Leg 6

6/2/14
Norm's Ride
Dawson Creek, AB to Muncho Lake, BC (just short of Liard Hot Springs)

This morning Cliff knocked on our door and politely asked if we'd consider changing our plans in order to go on to Liard Hot Springs instead of staying in Ft. Nelson overnight as planned.  They would really like to ride there and soak in the hot springs and perhaps spend a rest day there.  I had some reservations about that because Liard Hot Springs is quite a bit further than Ft. Nelson and Cliff still hadn't gotten his bike fixed.  But, after a group discussion, we decided that that would be fine and we'd pair up and meet Cliff and Roberta at the hot springs later that night.

Mike and John took off on their big 1200GS Adventures and me on my 650GS and Jeff on his GS.  Flash!  Jeff and I were gone. We rode by the famous sign that signifies the start of the Alaska Highway, Mile 0, and took our obligatory pictures.  Then off we went.

Everything was fine, until Jeff and I stopped for gas in Buckinghorse River.  We pulled into what we thought was a gas station.  Well, there were two big white buildings with 4 posts on each corner.  Only one corner had a gas nozzle stuck into it, so we pulled up to it.  There were directions on how to pump gas:  pull this button and it turns on the gas; we pulled the button, started tying to pump gas, no gas.  Tried it again, no gas.  We gave up and went into the attached restaurant to ask for directions.  You have to go back outside and enter a smaller building with a glass door, go to the ATM-like  machine insert your credit card, pass a “training course” on how to pump gas, wait for a receipt with a code on it, reinsert your credit card, enter the code, run out to the pump, pull out the knob and pump your gas.  It worked, then I yelled to Jeff, “Quick, open your gas cap!  Let’s fill up your tank, too, so we don’t have to go through all this again.”  What a complicated ordeal.  We no sooner finished when John and Mike rolled in and needed gas.  Lucky for them.  Jeff and I were experts at this by this time, so we helped them fuel up as well.  We all got a big laugh and decided to have lunch at the small restaurant that was in the building next door to the "gas station".  Good choice.  It was delicious, but like everything else on this trip, wasn't cheap. We were still wondering where Cliff and GoRo were, but thought that Cliff's bike would be fixed by now and that they'd be on the road.  No problem.

The rain started falling lightly, but soon became monsoon like.  Gosh, we hoped Cliff and Roberta were ok and weren't caught in this storm like we were.  We finally decided to pull the plug when we made it to Muncho Lake.  The lodge there is beautiful and they had little cabins that four could stay in comfortably.  It was great!  I've never been so lucky.  I mean, what girl wouldn't love staying with three handsome men all night?  During dinner, John zoomed in on where Cliff and Roberta were via watching her Spot.  Ft. Nelson!  Are you kidding me?  They are the ones that wanted to go to the Hot Springs. To make a long story short, they're still in Ft. Nelson.  They decided to take a rest day.