Here it is, another month. I begin it by taking the day off, here at Wonowon. This is the trashiest pay campground I’ve been in. There are some tree dudes staying here in travel trailers. I ate at the café here for lunch – all you can eat buffet. There was a man hitchhiking on the side of the road and one of the tree workers invited him up to join them for lunch. It started to get pretty cold late that afternoon and I started a campfire. By that evening it was colder still. With all the rain and wetness, the fire was a welcome companion and I spent most of the time playing with it. This is the first day I haven’t ridden my bicycle since I was in Montana. I am thinking about the fact that I have no idea what I will do when this trip is over.
This is the day I hit true mountains. Pink Mountain. Sikani Chief. The Alaska Highway is rough and steeply graded, and the narrow roads wind sharply up and down the ever-present mountains. I enjoyed another all-you-can-eat buffet at the Husky in Wonowon before leaving for what would be my last decent meal for a long time to come. I figure I should be in great shape by the time I get to Alaska after plowing through all these mountains, if it doesn’t kill me first, which it won’t because it is actually easier for me than the hills of Tennessee and Missouri. I have done much riding since that time and as a result, have accumulated huge leg muscles.
I paid $2 for a loaf of bread at Pink Mountain – white bread. I was going to buy the other loaf – wheat bread, but there were a couple sliced taken out. I also paid $3.55 for a small package of cheese. These prices would seem cheap the further I ventured into the wilderness that is northern Canada. This is, of course, Canadian dollars, but expensive nonetheless.
I am in desperate need of a new freewheel and chain wheel. I cannot even ride hard without them skipping – the teeth are worn down to the extreme, which I suppose is to be expected after more than 5000 miles of a heavy load taken over all these steep climbs. The #2 wheel I can no longer use at all. It was chilly today but, at least, it was sunny for a change.
I made it to the Buckinghorse River Lodge which was just a few trailers and free camping for me. I found a grassy spot near an old dilapidated wall. They charged $3 for a shower though and breakfast was $10. It seems like I’m on a spending spree. Nothing is cheap this far north and away from civilization. I only started with $3,000 and, fortunately, conserved my money pretty well the first half of the trip. There are very few stores and when there are the prices are crazy. I paid $3 for a loaf of bread and $.75 a piece for bananas.
I have been thinking of my original plans. Back in March and April of 1996 I wanted to go to Yellowknife, NWT or Inuvik. I still would like to do it but I can’t go everywhere. Reading this Milepost book is bringing back memories of when this was all a pipe dream. Just looking at pictures and reading and imagining. It is hard to believe sometimes that I am actually doing it.
It got below freezing last night. I woke up this morning in Prophet River and there was frost covering the grass. Several hours later it was hot. It rained most of the first part of the day and my feet stayed wet the whole day. In fact, it was one of the hottest days I can remember, but the wind was on my side and it seemed I went mostly downhill. I cruised down the steepest hill on my way into Ft. Nelson, and on my way up the chain gear system finally bit it. I had to push my bike up the hill the rest of the way into Ft. Nelson.
After reaching Ft. Nelson at the top of the hill I was able to ride again carefully, as long as I didn’t try to pedal too hard so the chain wouldn’t skip. Unfortunately, I came to find the only bicycle shop in town was closed that day on account of it being British Columbia Day. But it was no big deal. The West End Campground was close to the bike shop so I stayed there for the night. It was hard to sleep that night. There were a bunch of Indians tripping on acid all night and it was loud. All the tent campers shared one large spot so it was interesting.
This morning I woke up and took my bike to the shop to replace the chain wheels. The guy there – Brady, put on the new chain and freewheel but didn’t have the right sized chain-crank so he took the one off his bike and used the smallest two wheels. I don’t have the third, largest wheel now but I rarely use that one anyway. I did some grocery shopping while waiting for my bike and took another $300 out of the strapped-for-cash-machine. I had found a 5 gallon bucket on the side of the road the day before which I had planned on using to guard my food from the bears which, are supposed to be pretty thick up here. I cleaned it up some but it proved to be too cumbersome to carry so I decided to put that idea on hold for a while.
I traveled less than 50 miles today to the Husky in the town of Steamboat. There was really nothing between Ft. Nelson and here. This last climb to Steamboat was a 10% graded monster. This other cyclist happened to be riding up at the same time as me and we were talking as we rode. I don’t know how I managed to talk but it seemed to help pass the time and make the climb not seem as long. I think that is one of the reasons this trip is so tiring and grueling and mentally frustrating at times. I am traveling alone and I know it is always easier to work out with a partner. This spot at Steamboat is really just one of those RV camping spots but I at least have a picnic table.
I woke up this morning and ate a can of corned beef hash. Today would be my steepest and most difficult day of my trip. I am headed up the Canadian Rockies and I only went about 22 miles today for my shortest trip to date. I’m at a place called Tetsa River Outfitters, which is a place where they take people on horseback expeditions into the mountains. Earlier in the day the Alaska Highway was under construction and, for about two or three miles there was no road. I had to ride in the back of a pilot truck for this stretch because traffic could only go in spurts following a pilot truck, so cyclists weren’t allowed to ride. I rode with a Japanese cyclist for this stretch which was the only point in the entire trip in which I did not ride my bike, except for the ferry ride across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Illinois – and, of course, the ferry ride to Dauphin Island in Alabama. But that’s ok. This torn up section of road was nothing but extremely slippery mud. To emphasize this point, the moment I got out of the truck and mounted my bike, the wheels immediately slid out from under me and I ate the turf, right in from of people in cars who immediately started laughing and throwing tomatoes at me and spitting and flinging hatchets…but anyway, I eventually made it to Tetsa River Outfitters.
It was a very hot day with many steep climbs, and construction for more than 10 miles, so I guess it was no great surprise I was tired and not feeling so great when I pulled into the Tetsa River Outfitters after only having ridden 22 miles for the day. After setting up it started to look like rain.
I hadn’t planned on taking the next day off but it rained all night and does not seem to be letting up. I am heading up the Canadian Rockies, and am most of the way up. I wake up this morning with it still raining. Last night two RVs of German tourists pulled up to camp next to me. This morning the two women woke me up with breakfast of a hotdog, a ham sandwich, and a large cup of coffee. I sat in the RV with one of the families and talked but they didn’t know much English, but it was still better than my German, even though I took German for three years in High School. So much for language learning in a classroom without ever having to speak it.
It rained all day and all night. The shower wasn’t working because all the water running down the mountain keeps knocking the pipe out of place, the guy that works at the place says. It was a strange day because, except to take a shower, I never left my tent. I drank the large cup of coffee the German women gave me and I haven’t been used to drinking much caffeine. I think I was hallucinating or generally just slipping into insanity. I slipped in and out of sleep many times. I started taking really deep breaths for a prolonged period of time to see what it would do. I started getting tingly all over and felt my head rush. I was hearing wild animals all night.
The next day I was so glad to be leaving. I had some really cool dreams last night in my all day rain-in but I can’t remember them. I met an Asian or Indian looking girl with real short hair and her friend. I talked for a while to her as I fixed a flat tire. They are heading to Alaska too. I had to take a shower at the owner’s house because the pipe got knocked over again. Before I left I remembered I had to fill my water bottles up. The water was brown and full of dirt but I drank it all day anyway. Even the dirt tasted pretty good. The ride to Tetsa was the shortest of my trip but I would break that short-lived short record today. I was so tired and was climbing the highest summit on the Alaska Highway – Summit Lake. When I finally reached it I decided to go no further. A total of 16 miles for the day and I was already ready to camp. While I was there I ran into the two girls I met in Tetsa. I talked to the Asian girl some more and when she left I wished I had her picture or address or something. For some reason I still think about her even today. If I had taken her picture or got her address I probably wouldn’t think of her at all.
What a crazy day. I started on the top of Summit Lake – the highest point on the Alaska Highway – and cross the Rocky Mountains to the Western side. This was the most unbelievable scenic experience I have ever had. It was unbelievable to me, one who had never really seen mountains before, having lived a life of Florida. All the colors and textures, not only of the mountains, but the sky’s and lakes too. I went through all the film in both my cameras and regretted it later on in the day when I was out of film and came upon things I had to have pictures of. The campground I had originally planned on camping at was closed so I headed on toward Muncho Lake.
I was really regretting running out of film. I saw a moose and a large cat that must have been a bobcat or something. It was starting to become duskish and I still had some riding to do. I had already taken pictures of mountain sheep earlier in the day and now the wildlife is really coming out. I didn’t see any bears but started singing anyway and then the derailleur wheel fell off for the second time today. The first time it fell all the way off and I had to walk all the way down the road to find it. There are obviously some parts of the derailleur mechanism missing but I know little about bike mechanics and nothing about detailers. I’m not even sure of what it is supposed to look like. I have a bike repair book with me but its hard to tell what parts are missing so I just put it together the best I can and head on.
I ended up camping at a spot in the Muncho Lake region after having traveled 63 miles – nearly twice the distance I managed to ride in the previous three days put together.
I woke up today and bought $20 worth of film and a $4 loaf of homemade bread which was, at least, the only fresh bread I’ve had since being in Canada. Today was pretty easy ridding but the gnats are really bad. Muncho Lake is this long narrow lake with its strange bluish-green colored water. It is really difficult to describe but apparently gets its color from having a large copper content. It is beautiful – especially from a distance when viewed from above on the mountainside.
I only traveled about 40 miles to Liard Hot Springs. They were really nice. One side was really hot and no one was there. Most people were near the waterfall part which is where I started. It was nice and hot. It was too hot when I switched to the hotter part. I talked to a guy with a little girl. He had come 17 years earlier – before all the platforms were built. The springs are contained within a state park and boardwalks trail all throughout the park and surround the springs. There was a German lady there who seemed to really like the hot end but I felt like I had just run a marathon. I was trying to catch my breath and started feeling really dizzy after I got out. I’m in a dilemma because tomorrow the campgrounds are 30 and 90 miles away.
Today is August 11th. I wake up at Trapper Ray’s Campground, across the street from the Liard River Provincial Park. Last night some animal was snorting around my tent making noise and eating something. The people who set up next to me had someone with them who was snoring louder than the animal.
Today I saw a bear cub run across the road ahead of me at Kilometer marker 815. The car that passed me had slowed to avoid something which, at first, seemed like a dog – woofing and stuff, but after it ran by the car I saw that it was a black bear cub. I didn’t have time to get its picture. By the time I got my camera out it had made it back into the woods. I waited a while and nothing happened, so I proceeded with caution. I didn’t want to see its mother.
I made it to Whirlpool Canyon on the Liard River. It’s a do-it-yourself free campground nestled at a sharp curve in the Liard River which cascades over some large rocks producing a waterfall rapids effect. There is a large amount of driftwood beached at the point where the river swerves. I’ve never seen so much firewood before. It looks like years of accumulated wood. Whole trees, washed up into one large pile. Not surprisingly, I had a good fire that night.
That night was pretty busy. A bunch of people ended up hanging out at my fire talking. A man cycling from Deadhorse to Fairbanks had stopped because his little boy missed him. He was hitchhiking to Cheyenne, Wyoming to buy a truck to drive back to his home north of the twin cities in Minnesota. He was there with a guy who gave him a ride from Whitehorse, Yukon, and was himself driving to Vancouver. Some people from Wasilla, Alaska had joined us. The man worked in Barrow, Alaska a little and described it as dirty. His wife was half Eskimo. They were waiting for the meteor showers from Persius and I looked it up in my Star guide. The cyclists last name was Mayo and had cycled up to a town called Mayo for the novelty of it, I guess. Since he was done riding he gave me his protein powder.
The following morning I got up and prepared to be on my way. There were no showers or water at Whirlpool canyon. I filtered some drinking water from the extremely silty Liard River. I think this finally did my water filter in. It got exceedingly difficult to pump and I was never able to really use in again after that.
I was headed through an extremely bleak section of terrain. There was nothing around and I pulled into what was listed on the map as Fireside. It was really just a little gas station that charged RVs to park for the night. It was here I met the most obnoxious person I had the displeasure of meeting for the entire trip. I ask if they have showers – “No!” “Can I get some water?” – “I’m busy – yer just gonna hafta wait!” She asked me if I was gonna buy something. I needed to buy some food so I said yes. In the café she started to fill my bottles then stopped to make sure I bought something. They didn’t have bread or anything so I bought a muffin. The whole area is void of trees and I found out later that a big fire had swept through several years before and destroyed acres of forest.
I made it to Contact Creek, Yukon Territory and am planning on taking a day off here at the Iron Creek Lodge. I was treated to breakfast from a couple camping there. They told me they live in Williams Lake, BC but I am guessing they probably live up on the shore somewhere near the lake. I met the lady as I was walking up to do laundry. We both arrived at the same time and I had put my cloths in the washer that said dollars only. The only other washer said quarters only and I asked her which one she preferred. She had no quarters and was ecstatic that I let her have the dollar machine – so much so that she put a dollar in my dryer while I was away getting dollars. The nest morning her and her husband took my to breakfast and gave me their address and that of another couple living in Vancouver. They really were just interested in my trip and asked many questions.
The showers were fucked up. I put a dollar in, washed my hair, and it shut off after less than 2 minutes. I was wet and all soaped up and went to get another dollar only to find I had none. I had to rinse off in the sink and the floor had no drain. Apparently, the next people did the same thing. Now, some guy says a tree-planting farm is camping here and putting up 40 tents. Ravens are everywhere around here but they don’t say “Nevermore” or anything. They just scream and make really strange sounds. Ravens are cool. They sound almost human.[talk all about ravens]
I rested today. Here I am camped on the shore of a lake stocked with Rainbow Trout. I man here with his family goes out fishing with his two sons and catches some fish. He promises me their next trip out he’ll get me a fish and he does. I think these fish are specially bred. He gives me a ‘Rainbow’ which I clean and cook over my campfire, built in a large metal fire pit which looks like a big wok. The fish meat itself is pink, just like salmon. I walk through the woods here as I do everyplace I stop. Especially on days off I have a tendency to really walk and get a good look around. The trees up north are not like anything I’m used to seeing in Florida. They are mostly spruce and stuff, with their tiny pinecones. The tree planters settle in with their large entourage. I get a chance to speak with several of them and become very interested in their work.
They are employed by a company which is responsible for following the lumber companies around, planting tree saplings after the old trees have been cut down. They get paid per tree and can make several hundred dollars a day depending on how fast they are. They say in your first year you don’t make much money but with practice after several seasons of backbreaking work, you can make some pretty good money in the three months of planting season.
The road dipped back down into British Columbia today. Several times, in fact. Actually The Alaska Highway crosses and recrossed the Yukon Territory – British Columbia border 7 times. Today’s journey took me through Watson Lake and its famous signpost forest. I had heard about and seen pictures of Watson Lake and its signpost forest but I never realized just how big it was. It’s been a tradition here for years for tourists and passers by to leave a sign from their hometown – be it a street sign, city limit sign, or whatever. This forest of signs first sprouted back during WWII and the construction of the Alaska Highway by a homesick soldier who posted a sign bearing the name of his hometown and the mileage to it from where he now stood. Now there were hundreds, maybe thousands of signs from all over the world.
I also went to a laser light planetarium type show. It is supposed to be the only one in North America and the presentation was about the northern lights. It rained most of the day. It was cold and wet that day and I dried my shoes and stuff at the Laundromat. I was headed toward a campground at Jct 37 but when I got there they wanted $11.70 to camp so I went up the road to The Northern Beaver Post and camped for free in the woods.
This morning I had pancakes at the restaurant at Northern Beaver Post and showered for $3 at Jct37. There I met this hippie dude who couldn’t decide whether to go home to Wisconsin and get a job or to go to California and get his pot plants. While in Whitehorse he smoked some killer buds and got real paranoid about going back to California to get his plants. He also owned an acre of land in Alaska and was facing a real dilemma about what to do. I would have loved to help but this was just something was going to have to decide on his own. For me my life had become incredibly simple these past several months. Although this trip could be grueling and downright painful and torturous at times, there was an incredible simplicity about having a single goal. The goal was set, and I wasn’t deviating from it.
I stopped at a day campground and took a nap on a picnic table. I must have narcolepsy or something. I can be tired for no apparent reason, and it doesn’t always have anything to do with how much sleep I got. I’m kind of disappointed. I though that this trip would get me into great physical shape and I would be constantly bursting with energy. I expected to be alert, awake, and alive. I thought maybe I would reach the point where I had a clear head, clarity of though and was able to live in the present tense. I was expecting all kinds of magical things to happen which never happened. The one change I noticed was that this trip at least seemed to cure my insomnia. Never in my life have I been able to fall asleep so quickly. No lying awake tossing and turning for eons until I eventually drift off to sleep – no, now its like I lay back and its good night Eric. Lights out see ya!
I got to a spot called Rancheria. These places like Ranceria are listed on the map like any city or town would be, but in actuality, I don’t see evidence of the existence of anything but perhaps a gas station, store, campground, or other such stopping spot. Out here in the middle of nowhere, any sign of organization of any type gathering spot is worthy of a name on a map I guess. I passed by the lone edifice and evidence of Rancheria’s existence and pulled off into the woods onto a trail which led to the Rancheria River. I cooked, ate, and stashed my food on/in an old abandoned camper topper and set up my tent some distance away. Seclusion.
Only went 30 miles today. Nowhere near the Morley River Resort as I have planned. In fact, I’m back in British Columbia again. I’m listening to ‘Name” by the Goo Goo Dolls on a far away, late at night, AM radio station as I sit in my tent in the woods on a cliff overlooking a wide section of the Swift River called Swan Lake. It is incredibly cool to be here. There are remnants of someone else having camped here with a makeshift fire pit and table. This would be a perfect spot to have a house or cabin with a storybook view of the lake from high up above.
I didn’t go far today partly because I didn’t get up and going until about 2PM. It was freezing out when I awoke which always will make me stay in my sleeping bag just a little bit longer. It’s a tough thing to do, getting out of a warm sleeping bag to face a frigid morning. I took my $3 shower at the Rancheria Hotel/Motel/RV Park. I managed to cross the Continental Divide which was an uneventful event. In fact, I don’t think I even remember crossing it. The day started out chilly but now is not even cold – Weird!
My day off here at Swan Lake was pretty cool. I just hung out here at this nice secluded spot. I went down to the lake and talked to some Indians who were camped out and preparing to hunt some Moose. For the most part I did absolutely nothing but hang around and make fires. I guess this is what it is all about.
I had wanted to make it to Mukluk Annie’s [talk about ad in Mileposts] for the salmon bake. I had been planning it for some time. I was running late but was still optimistic I might make it in time. It was supposed to close at 9PM and I got there at 8:30, but unfortunately they closed at 8PM because the tourist season was drawing to a close – and after hauling ass to get there in time! Oh Well! The worse thing this does is illustrate a bad sign. Tourist season is waning. Winter will be here soon, and I’m not even in Alaska yet. Getting to the Alaska border is not the end of my destination. There will still be almost 1000 miles to go to get to Deadhorse after crossing into Alaska. I am still racing against time and am not spank mankinly optimistic about getting past Fairbanks.
Mukluk Annie’s was not a total loss, however. They offered free camping for customers and, even though I missed Mukluk Annie’s Salmon Bake, I had Mukluk Chucks Unique Yukon Breakfast the following morning. It was an all-you-can-eat breakfast and I ate with a couple from Portland, Oregon who had given me firewood and pitch the evening before. They talked about their son who was a Computer Engineering student and was getting all kinds of job offers while still in school. I think I want to be a computer Engineer when this trip is over.
This may sound a bit repetitive, but today started out raining, and was cloudy and cold all day. The air is thick with gnats. I made it to a spot past Jake’s Corner – an old gravel pit at km1394. There are plenty of these old gravel pits at various spots along the Alaska Highway. They need these for the construction and constant maintenance of the highway. And so campers have a hard flat surface to sleep on. It felt pretty cool when I would roll of my air mattress, all the little rocks. Until the early 90’s the Alaska Highway was still not completely paved. Even now, the road conditions pretty much suck a good deal of the time. There was no way to put the tent stakes into the ground though. It was like trying to push nails through concrete. I ended up finding some big rocks to tie the springs to.
I’ve been eating a lot a candy lately. I learned that candy is a good source of sugar, and you just can’t get enough sugar when you’re doing cross-country type activities – or maybe that’s water, I forget. But its also cool getting candy bars here in Canada because they have different types and brands than they do in the U.S. You can’t get M and M’s or Hershey’s or $100,000 bars, but they have all their own brands. In fact, all the name brands of food I’m used to seeing in the grocery store don’t exist here. And everything is labeled in both English and French. Everywhere I went I bought candy. And The Pioneer Campground store was no exception. I made it here to this campground which is just as you are entering Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Not only is Whitehorse the capital and largest city, but also it is practically the only city in Yukon. About ***% of the total population of the Yukon lives here, and it is still a small city. I’m planning on taking a couple days off to explore Whitehorse.
I woke up at the campground here in Whitehorse. Actually it is really before Whitehorse and it was still a few miles to get into town. I set out walking toward town ready for a day of exploring but didn’t get very far before someone stopped and offered me a ride. I spent most of the day walking around town. I decided to see a movie at the local theater. I stopped at a bar called Bonanza Inn and drank beer for the first time since hanging out with those guys in Iowa. After talking to the people next to be a bit my bike trip naturally came up and I wound up having a beer bought for me, then another and I don’t recall how many exactly. Either way I ended up missing the first showing of the movie. I was talking the whole night to the bartender Niki who was playing John Cougar’s “American Fool” CD. This was one of the first albums I ever bought as a child and was one of my favorites as it was Niki’s so we played it all night and had a good time before I stumbled out of the bar toward the movie theater. I was a movie called “Even Horizon” and I can’t say I remember much about if it was good or bad.
This night’s adventure had only just begun. After the movie was over I found myself in Whitehorse late at night with quite a long way to walk to get home. Somehow I ended up crossing the Yukon River into a completely different neighborhood and walking quite a long distance before realizing I was on the wrong side of the river. I came upon a large dam/reservoir. The water was rushing through with such force the water crashed and exploded many feet in the air and became a fine mist which was getting me wet even though I was probably 40-50 feet away from the bank of the river. It was awesome and I was reminded of how city of Whitehorse had originally gotten its name. The Yukon River was suddenly narrowed by gorges in the town’s vicinity causing the water to crash and heave up in white water rapids that resembled the galloping of white horses. I wondered if the dam was constructed to maintain the integrity of the town’s namesake by preserving the white horses. Of course, I was pretty drunk at the time.
Well here I was on the wrong side of the river and the only bridge I knew of was the one I had mistakenly crossed. The dam was surrounded by 10-12 feet tall chain link fences but that was the only way through so up I climbed, crossing the dam with its water pounding so loud I couldn’t hear my hand in front of my face. Across the dam was another fence to climb. The hardest part about climbing a fence is getting over the top with the points sticking up and over the top I go hoping not to get my clothes caught on the way down. Now I’m on the side with all the dirt. Somehow I am still nowhere near any thing I recognize and, after climbing another smaller though no less annoying chain-link fence and which finally managed to cut the shit out of me and my drunken hand, I staggered off into the ever darkening realm of dirt, leaving the dam and seemingly any trace of civilization behind.
I was not sure of where I was or where I was headed. I knew I was going away from the Yukon River which was the roundabout direction of the Alaska Highway which was where my campground existed. I knew which direction to wander in if I could make it to this road. The problem was finding it in the first place. I was obviously in some sort of construction/destruction area because it was nothing but soft dirt and trees. I had no light so basically had to stumble along to the starlight in the gap where there were no trees. This strategy seemed to work as I was finally reunited with the Alaska Highway.
I still had to get to my tent. I still had several miles to walk though I didn’t know it at the time since I had no clue at what point my little detour had deposited me. One thing I can be sure of was that I was still pretty buzzed. I sang Oasis’s “Cannonball” at the top of my lungs the entire trip along the highway, all the way to the entrance of the campground. I don’t know how much of my concert may have subconsciously been for the potential bear audience which may have been in the area. Like people up here so much enjoy, the man who gave my the ride into town had regaled be with his own personal bear tale of a kid on a bicycle being attacked and eaten on this very highway several years earlier.
Today I took the bus into Whitehorse. I’m tired and hung over and my left leg is killing me, presumably from my fence jumping activities. I ate Chicken Chow Mien at the Canton Chinese Restaurant and I believe it is the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. The lady here was real nice and I was talking to her about my trip. Its been raining on and off all day and is getting pretty cold. I called it an early day making it back to the campground and calling home. I talked to my sister as it was here 29th birthday.
I became attached to the strange charm of Whitehorse. Anywhere else on the continent and its just another small town. Here in the Yukon though, it’s the only considerable concentration of people for more than 500 miles in any direction. It had its modern buildings and typical town-type things like stores, and bars, and movie theaters. Then it had things like the three-story log cabin, the Yukon River and the quality of having absolutely nothing bordering it on just about every side. Like an Island in the woods.
I left this island reluctantly. It is so hard to get moving again after taking two days off. It seems like an eternity since I’ve ridden a bike and the biggest challenge seems to be just getting the hell out of town. I had to patch my bike computer wire together after severing it somewhere. Well, I am out of town which around here means being out of and away from everything. I’m back to feeling depressed and lethargic, and the fact that it is cold and cloudy all day doesn’t help. I can’t wait to get to Alaska. With only around 250 miles to go to get to the Alaska border I can feel it getting closer, but not close enough. I manage to ride a meager 48 miles today, just south of a place called Champagne, near the Mendenhall River. About halfway from Whitehorse to where I am now I hit my 6000th mile. There was really no landmark type thing to say, “I hit 6000 miles here”, which I guess is kind of fitting.
There is something wrong with my water filter. I am thinking it must be clogged but I know nothing about water filters. All I know is I cannot get water to go through it except for a small trickle, and with great difficulty. I get water at a place by the Mendenhall River Bridge. I make it to Pine Lake Yukon government campground. Here I met April and Lucy, two girls traveling to Alaska to go hiking at ****** mountains. They were coming from San Francisco where they lived. They stayed at Liard River Campground the night before and they said the springs and trails had been closed. We talked about the bear attack. [say more about bears and the attacks]
I got up this morning and went to April and Lucy’s tent. April was gone but Lucy was there and made me an apple pancake. I was on my way. I stopped at a rec center at Haines Junction to take a shower. I talked to a man there about the bear attacks and he was explaining about how all the towns in the area had fenced in their garbage dumps. Apparently the bears had become dependant on the food from the dumps for survival. The attack at Liard River was the most people ever attacked by a single bear on record. The bears were starving. Their main source of food had suddenly been cut off and they were desperate to eat. Here I was witnessing first hand a principle that I had long been aware of but not given much thought to the implications. Don’t feed the animals. Don’t feed the bears.
I ride along Kluane Lake for the last part of the day. I see mountain sheep high upon a mountain through a telescope and a can barely make out the little white dots with my eye when it’s naked. The Kluane National Park is just to the south of the highway and you can see snow on the tops of the mountains. I watched a slide presentation about the park and it is pretty amazing. The interior of the park is all glaciers and [say more]. I start wondering how April and Lucy are dong on their hike. As much as I seem to want this trip to end I know I will be sad when it is over.
I made it to the Bayshore. Which is a restaurant right on Kluane Lake which allows camping. I find a spot on the Lakeshore and make a fire and eat and stare at the incredible view of the mountains with their glaciers and there in the biting cold dusk as the sun sets over the mountains I feel really good even though I’ve had an exhausting day. I realize this is why I came on this trip.
I need to send my postcards. I will be out of Canada in probably two days and I want them to have a Canadian postmark. I ride today as far as the Kluane Wilderness Village which costs $8 to camp and an extra $2 for showers which is typical. All throughout Canada and even in Montana they have coin-operated showers. I didn’t find a place to turn off sooner for free cuz I was too preoccupied by being pissed off at my piece of shit cyclo-computer which is fucking up again. I talked to an older lady at a rest stop who has lived in the Alaskan wilderness for the past eight years. I think she was originally from New Jersey. Now she lives 30 miles from a mountain that was called Denali for maybe thousands of years and has been called Mt. McKinley for less than 100 which doesn’t make the people who have been calling it Denali too happy. I can’t say I blame them – especially when you consider President Mc Kinley never even set foot in Alaska during his lifetime. This lady was now living in a cabin in the Denali National Park with no water or electricity. She gave me grapefruit juice and an orange. It seemed a bit odd – a guy living in Florida receiving citrus from a lady living in Alaska but at this point in the trip I’m willing to accept just about anything.
My derailleur wheel came loose again so I put the screw on the other side so the direction the wheel spun would tighten the screw instead twisting it out. It seems to be working so far. I was having a difficult time finding a spot to camp. I went to this place called Bear Flats and no one was around so I ended up going down an abandoned trail behind the place that led way out into the woods. I went as far down the trail as I could before a log blocked my bike from going any further. I left my bike there and set my tent up far off into the brush. There were caribou tracks in the mud. I left my food bags open and left them on the bike so that maybe they wouldn’t get torn off. No animal was heard throughout the night and nothing was touched.
I ended up spending over $20 at the White River Lodge on a shower, breakfast, and junk food. They people who ran the place and cooked were pretty cool and they spoke the harshest, nastiest sounding version of French I’ve ever heard. I just hope they weren’t speaking much French while they were cooking my food. [pepper spray]
I only went about 35 miles today to Beaver Creek. It is only about 20 miles to Alaska now but I’ll save it for tomorrow so I can make it to Deadman Lake and then Tok the next day so I can catch a Salmon Bake. I wrote a song in my head called Horsehead Nebulon but I can’t remember it now. Something about “my baby’s a Horsehead Nebulon…’ or something and it sounds sort of like a country song even though I don’t like country music but I guess being out here all this time in nothing but country is causing __________.
There was still daylight at 10-11 o’clock tonight here at the campground in Beaver Creek. I am feeling pretty skippy because I know I’ll be in Alaska tomorrow. It is hard to believe at this point how far I’ve come.
This morning I got up and left and met this red haired girl hitch hiking on the highway. I talked to her and she gave me three cinnamon rolls someone had given her. I made it the little 20-mile stretch to the Alaska border this Friday afternoon, August 29th. It couldn’t be a nicer day. Bright and sunny and nothing to complain about. I stop for a while at the borders to take pictures and stuff. The world has been trimmed along the US – Canadian border leaving a 20?????? Foot wide trench of treeless space as far as you could see in either direction. It was like being on gigantic map (actual size). I didn’t have much time to be too happy-skippy about making it to Alaska though. It seems like as soon as I crossed the border the road inclined steeply and it took forever to get to the official border crossing station. At the station they asked the usual questions: do you have any guns or weapons, over $10,000 in cash. I started laughing at the last question. I never answered. He let me through.
I made it to my destination of Deadman Lake Campground about 30 miles into Alaska. It’s a free campground on a lake with a dock. Upon approaching the campground I met a Dutch guy hitch hiking with a large backpack. He was sitting on the side of the highway which was not seeing any traffic. I invited him to eat when I set up camp. A couple hours later he showed up while I was cooking canned corn, canned beans, and pepperoni samiches and we ate. He told me his travel tales and of this trip he made up in [talk about it]
I woke up the next morning to find out I went to bed an hour after Aurora Borealis lit up the sky. Alvin told about this and I swear to myself never to go to bed early anymore. I am starting to think this Aurora Borealis thing is all a myth like Santa Claus that supposedly only occurs right after going to sleep. It is just too magical and mystical to be true. I will believe it is real only when I see it with my own eyes. At this point I hold out as much hope of that happening as seeing Santa Claus.
Saturday, August 30th, 1997. I wake up today for the first time in Alaska. Alvin took off hitch hiking again to parts unknown. I am thinking of his plan. No goals. No time limits. No hurrying to make it somewhere before it snows. It is how I spend my time when I take a day off like today. I have nothing to do or accomplish today. I walk around the woods and think.
I met a couple here at the lake. The Bakers. We talked about jobs on the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. He worked on them several years ago. He told of extremely high pay and extremely low temperatures. The type of cloths you wear. Bunny boots. The way the camps are set up and run. The incredibly unlimited amount of food to eat. The polar bear that crashed through the glass and grabbed a guy. They fed me ravioli, bread, and raspberry tea, and when we were through he threw me $15 in cash. A five-dollar bill and a ten-dollar bill. It was the first American money I had seen in over six weeks. I just stood and stared at it. It looked so odd, these dark green bills. It is funny how you can be around something your whole life and after a few short weeks away from it becomes strange and foreign looking. I had become accustomed to the multi-colored Canadian money and now my own money was foreign.
Later this night I pull out my little radio to see if I can pick up any stations. I have been so far away from everything that finding a station has been difficult and I had given up. I cruise up and down the dial until I picked something up. The news. They are breaking news that someone had just died. The station is fading in and out. They refer to the person who died as “The Princess”. I listen some more. They say that Diana is dead.
Today is the last day of August. I really want to make it to the Salmon bake in Tok. I missed the one at Mukluk Annie’s. Now that I’m in Alaska I’ve already missed an Aurora. I don’t want to miss the Salmon. I did make it in time with plenty to spare. It was worth it. I had the King Salmon and all-you-can-eat-buffet. It was the best food I’ve had the entire trip and most definitely beats canned corn and beans. I made a nice campfire and sat up for hours waiting for the northern lights. They never came.