Bike to Alaska

 Chapter 18: The Klondike Highway July 14 to July 20, Carmacks to Dawson City, Yukon.   July 14, Monday 50? miles (5281 + ~20 missed)    Carmacks to Minto campground  I had my first serious confrontation with mud! It rained more last night and this morning, and several times during the day, turning sections of the road to slippery, sloppy, sticky, messy mud which clung to all parts of the bike, clogging the chain and gears to the point where the chain skipped so much I almost couldn't make the hill I was on. Of course the odometer stopped working; the reason for the uncertain mileage. It rained lightly several times and then poured this evening just before I got to the Minto Campground. The pouring rain was Unicorn Luck - if it hadn't rained so hard I would have just gone on to the Pelly Campground without noticing the front tire, two inches of which had torn away from the bead, saved from a blowout only by the cloth I had wrapped around the tube. That could not...

 Chapter 17: The Robert Campbell Highway July 7, Monday: 54 miles (4933)   The only letter I got in Watson Lake was from good old reliable Edie. I bought some flares to scare bears, an inner tube, and $13 worth of food, treating myself to cottage cheese and canned pineapple, and even a half pound of cherries - an unheard-of extravagance.  The pavement ended a few miles out of town, and in the first 40 or so miles of dirt road, I got two flat tires. The first turned out to be just the failure of a previous patch, but the second was a legitimate snakebite flat, from pinching the tube against the rim. The Robert Campbell is narrower and less-well-maintained than the Cassiar; bumpy and lots of both embedded and loose stones, but thankfully also has less traffic. I saw maybe 2 dozen vehicles in 6 hours, including only one big truck, and one tour bus - odd to see, way out here. Less traffic was good, because it seems, if such a thing is possible, to be even dustier than th...

     July 3, Thursday: 70 miles (4706)  Slow start this morning. I cooked potatoes and pancakes, and got going at 11:00. Very mixed road conditions; mostly not as good as yesterday. Had a few stretches of calcium chlorided road, and one stretch of freshly graded surface, but most of the day it was bumpy, dusty, and lots of loose rocks and gravel. No flat tires, but two broken spokes. There also seemed to be slightly more traffic today, a few more trucks. I had a tremendous 19-mile hill coming up from Stikine Canyon to the top of Gnat Pass. Elevation profile of today's 70 mile ride. The dip is Stikine Canyon, the high point is Gnat Pass. As I was climbing the steepest part, it was sweltering hot, the sun blazing down on my back. Then as I got to the more gradual grades, it started pouring down rain and hail - pea-sized pellets stinging me. It turned the road into a twin river, and I'm sure it was awful for the bike to be ridden through such stuff - I could feel the sa...