May 30, 2025
A very cold night it was! When in my sleeping bag, I’m never sure if the perceived temperature is a result of the actual temperature, my physical output that day, or the number of calories I consumed (or didn’t consume). In any case, it was definitely below 32º. I didn’t get out of the tent until 8:30.
A friendly campground maintenance worker asked me some questions about my bicycle ride. He was used to seeing folks on bikes because he and his “company” (aka family) have the contract to maintain the campgrounds, rest areas, and recreation sites between Destruction Bay and the U.S.-Canada border. Christian, a Filipino-Canadian, lived in Haines Junction along with his extended family. He came to Canada 17 years ago and settled in Edmonton. He had an aunt who lived in Yukon (first Filipina Yukon resident), and he made his way west about 10 years ago. His family owns a restaurant and gas station in Haines Junction and he has this maintenance contract as well. He knew a lot about the area as well as First Nations history. I met up with him up again later at a recreation site and I think we talked for almost an hour. It was a beautiful morning, and he noticed that I wasn’t a typical bicycle tourist (or maybe I was and he took pity on me?). I brought up education and he said there is no public school in Haines Junction, so children attend the Kluane First Nations school. Think about that. What would school look like if we turned over education to our indigenous population? We spoke while standing on a lake shore, in a very long north-south valley, the Shakwak valley, which is the primary flyway for birds going north to breed. This was a major throughway for birds, long ago First Nations people, and yep, the U.S. Army who relied on local knowledge to locate the best way to get to Alaska. So much to reflect upon.
When I left Christian at Pickhandle Lake, I was running low on water. He told me that the White River bridge would be a good place to stop and fill up. Just before the White River, I spotted the remains of yet another abandoned roadhouse, one of many built on the Gen 2 AlCan. I explored for a bit before returning to the highway. Even though these places are glimpses into the past, just riding on the road alone you can feel and see the history everywhere you look. I stopped at White River, ate lunch, filtered water, and continued on.
One thing I hadn’t anticipated has pushed me to re-route my trip. I will not be crossing the Denali Highway from Paxson to Cantwell, south of Denali, after all. There are so many patches of highway pavement destroyed by permafrost that the highway department just leaves them as gravel and grades them when the washboard makes travel difficult. Not only is the surface difficult to navigate, the clouds of dust billowing up from hurried vehicles (on the AlCan?) makes these sections both teeth-shattering and suffocating. The Denali Highway features 100 miles of gravel which I will gladly detour now. I’ll be riding to Fairbanks instead. My arrival at Denali will be the same, but I can’t tolerate gravel the road conditions for 100 miles. I still have more to navigate tomorrow once I leave Beaver Creek for the U.S.- Canada border. I’ll deal with those sections when I get to them.
The weather is warming up and the winds are light. There are still chances for afternoon showers, but otherwise the riding conditions are so much better than they have been since the early days on the Cassiar. The balsam popular and birches are greening up very quickly and the smell of the balsam poplars is amazing! I expect to encounter more mosquitoes now that the temperatures are warming, but I’m getting close to the end of the trip. The kind of mosquitoes that emerge this time of year are easier to deal with because they are large and slow. The swarms that show up by the end of June can make life miserable.
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Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 1,455 miles (2,342 km)
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"Think about that. What would school look like if we turned over education to our indigenous population? "
4 days ago