Cold rain. Again. Hard to get out of the tent with the cold rain and no shelter. A rather miserable morning with everyone slow to get moving, and once we did get moving there was an immediate flat tire. A frustrating morning for all, with divisions in the group only growing deeper with the cold rain, light breakfast of only pb and j on one slice of bread for each person, and slow morning. The group split into two, with Jameson and Julia getting an earlier start. The morning was tough for all as the clouds hid most of the scenery and the rain made the morning uncomfortable. The road conditions were ok in some places, but extremely bumpy in other places with basically the road consisting of a conglomeration of large rocks held together in some tar/cement matrix.
This road managed to snap Coralie's back bike rack, but this was a problem that luckily duct tape was able to fix. A couple hours into the day the rain let up and the sky began to clear. After a rather expensive lunch and a stop in Destruction Bay the sky was clear and the sun shining.
The afternoon was nice with beautiful scenery of mountains surrounding a huge lake, Khulane Lake.
Needless to say the nice afternoon boosted everyones spirits as we enjoyed the sun and incredible scenery.
The following picture is from one side of the road.
And the other.
After a great afternoon we set up camp around 8:30 just a little off the road.
A slow dinner of pasta and canned beans with a slow clean up led to a late bed around midnight.
8/17
A French perspective:
After waking up at 8.20, and enjoying a sweet breakfast on the lakeshore, we began our bike day.
The sun was there, and it was a very enjoyable morning, with some hills, and a lot of very nice landscapes. At some point, the scenery even looked like in the Alpes. It was wonderful and very peaceful.
After the hills of the morning came the downhills : we had 11 miles of straight downhill.
That was a lot, and there was a lot of front wind, but it was a nice change. We arrived at Haynes junction where we went to the grocery store, had a quick lunch, and took the road again. Our ideal stopping point was situated 50 miles away, in a restaurant highly recommended by a fellow biker. We went for it, and the ride was long but nice. We arrived at the restaurant, own by Irene, and it was awesome. Irene is a very nice and happy person, she has a restaurant-bar serving locals.
We met some nice people talking about the days where they were winning ski races on wooded skis, and they were all very friendly to bikers (perhaps even a little drunk too). Irene and her husband let us stay in their "garage", which actually was a comfy HEATED room. ( Did I mention it was heated?)
It was super nice to have some roof to sleep under, and the night brought only good dreams. Not to bad after a 90 miles day of biking!
-CR
8/18-8/20
After a night on the floor of Irene's cozy cabin, we had only 50 miles to go to reach our destination of the town of Whitehorse. We all tried to savor the rest of our time as an 8 person group.
Both Coralie and Pauline would be ending their tour in Whitehorse and Jameson and Julia changed their plans to taking a bus to Seattle.
On another note, Katherine, Ken, and Arne were all in a rush to reach Whitehorse due to painful bug bites that had unfortunately become infected. We had a beautiful sunny day riding into the town and we went straight to the clinic. Unfortunately the infection had progressed to cellulitis on kens nose and ears, Katherines hands and lip, and Arne's ears. we were all so grateful to get medication to help the awful pain.
Whitehorse turned out to be a pretty amazing little town. The town is like the Boulder, CO of Canada. We enjoyed the beautiful quaintness of the town, delicious cafes, made a giant trail mix, went on the Yukon Brewery tour, and ran lots of errands.
We were also very grateful to meet an awesome guy named Joel who lives with his family in Whitehorse. He is a a fellow cyclist who invited us to stay at his lovely home and made us a fantastic dinner. We also got to meet his sister Emily and a few other friends. What a blessing it is to be able to have a warm place to stay and the generosity and company of such great Canadians. They have truly made our stay in Whitehorse one of the best parts of the trip so far.
We will miss you Coralie, Pauline, Julia, and Jameson! We are so glad that we had this journey together!
-KG
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Whitehorse, YT
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