't go really fast.  RichardM said the roads were being shown as mostly clear on the way to Whitehorse, so if I can get clear of the snow around Watson Lake and the Junction, I might be golden.

Or

I could get stuck in bad conditions, have to camp out somewhere between Watson Lake and Whitehorse on the Alaskan Highway.  The forecast lows are within my expected parameters, but again, the decision is to be made in the morning.

I could, also put the new street tire on the pusher wheel but it's a street tire and probably just as good on snow as the worn knobby tires I have on the rig now.

Hopefully there's a motorcycle shop in Whitehorse where they can perhaps supply me with new inner tubes to keep as spares and maybe swap in my new tire.  What would be great is if they have new tires that I can use but the odds of that are slim.

More tomorrow.  Wish me luck.  

Previously: Losing my wallet and phone near Dease Lake BC