Although the intention for yesterday was to ride 1000km from Fairbanks to Whitehorse (where I needed to change the knobbly tyres back to road going slippers), I actually only got as far as Haines Junction when it got dark, I was cold and hungry and tired and so decided to stop for the night rather than pushing on the additional 150km after sunset. This was a great idea because although the motor inn where I stopped looked dodge from the outside it was actually super cosy, clean and comfortable and it enabled me a great nights rest and to get off to Whitehorse by 7am.
My 1200km days ride from Haines Junction to Fort Nelson.
The signpost forest in Watson Lake.
Today being the second of the Long run days, I have ridden 1200km from Haines Junction to Fort Nelson but with a stop in between to change tyres. The route to Fort Nelson did however produce some beautiful game viewing opportunities because I came around a bend in the road along the Alaskan highway to encounter a large herd of wild Bison which was awesome and rare for me because I had never seen them before, never mind a herd in the wild, so I naively stopped on the side of the road and they herded past and around me with calves and huge bulls…it was a real treat! About 10km further down the road I encountered a black bear frolicking on the side of the road and then decided that perhaps I was taking too many stops for the distance I had to travel today.
I finally got into Fort Nelson by around 23h00 and had to ride about 2 hours in the dark and at a speed of not greater than 80km/h because I couldn’t find an open fuel station in the last 200km before fort nelson and had images of spending the night on the side of the road in the tent and sleeping bag and making a long trek on foot in the morning to go hunt for fuel! Fortunately this wasn’t necessary because the big girl and I managed to sniff our way into fort nelson on the last remaining vapours in the tank!! It was lights out for me thereafter because the exhaustion had sunk in deeply!!
In the interim, Jax is in Juneau and has taken a tour around the town to see some of the wildlife and she captured some great shots which she has sent to me…
