Sideways
July 10, 2017 - As I write this from inside my hammock, I can count approximately 20 mosquitos within a foot of my head. Thank you mosquito netting. I had an extended recovery morning of relaxation before I finally mustered up the chutzpah to hit the road again. Once I got rolling, I was glad to be back on two wheels, and the >170kms of today didn’t feel too bad. The road was absolutely gorgeous as it twisted between mountains and long, empty stretches. Here are a few pictures, but I swear all the best views happen when I’m cruising downhill and those photos are a bit hazardous to take with all the gravel along the shoulders. After following the Skeena River, I crossed it by turning onto highway 37. I’m now off the road to Terrace/Prince Rupert/Kitimat, have left most of the traffic behind and am onto the road to, as that sign says, Alaska, the Yukon and the great north! This highway took me through a few first nations reserves, but mostly the highway was empty except for a black bear and a gorgeous not orange coloured fox. There is nothing really out here, so I set up camp by a stream, ate my dinner swatting bugs, and retreated to my hammock.
July 11, 2017 - Thank goodness I decided to put up the tarp last night - I woke up to solid drizzle (if drizzle can be solid). I reluctantly hit the road, and it was great! What a beautiful day!! Not the weather, but the scenery. The mountains wrapped in fog were fantastic, and the miles went down well. The mosquitos attacked anytime I stopped so, I didn’t stop much. The road took me to Meziadin Junction, and I took a detour west to ALASKA!!!! So worth it, the ride to the coast featured a glacier, epic mountains, and a gravel (read muddy) road. I was grinning through the mostly descent, getting mud in my teeth, but kind of enjoying the fact that somehow, indirectly, accidentally I just biked from Mexico to Alaska! After crossing the border to Hyder, I returned to Canada and got a warm and delicious pizza, where I met some fantastic people… one of which was a motorcyclist who had literally been travelling around the world and offered me a spare bed in his hotel room - yayyyy no camping in the rain while already soggy and putting in a 200km day!
July 12, 2017 - Woke up (dry!) and went to breakfast before hitting the road. I caught a ride back to the junction where I detoured to Alaska the day before with a very kind soul. I had several visitors on the road including 3 black bears, a moose, Janosch passing me on his cool motorized bike, a couple who had kept me entertained over dinner last night, and drum roll Roxy and her coworker who happened upon me and gave me water, fruit, a granola bar and a huge smile!!!!! The day’s, or really afternoon’s, 137km ride took me along beautiful valleys surrounded in mountains - thank you rivers for making such reasonable terrain to ride. Also, I love the alpine streams here which, even when you follow along on their level, are so steep that you are going noticeably uphill or downhill. I stopped for the night just as I could see the rain catching up with me, and set up camp near a rest stop. And then, after repeat visits from a cute little black bear who was getting harder and harder to scare away, I relocated to the outhouse - oh yeah, luxury indeed. On that note, goodnight!
July 13, 2017 - After moving ‘indoors’ last night, I was then joined by the friendly neighbourhood mouse. I’ve grown quite accustomed to their scampering in my sleeping space from cowboy camping and sleeping with a tarp… but this one was noisy and managed to nibble a hole through one of my panniers - grrrr. Needless to say, I was super well rested. I hit the road early, not too inclined to linger, and did 50 cold, sluggish kms to the next rest stop. I’m sure the mountains were beautiful, but they were thoroughly cloaked in cloud. 60 more kms, slightly more awake to a lovely little hotel outfit and the best burger I have had yet this trip - and that is not something I say lightly. After chats with the other folks at lunch, I headed out for more hilly miles. Each pass brought new scenery - one to the rock-topped mountains known for their sheep, and the next to tundra and bog type trees. The day also brought 2 bears up close and personal (but they had great personalities), a moose, a flock of grouse that startled me twice as much as i startled them, another of those gorgeous northern foxes and another chance encounter with Roxy! The weather was quite entertaining today - started in clouds, then sun, then patches of sun amongst towering thunderheads that amassed into an apocalyptic swirl by the end of the day. The clouds chased to finish the day, making the last 10kms of today’s 210 kms probably the fastest yet.
July 14, 2017 - After a good night’s sleep I received some donated fruit and hoped back on the bike. After my morning’s enjoyable 100kms through the ever changing forest, I arrived at the haven of Jade City. At the Jade shop, I enjoyed the hospitality of free coffee and a warm, dry spot. It has been raining more on than off for four days now, but this lessens the mosquitos, so I’m almost okay with it? Another fun note, the trees here are too small and spindly to log, which means… no more logging trucks! Great for traffic on the road, but I do miss the waft of evergreen that follows them. My legs feel fine, great even, but (literally haha) some combination of the new seat, perpetually soggy shorts from the rain and long days on the bike has made saddle sores develop. I won’t go into detail, but I am making good decisions, and adjusting riding plans! Rather than continue my big day plans from Jade City, I cycled another very relaxed 30kms between the raindrops and a rainbow to a very gorgeous Boya lake to camp. When I got there I, of course, said some hellos, but those hellos turned into not only a smile, but also a dinner a very nice couple brought over, and a dry place to eat it and have a fantastic chat with them - I truly love the people in this world.
July 15, 2017 - Hello Yukon!!! After >2100kms and 15 days of British Columbia, I am finally in another province! Cassiar highway, you’ve been a rainy, gorgeous, empty and unforgettable 727kms. Funny thing from the highway - it’s full of wildlife and scenery, so drivers often have their cameras out. It took me until today to realize they were not just point them at the scenery, but also at me… I’m sure there are now some great candid facial expressions out there…
July 16, 2017 - I woke up to a relaxing morning of laundry and logistics planning... that Whitehorse timeline exists because a dear friend of mine is joining me up here for his two weeks off for a sort of arctic expedition on bikes. Oh yeah. My original plan was to turn south and east when I got to Whitehorse, but I am loving the north. It’s gorgeous, wild and empty. Going farther north from Whitehorse is entering into the really empty, bear-filled bit, so I am very excited to do that with company! The company needs an introduction. Max is a #tagtrained road, mountain and cyclocross bike racer (he’s definitely going to keep up), a bike mechanic (hellooooo), the resident Camp Bow-Isle neature-man (let’s be real my skills are sometimes shockingly questionable), and a good friend. Yay Max - pretty stoked to have a teammate on this one. We are going to attempt to bike the Dempster highway to Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk if at all possible. It’s going to be buggy, beary, gravelly, and quite possibly weathery. Literally who knows! I spent the rest of my day in the lovely town of Whitehorse and plan to catch the finals of the world softball championship tonight! Who knew!!!
To the North
July 10 - 16: I made it out of BC! It's been a fun 15 days headed north in BC, and now I am in the Yukon! I've had some great days, and a lot of wet ones - see below for details. Also, I feel like in these daily entries I often mention some of the people I meet on the road. I don’t go into detail because I don’t think I can do our interactions justice. The people I meet, especially locals, shape my memories of a place more than I can explain. I have their faces, words and laughter in my head for hours and sometimes days after our usually brief interaction. People tell me stories about themselves, the place they live and adventures they had. Other travellers, especially cyclists and motorcyclists make me smile when we meet, give me invaluable beta on the roads, and also understand what being on the road on two wheels with no box around you means. We share laughter at the parts that suck, but we’re all still doing it because we love it and the kind of memories it makes. Folks in RVs and cars offer to help, and share their precious food and resources. Somehow, through this quick interactions, I've had some of the best conversations of my life, and made some dear, dear friends.
July 11, 2017 - Thank goodness I decided to put up the tarp last night - I woke up to solid drizzle (if drizzle can be solid). I reluctantly hit the road, and it was great! What a beautiful day!! Not the weather, but the scenery. The mountains wrapped in fog were fantastic, and the miles went down well. The mosquitos attacked anytime I stopped so, I didn’t stop much. The road took me to Meziadin Junction, and I took a detour west to ALASKA!!!! So worth it, the ride to the coast featured a glacier, epic mountains, and a gravel (read muddy) road. I was grinning through the mostly descent, getting mud in my teeth, but kind of enjoying the fact that somehow, indirectly, accidentally I just biked from Mexico to Alaska! After crossing the border to Hyder, I returned to Canada and got a warm and delicious pizza, where I met some fantastic people… one of which was a motorcyclist who had literally been travelling around the world and offered me a spare bed in his hotel room - yayyyy no camping in the rain while already soggy and putting in a 200km day!
July 12, 2017 - Woke up (dry!) and went to breakfast before hitting the road. I caught a ride back to the junction where I detoured to Alaska the day before with a very kind soul. I had several visitors on the road including 3 black bears, a moose, Janosch passing me on his cool motorized bike, a couple who had kept me entertained over dinner last night, and drum roll Roxy and her coworker who happened upon me and gave me water, fruit, a granola bar and a huge smile!!!!! The day’s, or really afternoon’s, 137km ride took me along beautiful valleys surrounded in mountains - thank you rivers for making such reasonable terrain to ride. Also, I love the alpine streams here which, even when you follow along on their level, are so steep that you are going noticeably uphill or downhill. I stopped for the night just as I could see the rain catching up with me, and set up camp near a rest stop. And then, after repeat visits from a cute little black bear who was getting harder and harder to scare away, I relocated to the outhouse - oh yeah, luxury indeed. On that note, goodnight!
July 13, 2017 - After moving ‘indoors’ last night, I was then joined by the friendly neighbourhood mouse. I’ve grown quite accustomed to their scampering in my sleeping space from cowboy camping and sleeping with a tarp… but this one was noisy and managed to nibble a hole through one of my panniers - grrrr. Needless to say, I was super well rested. I hit the road early, not too inclined to linger, and did 50 cold, sluggish kms to the next rest stop. I’m sure the mountains were beautiful, but they were thoroughly cloaked in cloud. 60 more kms, slightly more awake to a lovely little hotel outfit and the best burger I have had yet this trip - and that is not something I say lightly. After chats with the other folks at lunch, I headed out for more hilly miles. Each pass brought new scenery - one to the rock-topped mountains known for their sheep, and the next to tundra and bog type trees. The day also brought 2 bears up close and personal (but they had great personalities), a moose, a flock of grouse that startled me twice as much as i startled them, another of those gorgeous northern foxes and another chance encounter with Roxy! The weather was quite entertaining today - started in clouds, then sun, then patches of sun amongst towering thunderheads that amassed into an apocalyptic swirl by the end of the day. The clouds chased to finish the day, making the last 10kms of today’s 210 kms probably the fastest yet.
July 14, 2017 - After a good night’s sleep I received some donated fruit and hoped back on the bike. After my morning’s enjoyable 100kms through the ever changing forest, I arrived at the haven of Jade City. At the Jade shop, I enjoyed the hospitality of free coffee and a warm, dry spot. It has been raining more on than off for four days now, but this lessens the mosquitos, so I’m almost okay with it? Another fun note, the trees here are too small and spindly to log, which means… no more logging trucks! Great for traffic on the road, but I do miss the waft of evergreen that follows them. My legs feel fine, great even, but (literally haha) some combination of the new seat, perpetually soggy shorts from the rain and long days on the bike has made saddle sores develop. I won’t go into detail, but I am making good decisions, and adjusting riding plans! Rather than continue my big day plans from Jade City, I cycled another very relaxed 30kms between the raindrops and a rainbow to a very gorgeous Boya lake to camp. When I got there I, of course, said some hellos, but those hellos turned into not only a smile, but also a dinner a very nice couple brought over, and a dry place to eat it and have a fantastic chat with them - I truly love the people in this world.
July 15, 2017 - Hello Yukon!!! After >2100kms and 15 days of British Columbia, I am finally in another province! Cassiar highway, you’ve been a rainy, gorgeous, empty and unforgettable 727kms. Funny thing from the highway - it’s full of wildlife and scenery, so drivers often have their cameras out. It took me until today to realize they were not just point them at the scenery, but also at me… I’m sure there are now some great candid facial expressions out there…
I mentioned yesterday I was adjusting riding plans, so after my 90kms this morning, I entered a worm hole. A worm hole is when you and your bike enter an inviting metal box with a motor, and magically end up where you were going with zero effort required.
Today, I worm-holed the Alaska highway from the junction to Whitehorse with Ryan who was at the end of a 7 day drive with all of his family’s possessions in a uhaul to start their new life in Alaska. Another great conversation and connection which included playing Arrogant worm songs to explain what it’s like to be Canadian.
I’ll get this stretch of highway covered when I return this way, but the worm hole technique was used because of some sort of shifting problem I am making worse instead of better the more I try to fix it, my aforementioned saddle sore shenanigans andddd because I suddenly have a timeline to make it to Whitehorse!!! Say what? It’s exciting! I’ll tell you more tomorrow, but in the meantime, I am going to enjoy the hospitality of Zina the marvelous!!!
July 16, 2017 - I woke up to a relaxing morning of laundry and logistics planning... that Whitehorse timeline exists because a dear friend of mine is joining me up here for his two weeks off for a sort of arctic expedition on bikes. Oh yeah. My original plan was to turn south and east when I got to Whitehorse, but I am loving the north. It’s gorgeous, wild and empty. Going farther north from Whitehorse is entering into the really empty, bear-filled bit, so I am very excited to do that with company! The company needs an introduction. Max is a #tagtrained road, mountain and cyclocross bike racer (he’s definitely going to keep up), a bike mechanic (hellooooo), the resident Camp Bow-Isle neature-man (let’s be real my skills are sometimes shockingly questionable), and a good friend. Yay Max - pretty stoked to have a teammate on this one. We are going to attempt to bike the Dempster highway to Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk if at all possible. It’s going to be buggy, beary, gravelly, and quite possibly weathery. Literally who knows! I spent the rest of my day in the lovely town of Whitehorse and plan to catch the finals of the world softball championship tonight! Who knew!!!
Amazing !! Looking forward to hear more stories ! Also in Whse at the moment. Cheers !
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