DAY 115

July 7, 1999

Man, I had a lot of crazy dreams last night. There were 4 of them that I can remember. In one of them I reached Prudhoe Bay and found myself in a castle. I was racing up the stairs to get to the highest point. There was someone else with me and the two of us ran up a spiral stairway made of stone. Weird stuff, eh?!

We left the campground at 11:15am and stopped at Watson Lake Foods. I bought some more powerbars and a 2lb loaf of Dresdener Landbrot Bread. It will probably be 4 days before reaching Whitehorse and fat chance in finding a grocery store before then. These little Podunk places usually have a café’ and no groceries, just Cokes and candy bars.

    • 1:15pm – 16.35 miles, 11.5mph avg. Stopped at Jct. 37 services. I bought a Lipton raspberry tea and a candy bar. The lady behind the counter said, "you’re biking in this heat?" Apparently, they don’t get very many 80 degree days like today.
    • 3:00pm – 32.38 miles, 10.5mph avg. Patrick has been very upset with the RV’s that have come very close to hitting him. We stopped to take a break and decided to write on the hillside with stones like the many we have passed. It seems like most of the hillsides along the road have names and stuff written on them with stones. Patrick decided that we should write, "RV’s Suck" and I agree :-)
    • 5:05pm – Patrick was only about a half mile ahead of me when a female shouted to me from a jeep, "Hey, you want a beer?" Without hesitation I said, "Sure". The jeep pulled over and I met Angela, Slade, and a dog named Lady. Angela handed me a bottle of cold Kokanee beer. When the cold liquid hit my mouth it was very refreshing as I quickly downed it. The temperature is 81 degrees and VERY dry. I’m not even sweating because my sweat evaporates immediately in the dry air. The cold beer tasted very good, and as thirsty as I was, I wanted another…but thought it may not be wise with my limited water supply in this dry air. Angela and Slade were out looking for places to go 4 wheeling in the jeep today when they encountered me. They told me that the music festival will be at Dawson City on July 23rd, 24th, and 25th. There will be somewhere around 30,000 people hangin’ out there in a town with a population of 2,000. Angela encouraged me to hang out for it since it is 3 days of partying and fun, and the bands are supposed to be really good. The band "Bare Naked Ladies" were there 2 years ago. It was a great break from riding and meeting both of them. I rode away with a bit more motivation and a little buzz :-)   About 5 miles down the road I see a silhouette of Patrick standing in the road. He was taking a break but unfortunately, had no one to offer him a cold beer. Unfortunate for me is that I was getting more thirsty now and getting low on water. I really didn’t feel like making my way down to the river to filter some. So, I decided to just keep pacing myself and ride very easy today. Patrick had said it was like being in a desert with this dry air.
    • 8:15pm – We arrive at Rancheria, which consists of a motel, café’, gas station, and a campground with a greedy owner that Patrick strongly dislikes. When Patrick paid the guy, he just pocketed the money and didn’t give a receipt, Patrick didn’t like that. Then he charged $2.00 extra for a shower. When Patrick went to take a shower it had only cold water. Boy, he was really mad now so he went back to the owner to get his money back. We could have free-camped near the river and bathed in water the same temperature.

Today - 78.48 miles
Total -  5402 miles

Today's Pics

previous page back to trip index next page
back index next