We went to be late again last night, so I was sleepy this morning and didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. While I was packing the sleeping bags up (and getting a couple extra zzzs) Joey walked over to the store to pick up some cereal and milk for everyone for breakfast. It is so nice to know that after 3 or 4 bowls of cereal I will be full and ready to start the day. We got the rest of our laundry that was in the dryer this morning and got everything packed up. When we were ready to leave, Richard had already gone to work, so we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I left him a note and stuck it in the door, so hopefully he got that. We took one last look at the amazing dome of bicycle wheels and then headed out. I am still really disappointed that we didn't get to meet Philippe. He seems like such a cool person and is just so talented. Not only did he have the bicycle dome, but he had made a lot of little "inventions" I guess you would call them that were inside his house. My favorite one was a big ramp-ball contraption that was made of spokes! When you turned on the switch it swayed back and forth and the balls would roll on a continuous track of ramps. I don't know how he went about making it, but it was so fun to watch! We all stopped at the Great Canadian Superstore to re-stock on some necessities before heading back out to nothingness. Michael and Michael had bough 2 packs of cookies, so instead of our usual routine of buying cookies, we got a huge 3lb bag of gummie bears! We also restocked on the usual mac and cheese, oatmeal, etc. I also got a small bottle of mouthwash and some more floss since I was getting low. Lately I have just been feeling like even with brushing and flossing I haven't been able to get a real good clean feeling in my mouth, but I think the mouthwash will help change that. Once we had everything we needed, we all waited in line to check out for what seemed like forever, but probably around 10 minutes at least. By the time we got on the road heading out of town it was already after 12. It was pretty chilly and was raining off and on all morning. The wind was also relatively strong and was of course in our face making it even harder than it had to be to ride. The "two mile hill" out of town wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In fact it was actually kind of nice because they had a wonderful bike path right next to the road so that we didn't have to climb it while dealing with the traffic too. A short while after we got out of the main city area, Michael got a flat on his trailer wheel, so we stopped to fix that real quick. The rest of the first 20 miles was relatively hilly. When we got to the junction of the Alascan Highway and the Klondike Highway, we had nice new pavement to ride on for about 5 miles. After that, it went back to a mixture of the regular road to the rough sealcoat surface. We met another cyclist from Japan, Yuta, who was riding from Anchorage to Vancouver. While we were talking to him we were glad to hear that the terrain was pretty flat and "easy." Sure enough, he was right, it flattened out quite a bit. As the road flattened out a bit, the wind seemed to start to die down a bit too (probably because it started to rain). As we were riding, a truck passed us and there was a guy hanging out of the window yelling and waving at us; it was the guy who was hitchhiking everywhere and stopped to talk to us while we were eating our dinner at Philippe's house a couple nights ago. It was cool that we got to see him again, even if it was just as he was passing by. When we had about 10 miles left before we got to the next rest area where we planned to camp, Joey road ahead to find a place in the area there to set up. I rode with the Michaels for a while, but eventually decided to just keep riding since they seemed to want to go at their own casual speed. I didn't make it all the way to the rest area like I planned. Instead as I was riding, I found a HUGE patch of wild strawberries! So, that's what I did for the next 20 minutes or so while I waited for the boys to catch up. When they got there, Papa Mike joined me for a little bit and Michael went ahead to find Joe. The rest area was perfect. Again, bathrooms and a bear proof garbage bin for our food. By the time I got there, Joey had already set up the tent and was working with Michael on making a fire. As if our evening wasn't going great already I found out that we were camping in a huge strawberry patch! There were little tiny strawberries as far as you could see. Another thing that made the day even better was that when Joe got to the rest area there were a couple motorcyclists from Alaska there. They talked to Joey about our travels and even gave us 4 Mountain Meals (the freeze dried meals that you just add boiling water to) since they were almost back home! And the best part was that one of them was beef stroganoff and noodles, my favorite! So, we each got to enjoy a nice meal of that, and there were no dishes, which made it even better. Those meals are a lot tastier than I would have imagined them to be, but they are still so expensive for the amount of food that you get. Whatever the case, our bellies were very happy. The bugs weren't that bad, but there were still enough of them there to make their presence known. While we were getting ready to roast some marshmallows, a car pulled into the rest area and we heard someone say "Hey, do you want a beer!?!" It was Marty, Mark, Michael and Christopher (the family that gave us beer and rootbeer a few days ago!), they were on their way back home to Haines Junction. We were so excited to see them again. Marty even shared a big box of blueberries with us and Mark wrote down directions so that we could find their house when we make it to their town (which will either be tomorrow night or earlier in the day the next day.) We have been so blessed to meet such wonderful people throughout our journey; that truly is the best part of the trip for me. To my surprise, we have met so many more people and touring cyclists along the Alaskan Highway than I would have ever expected. I just assumed we would be riding along this road for hundreds of miles without really meeting anyone. It is so weird how we build an image in our minds about what it is going to be like, but then when we are actually experiencing it, it is totally different. After we chatted with the Ritchie's for a while, we headed back to our cozy warm fire. Just as we sat down to start roasting a couple marshmallows, it started to rain. But since roasted marshmallows are so good and we were still a little hungry, we all sat out there in the rain roasting and enjoying our marshmallows. Luckily the rain stopped after a little while (long enough that we were able to brush our teeth and get the food all put away), but it started back up after we all got in our tents. Despite the rain, we had a wonderful day; hopefully it will be sunny and warm tomorrow. We rode 42.64 miles today and camped at the Takhini Burn Rest Area.
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It rained for a while last night, so we were glad to be inside in the camper. We all slept in since we were taking a rest day; it sure was nice! It was pretty chilly and still cloudy when we woke up. I took a shower before we got going on our plans today and it sure was wonderful. While we were getting ready to go, Papa Mike walked down to the grocery store to get a coffee, and he came back with 4 apple turnovers! They were so fresh they just melted in your mouth. Our first stop for the day was the bike shop to see what we could do about Joe's wheel since it hadn't been sent yet. To our amazement, they had a wheel that was pretty much just like mine, and it was a reasonable price! So our problem has been solved. Now we should be able to make it all the way to Anchorage without any problems, lets hope! It is amazing that in Missoula there were 3x as many people as Whitehorse and it is one of the biggest touring cities in the US and not one of their bike shops had anything to help us on hand. But here in Whitehorse, the guy at the bike shop said he always keeps a few touring wheels on hand because he knows people will be touring through the area and may need it. After we had that all set, we went to Pizza Hut for a buffet! It was SO good. I must have eaten close to 10 pieces of pizza, lost of salad and breadsticks. With a happy bellies we went back to the bike shop to pay for the wheel and pick it up. Joe already needed a new cassette and chain, so we bought another cassette too (the guy at the bike shop was nice enough to put it on and make sure the wheel was true while we were out to lunch!). Joe and Michael headed back to Philippe's house to work on the bike and I headed for the library. Since I haven't had a chance to upload pictures since we were in Prince George, I had a lot to upload. It took me 3 hours to upload all of them! When I got back to Philippe's house, we got to Oovoo the Olgin crew, and even got to talk to Nanny since they were visiting there! Joe had his bike all fixed with his new wheel ready to go. Unfortunately, Michael's bike was having problems now; the chain needed to be replaced and then the derailer broke. Another thing that I found out that Richard came over while I was gone and asked if we wanted to join him for dinner! He got all of the stuff to make cheeseburgers on the grill and we pitched in a big bag of potatoes (we bought it yesterday thinking to make some quick baked potatoes) to make homemade french fries since he had a deep fryer. We had such a great time having dinner with Richard, and boy everything was SO delicious! What a nice surprise to be able to have dinner with him. After dinner the boys went back to finish working on fixing Michael's bike and I did some laundry. Around 9:30 I walked down to the grocery store to get some ice cream. I couldn't believe it, a 4L was cheaper than a 2L by about a buck and a half! So, I walked back to the house super excited that we got to have ice cream (thanks Jaclyn!!). By the end of the night we were able to finish all of the ice cream and couldn't be happier. We had a really great rest day. Hopefully Michael's bike will be in good working order so that we can get on the road again tomorrow. We rode quite a bit around town from place to place; Joe and Michael rode alot around the trails just for fun. Joe's miles totaled 15.
We woke up around 9 and got our camp all packed up. Joe was done earlier than everyone else, so he had fun throwing rocks off the cliff down to the lake below. We were on the road by a little after 10 and were even able to pick a couple strawberries on the way out to the road from our camp spot. The road continued to be pretty flat since we were right next to the lake, and we had a tail wind! My morning started off great too because I found a small Yukon trailer license plate. Even though it doesn't have the guy gold panning on it, I couldn't have been happier because I thought for sure that I wasn't going to find one because so few people live in the YT. Joey got a flat early on in the ride so we had to stop and fix that. We met a cyclist who used to live in Hawaii, but recently moved to Fairbanks. He is riding from there to Peru. A little ways down the road Michael was having problems with his seat, so he and Papa Mike worked on fixing that. They insisted that we keep riding since they said it would take a while. They also said that that we could start making our lunch while we waited for them since they were just going to have tortillas and pb&j and we were going to have rice. Just before we crossed the Yukon River, I saw a bald eagle! We had a couple big hills to do right after that. There was an RV campground that let us use a picnic table for lunch. I made a little sign so the Michaels' would know where to turn to find us. It actually worked out really well. They got there just as our rice was ready and we could all eat together. From there, we only had about 14 miles left to get into Whitehorse. The miles went by pretty quick because there were a lot of signs and things to get us excited about getting close to the city. Of course, the traffic picked up quite a bit too. Going down into the city center we had a nice 2 mile downhill (which we will have to climb back up on the way out). Our first stop was the visitor center where we got a little information on the city and enjoyed a nice 15 minute video on the Yukon. From there, we went to McDonald's (the only one in the Yukon!). We were all excited to go through the drive through, but somehow it didn't work (I don't think that we were able to trigger it like a car does). We met another guy who has been touring when we got to the door. He is from Austria and started his tour in Fairbanks and ended it here in Whitehorse. We talked with him for a while and he sat with us inside for a while. We all used the internet for a while and enjoyed some snacks. I got a few french fries and Joey, like always got the $1 for any size soft drink and filled it up about 10 times. Afterwards, all 4 of us got an ice cream cone off the dollar menu (except in the Yukon, they weren't a dollar, but $1.77, nothing is cheap up here). It was such a great treat! When Joe checked his email, he found out the bike shop in MT wasn't able to mail his warranty wheel because they needed some kind of station number since it was general delivery. We didn't have any idea what that was and now it was too late to get it mailed to somewhere close anyway (it was supposed to be mailed to Haines Junction). Joe was at a loss and figured his only hope at this point would be to see if a bike shop here in Whitehorse would have a wheel that would work. We decided to stop at the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner. Right when we got there another touring cyclist arrived. To our amazement he was from Buffalo (Depew), NY! He started on the west coast somewhere and rode up to AK (he might have taken a ferry up from Seattle or Vancouver) and from here was riding to Florida. He was full of life and pretty crazy. We had a lot of fun walking around the "Great Canadian Super Store" with him. Once we got all of our groceries for dinner we headed over to our Warm Shower's Host. Unfortunately we knew he wouldn't be home until the 19th, but he said that it was fine if we all camped out in the yard. He gave his roommates a heads up so when they got home they could show us where everything was. It was really easy to find his house because he made a HUGE dome from bicycle wheels; it sure was sweet! His roommates weren't home yet, so we sat at their picnic table and ate our salad and our chicken (we got one of the whole cooked chickens). While we were eating a guy who has been walking/hitchhiking all over the place was walking by. He stopped to look at the wheel dome and so we talked with him for a while. He is originally from Boston, MA, but went to school at RIT in Rochester, NY! After we were all done eating the roommates still weren't home, so Joe and Michael started walking around looking at all of the bikes and wheels all over in the side and back yards. Philippe has some pretty amazing toys, everything from a double tall bicycle, to a rickshaw. The boys rode some of them and were having a blast. We met the neighbor, Richard and started talking to him for a while. He was busy re-modeling his upstairs bathroom, so he was working hard. He offered for us to set up our tents in his yard if we wanted and then even offered for us to sleep in his camper! Since we all wouldn't fit, Papa Mike said for the three of us to sleep in there and said he would just set up his tent. We were so excited that we would get to sleep in there; we didn't have to set up our tent, and it was pretty much like sleeping in a bed! Richard even brought his laptop outside for us to use. A couple of Philippe's roommates got home pretty close to the same time. They showed us around and told us that our bikes would probably be safest in the garage/shop. Richard didn't know his wi-fi password, but somehow Philippe's roommate was able to figure it out, so not only did it help us, but now Richard knows his password! We watched part of an episode of Breaking Bad before we decided it was too late and we probably should just go to bed. It sure does feel good to be in Whitehorse; another great day. We rode 39.39 miles today.
We all slept in a bit this morning, but were all feeling really sleepy (we've been having too much fun to go to bed on time). It rained a little last night, so we were happy that Papa Mike had the idea to hang a tarp over Michael's tent and our tent. Like usual, we made our oatmeal and got everything packed up. We made it to the top of the hill coming out of the driveway for the rest area we stayed at and Michael had broken his chain on his bike (his chain is 2x the length of ours because he's on a recumbent). Once that was all fixed, we had a pretty long hill to climb out of Johnson's crossing. When we had only ridden about 6 miles, I saw Michael and Joey at the top of the hill along with a lady walking. The lady talked with them for a few minutes and then went running off, waving to me as she went by. When I got up to the top, Joey said "A lady ran out of the woods and gave me a beer!" I was so surprised but laughed at the same time because of how Joey said that. He was so excited! Just as Papa Mike was getting to the top of the hill, the lady and her son came back with a half a case of root beer (since Michael was a minor (14) and Joe knew I would rather have that too. We had a nice conversation with the lady, Marty and her son Michael. We found out that they are from Haines Junction and that they were working on building a cabin in the area that we were in. They knew we were going to be going through Haines Junction and offered for us to stay with them when we got there! We were all amazed at just how nice people have been to us along this road. The next few miles seemed to take longer than usual. There was a slight head wind and our sleepiness didn't seem to help. We stopped for lunch at a campground on Squanga Lake that was closed, even though we had only done about 13 miles (it was already lunch time). It sure was a prefect place to take a break. We made some mac and cheese and then relaxed for quite a while. Joe and Michael went on another adventure down to the docks. Later on they tried to make a boat out of the dock and it was pretty funny to watch. They were easily able to unscrew the bolts and push it into the water. As Joey was wading in the water to get a stick to use as an oar, he stepped in a soft spot and all of a sudden was in water up to his waist. It was so funny. After they were successful at making their boat, we decided we better get back on the road. We ended up taking a really long break of about 2 hours. The next 7 miles took just as long as the other miles this morning. The scenery however was beautiful. The area is so vast that it makes you feel so insignificant, but at the same time you become a part of it. We stopped for a while at a rest area after we hit the 20 mile mark. It was already almost 5. Whlie we were sitting there, a couple cyclists came rolling in. Their names were Monika and Martina. They were both from Switzerland and started riding in Argentina. They have been on the road for 2 and a half years and the funny thing is that before this tour, they didn't know each other. They met in Argentina and have been riding together ever since. They also knew of Lorenzo and had also met the two other great touring cyclists we met a few days ago. It is so funny how touring makes the world seem so small, and how small the touring cyclist community really is. As we were leaving the rest area knowing that we had another 20 miles to do, I was wondering if I was going to make it all the way because I was so sleepy. I had put my mp3 player on to try to take my mind off of it and maybe give me a little energy. Luckily, the terrain flattened out quite a bit. We stopped at the gas station/restaurant at Jake's Corners for a few minutes to take a rest. Inside they had a stuffed polar bear which was kind of neat. We snacked on some cookies and planned on doing another 10 miles. Somehow, I managed to get a second wind for the remainder of the miles today. I think everyone else was still pretty tired, but we all still made it. For a little bit I was riding ahead of everyone, even Joey. When we hit 40 miles we started to look for campsite, except there were a bunch of houses in the area because we were riding next to a lake and were getting closer to Whitehorse. Eventually we found a really unique spot to make camp. The ground was a little rocky in places and it was a little hard to find a place to set up all of our tents, but the view was amazing. We were right on the edge of a cliff overlooking Marsh Lake. We sat their and watched the "sunset" and made a little campfire for our marshmallows. Joe and I had some baked beans for dinner and since we had some macaroni left over from dinner last night we mixed that in with our beans too. It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't want to eat it everyday. It was however very filling. Since we had such a slow beginning of the day and took such a long break for lunch, we made camp pretty late and by the time we had everything cleaned up, the food hung and all of our marshmallows eaten it was already after 11. Even still, it was another wonderful day! We rode 44.39 miles today, tomorrow we will be in Whitehorse!
It rained off and on throughout the night, and poured in the early morning. I woke up a couple times from the rain and was really hoping that we weren't going to have to ride in the rain all day. Luckily, by the time we woke up, the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to come out. We all decided to take our time this morning so that our tents would have a chance to dry out in the sunshine. Trudy let us use the washrooms again this morning, also let us relax inside for a little bit. She even made some coffee and tea with honey for us. It sure was a wonderful treat in the morning. Yugi had never had tea with honey before and seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately he didn't sleep very well because his little one man tent let in water and his sleeping bag isn't very warm. He fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes and when he woke up he said "I never want to leave," we all thought it was pretty funny because we felt the same. We said our goodbyes to Yugi as we were packing up our tents. By the time we were ready to go, had said goodbye to Trudy and started heading towards the grocery store it was already after 10. Our fist stop was the grocery store; we all decided to get cereal and milk for breakfast. We ate at the little tables inside the store (almost every grocery store up here that we have seen has had tables inside) and then proceeded to get a few more groceries for the next few days (mainly cookies for us). Afterwards we headed back over to the lodge to sit on the porch for a while. We used the internet for a little bit and Joe tried tightening some of the loose spokes on that rear wheel. While we were sitting there relaxing, we saw Trudy again! We started riding out of town around 12:30. The sun went away for a little while, so it was really cold, but that didn't last long. The sun came back out and it warmed up a little. About 5 miles outside of town was a rest area/ interpretive site, so we stopped again. It was so nice to just take our time and not be in any kind of rush. While we were looking at Teslin Lake and reading some of the informational signs, we saw a cyclist going by, luckily he saw our bikes and came down to talk to us. His name is Ken and he is riding from Anchorage to Fort St. John, but has to be back to work in August so he can't go any further than that. He has been hoping to meet another cyclist who is older than he is, and he finally did-Papa Mike (but only by one year), so he was happy. We talked with him for quite a while before getting back on the road. Not too far after stopping at the rest area was the Teslin Tlingit Herritage Center, where I saw photos of the Tiki statues outside and wanted to go there. Turns out, this was a really fun part of the day. When we got there, the lady was nice enough to point us to the homemade Bannock (deep fried rolls that kind of have a consistency like the fried dough you would get at the fair). They were SO good! She explained that it was a local thing. We ate it with a little butter and Jam or pb. I was in heaven! Joe and I each ate 3 rolls each because of it. While we were inside, it started to rain but by the time we went back outside it was sunny again, so somehow we were able to dodge the rain! We talked with the lady who worked there for quite a bit and she gave us some tips on where a good place to camp for the night would be. She is also a pretty big into fishing so she shared some tips on fishing in this area and even gave Mike and Mike a couple lures and a fly! It turned out to be a wonderful stop. We rode for a few more miles and then stopped at another rest area to use the outhouse. We've never had a day where we stopped so many times within the first 15 miles, but it sure was awesome to just take our time and have a very leisurely start to the day. Since we planned to ride to Johnson's Crossing today, we only had a little over 30 miles to do today so it worked out perfect to have a slow day today. For all of the ride today we rode next to Teslin Lake. It is fun because Michael and Joey would ride fast up front and I would ride with Papa Mike at a nice comfortable speed. At one point today we had some climbing to do and Joey got way ahead of all of us. So, it was the three of us riding for a while. At that point we only had about 6 miles left to get to our destination. When we finally saw Joey at the top of the hill, we could tell his bike was laying over and he was standing off to the side of the road in the grass. At first we weren't sure what he was doing, but then we looked at the side of the road we figured it out. There were a TON of wild strawberries! So for the last 20 minutes or however long he was waiting, he had just been snacking on the little strawberries. Papa Mike and I stopped part way up the hill because there were just so many strawberries. We probably were there picking wild strawberries for an hour or so. There were so many that we couldn't even eat them as fast as we were picking them. It brought back good memories of picking strawberries at Cousin Suzie and Ronnie's farm with Michelle, Courtney, Amy, Lindsay and Larry when we were kids. And boy, they sure were sweet! It was so hard to stop picking them and get back on the road. When we finally did, we rode to the top of the hill and then stopped again because there were more strawberries. We could tell where Joey and Michael had been because the areas were completely cleared of strawberries. Every once in a while, since Joey and I first got on the Cassiar Highway, we have seen the wild strawberries here and there. But never once have we seen this many all in one place before. There was probably 25-30 yards of just a ton of little strawberry plants. Our day just kept getting better and better, that's for sure. Since Papa Mike and I stopped for so long to pick strawberries, Joe and Michael went ahead. After we started riding again it was so hard to not want to stop and pick more strawberries when we saw them. We had a nice downhill and a bridge to cross going into Johnson's Crossing. We could see the rest area with bathrooms below as we were crossing the bridge. Papa Mike and I stopped at the little gas station/campground to see if Joe and Mike had stopped there. We didn't find them, but we did meet a nice guy with his 4 month old baby sled dogs! They were SOOOO cute! Once we left, we continued down the road to find the turn off for the rest area. We knew they boys were down there because Michael stuck his American Flag from the back of his bike at the corner of the turn so we knew where to go. It was a prefect place to camp right next to the river with a great view of the bridge. There was even a really clean out house and a brand new bear proof garbage bin. We all worked together to get a fire going, gathering wood, and getting rocks to make a fire pit. The wind was still going pretty good, so the mosquitos were again, not as bad as they have been in days past. Papa Mike tried to fish again and we got camp all set up. We had pasta and spaghetti sauce again for dinner and between the 4 of us ate an entire bag of marshmallows (the fire had the perfect coals for roasting!). Joe and Mike killed some time throwing rocks into the river and Joe tried to hit the beams on the bridge (which was about 150 yards away). It was very entertaining; Joe even hit the bridge 3x in a row. What an incredible day, again! The past few days have just been so wonderful! We rode 35.25 miles today. I sure am enjoying these lighter days and really taking our time. Riding with Papa Mike and Michael has just been so great.
I woke up to the sound of voices outside, Joey let me sleep in a little. Everyone, including all of the cyclists and the two guys on a motorcycle, were sitting around the campfire. It turns out that the motorcyclists are from Seattle, WA and they rode all the way up to Deadhorse, AK and were on their way home. They were pretty excited about our trips and we had a great time talking with them. It is amazing because they completely understand why we do this, and it is why they too are taking a trip on 2 wheels instead of in a car, 99% of the people we meet who use a car don't have the slightest clue. Papa Mike shared a thought he had about RVs; he said that it is like he is looking into their living room through the big windows in the front and they are sitting their watching tv. He also said that since we all see a lot of other tourists (in cars) taking our picture its like we are part of the wildlife, which I thought was pretty funny. Everyone made their oatmeal for breakfast and we said our goodbyes to the motorcyclists (Shawn and Koshal). They said that since we will be most likely passing through Seattle, we are welcome to stay at their place right in the city, so we might get to see them again! As we were packing up camp, we all were admiring what a beautiful day it was; the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was hardly any wind (and it was actually going in the right direction for us!). Another wonderful start to the day. We were on the road by about quarter to 10. It was so wonderful to not have to fight the wind and to be able to just coast for a little bit and not lose too much speed. The first few miles of the day went by pretty quick, but I was already hungry by the time we reached 10 miles. We all stopped at the rest area that was about 12 miles into the ride for a break. While we were there, I met a really nice couple (John and Mary) in an RV who were from the northwest corner Missouri (so close to the border of IA that their mailing address is IA, which I thought was pretty neat). They inquired about our travels and I explained where Joe and I had been and where we were going and explained to them how Michael was 14 and how he was riding with his Grandfather, etc. It was a lot of fun talking with them. Only a few miles down the road was a recreation site that had a picnic table, bathrooms and access to a river. We decided to stop there for lunch even though we had only done 16 miles. Joe and I had mac and cheese and Mike and Mike had Ramen noodles and pb and j tortilla rolls (which we will probably try once we get to a grocery store). It sure was a wonderful day. We had a few more long climbs to do today, but for the most part the terrain was pretty good. Joe and Mike saw a bear and her cub, but by the time Papa Mike and I got there they had run off. Later on in the day the clear blue sky changed to overcast and the sun went away at times, however, it didn't rain so we were happy. About 10k before getting into Teslin, a RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) guy stopped with his lights flashing and said that he had gotten a complaint about us riding next to each other at one point (it might have been when we were trying to dodge the HUGE potholes on the side of the road). Either way it wasn't a big deal, especially since this wasn't a busy road. It is nice to be able to talk to each other once and a while, and the only way to be able to hear each other is to ride next to each other (just like you would be if you were in a car). One thing that I've noticed is that if we happen to be riding side by side when a car goes by, they tend to slow down more and give us a LOT more room. When we ride single file, a good number of them don't bother to slow down and usually give us less room when they pass. The guy really didn't seem like he wanted to come bother us about that, but he was just doing his job and was really nice. He inquired about our travels and wished us safe travels before he left. Since Joe was ahead of us quite a bit (we were all still climbing the hill), we later found out the guy stopped to talk to Joe first. Joe said that the first thing that he said was "your wife got eaten by a bear" just joking around. When we finally got to where Joe was waiting we had a beautiful view of the Nisutlin Bay and the really long steel deck bridge going into Teslin. I for one don't really enjoy riding over steel deck bridges with the bike because the wheels slide all over the place and you can of course see the water below. Its a little scary, so I wasn't too excited about having to ride over it. Luckily, there weren't any cars on the bridge until I was almost across. We stopped at the Lodge in town and then headed over to the grocery store. I was (and I think Mike was too) super happy to see that ice cream wasn't too outrageous of a price. It was nice that we had a couple extra people because the 4L (gallon) size was almost cheaper than a 2L. Also since there were extra of us, we decided to make pasta with spaghetti sauce since we didn't have to worry about having extras. Joe and I restocked on our cookies (although we seemed to have eaten quite a bit by the end of the night, so we will probably have to buy more tomorrow) and got another couple boxes of mac and cheese and a couple cans of beans. When we came out of the store, we saw another touring bike across the parking lot, but we couldn't see any cyclist in sight. We found a nice pavilion down by the marina to make dinner. We were all loving the ice cream, it sure was a perfect addition to an already wonderful day. After dinner, Mike and Joey went swimming. I guess the water wasn't quite as cold as it was yesterday, but it was still pretty chilly. We all walked back over to the lodge to go in the free wildlife museum and then sit on the porch and use the free wi-fi for a little bit. While we were sitting there, Joe noticed that the touring bike had moved and was now over where we were. Mike and Joey went to investigate and next thing we knew we saw the 3 of them walking back to the pavilion where we had our bikes. I don't know how it worked out that we would have a 5th cyclist added to our group to camp again, but we were so excited. When Papa Mike and I had gotten back to the bikes, there was no sign of them anywhere, just a bunch of bikes all around. We later found out that they had went on a walk to find the church to see if we could camp there because they saw a police car in the area and didn't want us to get in trouble if we tried to camp in the park. When they came back, they told us that we had a place to camp! I found out that the other cyclist, Yuki, was from Japan and was riding from Anchorage to NY!They talked to a lady who watches over the church here in town and she was fine with us setting up our tents in the church lawn. So we packed up anything that we had used to make dinner and headed over to the church. It was a beautiful little church that was shaped like a hexagon. We had a perfect spot to set up our tents inside the little fenced in lawn and there was even a picnic table! Trudy was nice enough to let us use the washrooms in her home before we went to bed. What another incredible day! We rode 42.50 miles today.
We had a wonderful nights sleep last night since we were in a bed, and there were curtains on the window to block the light. It sure was a good way to start the 4 month mark of the trip. I still can't get over what an amazing evening we had yesterday after such a long day of riding. We made some oatmeal in the hotel room but decided to go to the cafe anyways to see if they had any more of those huge cinnamon rolls. When we went outside, we were greeted with really cold air and the wind again. I didn't realize it was so cold out after being inside all night. Sure enough, when we got to the cafe, they had rolls. So we each enjoyed a nice warm cinnamon bun before getting on the road. As we were sitting there eating them, we watched the trees swaying outside and were dreading going out into that awful wind again. Camille and Camille had left earlier than us, but we knew we would see them on the road anyways. Just as we were getting ready to leave, another cyclist came in. His name is Alvero and he is know as "Biciclown" and has been touring for ten years. He stops in various towns and puts on clown shows to raise a little money and provide some entertainment for the locals. The funny thing is that he, along with another guy who has been riding for 11 years, and Lorenzo (riding for 14 years) who we have been hearing about since MT, all met in Whitehorse and all stayed with the same Warm Showers host we are going to stay with. It was a lot of fun talking to him and was pretty amazing to meet someone who has been touring for so long. They all have a budget of about $10 a day; I don't know how they do it in the US and CA, I would starve for sure. The wind was still strong today, but didn't seem quite as bad as yesterday, so we were so happy about that. We rode for about 4 miles before we caught up to Camille and Camille. They move right along, we were surprised they were already so far down the road. We stopped and chatted with them for a little bit. Before they left Rancheria, they bough Mike and Mike each a cinnamon bun since they decided not to stay last night. They gave them to us to give to them and even gave us one to share too. It was just so nice of them. Joe and I plan to stay a few days in Whitehorse, so we may get lucky and get to see them again. A little while later we saw the guy I mentioned before who has been riding for 11 years. He was trying to catch up to Alvero, so he just waved and kept riding. He had a flagpole with so many little flags on it from all of the countries he has ridden to, it was pretty neat. Even though we had to battle the wind again, somehow it didn't seem as bad because we were in such a good mood from last night and we knew that at some point today we would catch up to Mike and Mike. I was surprised that we caught up to them as early as we did. They didn't leave until about 11 (and we left around 9), so we caught them on a big hill after we had done about 12 miles. Since they usually walk up the big hills (its harder/slower on recumbants to ride up them) it made it a little easier to catch up to them there. For the rest of the day, I hardly noticed the wind because we had people to ride with and we spent most of the time talking. The miles went by really fast. We rode by Swift River, where Camille and Camille had food dropped off for them (that was their destination for tonight). It sure was great that we finally had someone to ride with! We stopped for lunch at a rest area around the 32 mile mark (20 mile for them). There was a beautiful view of a lake and mountains, and even an island in the middle that the sign said was formed by a volcano. As we sat their making our lunch we spotted a moose down in the lake. Joe and I had rice and Mike and MIke had tortilla pb and j rolls, and we all snacked on the wonderful cinnamon rolls. Since it was pretty windy, we were able to eat without having to worry about mosquitoes! While we were there, a few people came and went, many of whom asked about our travels. The wind seemed to calm down a little in the afternoon, and the sun came out nice and strong (which made me really happy because it was such a cold morning). We had some more big hills to climb and I absolutely loved it because I got to wait at the top like Joey does for me. It was so nice to be able to take little breaks! The one thing about the bikes that Mike and Mike are riding is that they do really well going down hills. Papa Mike was flying downhill in front of me, not even peddling, while I was peddling like crazy and he was still losing me. At one point we decided that we would ride about 20km more and then start to look for a nice river or creek to camp by. Right when we got to 20 km, there it was, a beautiful river (the Smart River), and a perfect pull out to camp at. Again there was a fire pit already made and wood there ready to burn from other people that had camped there. It was perfect! What made it better is that we had gotten there pretty early so we had plenty of time to relax. We got our tents set up, Papa Mike tried to do a little fishing, and a fire was made. Joe and Mike had a blast "getting firewood." They found the biggest log they could find and decided they would try to break it in half. They tried everything from throwing it down on another log to putting it between two trees, to 'hammering' it with rocks. It was a riot to watch. Eventually they went onto the bridge and threw it down from there onto the tree stuck in the river below. That almost did the trick. Somehow, after a lot of persistence they managed to get that log broken in half. Papa Mike and I couldn't stop laughing. After we had been there a while a guy (with a mullet!) stopped by in his minivan to talk to us. Joe and Mike had been thinking about going swimming since we got there. The guy, who was a little weird I might add, talked them into going swimming, and that water sure was cold. Again, it was really funny to watch. Mike and Mike had 2 bags of marshmallows, so we got to enjoy those over the campfire. We were all so happy that since we were in a pretty open area and it was breezy there were few mosquitos. Finally, we could "enjoy the wilderness." As we were sitting there eating marshmallows, another cyclist came! Joe had just gotten done joking around that by the end of the night we would have another group of cyclists join us. His name was Carlos and he was riding from Anchorage back home to Mexico. We had a blast. While enjoying the campfire and marshmallows, we all got out our stoves (which were all pretty different) and made our dinners. We had baked beans, Mike had instant mashed potatoes and Carlos had oatmeal (twice), soup and other snacks. Carlos is traveling really light and is hoping that he can make it all the way back home before he has to go back to college (he is riding around 120 miles a day!!!). He even said that one day he went for 2 days without any water, which was crazy for us to think about. Since he didn't have a filter or any type of purification he didn't drink from the streams. We told him to just stand on the road with his bike and hold up his empty water bottle. There are so many RVs that someone is bound to stop and would probably be more than happy to help him out. It was so amazing that we had 3 different groups all camping together, out here in the middle of no where. What is more amazing is that in the last 2 days we have met cyclists (or hikers) from all over: Denmark, France, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico (and Texas). What an incredible day. Ever since we got to Rancheria it had been nothing but wonderful, such a welcome change because we were both feeling kind of down and out the last few days. We rode 49.33 miles today. We all said good night and got in our tents. Just a little while later, two people on motorcycles came. Now there are 5 tents down in the little pull off! It will be fun to hear their story in the morning.
Sometime around 4 or 5 am it started to get really windy and started to rain. We were worried the storm would get worse and were worried that it could start hailing, but luckily all it did was rain. By the time we woke up in the morning, it was nice and sunny again, even though it was still pretty windy. It took us a long time to get moving this morning. We just laid there and laid there watching the mosquitoes on our tent. My chest pain has been slowly getting better. When we finally got everything packed up inside our tent, we decided that we would heat up our water and eat our breakfast in our tent (even though we never do that because we don't want our tent to smell like food because of the bears). We had heard that other cyclists had eaten in their tent before and never had a problem, but we still try to take every precaution possible. But, it was just not worth it to try to eat outside. We sat in our tent for another half hour or so after we were done eating because we just didn't want to go outside. Since we couldn't sit in our tent all day, we got our bug nets on, cleaned the dishes and packed everything us as fast as we possibly could. Yesterday Joey made a makeshift bike stand with a stick, so that was really helpful to try to get everything put away since there weren't any tees nearby to lean our bikes against. Unfortunately as we were packing, we noticed that the wind was going to be against us today. We were already in kind of a bad mood from the bugs, so this didn't make it any better. The only good thing was that because it was so windy, there were no horse flies as we were riding. We had a lot of big rolling hills today, so the ride started off really slow. I was beginning to wonder if we were actually going to make it to our goal location today. For a few miles, the road went from a somewhat bumpy asphalt to a really bumpy gravel asphalt that was worse than what we were riding on hwy 37. Luckily that wasn't the way the road was all day. Around the 10 mile mark, we saw a black bear, and then as we were standing there watching him, we saw another black bear (this one was more brown and was a lot bigger). It was funny to watch them because the smaller bear chased the other bear away and before we knew it they were both running off into the woods. They just plowed through the bushes and trees, so you could see the path they were running through. A short while later we stopped for a cookie break and since I had put the extra bananas in the same grocery bag as the bag of cookies, somehow our chocolate cookies had a banana taste to them. There seem to be more rest areas so far on the Alcan than on the Cassiar. We only had about 16 miles done before we stopped and had more cookies and a banana at a rest area. Neither of us really felt like riding anymore because of the wind. Riding has become more of a job than for enjoyment lately. For the first time ever, I heard Joey say that he "didn't want to ride anymore." I couldn't believe my ears. As horrible as it was to ride in that wind, I knew that it would get better at some point, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but at some point it will get better. The wind continued for the rest of the day, we never seemed to be able to get a break. We met a guy from Denmark who is riding the opposite direction. After talking for a while we asked him if he had seen the guys on the recumbents we met in Watson Lake. Surprisingly, he said they were only about 5 miles down the road ahead of us. He also said he saw the walkers there too. We have been hearing about this couple who are walking for quite a while, although we weren't positive where they started or were ending their trip. With hope that we might see them later today we were able to keep riding. My knees were really starting to hurt from the constant pressure of trying to push through the wind. I was really frustrated with this because they have been feeling so good for the past few days. We counted down the km posts as we passed them until we reached our destination, Rancheria. There was a pull off about 10 miles before our destination so I took a little break and ate the last banana. Although it seemed like we would never get there, the last few miles started to go a little quicker. A couple of the other cyclists who we met the last few days told us that the hotel/cafe in Rancheria was very cyclist friendly and that we would probably be able to get a room for $20, which we were so hoping for because we wanted to be inside so bad. When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw 2 recumbent bikes outside! We had caught up to the grandson/ grandfather team! The grandson came out to greet us and was so excited that we caught up to them. His grandfather and him were enjoying relaxing inside and talking with the two hikers! So the six of us had a great time relaxing and visiting. It turns out the grandfather/grandson team were both named Michael and they are originally from Texas. The couple who are walking are from France and are both named Camille (kind of like Sam and Sam). They started walking 8 months ago in NM near the Mexican border and followed the continental divide trail for quite a while. They had to take a couple months off from walking near CO because of the snow and took some time working on some farms during that time. The went through Banff and Jasper and followed the length of the Alcan. Their final destination is in Dawson Creek. We thought that it was so amazing to have walked all that way, especially since they do about 18-25 miles a day. While we were at the cafe, we all enjoyed a huge, warm cinnamon roll and it sure was amazing! We found out that there is indeed an amazing deal for cyclists-$20 for a room (normally it is $90!!!!). Linda, the owner of the establishment offered for us to stay, have a hot shower and get a nice meal. We gladly took up the offer and so did the hikers. Michael and Michael had already planned on riding around 11 or 12 more miles today and really wanted to get those done, so they decided to keep riding. We said our goodbyes and figured that we would probably catch up with them tomorrow or the next day and continue on riding with them until we get to Whitehorse. Linda showed us to our rooms and they were wonderful! A comfy bed, tv, hot shower and even wifi! We coulnd't be happier, it was like being in a paradise. After our wonderful showers, we went back to the cafe with Camille and Camille for dinner. We all got huge cheeseburgers (with bacon and mushrooms!) and french fries. Linda didn't think I was going to be able to eat all of mine (because it was a double), but I ate every last bit of it. When Joey went up to the counter to pay, she didn't want any of our money and said the meal was on her. Joey almost forgot to say thank you because I guess he was in shock that she said that. We left a tip for the waitress and then all went to talk to Linda and thank her for everything. After such a long frustrating day, we had such a wonderful evening and were pretty much in heaven. We get to sleep in a bed tonight and we don't have to hear the bugs buzzing outside, what could be better!! We rode 39.92 miles today, and its a pretty good thing that we decided to cut our miles down because between the wind and the bumpy road, I don't think we would have been able to go much farther anyway. Hopefully the wind will be better tomorrow.
We both got a good nights sleep last night. I was glad to wake up and find that my chest pain had dissipated quite a bit since yesterday. As if it isn't a pain to pack everything up every day, the bugs just make it so much worse. Once we were ready to go, we headed over to the grocery store again to get some milk to use the rest of our cereal. We love that they have huge 1K bags of cereal because it provides us with two full meals of cereal (since we both have 3 or 4 big bowls full each time). Cereal had been the one thing that has held us through since we have to eat so much all the time. We did a little grocery shopping to re stock on rice, oatmeal and cookies so we would be set for a while. Afterwards, we headed to the rec center. On the way there, we made a detour because we saw two touring cyclists down the road at an RV campground. It was two girls, Danica and Yvonne, from Germany and they were riding from Whitehorse to Calgary and then down towards South America. They too are going to be in Vancouver sometime in September, so you never know, maybe we will see them again. (I forgot to mention that yesterday we saw a couple other cyclists. While I was at the rec center, Joe had a chance to talk to them. They are a grandfather and grandson team on recumbants. They were riding from Seattle to Fairbanks and were taking their time going about 35 miles a day.) Once we got the rec center, we packed away all of our food and then did some computer stuff. I got to talk to Grammy and Mom on Oovoo for a while and got some more "business cards" written out while Joey used the computer. It was so relaxing to just sit there on their big comfy leather couches! I didn't want to leave and go back out in the middle of no where with the bugs. Eventually, we decided we had to leave so we could get some miles in. It was a bright and sunny day today (not like the chilly/cloudy 54 degree weather we had yesterday), but that made it feel really warm when we were climbing hills. After we had re-ridden the 14 miles to the junction of the Alcan and 37 we stopped for lunch since it was already after 2. We had noodles again since we had a half a bag left and snacked on some cookies. It was nice because they had a water spicket right there. As we were getting ready to leave, Joey noticed that his back tire was flat again (he still doesn't know how his tire went flat a couple days ago). He put some air in it in hopes that it would last for a while before we hit the road. Since we have made it an official plan to only do about 40 miles a day so that we can try to shrink our time of being ahead of schedule we only planned to ride another 20-25 more miles today. Just down the road from where we were was a place called Nugget City. They had a nice little store that had a lot of cute souvenirs. After our stop there, we only made it about 2 miles down the road before Joe's tire was already going flat again. Since we had just passed a rest area about a half a mile back, we turned around so we could get off the road to fix the tire. Again, there was nothing in the tire or on the rim that appeared to make it go flat. Maybe it was just a bad tube. Whatever the case, once he got it fixed we got back on the road and didn't have any more issues with it the rest of the day. Joe is feeling really defeated by the trip lately because of all the mechanical issues that have been happening. It seems like every 50 miles something is going wrong. I can imagine it has to be so incredibly frustrating constantly working on the bikes (he's my bicycle mechanic, so I am usually just there for moral support and to find/hand him any tools he needs). The remaining miles went by pretty fast. We had a couple long hills to climb, but the wind was helping us today so we flew downhill and on any flatter ground. It was so wonderful. The only bad part of riding has been the black flies lately. They love to just fly around you as you are riding, especially uphill. We are constantly swatting at them because we are scared to get bit because those bites hurt so much. At one point Joe had a magazine rolled up stuck in his handlebar bag so he could swat them when they landed. They were really hounding him, so much so that I purposely wanted to ride farther away from him. At one point he said that the bugs are "driving me completely crazy." The "wilderness" as everyone calls it (and keep saying how great it is) really stinks because there is almost no way to just enjoy it because there are just an insane amount of bugs. Its funny to hear people who have been just driving in their cars talk about how bad the bugs are, "especially at rest areas," and how they "can't leave their windows down when they stop." It almost makes me laugh because 90% of the time they are sitting in their cars or RVs out of the bugs, for us its just the opposite, I feel like they just don't understand fully how bad the bugs really are. Our hope for a camp spot was next to a river. Just as we were getting to the number of miles that we planned to do today, there it was, the bridge and a little pull off right next to the river. There was a nice little sandy beach and firewood all ready to go, it was almost perfect, again, except for the bugs. All we wanted to do was sit by the water and enjoy the scenery, but that is almost impossible. Even though we have our bug nets on, if we sit down in one spot for more than a couple minutes you will be covered in at least 50 mosquitoes. It is almost disgusting. Once we got the tent set up, it started to rain, so we hopped in our tent for a while to relax and stay dry. Luckily the rain didn't last too long and the sun came back out. We ventured outside again to make some rice for dinner. Joe made a fire with the wood that was there in hopes that the smoke would keep some of the mosquitoes away. After I was about 2/3 of the way through my dinner, I just didn't want to eat anymore (which NEVER happens!). I wasn't super full, but I was just tired of trying to eat in the bugs, it wasn't worth it; Joey finished my rice fore me. We had a couple cookies each, brushed our teeth and got the dishes all washed in the river. Joey worked on getting the food hung and then we got back into our tent as quickly as we could. It is so sickening to just lay in our tent and watch all the mosquitoes through the vents in our tent and all over the tent walls. We are both officially tired of the bugs. It's not the remoteness, the terrain, the weather or any other conditions that make this the hardest touring we have ever done, its once again, the bugs. Neither of us have ever seen this many mosquitos in our entire lives. The black flies by day, the mosquitos by night, there is almost no part of the days up here that we can look forward to. Getting through the bugs will make accomplishing our goal of riding to Alaska all the more meaningful. We rode 38.12 miles today and camped next to the Little Rancheria River.
After a good nights sleep we packed up and headed to the grocery store to pick up some cereal and milk for breakfast. They had bananas on sale too, so we got a bunch of those too. There were nice tables in the grocery store so we got to eat inside again. Afterwards, we headed to the visitor center for a while. We walked around the sign forest for a little bit. It was really neat because we saw quite a few signs from places around the country that we had ridden through either on this tour or on prior tours. Joey got a flat tire at the end of the day yesterday, so he worked on fixing that too. We spent a good portion of the day at the rec center again. It was only $3 each for a shower and use of all the facilities from 5 pin bowling to Squash. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the bowling because I have never played 5 pin before and it was a little weird using the tiny bowling ball. We tried calling our host again just by the chance that they were home today. Joe was able to get a hold of them, but they said they had just gotten home that morning and wouldn't be able to host us after all because they had too much to do. It would have been easier if they had just said they wouldn't have been able to host us when we first contacted them, it would have saved a lot of time. We were able to watch another episode of Breaking Bad before we went to the store to pick up some things for dinner. We got some steak and stuff to make noodles and then headed back to the picnic table outside of the community center. We had a very relaxing rest day and I was happy that the funny pain in my chest was starting to feel a little better. We headed back to our little camp spot in the woods again and played some more games on the tablet before bed. By the time we rode around town to the different places all day we ended up riding 2.44 miles. Our next big destination is Whitehorse, but we plan to take our time getting there because we are still so ahead of schedule.
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