Where's Bob!

This is going to start to sound like bragging! But, man…..this is to much fun!

July 8th…Today we left for the “Klondike Loop”…This is a side trip that takes us off the Alaskan Highway and up over the top to Dawson City, Yukon Territories (YT) The trip up to Dawson City is just a bit over 300 miles. Out here, this is like going around the block back home. All the distances are in “hunerd miles”……Big Country!
The road to Dawson City was in great shape except for a few areas of construction where they spread ball bearings all over the road and then cover them with baby sh-t, just to make it interesting for motorcyclists….Actually, I’m making it out to be worse than what it was. The two bikes, both shod with Tourance tires did great. We could keep our speeds at around 45 mph……but don’t lose your concentration for a second………it could hurt!
To make matters a bit more interesting, it started to rain for about 20 minutes….and then just as quickly, cleared up.
We met this really neat German couple with two wee children who have been traveling around the world for four years in this really neat four wheel drive "Paris-Dakar" type motorhome. Great folks! They told us they spent the previous four years on a motorcycle before the kids were born......Amazing!
I stopped to take a picture of two bald eagles fishing in a lake by the side of the road and Bob continued on ahead of me and decided to take a ride down a dort two track. He thought he would be back on the main road to intercept me, but I caught up with and passed his side road before he exited. That’s the last we saw of each other till this morning! Bob was MIA……
I got to Dawson City a few hours later and expected to see Bob’s bike parked at the entrance to the town. This is how we deal with this situation. Although we mostly ride together, at time we want to ride our own ride and we get separated. But since there is only one road, it’s pretty hard to get separated, even though we might be hundreds of miles apart…Big Country (did I say that already?)
But Bob’s bike was not anywhere to be seen. I rode around the town, but no Bob…..I parked my bike on the side of the road and waited…nothing.
I decided I would get a hotel room this evening as it was Saturday night and Dawson City has a great night life on the weekends. I went to the “Downtown Hotel” which is owned and operated by Dick, who is a fellow BMW motorcycle owner (R1150GS). I got a great room with two beds figuring Bob would show up at any time. I parked my bike right outside the hotel door and went to take a nap……..I awoke at around 7pm, called Bob’s wife, Kathy, to see if Bob had called in…He hadn’t….Kathy wasn’t concerned (she did mention something about the life insurance being paid up) But she was upset that he didn’t see Dawson City as Kathy thought it was the best part of Alaska when she visited last summer…….I wasn’t worried, but a little concerned. I figured he had proceeded across the river (via ferry) and was camping on the other side. I had no reason to believe he would have gotten off the main road, and since I was “positive” I was behind him, and I didn’t see a crashed R1200GS anywhere on the side of the road, I figured he was OK……..
This morning my phone in the hotel room rings and it’s Bob……He’s in the lobby. As I had thought he went across the river and took a campsite…….Too bad, because the hot tub in the hotel was great!

Next installment I’ll tell you how Bob got within 15’ of a real live Grizzly bear…..I kid you not!