no not the cereal the traffic hazard. So what are frosties? I'm so glad you asked!! just as well Sandra made us an awesome breakfast of fresh fruit homemade lime or lemon yoghurt and freshly baked lemon and blueberry scones cause what came next was horrifying!!
The day started out great the food, the weather and the road. We stopped at Otter Falls Cutoff for petrol and morning tea and Michelle the young woman who was wroking there told us to expect to see Grizzly bears and to expect that the road beyond Destruction Bay to be really bad due to the Frosties.
Now because the highway is built on the permafrost, and the permafrost expands and contracts as it freezes and thaws and refreezes. A frostie or frost heave is formed when the permafrost under the tarmac expands and contracts and it can take several forms. Long then 'divots' in the tarmac running parallel to the traffic. Wider deeper troughs that sometimes go across the lane and sometimes run parallel but then sometimes veer suddenly into the oncoming traffic or onto the soft shoulder. Sooooooo imagine riding a 900lb/350kg motorbike on this surface and then at certain points the road drops away and becomes unpaved loose gravel for a short distance. And then there are sections that return to 'normal' and you think that you can return to usual speed oh nooooo then the frosties come back with a vengeance. Now knowing what causes these frosties I understand that it might be impossible to keep the road flat but there's got to be some way to fix this. I suggested that someone clever like our friend David Cork must surely be able to invent something to combat this issue!.
We stopped at the visitor's centre at Sheep Mountain and met a Dutch couple who are travelling around for 2 years they have just shipped their caravan and Land Cruiser troop carrier from Australia where they spent 3 years travelling around wow! how does someone fund travel like that? I so wanted to ask them...I'm nosey like that.
We planned to stop at Burwash Landing for petrol and lunch but when we arrive there we discover that the lodge/petrol station is closed. There is a museum up the road so we go in and ask the woman behind the counter where the closest petrol is, 10 miles back the way we came!!!! So we look around the museum and then ride back 10 miles for petrol and lunch. Cream of celery soup and yam fries (sweet potato chips), it was worth going all the way back just for the lunch. We ask the petrol station attendants if there is any rest areas between Destruction Bay (ie there) and Beaver Creek (our next stop) and the answer is no mmmm 120 miles with no potty break is going to be interesting. Just for the record kid there are 3 rest stops with loos and 1 RV park. Thank God there was we sooo needed a break from those frosties. I will NEVER complain about gravel driveways ever again! The one bright spot in the day was we saw a LYNX!!! it was crossing the road, it stopped and looked at us and then walked off the road it was way bigger than I thought they were. and no we didn't get photographic evidence it all happened too quickly.
We arrive in Beaver Creek after being held up at roadworks for 25 minutes!!! I just do not understand why they keep traffic waiting so long. We are staying at Buckshot Betty's in a little cabin and I mean little but it is so cute, clean and comfy. Dinner tonight is spaghetti and garlic toast very good.
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| Sheep Mountain |
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| rest stop |
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| bike at rest stop check out that Mountain |
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| bed at Buckshot Betty's |
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| cabin at Buckshot Betty's |
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