We made it to Canada! The last few days were filled to the brim with type-2 fun. Getting to the border was a “mile high” day because we had to climb over 5,280 feet in cumulative elevation to reach the land of the metric system.
The Taylor Highway on the US side was very hilly.
Just before the border we turned onto the Top of the World Highway, which true to its name runs along exposed ridgelines and was very windy. It also started raining. We decided to stop a bit before our planned destination for the night and threw our tent down in a little gravel pullout on the side of the road. We made dinner in a drizzle, then hopped in the tent hoping it would be less rainy when we awoke from hibernation 10 hours later.
It didn’t stop raining. We woke up, and since everything was soaked by the pouring rain, we skipped hot coffee and breakfast. We scarfed down some pulverized pop-tarts we had been schlepping for a while and started riding. Dawson City was only 50km away (about 30 miles to un-civilized Americans) and it looked mostly downhill.
Unfortunately, the dirt road was now very muddy and we got totally soaked even in our full rain gear. The rolling hills that would have been a delight on a sunny day were now a total slog. Our brakes became much less effective the more mud they collected, which turned the long downhill into Dawson City a white-knuckled adventure. Even though the temperature rose from the low-40s to the low-50s as we got to lower elevation, our shoes were filled with water and we were quite chilled while we waited for the ferry to cross the Yukon River.
In northern Canada, many of the rivers don’t have bridges, even on major arteries, they have free ferries to shuttle all the traffic across. The Yukon is an incredibly swift river. Most people need to stay in their cars but cyclists get to sit on a cold metal bench on the side. But luckily that red square next to Giselle’s head in the photo above is a hatch to the engine, so delightfully hot diesel air blasted from that vent and warmed us up. Normally we would’ve hated sitting there but yesterday the hot fumes were a godsend because it stopped the involuntary shivering.
As we slogged into town caked in mud in the early afternoon, people kept stopping us to say they had passed us on the road and to congratulate us on having made it. The recognition felt good but we were cold and wet and just wanted to find shelter for the night and, most importantly, find our first cup of coffee and some real food.
But now we’re settled and taking a rest day in Dawson City!
We spread out all our stuff on our cabin’s porch so it looked like a yard sale of gross things nobody would ever want, but it all gradually dried. Now we look somewhat civilized. After a delicious fish-n-chips dinner we had ice cream and Giselle’s “two-scoop” cone was about as big as her head. The sun is out, we’re incredibly well-fed, all our clothes are freshly laundered, and all our gear is dry! So it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.
Today: bike maintenance and logistics for our ride up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean! There is an informal system where RV’ers carry cyclists’ food several hundred miles up the road to Eagle Plains since there’s a bit of a food desert without stores in the middle of the route. RVs and motorcycles can just power on to the next town but most cyclists can’t cover the distance quickly enough. We need to go to the various stores in town and get whatever we can find to cram in a box to send to ourselves. Also we’ll probably eat a few times today.
Totals so far:
963 miles ridden
45,781 in elevation gain
Zero Mounties spotted