Dan's Travel Adventures

Day 14 opens in Grande Cache. Our hotel is one of only a few to choose from, and as is the case about 1/2 the time, we have to take two rooms to accommodate the three of us. We rotate through who gets the single, and I cherish each combination. When I’m alone, it is its own bliss – all the outlets I need, hot soak in the tub, my own hours for sleeping, etc. These are the same pleasures, I am reminded, that were so rare growing up in a big family.

The other two days of such a cycle, I am with Mitch or Tony, one on one, and each has it’s welcomed gifts. Mitch and I can talk for hours about everything from trip planning and routing (me on computer, Mitch old school with highlighter and paper maps) or governance, land use, riding techniques, etc. Tony and I talk more about matters of the heart, our personal paths, and family. Both are equally valuable and serve to reinvigorate me while I am away.

From Grande Cache, we head up 40, and it’s mostly uneventful. Just making time, but it’s largely industrial. There are logging operations for paper production, some natural gas drilling and processing and some oil production. These are necessary days – you don’t cover 13,000 miles in 6 weeks without this type of travel, but it doesn’t feed the soul.

We stay the night in Pink Mountain, having crossed into the northeast corner of British Columbia, heading for the Yukon. We stay at the Buffalo Inn, and it’s a generous application of the word “inn”. Most of the property is dominated by housing trailers for workers in one of the aforementioned industries, who undoubtedly spend long periods away from family in exchange for lots of hours of work and nothing much to do. The food is plentiful and otherwise unremarkable, but we are happy to have the “family suite” room, which is two single beds and two queens. This is basically a boarding house, with prolific posted rules and a sign available for the door of every room stating “night crew sleeping”, a sign to take your conversation down to the restaurant. A loud generator drones all day and night supplying power to the housing trailers. Folks have had to block out this awful intrusion into the psyche, which seems emblematic of the whole place.

After Pink Mountain, we’re treated to some better riding on 97, accompanied by places named Moose Lick Creek, Pocketknife Creek and the place we stay next, Muncho Lake. We have called ahead for this, as the towns are spaced far apart and there is little lodging. We luck into a cabin with three queen beds and the most beautiful scenery. We pay dearly here – nearly $10/gal for gas, $100 for a mediocre meal, but there is no arguing with the surroundings.

As we head north and further from population density, we have found new phrases making their way into our helmet comms protocol. In one day, as lead rider for the day, I uttered “Slowing, there’s something ahead. BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE, bison in the road!!” also “Slowing, bear in the road” (had to use that one a few times), and the ever popular “Moose on the left”. Being early in the year, we’ve been treated to the sight of younglings – bear cubs the size of a house cat, bison calves sticking very close to their mothers, and little goat kids on spring-loaded legs, easily crossing the rock ledges near the road.

We leave Muncho Lake talking about distance for the day. We can push on to Whitehorse, and have a day completely off the bikes on Sunday, or just split the difference with two lighter days. We have to hold in Whitehorse to change tires for the gravel roads ahead, and the dealership opens Monday. We decide to push to Whitehorse, and are treated to an accommodating front desk person, a large room and a day off. Laundry, walking and relaxing are in order. Of course, even rest days include stretching and exercising. When you have as many years behind you as we each have, you must ward off the gremlins before they take hold. Total miles: 4780