A Continuing Conversation - Part 3

Friend I passed you in a snow storm heading into Watson Lake yesterday. Are you crazy?

Peace Rider What can I say. Early winter finally caught up with me. Somewhere along the way it was bound to happen.

It was clouding over late the day before. A front passed in the night, wind and snow coming with it. I had two choices, stay in camp and possibly be snow bound or hit the road while I still could. Another consideration, my food supply was dwindling. In the AM the road was still passable so I hit the road with about 30 miles to go. I switched back to studded tires. The road was mostly snow free and good going on faster touring tires to this point.

F So where are you hanging out in Watson Lake?

PR My Whitehorse friends Ken and Wendy helped me find a "Warm Showers" family in Watson Lake that host cyclists like myself. I'm the oldest and probably latest to show up. I called Susan and Barry Drury from Teslin and left a message that I was coming. I did not want to show up unexpectedly. I was profoundly grateful to have a place to rest.

You know I feel really cared for and looked after on this journey.

F How so?

PR I was just a few kilometers down the road from camp when who should pass and stop but Susan and Barry. They were out caribou hunting and introduced themselves as my host family. They had gotten my message. They were going to be out a few more hours and said they would catch up with me later and give me a ride into Watson Lake. Just short of the junction with the Cassiar Highway Susan caught up with me again. I was still 13 miles from town.

Barry had stayed with another friend to continue hunting. At Susan's suggestion I gave her my heaviest gear which freed me to pedal the remaining distance less encumbered. More snow was accumulating on the road too. It was a BIG help. The last two pitches between the Liard R. crossing to Watson Lake were really long, steep and draining. As usual, plenty tired by the time I topped the hill and hit WL.

F You know there aren't many folks of your vintage on a winter camping trip by bicycle.

PR Vintage, true, but you know our bodies are amazing and will do what we ask if we take care of them. But I also realize to make it I need to take periodic breaks especially after a week on the road with 30 and 40 mile days.

F So it took you a week to make it from Whitehorse to Watson Lake?

PR Yeah, I got a late start from Whitehorse when I left on Thursday with a photo op at the Klondike River boat thanks to Ken and Wendy. I made it about eight miles out of town that day and had another day when I ran into rain and mixed rain and snow when I literally got stopped in my tracks.

F How so?

PR There's more to the leaving Whitehorse story.

F. Okay?

PR You remember I mentioned in my last blog of meeting John Harding at Goodies Gas stop on the outskirts of Whitehorse?

F Vaguely.

PR Well, he had been kind enough to call Beez Kneez Hostel for me from there to find out if they were open for business. They were and I needed a place to stay. As it turned out there was a place for me at the Whitehorse Oblate Center with Father Veyrat my old French priest friend from Ross River. I didn't know it until I stopped there to see him.

F Then what?

PR As I was setting up camp about a mile from the turnoff to Skagway who should drive down the unmarked road just as I was setting up camp but John Harding. It turns out he was driving south on the Highway when he spotted what looked like a briefcase. He turned around only to find it was a pillow. He saw this road and decided to explore where it went. Most roads he told me are private drives. He said he had looked for me at the Hostel but I wasn't there and was left wondering what happened to me.

This was a kindness repaid in a special way.

F You were going to tell me about getting stopped.

PR Yeah, I was a couple of days out of Whitehorse when it started to rain then mixed rain and snow. I still had touring tires on and was trying to push my bike up a steep hill through slush. It balled up on the front disc brakes then froze. The front wheel literally wouldn't turn and it was also slipping. I took the hint. I was wet. It was time to stop. I got the wheel unstuck and reluctantly headed back down to look for a camp site.

At the bottom I found a snow free place barely big enough for my tent to fit in between the spruce trees. I walked downhill on the north side of the road to find water plus dry firewood. I was in the tent starting to get dried out early in the afternoon. That day I only made 12 miles. A heated tent is a life saver under these conditions.

F How was the road after that?

PR I switched over to studded tires before breaking camp the next day. I can do this inside my tent which is a huge plus.

I made it up and over the icy grade where I was stopped the day before. But in a few miles I had a mostly snow free road again. I didn't stop to switch tires but did so the day after with the road mostly clear.

F How was this leg compared to the one into Whitehorse?

PR Definitely more demanding, more hills to get up and over with conditions turning more wintry. Luckily I was able to do most of it on touring tires. There was also more snow on the ground after I crossed the Continental Divide.

The kindness of strangers is a reoccurring theme, welcome and very gratifying. Kamil Skurka from Anchorage stopped. He was headed to Cleveland to live closer to his daughter. Wanted to know what I was doing and took photos. He said he had paid off his debts in two years and was going south with money in the pocket and a waiting job with good pay.

Two hunters, Wolf and Terry, on their way back home at Marsh Lake stopped when I was on a long grade with gifts of juice, granola bars and conversation. They had gotten a caribou from the Little Rancheria herd, saw me on the way down.

You know the road is so much different now than when I first drove down it on a motorcycle a long time ago. I still had a full head of hair and it was red in those days. The road was still mostly unpaved then, not as straight or even of grade and a dust bowl. Some of the charm and adventure of it all are gone.

But one thing hasn't changed much over the years and that's the wild beauty of the country flanking the road. It's still a stunningly beautiful setting to immerse oneself in day after day.

Just as I was breaking camp one day about half way down Teslin Lake a skein of tundra swans flew over, back lit, just as the sun broke the horizon, calling. Special moments. Getting out of the country ahead of the snow. I was a bit envious.

I heard swans calling from another camp by Swan Lake still unfrozen. I think it was the same day I also saw three trumpeter swans still on a lake. They are the last to leave ahead of freeze up, late in coming this year. Their young cygnets mature late.

The same day I'm pedalling up a not so steep grade when a white van pulls off on the shoulder ahead of me and stops. Then it moves on up to the top of the hill. Considerate I thought. A man gets out carrying a bottle of water. When I get closer he yells can you use a drink of water. Sure, I say. He says he never passes up a cyclist without stopping to offer something. He said he tries to make a long distance cycling tour every year somewhere.

He gave me a couple of web sites that will be helpful in route planning in the States, Adventure Cycling being one of them and Guy On a Bike the other. It was John Harris from Anchorage, a 27 year retired AK State Trooper as it turned out. He was on his way to Whistler, BC for a singing engagement of some sort then to Bellingham, WA.

But here's the remarkable part. He knew and was also friends of Pat and Kathy from freespirtwear in Homer and found so helpful with my trip planning. He'd been in Pat's Anchorage bike shop and got to know them before Pat sold his business. I also learned that Pat had an illness that compelled him to sell. I was sad to hear that.

Here I am on the road a long way from anywhere, meeting up with a stranger only to find we have mutual friends and learn of something I was not aware of before. So it has been since I assumed the mantle of Peace Rider.

There is a harmony to events that seems to come when your life aligns with divine intention.

F So what are your plans now?

PR It looks like I will end up staying put for at least another day until the snow stops and the road gets plowed off. I'm also in the market for a light weight snow shovel. Got to git.