Hyder to Watson Lake
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I caught a lot of rain on the way up to Watson lake but still managed to pick up a few nice pictures along the way. It was a pain to be riding through spectacular countryside when all you could see was the rain on your visor and the road ahead, but on average I've been very lucky with the weather on this trip so I wasn't in a position to complain.
On the way I stopped in a small town not long after Smithers at an intersection as you head north. The place was called Rob's cafe I think and I was served by a girl who could put Viagra out of business. She asked me what I would like to order.... I'm pretty sure the expression on my face looked the same as if she'd said "Can I please sit on your face?"
As the day wore on and I stopped about every hour or so for a coffee to get out of the rain I met a whole host of unusual characters.
The first chap I met came out of a shop drinking a cup of coffee when he was holding in a very deformed hand. I mean really deformed. He only had two large fingers and that was it. He swapped the coffee from the right hand(deformed one) to the left and held it out for me to shake it.
The fingers were way longer than you'd expect and almost wrapped around my hand, and the hand was wet.....it was soooo gross but I checked back any exclamations or weird looks. I'm sure this guy actually enjoyed weirding people out with it, he was smiling just a bit too much.
Next thing a guy showed up riding a Harley, he was after coming up from Washington state but was born in Michigan. He was great fun and was talking about bears and of course he came over and shook our hands, mine first, and johnny two fingers next.
Well, he wasn't as good as holding onto his emotions as I was and no sooner had he the fingers in his hand that he said.... "Y'know something... I think i'm gonna puke!, that hand is some vile shit!"
In fairness the guy burst out laughing too and we all shared in the laugh, the guy went onto explain he was born like that but it didn't hold him back. He said he used to shake hands with the left hand but now enjoyed peoples reactions to it in a weird sort of way.
Neither of us booked up the courage to ask...."So what is the wet feeling?" but when he was gone we both scuppered off and washed our hands like they'd just been raped.
Later on I met Jurgens in Watson lake, a German guy off touring the world. He some great stories about Africa and we had a couple of beers and a burger in the local restaurant.
Watson lake has really only two reasons to stay there, one is that its a long way to the next towns so you kind of have to stay there and the other reason to stop is the sign forest, which seems to have doubled in size in the last couple of years. In 1992 it had 10,000 signs, there are at least ten times that now. Its very unusual and if your coming this way well worth stopping for. Other than that, Watson lake is an overpriced shithole.
Take care
Oisin