This is a heads up for anyone travelling to the Yukon and Alaska via the Cassiar Highway (Route 37) in northern British Columbia (or intending to return that way). Three of us made the northward journey around July 9th, intending to return south via the same highway. However, road conditions on much of the Cassiar caused us to change our return route to the Alaska Hwy.

Though about 15% of the Cassiar is usually gravel, a bad winter of frost heaves damaged portions of the paved sections. The result was that a considerable percentage of the road (north of the turn off to Stewart and Hyder) was apparently under reconstruction and back to gravel. Considerable rain had soaked the surface into a slimy consistency in places and the two street bikes in our group (a 1983 Honda CX650e and a 2003 Kawasaki ZR7-S) were down to less than 40 km. per hour under those conditions (and not too happily at that).

Ironically, the third bike, a 2003 BMW 650GS, had the worst time of it for lack of a second low front fender (now apparently standard). The stock high fender was quite useless in fending off the silty road material and the rider, including his face shield, was sprayed with wet dirt, rendering visibility a serious problem.

During the return trip on the Alaska Highway we had a further reminder of the perils of gravel. Portions of this route were also under reconstruction and reduced to gravel and dirt, abeit dry this time. We encountered a Gold Wing rider near Liard Hot Springs who had crashed when the trailer he was towing fishtailed in this stuff, flipping and pulling the bike down.

Worth checking road conditions in advance. Worth being mindful of the fender issue on the 650GS. Worth wondering about trailers.

Norm