Alaska & Beyond, pt.viii

June 29, 2019

Edit: over 3k miles already for the trip in 17 days. Took 6 rest days, which means 11 travel days. Average of 298 miles per day of travel. Not bad.

I’m starting today’s tale at the end. Well, part of it. I just really want everyone to know it’s 83 degrees, and my room has no AC. I’m sweating my proverbial bits off. Totally different than the cold weather that I’ve been having, though.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s rewind to the beginning, shall we?

It was really hard to sleep last night. I woke up at 4 the first time. Apparently the sun was basically back up, and the room didn’t have blackouts or anything. I slept on & off until finally giving up at about 6am.

The weather was really nice this morning. Cool, with a small sprinkle that actually was enjoyable. The Northern Rockies Lodge is highly recommended if you’re passing through this way. The food is decent (breakfast was an overpriced buffet, but it’s in the middle of nowhere, so…). Goulash, get the goulash.

After fueling myself, gassing up the bike, and checking out I hit the road heading to the Yukon Territory. Nothing super exciting happened in the morning. Good riding, beautiful scenery. The usual.

I was warned there would be bison using a bridge to cross the river. The sign even blinked confirmation when I neared said bridge. No bison. False advertising! I did see two massive mountain lines taking a casual stroll along the tree line, though. Two more black bears also.

I’m sort of fascinated by watching the trees for signs of bear. You can tell which trees they’re using to sharpen up, or maybe scratch their backs on. Weirdly mesmerizing.

The temps swung up, however, rising out of the 60s, eventually hitting the 80s. Pretty unexpected.

I did it. I hit a milestone. I cleared BC top to bottom to reach The Yukon. Holy awesome! So excited. I even slapped a Safety Third sticker on the sign. The 60th parallel. Daaaaang.

After that I saw a bison. Big bastard that looked ready to charge a camper that was stopped for photos. Sort of wish it had. I kept plenty of distance.

Lunch was in a place called Teslin. A pretty lame BLT, but it did the job. It was also silly hot at this point. Man, I was almost wishing for the rain again.

Ran into a group I’d chatted with before again, so that was cool. They left before me, and I relaxed a while before shooting down the road yet again. Not before fueling up, though. I’d gotten fuel in Watson Lake, but never pass it up.

A note on fuel… premium seems to be more rare the further I go. Luckily my bike runs whatever fuel. Regular is fine.

There aren’t really any Mounties up here, and I had some tips so the hammer was put down a bit. I had another two hours to go, and I was ready to be done.

The Yukon is markedly different than BC. You know right away you’ve crossed the border. The biggest tell is the roadsides, because Yukon doesn’t trim back the trees and bush. Bit sketchier from an animal visibility point of view, but lends a more rugged fee to things.

Overall, the scenery, the feel, the everything is more rugged, and continues to be so. The roads are worse. Lots of gravel today. No big deal, but it’s obvious that you’re far out. Roads today reminded me of parts of Patagonia, actually.

The light quality is odd. It seems like it’s perpetually hazy. Not sure why, but it’s true. Maybe the angle of the sun? I don’t know. That’s too much science for today.

Hit Whitehorse at about 6pm. Before you hit the actual town the road twists along an amazing lake, then drops down across an awesome bridge. The last river photo is looking into Whitehorse.

Ran a few errands for some consumables. Checked into my hotel (it’s not awesome, but whatevs). Now I think I’ll shower, and find some food.

Over 420 miles today… dang.

Odo Start: 17,424
Odo End: 17,868
Daily Miles: 444
Cum. Miles: 3,305

Additional comments from the present (Oct. 11, 2019): Whitehorse turned out to be a lot neater than I’d expected. I had a pretty good time, and even made a friend that I’d see again the next time through (hi, John if you’re reading this).

I had dinner at a place called Dirty North Bastard, and the food was awesome. Good beer selection as well. The clientele was interesting. At one point a drunk girl insisted on touching my face to a very uncomfortable degree. It provided quite a few laughs with John, who was my bartender.

This is where, in my opinion, the trip started to get really interesting… stay tuned!