Day 63: Burwash Landing Through Kluane National Park The First Nations people are aboriginal to Canada. The term “First Nations” encompasses a broad variety of cultures and tribes spread across the nation. Unfortunately, similar to American-Native American interactions, the First Nations do not enjoy a good relationship with the Canadian government. Unfair treaties established decades […]
Day 62: Haines Junction An Ozarks rider, Josh Hernandez, and I swapped stories throughout our 97-mile ride from Whitehorse to Haines Junction. The weather cleared just in time for the three routes to come together: the past ten days we’ve bikes through spurts of rain, but today was glorious and sunny. At the end of […]
Day 61: Rest Day in Whitehorse I often write about and ride for various people: friends and strangers whom I’ve met along the route. My family deserves, more than anyone, a word of thanks. I thought about my parents today. They’ve supported me from more than 3,000 miles away. The world recognizes the U.S. military […]
Day 60: The Night is Young Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, ends the individual Texas 4000 routes, of Rockies, Sierra, and Ozarks. The capital city of Yukon hosts all 68 of us for a night of excitement. Friends caught up after a summer with little phone signal, spent apart. The city buzzed with now seven support vehicles […]
On our last night as a Rockies team, after an 88-mile ride into Teslin, we talked late into the night around a smoky campfire. We raised toasts and spoke about lessons learned. Overwhelmingly we shared a feeling of gratitude. In some ways, gratitude was and will remain the theme of or summer, manifesting itself in […]
Day 58: The Signpost Forest Workers toiled through the mosquito-filled, long summer days of 1942 to construct the Alaska Highway. Every few miles, they erected a signpost directing construction and other traffic to the appropriate detour. In the Yukon, the signposts directed the gold miners rushing to find the famed Klondike gold nuggets nearby. Around […]
Day 57: Yukon Ho! We rode 74 miles through freezing rain today to arrive in Nugget City, just across the Yukon border. We’ve made it to the final Canadian territory before Alaska. “Nugget City” remains a terrible misnomer: the “City” consists of an RV park where people can camp, park their motor homes, and a […]
Day 56: Jade City Jade City, British Columbia, marks the top of Highway 37 just before the Yukon border. The entire city is run and owned by one family: the one general store, the one restaurant, the gift shop, the laundromat, and the hotel. According to the owners, ninety percent of the world’s Jade is […]
Day 55: Love, Light, and Laughter I was able to play with a beautiful dog today, visit a tucked-away bookstore in the Canadian wilderness, and pretend to pan for gold in a wild stream. But on our 65-mile ride from Tatogga to Dease Lake today, I also thought of Joy and Ed Lindsey. Joy “Aunty,” […]
Day 54: Tatogga Report from Northwestern Canada: – Weather remains fickle. For the first twenty miles from Bell II to Tatogga, there was a light drizzle. From mile twenty to forty, the sun smiled on us. Forty to sixty there was a downpour, and from sixty to the end – around mile 87 – the […]
