Riding in your pajamas into the unchartered territory

I woke up at the campsite hearing this uncomfortable sound. Toc. Toc. Toc. Dawg. It was drizzling. This meant another day of packing a wet tent, and riding in the rain. To top it off, as soon as I got out of the sleeping bag, I felt the cold air hit me. This meant I needed to layer up. Not a big deal for my upper body, but I did not have a lot of options, so pajama pants were to only choice. This mean pjs, plus pants, plus rain pants. The tick strikes again.

After a healthy breakfast at Mickey D’s [yes it is possible] in Whitehorse I was off again. Riding in the rain. Today’s route led from Whitehorse to Watson Lake first. I had done this on the way out. This is probably the best segment of the AlCan, so riding in the rain was not a big deal, except for the cold weather. Not a whole lot to report from that segment. However, when you ride on your own, many thoughts come to mind, and the landscape in front of you can trigger many an analogy. Lately I have been concerned with the kingdom of heaven, and the sight of a long stretch of highway, rising into the horizon, covered by gray clouds, and the sun just rising above was the perfect vision of our walk through life, with the glory in front of my eyes.

So far you know the riding in my pajamas part, but what about the unknown road? The unknown territory comes from the fact that Garmin, and their GPS system insists that the Cassiar highway should not be taken. Every route I enter, takes me around it. If I would not have heard so many recommendations from fellow riders I would not have even considered. The GPS maps show the road, but requesting routes through it, lodging information, or gasoline availability sends me to Juneau, or some other far away locations.

Stubbornly though, I insisted on riding South on Highway 37. After fueling at the junction, I was on the Cassiar. The sun was out, and a sense of adventure filled me was I started heading south. The segments of the Cassiar seem like something of a foreign frontier. The road goes into some very serious roller coasting up and downs, where you often do not see what the either the bottom of the of the section until the very last moment. The top rolls down do quickly that you get a sense of vertigo as you hit the apex. The side of the road is paralleled by miles of burned down forest, which seems unusually appropriate for the setting. Dozens of campers were hanging out on the side of the road. I kept wondering why all these people were just camping here, instead of at some campsites or RV parks. Maybe these were campers celebrating Canada day, and the long weekend? Well, that made sense, until I saw one of the last tents with a sign in front of it saying “We buy mushrooms”. Hmm?

The road does straighten up quite a bit later. On notice is Jade City, a small town that claims to mine over 90% of the world’s jade. I stopped there and had a great conversation with a store owner who wants to go to Guatemala for an immersion Spanish program.

A couple of hours later I found myself in Dease Lake for the night, having seen a couple of wolves, and a black bear by the side of the road.

Miles by the end of the day: 6,433 [ 10,353 kms]

Tomorrow the Cassiar to Houston, British Columbia