Today was a long 700km ride from Dease Lake to Whitehorse in the Yukon. Arriving in the Yukon has really started to feel like I am pushing the last frontier elements of this trip which I last felt when approaching Ushuaia in Argentina back in January.
Days ride…
The ride up the remainder of the Stewart Cassier highway continued to produce more beautiful scenery and although I had high hopes for the “ghost town” of Cassiar, there was in fact almost nothing to see other than some dilapidated houses and streets that have been taken over by forest.
Being from Africa, one would think that being this far north and the weather pretty cold, that Mosquito’s would be the last of my concerns? Well No! These little buggers are huge, ravenous and swarm! I have learnt not to take my helmet off, lift my visor or take my gloves off when I stop for photos because that’s the only way to ensure I don’t have an immediate drain of all my essential bodily fluids!! When I have taken off the helmet to ensure that I get my handsome visage on the odd self taken portrait, I often think that if anyone was watching me dart back to the bike (in the 10 seconds before the camera goes off) doing a little dance like a fast Macarena to keep the little buggers off my face, they would think me insane…at least it gives me a little something to laugh at in the solitude!!
Met a biker called Nick heading down to Seattle after buying this KTM in Juneau…
The remains of Cassiar…
Me fooling about with the camera and tripod…post my little dance!
You would think I only have 700km to do today so can afford the time to muck about like this!!??..You cant see it but In this picture there is a mosquito trying to climb INSIDE my right eyeball!!
I eventually got into Whitehorse by about 17:00 and checked into a small motel in town before heading off to watch a movie in the local cinema (more like a small warehouse that has been converted) which finished at 23:30….and it was still light outside! I guess that’s what happens when one is so far north!
Tomorrow I am spending the day in Whitehorse because I need to change my tyres to knobblies before I tackle the Dempster on Tuesday. Everything is closed here on Sunday and tyres aren’t available in Dawson where I head to for Monday night but am getting quite excited at the prospects of doing this “highway” because of the varying nature of the reports. Although I think that the reports tend to be made to sound worse than it actually is (and I doubt ANYTHING can be worse than Isiolo to Marsabit to Moyale in Kenya) because people tend to make the experience sound more grandiose (or morose in this case), Read here from a guy who did the road a short while ago!!
