Yukon Ho!

June 12, 2006

Biking time: None
End: Prince Rupert
Distance: None
Because we are procrastinators at heart, we decided to hang around Prince Rupert for the day and start the biking again on Tuesday. In the morning we met a German guy who was probably in his late forties and also planning to bike to Dawson City. He was actually biking through Dawson into Alaska (on what is called the “Top of the World” highway). We spoke with him for a while, and bumped into him several times throughout the day as he searched for a “Guideposts” (or was it “Mileposts”) book which describes every road in Northwestern N.A. in excruciating detail. We wondered if we’d see him on the road, but he told us he rides slowly, and additionally he was planning to stay until Wednesday to watch World Cup soccer. After some intense morning nerding (I found the software I needed to dump our GPS track history to the “camping computer” [neenerneet]), we headed out for breakfast. We quickly discovered that the majority of restaurants in town were of the “Chinese and Canadian food” variety, so we picked one that advertised breakfast and headed in. After a great feedin’, we left and around the corner we hit a Tim Hortons… the first in ages. Vowing to stop there before riding out on Tuesday, we continued through the downtown on the hunt for a thermarest upgrade. There was only one “outdoors store” in town, and it was more of a hockey/bike/camping/sporting goods/jersey store, so they didn’t have what we needed. Maybe in Terrace. After that, we stumbled upon the “Sunken Gardens” behind city hall, and wandered through them to find a tunnel that led directly to the back door of the Hostel. Convenient! At the tourist centre, we got some decent information for once. They had a photocopied map of the Stewart Cassiar highway showing all of the camping areas and towns we’d hit along the way (there aren’t many). They also had the Guideposts book that the German was looking for, but it was $35, and far too heavy to bring biking. We went back to the hostel and asked the owner if she’d mind if we camped on her lawn since it was too late to set out on the bikes. We told her we just needed to sleep and we’d be up and away in the morning with  no hassles. Boy did she suck. She DID eventually agree to let us camp, but it was like pulling teeth to even get an answer out of her. Most people we’ve met have been very excited about our trip, and most have been kind and generous as well. I don’t know what this girl was worried about, but she started coing up with reasons why it was a bad idea (she’d planed fresh grass in some spots, where would we go to the bathroom, etc). She wouldn’t just come out with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ unless she drilled us first. It would have been one thing if we’d just come off the street asking for handouts, but we had just spent $50 on a room there, which we arrived to at 1am and had to leave at 1030am. She finally said we could put the tent on the highest ‘terrace’ of her glass and gravel filled side lot. Thanks, I guess. We then made the mistake of asking her where we might get a reasonably priced meal and a beer. Ever the ambassador to the town, she told us that it was expensive everywhere. Thanks for the tip. In the end she told us to try the Ocean View restaurant because their portions were generous. We did go there for dinner and it was actually quite good and not too expensive. The staff was great; I liked it when they joked around and teased the regulars. More people should make jokes (and while we are on the subject, even more people should GET jokes). Outside the restaurant we got to chill for a few minutes with a dog names (no kidding) Shithead (see the photo of his tag if you don’t believe me). We then rode to the boardwalk where Amy got gelato, and I chatted up the ice cream shop owner’s husband for a while about weather, real estate, school districs and other important topics. We probably could have talked ourselves into a free campsite on their lawn, but we figured we might as well take advantage of the weirdo while we had the chance. So we went back to the gravel pit beside the hostel, took a few leaks on her lawn and called it a night.

Click here for today’s pictures