Yukon Ho!

June 14, 2006

July 7, 2006 on 12:16 pm | In Uncategorized |

Biking time: 1pm to 8pm
End: Kitwanga
Distance: 100km
The great thing about camping in a town is the ability to go for breakfast before riding. Terrace fully delivered by offerinng us a Dennys which has perhaps the biggest breakfast selection of all time. While not exactly cheap, it’s hard to say no to eggs and coffee when you know you’re about to be pedaling for the next 8 hours. After breakfast, we stopped at one of the two bike shops in town in order to get Amy’s headset looked at. The place was called “Out Spoke’n” which is perhaps the best bike shop name ever. THe only tool I didn’t bring (because of its size) was a headset wrench, so we were lucky to be in a town with a bike shop. This would be the last one til Whitehorse. They took the headset apart and found that one of the bearing races was rusted and disintegrating. I suspect that it was due to the bike being on the back of the van in the torrential downpour in Winnipeg, because it had not been ridden a whole lot before our trip, and it has had fenders on it since the first week Amy owned it, so there are few other ways that water could have gotten in there. They only charged $10 for the service (including replacement bearings), and they were the nicest bike store owners in town (literally). They told us about all of the bike shop politics: A husband and wife run Out Spoke’n (but it’s mostly the wife Lucy’s business). Lucy used to work at the other bike shop, and always wanted to own one, so when the other shop went up for sale she was going to buy it. THe owner was asking way too much however, so she decided to wait it out and start fresh after he left (figuring no one would buy the business at that price). In the meantime, the bike shop in Kitimat had closed, so Terrace was the only bike shop destination in the area. Two days before the owner was set to leave, a buisness-oriented guy swooped in and bought up the shop. So now Lucy’s new store is  “up against” the new guy’s old store. The new guy doesn’t care about bikes or bikers. The new guy sounds like a dick. Meanwhile, the bike suppliers won’t sell to two bike shops in one town, so each shop only carries some b rands of bikes and accessories. It sounds messy. Hopefully the new guy goes out of business. Here’s why: One time a pair of touring cyclists went to his store for a small part (a $13 derailler hanger) but the guy didn[’t have one because he was not a Trek dealer, and it was a specific part. So he told them he’d have one shipped in from Vancouver or some other BS. So the pair had to stay in Terrace for four days waiting, and eventually the guy told them that he didn’t think he could get it for a long time. At that point, a repair guy whispered to them that they should go to Out Spoke’n because they are a Trek dealer. I guess the repair guy got in trouble from the owner for sending them there. THe tourers, u nderstandably pissed off for being needlessly grounded for so long, headed straight to Out Spoke’n, and even though they didn’t have the part in stock, they were sent on their merry way within 10 minutes because the owner took the part from a bike in stock and ordered himself a replacement for later. See how nice they are there compared to “the other guy”? ANyway, we got a few stickers and said goodbye. Hopefully we canm stop in there again sommetime.

After the bike shop, we stopped at the only outdoors store in town, and not only did they have backpackers-weight thermarests, they also had these sweet inflatable mats made by Exped which were half the price of the thermarests, twice the inflated thickness, and even lighter and smaller when packed. THe only things they don’t offer are the self inflatability and the insulation from the cold. Since we weren’t worried about that (it takes less than 20 breaths to fill one as tested by me in the store), we went ahead and got two. THe owner even offered to hold on to our old pad for us so we didn’t have to ship it home. She also laughed heartily at our trying to ride bikes wit hthat old heavy one. I had to take a picture of the new ones beside the old because it’[s really unbelieveable. So from now on, thermarest is not the word… exped is.

So we finally started riding (past lunchtime already). Just outside of town we passed the junctio nleading to Usk, a small town across the river from the highway. We turned off the road and passed a handful of small houses and hobby farms on the way to the ferry dock. The ferry was closed for service, but it was a cool mechanism that you can hopefully understand from the pictures. There was a cable leading across the river and the ferry was tethered to it. The hulls of the ferry actually had their pointy bits facing sideways into the river’s swift current. So the ferry ran across the river, being led by a cable, the whole time appearing as if it was facing upriver. It’s hard to describe but it was very interesting to see. In addition to the ferry they had a raised cable car crossing. It was amazing that they  had built all this up for such a tiny village across the way. According to the people in Terrace, there is nothing across the river there except for a few houses. I kinda want to live there… We didn’t cross because we didn’t want to annoy the cable car operator. MAybe next time through we can become friends witgh a resident and stay over there so we have a reason to go.

Further along, we stopped at a great little rest area for lunch, and decided we’d push on all the way to the Stewart-Cassiar highway junction where we had heard there was a gas station with decent food prices. The rest of the ride was great, and again when the wind blew it was at our backs. I don’t really want to jinx it, but we haven’t had any really bad headwinds since the first day back in Sayward. We made it to the station for some dinner and a couple of phone calls from the tableside phone, then pushed into Kitwanga in search of a free tenting spot. Just as we were about to hit a hill (the worst road feature at the end of a 100km day), we saw a bunch of people planting some seeds near the road at a small pig farm. We asked if we could tent on their lawn and the owner, Art gave us the go-ahead. His niece Sarah was really interested in helping set up the tent, and she took us to all the pig pens and told us all of the pigs’ names, and who was related to whom. Their biggest pig Boris was the size of a small cow, and when they fed his lady pig, tey had to poke him with a sharp stick to keep him from eating her food. We fell asleep tonight to the sound of snorting pigs and trucks passing on the highway.

Click here for today’s pictures