Whitehorse to Watson Lake

Day 18, Monday June 27, 80.7km

Up early as usual. While making my breakfast mother nature is calling and I make one step in the direction of the restrooms and out of nowhere comes a shooting pain in my right lower leg. Must be a cramp and will be gone in a minute. It is not. What the heck is wrong now, I just had 2 days rest! Can't even determine where exactly it originates. I cannot stretch the leg. Mother nature is not going away, no choice but to limp to the restroom. Back on my site I sit down at the picnic table, massage the lower leg, flex it and finally manage to stretch it all the way. The pain slowly disappears and we finish breakfast and packing. Can't be a muscle, must be a nerve or tendon issue. Whatever it is, let's hope it is gone.
There is a steep long hill to get back on the Alaska highway (abbreviated to AH from here on) from Whitehorse and I wonder how my leg will be holding out. The leg feels normal, figure that one!
The weather is great again, sunny and blue skies. Leaving Whitehorse the AH follows the Yukon river for a while with some nice views of the river.

Once we leave the river we clearly enter a semi desert again, not much water around. The forest is no longer black spruce, what we see now looks like pine. Today we have a slight headwind to deal with but it is not unpleasant with these warm temperatures.

We reach Jakes Corner around 4pm. It is a collection of run down buildings and a few gas pumps at the junction of the AH and highway # 8. There is a restaurant where the tired traveller can take a shower for a price. I ask the girl behind the desk if there is a place to pitch my tent and she replies that this is the Yukon and I can pitch my tent wherever I want as long as it is not in the way. I have a meal of chicken enchilladas with mexican beans and make use of their shower facilities. I pitch my tent at the other side of the AH where there is a level spot in the shade. I fill my foldable bucket with water at the restaurant. Now I am all set.

Day 19, Tuesday June 28, 84.4km

This camping spot at Jakes Corner is buggy, lots of musquitos and some blackflies as well. I have to dress accordingly, wearing my jacket with hood and my long biking pants. They are too thick for the musquitos to penetrate with their stingers. My right leg is acting up again. Same thing as yesterday and I give it the same treatment. It comes from within my lower calf on the right side of the leg and it is most painful when I come up from a kneeling position. Can't explain this. I had a really good rest, went in the tent at 8pm and almost directly fell asleep.
It is mostly cloudy today but a pleasant temperature for biking with a wind of about 20km behind us. However, we are biking direction northeast and in a while we will make a sharp turn to the south following the shores of Teslin Lake and then we will have the wind against us. We have done 36km so far and my leg is fine. There is a lot more traffic on this stretch of the AH and a good number of tractor trailers. A lot of those are tanker trucks and I wonder if there are oil wells around here.
Shortly after we cross the Teslin river there is a sideroad to the left. There is a sign indicating a display of historic significance and we go in to investigate. It is the Canol road and the picture speaks for itself. Those wrecks are relics from the second world war.

We are now following the east shore of Teslin lake and we now have a headwind to deal with . A few rain drops are falling down and I change to raingear. A girl on a bike with a Bob coming from the opposite direction swings to my side of the road and asks if I have any trouble. She is from Italy and speaks a little bit of English and is biking from Patagonia to Alaska. Now there is an adventure for you!

At 2:45 we reach the Teslin Lake campground and self register for site number 20, the closest to the shelter. It is raining softly now.

Day 20, Wednesday June 29, 80.4km

That rain did not last very long, later the sun came out again. No rain overnight. Leg not acting up. Just past the town of Teslin is a long bridge across the Nisutlin bay. The bridge surface is metal grates and it is a bit scary to cross it on narrow bike tires.

Shortly after the bridge is a very steep hill up. In my grading system this is partly a 11standing (first 1 is for smallest chain ring front, second 1 is for largest chainring rear, standing is for standing up on the pedals). On hills like this I make regular stops to let the heart rate come down. Don't forget, I am pushing a heavy load! On the hill we have a great view of the town and bay.
We are battling a headwind today. After 2.5 hours on the bike we only have 35km to show for. We are struggling today. During lunch a few raindrops start falling. The skies do not look very promising and I put on my raingear. The AH straddles the border between the Yukon and British Columbia and crosses it several times. At 1:15pm we cross into BC for the first time and we will be in BC the rest of today.
We arrive at our destination for today around 4pm. We are wild camping at the Smart river. I did a good job researching this spot using Google streetview. Lots of room to pitch my tent and a river with cool clear water.
When we arrive Stephen is there taking a brake. I first met Stephen at Starbucks in Whitehorse, next we met again at Jakes Corner and earlier today he caught up with me and we biked together for a while. We are too slow for Stephen and he pulled away after a while. He ran into some folks picking mushrooms and they gave him a bag full of morels. He gave me half and I fried them up and put them in my chili. That is probably not the best way to taste morel mushrooms but they were a pleasant chewy addition to the chili. Stephen started in Vancouver and his goal is to cycle 25000km throughout Canada to raise $1million for the Canadian Cancer Society. May the wind be in you back Stephen!

We had one brief shower today, I could have done without my raingear.

Day 21, Thursday June 30, 78.2km

Up at 4am and notice frost on the paniers. The temperature is 0 degC.
 

While making breakfast the dew on the tent fly freezes, I can't take it down until it is defrosted. Best thing to do now is to crawl back into the sleeping bag to get warm again. I doze off and when coming to again notice waterdrops rolling down the fly. Time for action. Due to this frost delay it is already 7:30am by the time we hit the road. The sun is out but it is very hazy. We may be running into rain later today. There is a little bit of wind and it is behind us. At 11:15 we are back in the Yukon and at 11:45 we are partly up a very long steep hill , no wonder, we are heading for a summit of 1020m in elevation.

At 14:10 we reach a sign announcing the Continental Divide.

Shortly after we reach the summit of 1020m and enter the narrow valley of the Rancheria river.

It is all downhill from here to reach our destination: the Rancheria Lodge and campground. The lodge is pretty run-down but there is a restaurant and the folks are friendly. I really like my camping spot under the pine trees.

While working on my notebook in the restaurant I am approached by Juan. He is from Spain and is also biking from Patagonia to Alaska. He already had seen my bike and the strap system I use to lock the handlebars in place to prevent Bob from jack-knifing and he is quite impressed by that. Juan started out with a Bob trailer but gave it up in SanFransisco after he damaged his derailleur arm 6 times.

Day 22, Friday July 1, 101.1km

Happy Canada Day! We will have a late start this morning. I have to make a phone call to Bell Mobility for Lucy so she can change her cell phone plan and the restaurant does not open until 7am and that is the only place where there is a phone. Bad timing! Bell Mobilty is closed due to the statutory holiday. We are on the road at 7:45am. The sun is shining and blue skies once again. We continue going downhill following the narrow valley of the Rancheria river.

At 11:40 we reach the calculated halfway point of our trip at 1394km.

We reach the end of the valley and move away from the river. The landscape has now changed to long rolling hills covered by pine forest and the road follows these long rolling hills with long downslopes and what  seems to be longer and steeper uphills. We are working our butts off. The schedule calls for 97km and with this wind behind us we may make that distance today.

At 5:40 we reach Junction 37 Services, our target for today and have a great stir-fry followed by a slice of apple pie at the restaurant  By the time we get to our camping spot we have done 101.1km.


Day 23 Saturday July 2, 30.7km

The schedule is just a little bit too aggressive and I am going to deviate from it a bit. After yesterday's 100km day we are going to slow down a bit. Today we will bike to Watson Lake, stock up on food, do laundry and blog update and rest tomorrow as well.
Up at 6am this morning. Earlier I had to go to the washroom and that darn leg was acting up again but now all is back to normal. The sun is shining once again. We only have to bike about 22km today. What a luxury! Soon after leaving we coast down a steep hill and cross the Liard river. We will see more of this river in the coming days.

What goes down has to go back up and soon we are climbing a long steep hill to get out of the river valley.
We reach Watson Lake at 10am and  pay a visit to the forest of signs and the Tourist Info center.

There we learn that highway 97 between Chetwynd and Prince George is closed due to several washouts and will remain closed for the next 2 weeks. Our schedule puts us in Chetwynd on July 19, hopefully they will have repaired the road by then. We certainly will have to keep checking this. Also got useful information on the route from Watson Lake to Fort Nelson. I have calculated that we have to carry food for 7 days. We will be heavy when we leave Watson Lake.
I am presently at the public library to work on the blog and Bob is patiently waiting outside. No Wifi here, I have to use one of the library terminals.

Day 24, Sunday July 3.
A very relaxing day. Slept in until 8:45 and went for breakfast. Now trying to find a place with decent wifi to connect with my blog and do some cutting and pasting from my notebook.
This would have been a good day for traveling, there is a good wind blowing from the west and it is sunny again. I can't believe my luck with all this great weather. I do not regret taking an easy day yesterday. I am now one day behind schedule and there is not much slack left to make up for it. I made the schedule a little bit too aggressive.
I have to mention Wim. I met him for the first time at Buckshot Betty in Beaver Creek. He was sitting at the table with 2 other guys and they asked me to join them. Wim had just met the 2 other guys at the campground. Wim is from the Netherlands and is biking from Alaska to Patagonia. He quit his job and follows his dream for the next 18 months. I met Wim again at the public library in Whitehorse and we had a pleasant conversation. Wim has a web site and the link is www.heebels.nl