10 Jun Old Habits Die Hard
Well I didn’t mean to leave you all hanging for so long, and I appreciate anyone who’s still following along and waiting for an update. I’m much farther along in the story now. I have a bit of free time these days, plus an apartment in Lima Peru, and recently got my computer delivered to me. That has made this process of trying to catch you all up on the story less daunting than it had been previously with only my phone on the move.
I’ll start with some selections from the ending of my ride to Alaska, then get you up to speed with where I am now.
After my time in Washington, I ferried over to Vancouver Island and spent a few wet days riding around and out to Tofino before heading back to Victoria and ferrying over to Vancouver. I opted for a hostel in Tofino with some new traveler friends I met and paid for my first night of accommodation of the trip.
I stayed with some friends I had in Vancouver for a day or 2, then rode out and met the new friends from Tofino to hike up Stawamus Chief peak in Squamish. After that I continued on to Whistler where I reunited with more friends I had made on mountain biking trips to Whistler in years prior. I made their couch a homebase for the better part of a week, and did some wagonwheel spoke rides to points on interest nearby, including the Train Wreck hike, Soo River, Lillooet Lake, and Skookumchuck T’sek hot springs to name a few. I also enjoyed some of my favorite spots around Whistler like Lost Lake, and ended up floating down the River of Golden Dreams from Alta Lake to Green Lake with my friends I was staying with.
Here’s an edit from riding around Soo River one day with Oliver Charni who was heading back south after his Alaska moto trip:
And here’s an edit from floating down the River of Golden Dreams:
After some time relaxing in Whistler I continued north and found some nice camping spots on the way out towards Hyder.
I stayed at Seton Lake one night.
Then later I rode out to a deserted campsite at Twan Lake where the skies proceeded to open up and dump rain and hail on me before I could get anything setup in camp. Video of that here, but I apologize in advance for any foul language :X
The next morning I found myself deep in the back woods something like 50km away from pavement and all the roads had turned into a snotty muddy mess. I tried to continue the shortest route on to the next town, but it was terrain I hadn’t ridden the day before and in less than 5kms I performed a spectacular pirouette in the mud. I had a hell of a time getting the bike up as my boots couldn’t find any hold in the mud until I laid down all the thick tree branches I could find. I turned around and backtracked the way I had arrived after that fiasco:
As I got closer to Hyder it got harder and harder to resist stopping to snap photos around every bend in the road:
Here’s Bear Glacier that you pass on Hwy 37A before you get into Hyder:
And here’s a shot from Salmon Glacier:
Next up was the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake:
I caught up with a familiar looking truck bed camper as I was getting into Whitehorse, Yukon, and it turned out to be a German guy about my age named Max who I had run into at a small roadside lake and passed on the road several times up to that point. We met up and wild camped together near Miles Canyon outside Whitehorse.
Here’s a friendly visitor we had as we were hanging out and preparing dinner. The fox almost stole my bag of top ramen but I knew he wasn’t prepared to cook it properly, so I refused to give it up.
I was getting pretty close to Dawson City by this point, and started seeing a lot more riders converging. At a random gas stop I got chatting with a couple ADV riders I had passed a few times on the road, and Jason and Derek and I ended up camping out off the Klondike Hwy the last day before catching Dust 2 Dawson.
And then at Dust 2 Dawson I had a blast with all the like minded riders soaking up the local entertainment and rally shenanigans. Here’s a picture from the top of Midnight Dome that I ended up making into my sticker for the trip down south.
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