The last couple weeks have been one big party, with a bit of biking in between. But mainly relaxing, spending time with great friends and fun in the sun. It was much needed. Baja was a rough ride. Lots of sand, not a lot of water or food stops, and a thousand miles of it. Since our ferry leaves tonight out of La Paz, we had no need to cycle more south, but we wanted to see friends and celebrate the end of the Baja and it was well worth the trip! In El Pescadero, Jesse and Sherri spoiled us rotten. They lent us a vehicle to get to the beach with a surfboard, lounge chairs and cooler in tow. We hit up the local farms for fresh produce and lobster and they chefed it up every breakfast and dinner. They took us sightseeing in Todos Santos, rescued turtles, snorkeled, drank a lot of margaritas , and met lots of their great friends. We had a complete blast and we thank you both like crazy! Expect a visit again when this crazy ride is complete. Next we rode to Cabo San Lucas (a decent shoulder and along the coast but hotter than the surface of the sun) where we met up with Rick and Brenda who drove us out to their place in La Fortuna and also showed us a great time. Ville surfed, we swam in their pool, played with their pups, toured San Jose del Cabo and ate like kings. They had some neighbors over for dinner and a whole slew of friends stop in on Jeeps on a Poker tour. We were connected with Rick and Brenda through a friend from home, Tony, and my cousins in Orange County, Jeff and G.K. and now consider them friends of ours. As they hopped a plane home, we biked north to Los Barriles where Rick and Brenda have a hotel and insisted we stay. The road was fairly pleasant and meandering but with no shoulder and little traffic. And man, what a treat when we arrived at the hotel!! The Agave Hotel in Los Barriles was magical! After all our tenting it and splurging on cheap motels we shared with Ryan and Lydia (although a great bonding experience), it was SO great to have our own cushy bed in our own room right next to the pool and ocean. We were lulled to sleep every night by the waves and kayaked, swam, walked on the beach, cruised through town and just relaxed! When we arrived we met a great group of Canadians who welcomed us to dinner and fattened us up. Thanks all of you for fun conversations and great food! If your looking for a easy place to get away with relaxation in mind, check this place out. It was awesome. Thank you Rick and Brenda!! It was a very sad day when we had to pack up our bikes and get back on the saddles heading northwest back to La Paz. A lot of steep hill climbing up and down and then headwinds on our homestretch to La Paz. By the time we made it through the miles of busy La Paz traffic to our motel, we were both wrecked. Today is our big day leaving Baja and heading by ferry to Mazatlan and the mainland Mexico. If any of you will be in our path, hit us up! Would love to see friendly faces. Otherwise, keep following and keep on keepin' on...
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We limped into Portland on fumes, but Jordan (Kristen's brother) picked us up and we soaked in a long and much needed stretch of rest, relaxation and catching up with friends and family. We spent time with Jordan, Lisa, Sean and little Braydon (Kristen's sister, husband and little one), and met up with JBro! We had great times hiking parts of the PCT with JBro back in 2011 and he had just completed the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) a few days prior. After a few days in Portland, Oregon, JBro, Ville, and I got a ride from Suzanne (Kristen's Mom) to Bend, Oregon and our hometown where we finally put our stuff down and took some time off.
Once in Bend, I, Kristen, had to undergo PRP injections in my neck to try and heal an old bicycle injury I had when I was, of all things, doored by a car. The recommended time-off for healing is 2 weeks, and although really stubborn and wanting to get back on our bikes and hit the road, we decided to be good and actually take the time off. Here is some pics from fun times spent in Portland and Bend enjoying our friends and family while here. Thanks all for making the time to see us and for all the love and support you have given us! Hello all our friends, family and supporters!
To celebrate our, Ville and Kristen's, arrival in our hometown of Bend, Oregon, we are kicking off a fundraiser for Carly's Kids. For those of you that don't know about Carly's Kids yet, Carly's Kids is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to provide underprivileged children access to outdoor education school. Your charitable contribution is tax deductible and directly impacts, enriches, and inspires kids. Would you like to help support Carly's Kids mission to help kids AND get a cool postcard from us from somewhere cool that we travel through while on our crazy Alaska to Argentina bike tour? Well, here is how you can help: 1. Click on the Carly's Kids link below or on the Carlys' Kids box on the right side of our page. 2. Click on the button DONATE 3. Donate a minimum of $20 to help kids in need get to outdoor school and before you checkout, fill out the following information in the comments: We Lost The Map Name (of who will receive the postcard) Mailing Address (where to send the postcard) Thanks all for the continued love and support along our journey! Cheers to Bend, Oregon, Carly's Kids, and 3400 miles. Keep on keepin' on! Ville and Kristen Jokinen We Lost The Map This stretch was, um, depressing, stressful, and took a LOT of patience and compassion on our part. That is a wide array of emotions so I'll explain. We had heard great things about the Olympic Peninsula before heading there. Enough to decide that if there was some extra miles involved to go north again, west, then south before having to head back east to get into Portland, it would likely be worth it. And let me say this first, if you are driving a car around the Peninsula and make your way into the Olympic National Park to hike, camp, or check out the handful of rainforests there and then get back in your cozy car out of the rain and turn on your windshield wipers and drive yourself back to a warm shower somewhere, it was probably epic! If your on a bike, in our personal opinion (and keep in mind folks this is our opinion based off our experiences that may be different for everyone), SKIP IT. First of all, the scenery was not very memorable other than beautiful forests hacked into a patchwork of clearcuts and fairly recently replanted forests. The whole whopping' 15 mile stretch along the coast had only peekaboo views of the water and then we were back inland until we were nearly to Astoria. However, the brief road winding the shoreline of Crescent Lake was pretty and the very southern Bone River Natural Area Preserve was georgous. The road itself, Highway 101 along this stretch was terrible for a cyclist! Chipseal pavement, mostly little to no shoulder, and a constant stream of traffic and logging trucks flying by you at excessive speeds. Every town we passed or stopped and spent time in; from Port Angeles to Forks to Humptulips (no, I'm serious this is a real name of a town, Google it) seem to exist in sheer part thanks to logging. And the occasional tourists, but mainly logging. Also along this stretch was more garbage (diapers, whole bags of trash, bottles, car parts, tires, and even an entire back seat of a car) scattered all along the road. There was a handful of houses along the road, but mainly trailers, (one had a cool Playboy Bunny towel covering a window and the other a Duck Dynasty towel), the characters in Safeway where we stopped in Port Angeles to eat and hang out tent to dry were just that, characters. We stopped in Forks to eat breakfast in a park under a shelter and watched 6 different drug transactions go down in the 20 minutes we were there and even met a few nice junkies with soars on their faces and everything! What we very quickly realized, was all the locals and loggers HATE bicycles and the cyclists. There was broken bottles and glass everywhere, and I really mean everywhere in the bike lane. We had more glass just on the Olympic Peninsula in about 200 miles than we had on the entire rest of the 3,200 miles! It became really obvious quite quickly that it was not coincidental. We even had quite a few cool people in trucks gun it right next to us mere inches from us on purpose to let us know we were not wanted. So after our 3rd flat tire (on the Olympic Peninsula alone) our blood was nearly boiling and now we are left trying to change a tire on a busy road with no shoulder and no where to pull off. Sweet, thanks. What we had to keep reminding ourselves as our stress and anxiety level rose, was that most of these people are poor, uneducated, unhappy, underpaid, under appreciated, and they are taking their anger out on cyclists. I feel really sorry for them. They must feel stuck in their situation with no way out and when their stress and anxiety levels rise, they look for someone to blame. We also saw more TRUMP posters, stickers, banners and such on this stretch than anywhere else. If you are asking yourself why, reread this paragraph. There is a correlation. Needless to say, we HATED this stretch and it was a good lesson in patience and understanding for those less fortunate than ourselves and really unhappy in their lives. After kicking our asses and riding over 90 miles a day for 3 days (we were soaking wet and really ready to be done with this stretch), we camped just north of Astoria on the coast in a campground where we finally met a super nice couple, Deano and his gal pal, who welcomed us to their fire and invited us over for breakfast and coffee in the morning before we hit the road. Keep rockin' it in your birthday suites you two!! And with a 4.1 mile ride over the Astoria-Megler Bridge first thing (we had to see over 100 dead birds smashed on the bridge), we jumped right on Highway 30 and made a beeline for Portland. Having never driven the highway, I made the assumption it was flat following the Columbia River. Wrong. It had at least 3 giant passes full of fast cars, completely blind curves and no shoulder to climb. By the time we limped into Portland for the 4th consecutive over 90 mile day, Ville's knee was hugely swollen and back locked up from being blown over the handlebars by a passing truck! But boy were we glad to see J-Lo (this is Jordan my brother who lives in Portland)!! He drove to pick us up just outside the city (thanks so much to the guys at Barlow Bikes & Boards who got Ville's bike back riding straight after his fall) and after putting bikes in his apartment in North Portland, we headed out for some damn fine Thai food and stiff drinks. The next day we were able to connect with JBro (our good friend Jonas from Germany who we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail on and off with in 2011) who made it to Portland after completing the Continental Divide Trail a few days prior and waited for us in Portland to show up. We went out for beers to celebrate and share travel stories at a walking street fair before all heading to Tualatin where Lismeister and Alejandro (my sister and brother-in-law) live with our nephew Braydon. Mr. Braydon was a crawler and only being gone for 2 in a half months, he is now a full-on runner. Spent a day being tourists in downtown Portland, eating and drinking everything in sight, and then Mrs. Magoo (my Mom) drove up from Bend to pick up this motley crew and take us to Bend!!
The ride from Victoria back to the ferry terminal up in Sydney was meandering through the heart of the vibrant downtown Victoria which turned into a great biking trail through tall canopied trees, rolling pasture land, along country roads, along ocean vista bluffs and straight to the ferry. The only ferry that stopped on San Juan Island left at 5:55 pm and while standing on the top deck watching the thickly forested islands glide by, we got chatting with a girl, Kate, from Montana. Kate was on a week long random vacation with no plans and ended up on the ferry through the San Juan Islands with the plan to get off at Anacortes. We very quickly talked her into getting off the ferry with us on San Juan (her car was parked just in the right spot to get off), and we agreed to meet at San Juan County Park. Ville and I had to haul butt to get to the park right at dark and Kate had got a great camp site with the camp fire roaring and even a full spread of Thai food she picked up in Friday Harbor! Ya Kate! The next whole day we spent at Lime Kiln Park and the parking lot on the bluffs just south of, waiting to see if we would be lucky enough to catch the orcas swimming by. On the west side of the San Juan Island, there is a very steep shelf that drops steeply off right at the shore that makes for an excellent place to sometimes view the local pods of orca whales right from shore. We had heard they hadn't been spotted in over a week and so after sitting for a couple hours, were pumped to see a large pod of them swim right in front of us feeding on salmon. It was pretty awesome! Sadly, these beautiful whales only eat King Salmon (an endangered species) and therefore are now an endangered species themselves. Of course because we all love to eat the salmon, they are still overfished, but the whales are not able to adapt and eat other fish and are therefore slowly dying off. If you want to do something to help, get educated on the issues, and get involved, don't eat King Salmon or donate to foundations working to help the salmon and whales. We made the loop around the Island, all the way out to the lighthouse on the south side of the island and finished with delicious fish and chips at the Bait Shop in Friday Harbor. While standing in line, Ville turned around and recognized Chris Pratt standing in line behind us and asked, "Excuse me, are you Chris Pratt?" at which he said, "Yes I am" and Ville told him how much we enjoyed watching him in Parks and Rec and Jurassic World. After telling him about our ride, he seemed super excited about it and I am sure he was thinking what complete lunatics we were for riding bikes for so long . Since it was only us in the tiny shop we were able to chat for a while with him and his son and when he left, we watched the teens start freaking out and chasing him down a street. Ville deals with that all the time being so dang sexy, so he knows how annoying that is. Chris, you ever need a break from being a big movie star, you can join us for a little bike ride. If Jack wants to come, he can peddle my bike and I can sit in a kid seat on the back. :) Kate left to catch the ferry (we really miss you Kate!!) and Ville and I stayed another night at our new favorite campground, and cycled in the morning to Roache Harbor for donuts. We are pretty pathetic these days, someone mentions good food anywhere and we will climb hills for it. On the way we passed a random suit clad dude with a beret walking along the side of the road shoeless. I wasn't sure if I should have stopped and offered him my extra running shoes, but he looked like he was a shoeless man on a mission and we rode on. Then in town we had to mail Kate her axe she left from the post office (thank you nice Mr. Postman for not thinking us nuts for mailing an axe) and then passed a girl who had driven her car off the cliff down into the water and the paramedics there trying to talk her down from hyperventilating. On the road back to Friday Harbor, we passed a camel in a pasture and then agreed that this island has been quite the experience! We grabbed the ferry over to Orcas Island next and had a great ride around the island to camp at Moran State Park. In the morning we decided we needed a good ass-kicker and rode up to the top of Mt. Constitution with all our gear. It was a super fun ride up, even better on the way down, and some great views from the top. Back through town and then we caught the next ferry over to Lopez Island. Each island in the San Juan Islands has very different personality as well as terrain. Lopez all the locals waived as they passed by, littered with farms, was pretty laid back with a tiny downtown and the flattest of all the islands making it great for easy riding. Orcas was the hilliest, very lush, had a huge State Park to adventure in and is full of characters. We met a guy in the library who showed us on his Orcas map ring places to see, where to get killer weed, and left with his Looney Tunes DVDs. True story, I can't make that up.
San Juan was medium sized hills, mix of thick greenery and grassland and a very mixed bag of people. Lots of summer homes for those pretty well off, eccentric places with trailers and buildings made to look like fruit, a very hoity-toity Roache Harbor, and the easiest place to view the orcas. On Lopez Island we camped out at Spencer Spit State Park where we met a huge group of friends and their kids on Labor Day holiday from Seattle areas. They invited us for dinner, breakfast and to share in their company. Was really nice to feel so welcomed. The next morning we ferried over to Anacortes and cycled south the entire Whidbey Island, through Deception Pass and caught the ferry over to Mukilteo. Right outside the ferry we had a couple beers to celebrate hitting our 3,000 mile mark on the bikes at the Diamond Knot Brewery. There Dan the Man (my Dad's friend from childhood) drove up from Burien to get us and we got showers and a warm bed to sleep in. It was really nice to get to start seeing friends on this trip and hugs and love has been so special after so long in the wilds of Alaska and Canada without. Dan took us to Mexican food, ice cream and we then connected with Jeff and Kristen (friends we met at the winery in Myanmar) and stayed at their place a night north of the city getting to catch up on travels. They peaced-out of their big jobs, rented their house as well, and traveled the world for the last 7 months so we had a lot to talk about. Only crazies like us can understand crazies like them :) Thanks Dan, Jeff and Kristen for all the time and attention you gave us on this ride. From their house north of the city, we cycled along the waterfront down into the city and stopped to check out the space needle. There was some big music festival going on and the chaos was a bit maddening after the Islands. Ville's friend Jussi and Paula (from Finland) picked us up from downtown and we spent a night getting spoiled with great food, serious Pokemon card games with their kids and updating blog time. We even were cooked a tasty Finnish dish for lunch before heading back to the city to get back on the road. And now we are off, planning to take the ferry back to the Olympic Peninsula to cycle around it, down the coast of Washington and will be in Portland, Oregon in about 5 days. If anyone is enroute and wants to connect, give us a shout. Otherwise, see you all in Portland and Bend in about a week!!! YAY! Sorry friends for the delay in an update, traded the bikes straight up for a yacht, Ville changed his name to One Eyed Willy and we are now sailing the open seas headed for Hawai'i. Alright, we have actually been busy biking, relaxing, and sightseeing, but I wouldn't put it past us to trade the bikes for a boat in Argentina and sail back. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...... After the ferry from Bella Coola to Port Hardy, we stealth camped late night when the ferry got in and started out early from Port Hardy heading south on Vancouver Island. The weather was overcast and a bit misty, but thickly forested and beautiful. We were passed throughout the day by a bunch of different people we had just met on the ferry that were heading south at a slightly faster pace than us, but who slowed down, waved, honked and made us feel like the most popular kids in town. So much fun meeting all these new people to add to our circles of great people we know! Since we now had the time to slow down, the island was fairly flat and we were flying through miles. So we decided to end our days early, stop a lot to rest and relax, and meet more people along the way. We had only used www.warmshowers.org once before in Haines, but decided to connect with some more hosts to get to know some more people. And we were greatly rewarded with some of the nicest people, best food, hot showers, ability to do laundry, and shared great conversation and travel stories along the way. Warm showers is full of mainly other touring cyclists or fans of and who are happy to help other touring cyclists on their journey. Anything from a yard to camp, a hot shower, laundry, and usually lots of food! If you are looking to meet some great people on all kinds of bike tours and help them out, get signed up at www.warmshowers.org. (you don't have to be a cyclist!) After spending a night camping with a cool motorcyclist, Rob, from Vancouver, at Woss Lake, we spent the next night camping in Tim's yard from Warmshowers. Tim welcomed us right into his swanky pad, shared some rockin' tunes, and made us pizza, handmade spaghetti dinner complete with homemade banana ice cream over heated pineapple. We could never afford a dinner like that in a 5 star restaurant, so we were pretty dang spoiled! Tim, you the man. Now open a food cart and we will make a trip back to eat your food. Next stop, Campbell River, where after 2 days of cycling through thick green forests littered with bald patches from all the logging, we hit full on city and cars. Campbell River is a really neat town perched right on the coast of the Salish Sea with a vibrant downtown and we stayed a night with another host, Jacob and Jannie. Really generous couple originally from the Netherlands who are super involved in local charity rides and knew how to spoil a cyclist. Thanks for your kindness! Heading south we struggled to find another host and finally Peter in Nanoose Bay came to our rescue and we pushed through 75 epic coastal, scenic miles to get to him by the end of the day. We couldn't have hit better weather on the island, but going from rain and mist to high 90's rocked my world and I, K.G, struggled a bit with migraines. Hard to get out of the baking sun when you are riding all day and melting in it. But Peter and Madeleine welcomed us to a fish dinner on the porch of Peter's unreal home right on the coast while watching the sun set over the water. It was pretty unreal. We even watched a seal swimming right out in front of his house. We spent a day being tourists and rode bikes minus gear into Parksville where we ran into a fellow touring cyclist named Bart from the Netherlands. We spent the day together talking bike talk and went to a sandcastle competition right on the beach. And man these castle builders were a bit more serious than I was in my day! After a couple of nights rest, we headed south on a nerve racking freeway about 20 miles into Nanaimo. We tried to stick to a bike path, but we were pretty sure the straight up and down of the path was made for walkers and not so much cyclists. We camped a night in a very, shall we say "unique" camp spot (we will not say where to keep from the crowds that are sure to take it over if they know about it) and tackled errands around town before connecting with hosts Cory and Jim, in Cedar right outside Nanaimo. They have cycle toured, lived and traveled all over the world and were great for info and stories. Thanks for sharing food, your spare room, and maps with us guys! From there we caught the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, about 20ish miles from downtown Vancouver. The ride was unreal. The homes lining the windy road clinging to the cliff faces overlooking the ocean were some of the most stunning I have seen since Mill Valley and Malibu. We passed the Yacht Club littered with Ferraris and Lamborghinis. We cycled across the Lions Gate Bridge and onto an actual bicycles only bike lane! Vancouver rivals Portland on its cycling friendly streets it was amazing! We finally connected with Jim and Mary, friends from Bend who made it all the way up to see/support us on our ride. Ville was quite disappointed with the lack of attention he was now not getting because of being off his bike, so he somehow covered his shirt in blood and bird poop. twice. True story. Luckily it all washed out before getting back not the road. After a few days of sightseeing (with our own local tour guide), relaxing, feasting, bathing, we had to sadly drag our butts back to the bikes and continue on our ride south. It has been really tough going back to oatmeal and wraps after having a master chef at our beck and call. Thanks again both of you for all the love! From here we have taken a ferry to Victoria, back on Vancouver Island and had a night here with fellow touring cyclists Chris and Karen. Thanks for showing us around a bit and the route advice guys. I really recommend setting up those walking tours on tape you are planning for your future Warmshowers guests. That would really be the finishing touch to making this the best sleeping place! :) Today we will tour Victoria and this evening we have another ferry to catch to camp the San Juan Islands before heading into Seattle. If your out there on our route, give us a shout. Until next time...peace, love, and bicycles. It was rough to leave Smithers. A very cool little town and a big need for lots of rest, we stayed a few days to recoup. Many thanks to Joe for letting us stay as long as we needed and making us feel at home. Our last day there we were able to connect with Gil and Mary-Ellen (whom we had met at the gas station the morning we left the Cassiar Highway and hit Highway 16) and went over to their house for pie and ice cream and were given some korvapuusti (a Finnish roll/pastry)! Gil's grandfather was Finnish and they knew just what a Finnish long distance bike tourist needs. And then, they even drove out to meet us the next morning on the road with a big ziplock bag of fresh korvapuusti for the long trip! Thanks so much Gil and Mary-Ellen, they greatly helped get us up Hungry Hill and 6 Mile Hill. First stop was Decker Lake, a full day from Smithers, but we got to meet and stay with Gwen and Gordon, family friends of our new friends Robert and Jennifer from our day at Stewart and Hyder. They had passed on our info and we were welcomed right into their house, served a plate of smoked salmon and dinner, had showers and even a bed! What treatment. We are starting to feel a bit spoiled here. Not having to rough it for days as a sweaty mess while tenting it next to the road. After breakfast the next morning, we tore ourselves away from their place and headed back out on the open road going east. Thanks again Gwen and Gordon! The next couple days of riding were beautiful rolling hills of farmland scattered with giant rolls of hay bails while thunderheads threatened rain, but the weather remained unbelievably hot. Poor Ville had chipped a tooth when we were riding the Dalton Highway due to the excessive dirt and gravel that got into everything (including his mouth) and by Prince George, we made it into a dentist to get it fixed before it became a major issue. Better Canadian health care than in the U.S. we figured. My rear back tire had some issues and Kyle at Evolve Bike Shop was a saint and helped me get the Blue Bullet back in tip top working order. Thanks Kyle! We had wanted to stay a night, but decided to hit the road after loading up at a Mongolian Buffet, and headed south out of Prince George on Highway 97. This road proved to be our least favorite, by far. It was heavily trafficked, shoulder disappeared when we were climbing or around blind corners, and I can honestly say only about 20% of the passing traffic cared enough to move over. Since there are multiple large lumber mills on this stretch, most of the traffic is giant log-loaded semi trucks. If you have been in a car when one of these passes you and the vortex of air nearly blows you off the road, imagine what it feels like to be skin and bones and on a itty-bitty bicycle and one blows by you at 60 mph/ 100 kmh about a foot from you. IT SUCKS! SO, we have decided to get off this road and take a giant detour (which will add an extra 300 miles/500 kilometers), but lots more scenic and lots less traffic. Win/win. (Thanks June at Stone Creek Campground for the box of bars to keep us truckin' You know what cyclists need :) So, today we are finishing our ride into Williams Lake and Highway 97 and have a huge climb out on Highway 20 heading back straight west towards the coast. It should take around 4 days to get to Bella Coola on the coast. From there we are taking a ferry all day down to Port Hardy on the north end of Vancouver Island. We decided that even though the cost of the ferry ride will ruin our food budget for the month, we really wanted to see Vancouver Island and never say later, do it while we are here, right? So off and up we climb!
After waking up and eating a hefty breakfast, K.G and I rode to the intersection of Cassiar Highway and the road leading to Stewart/Hyder in order to catch a ride to see the glaciers. I think our thumbs were up for a whopping 15 minutes before a white Ford pickup pulls in, Robert the driver gets his tall and tattooed body out and asks where we are headed. We inform him that we were hoping to see the Salmon and Bear glacier in Stewart/Hyder area but that we were hoping to catch a ride for this side trip since both of our bodies needed rest instead of some extra added miles. He tells us that he and his wife Jennifer were going to go see some property in Stewart since Jennifer just landed a job there. So we threw our bikes on the back of his pickup and jumped in. In the car we chatted with them a bunch and came to realize that Robert grew up in the area and knew everything about the nature and the towns, he had worked for his parent's B&B and had got accustomed to take out their European guests to see the local sights and knew really well what tourists like us wanted to see. He and Jennifer told us that they would be more than happy to take us to see all the sights and be our personal tour guides for the day, how freaking nice is that! Hyder and Stewart are two towns separated only by 100 yards and the Canadian border control, Hyder is part of Alaska and Stewart belongs to the Canadian British Columbia. For some reason there is no border control when entering the US side. First stop of our tour was the famous Salmon Glacier 20 miles into the mountains from the town of Hyder, the road up to the glazier is a steep climb on a dirt road mainly used by mining trucks and tourists. Along the way we saw multiple active gold mines and we were also able to catch a glimpse of the salmon spawning up the rivers. At the end of the road we got out of the car and spent some time marveling the sights of the mighty Salmon Glacier, as you can see in the picture we forgot to dress properly to see a glacier. In our defense it was hot and sunny where we caught the ride, didn't occur to us that in the presence of that much ice it might be a bit chillier. After taking about 50 photos we headed back down in the luxury of a warm vehicle to see the two towns. Hyder was our first stop coming down from the mountain and we went and got some food at a school bus that was turned into a restaurant, we got fish n chips plus a halibut burger. It was delicious and undoubtedly very fresh. After the meal it was time to get me (Ville) Hyderized at the local watering hole. It costs $4 to get Hyderized, what they do is they pour you a shot and tell you to slam it and if it comes back up in the next 10 minutes you owe the whole bar a round. After I slammed the shot they informed me that it was 150 proof everclear and took the class and poured the remaining drops on the bar and lit it on fire. Oh well, when in Rome.. After getting me hammered it was time to look for some houses in Stewart for Robert and Jennifer, they had a list of potential properties and we did a quick drive by them to see which ones were good for the second round. They also took us to see the massive wind turbine parts that were dropped at the harbor, from the harbor they make their way on extra long semis to Manitoba. They have to close the road often to deliver these massive components. We finished the tour by stopping at the Bear Clacier on the way back to where they pick us up, it was smaller than the Salmon one but the lake in front of it gave this one a nice reflection. After saying our goodbyes to our awesome tour guides ( Thank you so much Robert & Jennifer!) we pitched our tent for the first time on a provincial campground and the second time in general on this trip that we stayed in a campground. The place was full but the nice couple who worked at the campground let us pitch the tent next to their trailer. After the tent was up they treated us for an amazing dinner with ribs! In the morning they invited us for eggs, bacon & pancakes! This is such a great start to a full day of riding when you are always hungry. We keep running into only good people, let's keep it that way! The next day we woke up to blue skies and an amazing tailwind, we flew almost the remaining 95 miles of the Cassiar and we actually had to stop ourselves after 90 miles so we would line ourselves up nicely for the next day's breakfast. That same day we had stopped to have lunch at a pull off for a forest service road and met a couple from Switzerland, Wally and Petra. Wally & Petra retired recently and are traveling the world for 8 months before they return to Switzerland for a brief moment and hit the road again. They showered us with amazing gifts like powerbars, Gatorade and sandwiches. Before we parted ways they insisted on giving us new shirts to ride in after seeing our old ones that even a hobo would refuse to wear. Such a nice couple! We got to see them later in Smithers and they treated us for a lunch and we shared great conversations about traveling and cultural differences. Where Cassiar Highway ends a new one begins, this one is called Yellowhead Highway or Highway 16. It is also known as Highway of Tears due to the large number of women who have disappeared mainly hitchhiking on this highway. Really sad, and will not be hitchhiking on this road. We camped only about 10 miles outside Smithers and then on our ride into town, K.G. got her first flat tire of the trip! Can you believe it? Almost 2,000 miles/3,200 kilometers and our first flat from a huge nail. After a quick fix, we made it into town where we met up with James Fitzmaurice, a brother to Max whom K.G. nannied for in Bend and San Diego for years. We have stayed in his house the last couple days while using his jeep to resupply our stuff in town, get hot showers, laundry and catch up on this blog. And many many thanks to Jim and Mary for mailing us a laptop to use to keep this blog going! Since the last laptop was not down for such an adventure and fried in Tok, we have struggled to keep this going, but not to worry folks, we plan to keep the updates coming once again! Today we have some rain, but this dynamic duo must trudge on so out we go towards Prince George and Williams Lake where we will decide weather to ride Vancouver Island or not on our way to Vancouver. Stay tuned! Back on the AlCan Highway and heading straight east and sometimes even northeast towards the 37 or also known as the Cassiar Highway. The going on this stretch was long, not very scenic and rough. We hit tons of downpour rain, headwinds, and horrible chip seal pavement that on steel framed bikes chatters you until you feel like your teeth might just fall out onto the pavement. On the second day, the going was so rough and the weather so cold, we made it only 20 miles in 3 hours and when we stopped to take a snack break, we were shivering so bad Ville finally decided we pull over at a small camp and rest stop near a river and pitch our already soaked tent under a large tree and try and dry a bit. After resting a while and waiting for the rain to subside, we came out of the tent to find an Israeli kid cooking food on a cook stove and while we were chatting a bit, an RV pulled up and the man yelled out the window, "Cooking some hot food in about a half an hour!" This is how we came to know Dana, Chris and Sonny from Montana. They invited us into their RV for an enormous pot of spaghetti, salad, bread, and lots of beer. We had such a great time chatting about traveling stories and shared hours of laughs. Dana was a soy and corn farmer who is now retired and he and Chris love to travel the world. The next morning when Ville was up to cook oatmeal, Dana came by our tent and said, "I wouldn't eat that stuff if there was eggs and bacon available." And man, they stuffed us with food! When we thanked them a million times over, he insisted that we needed a lot of help. I think he was referring to the mental kind and I whole-heartedly agree with him. After sending us off with a massive ziplock bag of pasta and salad, we headed on up the road waiting for them to pass us. By evening, we came across the Rancheria Motel/Restaurant and decided to get out of the cold and rain and have a hot drink to warm up. There we met Linda and her husband whom Ville thinks looks like Paul Newman. They were super kind people that love cyclists and support the Texas 4000 (cyclists that go Texas to Anchorage every year fundraising money for cancer) and we ended up getting a room for the night to dry stuff off and clean up a bit. Thanks a million Linda and Paul Newman for the hospitality! Back on the road the weather was grim, but there were blue skies in the distance. Finally, we popped out of the clouds, hit sun, and had a fantastic tailwind driving us on at speeds up to 25 mph at times. Then, the coolest thing ever happened! Dana, Chris and Sonny drove by us waving and pulled over to say they were making sandwiches up at the next rest stop. We were so excited to see them again (it is just fun getting to meet great people and then when you get to see them again it's such a great addition to the day of cycling). Dana and Chris, we want you to know, you are the sole reason we are surviving so far and not wasting away, because after we left you, both of us have barely kept any weight on and we thank you for caring enough to push food on us like our own parents would. We talk about you both often :) By the end of the day, we had finally hit Highway 37 and the start of the Cassiar. At the junction rest stop, we met a woman and her friend at a rest stop who after hearing of our adventure, gave Ville her latte! Thanks again for the pick me up :) Real quick we realized that this road was going to be different, not brushed on the sides, no shoulder and sometimes a center line. Awesome meandering curvy road that would be spectacular in a sports car or motorcycle, a lot more steep ups and downs on a bike. Coming down a steep hill we ran smack into a momma black bear with 2 cubs. We stopped and she started to come towards us, but my sexy Scandinavian Stallion (who looks way more like Skelitor these days) protected me. We made ourselves big, made noise, and she took off with the cubs. The next few days on the Cassiar were scenic but it was hard to enjoy it with gale force headwinds and scattered showers. Riding into headwinds feels like you have a car tire strapped to the back of your bike and your pulling it up and down all the hills. Not many miles logged, but lots of output. We rode through Good Hope Lake (there was very recently some terrible stuff that happened there and we were a bit on edge, but look it up if you want to know more), Jade City (we got soda and candy bars and helped to rescue a bird that flew into the store), and camped by a beautiful river wrapped into some huge mountains where a German couple gave us cups to make some of our hot tea. By the 3rd day we made it through some nasty road construction into Dease Lake and on the way in ran into some old friends from early on in the Yukon, Bill and Leatha. In Dease Lake we grabbed some burgers and they shocked us with paying for a night at the Northway Motor Inn. What a treat! Thanks so much you two for a night of restful sleep in a comfy bed, hot coffee, and clean clothes to head back out in. And if your passing through these parts, the Northway Motor Inn is a great stop! Back on the road, we had a few more days of nasty headwind, (a great stop to find coffee where we met Sandra and Bob who made us coffee at their campsite. Thanks for the save!) lots of ups and downs and then the winds turned and we blew through 85 miles to finish by 8pm at Meziadin Junction. We grabbed soda and bars at the gas station before they closed and sat debating taking the side trip to Stewart and Hyder. So many people along the trail had told us great things about watching the salmon spawn in the rivers there now and driving up to see the Salmon Glacier that we feel like the trip shouldn't be missed, but we have a lack of time and food to make the 80+ miles out of the way so we will see if we can't hitch hike in the morning to see it before we continue on. Thumbs up... Our favorite part of the journey so far, dropping into Haines Junction, riding the Haines Highway to Haines, taking the ferry to Skagway, and climbing back out to Carcross. If we had to tell anyone doing a tour or adventure in Alaska and Canada what to make sure and see, it would be this section for sure! After fattening ourselves up on the best bakery food ever at Village Bakery, we headed over the Haines Highway where we hit some pretty spectacular weather and views that were like a never ending fireworks show! Ville had this really great idea to stop at this big lake and take a quick bath and when we parked the bikes and walked down to it, we were mauled by flies and then a super pissed momma seagull came out of no where and dive bombed into the back of poor naked Ville's head! I was so shocked I didn't see it coming either, but she would not let up and kept bombing us until we left. So much for a relaxing swim :) When we neared Haines, we were blessed with over 15 miles of flying down hill while watching the mountains sour above us on both sides. We actually had to hit the brakes and slow down at the border crossing into Alaska again, and the last 30 or so miles were pretty meandering road that followed a huge swollen river that eventually dumped into the bay. Right before hitting Haines, there was a 20ish mile stretch along the river that was a bald eagle reserve and we were able to see a bunch of the eagles hanging out and watching us ride by, I am sure thinking, "now why the hell would anyone want to ride theirs bikes when they could just sit here on a branch and fish? Idiots." Haines was awesome! Cool little town, with a very healthy food stalked grocery, friendly locals, and unbelievable views of the bay and massive mountains towering out of the water. We got a camp site on the water the first night in an RV park to shower and catch up on laundry while watching the eagles and chatting with RVers. We met Nolan and Kyle, guys living and working in Haines for the summer, and we met up with them at the Haines Brewery for beers and Kyle gave us 6 jars of canned salmon!! Kyle, you are our hero! We bought bagels, cream cheese, and feasted!! What a treat. Hope we get to see you both again on future travels. It was really nice to finally get a couple days off to walk around, eat, take off our diapers/bike shorts and feel like real live human beings again. The second night we were able to camp on the water in this very nice WarmShower host's yard, Tracey. The weather cooled off and we were deep in the trees right next to the ocean and share touring stories over ice cream and her picked berries. It was beautiful! Thanks Tracey! We also got a quick tune-up of the bikes by Sockeye Cycles. The next day we took a fast ferry from Haines over to Skagway (only a half an hour or so ride) and were pleasantly surprised to see 3 giant cruise ships docked with thousands of touristy cruise goers everywhere. It was pretty wild. But we happened into the Sockeye Cycles shop and met some of the coolest kids on the block! Paul and Anna are also living in Skagway working for the summer and let us stay on their couch and took us to Paul's soccer game with all their friends. It was so dang fun! Rare moments that we love so much meeting great fellow travels who help out other travels and make us feel welcome as friends. Thanks so much all the people at Sockeye who looked out for our stuff and helped us out while we were there. I hope to see you also along your many journeys as well!! Heading out of Skagway, we were able to get on the cool little train that wound up through the hills and along the river and ended at the border of Canada, Frasier. From there we hopped back on bikes and pushed on to Carcross and cut over to Jake's Corner where we ran into 2 rad couples who are running the entire route we are riding! They are both from Belgium and have 2 small RV's that the wives drive while the husbands take turns running a marathon each day down the same route, Alaska to Argentina, we are going. Check out their blog at: http://viapanam.be. Ville was busy stuffing his face with a Nutella cinnamon roll when we met them and when I glanced over at Ville his face was completely covered with Nutella. It really is hard to take him anywhere! Not sure why they allowed him out of the nuthouse. Poor guy. :)
Back on the AlCan and heading for the Cassiar Highway. We have about 200 miles before we will head south on the Cassiar and the next big stop will be Smithers, B.C. Onwards and upwards! |
K.G. & VilleOn a cruise ship, heading north up the west coast to Los Angeles. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” - Hunter S. Thompson GOING BACK...
March 2018
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