To Canada

8/13

With a somewhat late night, we didn't end up getting up til 9 or so, and after some coffee, bagels, bananas, and some internet use we were on our way by 11:30. With no rain and a mostly cloudy day we were all hoping that the rain would hold off. Ten to fifteen miles east of Tok the hills started, with continuous ups and downs with hills generally being a mile up and a mile down. Not too bad as the hills were pretty gradual.



We had a group lunch of pb and j, sausage for some, nurtigrain bars, apricots, and snack packs. With all of us feeling like a nap, we forced ourselves back on the bikes where we continued with some nice scenery and beautiful lakes throughout the day as the rain continued to hold off.








We were at our free campsite at deadman's lake by 7:30, which was a pretty nice wildlife refuge, and were eating dinner around a fire by 9.


With 66 hilly miles behind us, all of us were pretty tired and we called it an early night with bed around 11.

8/14

Woke up to another rainy morning, though it was nice because the campsite had a screened in shelter that we were able to eat and pack up our stuff in. The ride out of the campsite was rainy, but the day cleared up within an hour or so. Lunch was at a small cafe that was nearly closed for the season (they closed 3 days after we were there). We left the U.S. about 30 miles into the day and entered Canada, where we saw a pair of bald eagles.








20 miles into Canada we finally passed through customs. This was a ridiculously slow process, so slow Katherine tried taking a nap, as we had to wait in line for an hour and a half as they would pass one car every 10 minutes or so.


To top off the ridiculousness of the border crossing, after Pauline had crossed earlier with John and Arne, she was made to go back through customs again since she talked with Katherine across the imaginary line. Eventually we made it through customs, ate dinner at Buckshot Betty's, and at 10:45 with night approaching we decided to ride 13 miles to a nice state (or territory now) campground. In addition to it being dark, about halfway there it started raining. At midnight with the subpar Road conditions, the upper 40 degree temps, and the rain this became a little more of an adventure than we intended. Finally we arrived at the campground and set up our tents in the covered picnic area pavilion. This was really nice as we were able to get out of the rain for the night.

8/15

The rain continued throughout the night and we awoke to another rainy morning. After a breakfast of cinnabons, applesauce, and coffee we were on our way. The rain continued for the first couple hours of riding, but the sites made the ride a little more enjoyable. Also, a French bakery with delicious crepes was 41 miles away and the thought of crepes, a warm place to eat, and some hot coffee or chocolate was enough to keep our spirits high. We finally arrived at the bakery tired and hungry only to find it was closed, presumably for the season as there normal hours were 7 am to 9:30 pm. This was really disappointing, but the sun was starting to come out and we had pb and j and snacks for lunch. The views the rest of the day were pretty incredible, with tons of untouched wilderness peppered with mountain lakes. The untouched wilderness will probably remain so for a while, as we've heard that minus 40 to minus 60 degree temps with only a few hours of sunlight are the common winter conditions.












Rumor has it that when the flowers of the pictured flower reach the top of the stem that summer is over.


Looks like summer here is about at its end. Hard to imagine that it ends in mid August... Towards the end of the day a storm approached, but luckily we were able to get in our tents prior to the start of the rain. A 65 mile day.


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Location:Tok, AK to somewhere in the Yukon Territory, Canada