whitehorst-stewartcassidyHW-prince george

Hello,

My next update : Whitehorse-AlaskaHW-Watson lake-StewartcassidyHW-YelloheadHW-Prince George

I left Whitehorse on friday, august 15th, after visiting the museum Beringia. It handels over the stretch of land between Alaska and Siberia in the ice ages. I was very interesting. They showed us how people hunted before the bow and arrow where invented. Basicly it is a piece of wood that is an extention of your arm so you can throw your spear even further. We practise a little bit but i think that would go to sleep hungry a lot of times because i hardly hit any of my goals.

That evening i met the mayor of Whitehorse on the campingground. I was the weekend with discovery day so a lot of canadian people were camping out. It was a interesting conversation and i learned a bit more about yukon. She was also the only fulltime mayor of yukon. It is hard to imagine for me that is happening in a province times bigger than my country.

On sunday i started to rain when i was in a lodge. I ask if i could shelter till it stopped raining.
That was ok but it didnot stop raining and i ended up staying there in a staffroom after having pizza and beer with them. I also played and lossed some chessgames.

The next day it was beautifull weather and i left. It was in the continental divide lodge. So i was at the highest point and i had a downhill for 70 of the next 80km. This together with a tailwind did make me almost fly. I saw some riverbeavers playing in a lake and a moose with a calf.
I also met Piroshka, an american cyclist from Portland, Oregon. She warned me for the coming winter. It was allready a concern of mine but now even more. Because of this it became my longest cycling day of this trip : 188km.

Unfortunaly not all in the right direction. I want to take the scenic stewart-cassidy HW but there is no shop at the start so i had to cycle to Watson Lake and buy some groceries there and cycle the 26km back.

On tuesday i met and talked to goldsearcher. The next day i was very lucky. No i didnot found gold but when i was in the shop off the small village of Iskut the power went down. The locally operated generator had some problems the last weeks so it happens more. The staff served me and than closed the shop. I had been 5 minuts later i wouldnot been able to buy food and with the next shop 320km away i would of had no choice to wait but it was already late afternoon so i problably lost a day.

On thursday, august 21, i approched the region where the famous salmon river from stewart and hyder is. The salmon attracks a lot of bears and there is a viewingplatform to see the bears. I wasnot that far but i saw a small bear next to the road. I was very upset because i thought it was a cub and i didnot see the mother. If you come between them she will attack. I made sure i was out of there very quickly.

bNot fully recovered from that i allready saw the next bear (8km further). He looked at me and than just keep eating grass. I went on and met my 3th black bear less than 2 km further.
I wanted to camp but with so many bears i was worried about it. Than i saw an RV standing on a pull off and asked if i could camp next to them and put my food inside. They said they had seen a bear 1 hour ago 100m away and offered me a place inside to sleep. I accepted gladly.
The next morning i was raining and i rode with them to a campground at the junction to Hyder.
Tim and Lynn are very nice people and we could get along very nicely. Tim and i even cycled the 60km together to Hyder and there Lynn picked us up. We went to the platform and saw 2 bears. One only eat berries and grass but the second chased salmon and eat them. It was very interesting.

Because i kept raining i stayed another day with them and they gave me another ride till we finally had some good weather. The 250km i had a ride from them helped me very much to hopefully reach Yellowstone before the winter.
Sunday, august 24, i started cycling again after having lunch with Lynn and Tim.
That evening i saw them again at the campground. The next morning the goodbye was more definately allthough they invited me to come and visit them in a park in New Mexico where they will stay for 3 months in the winter. I was allready a region where i was interested in so it is possible we meet again. Tim even shaved my hair with his electric shaver. He had only one measurement which was very short. The next days had more sun and i even had some burned spot on my head.

Tim and Lynn, thank you very much for helping me and i hope we meet again.

Allthough the weather was good i had some showers the next days and 1 had allready hail with it. On wednesday august 27, i reached Prince George where i stayed 1 night. I had a good host from hospitalityclub but i didnot liked the city very much.

Before Prince George i met several cyclists. Susan and Martijn from the Netherlands who also want to visit Yellowstone so i felt a bit more at ease after that. It was also very nice to be able to talk my own language again.

The next message will handle my travels from Prince George to Calgary on the icefield parkway between Jasper and Banff.

greetings,

nico