DAY 124

July 16, 1999

I woke up at 6:45am to the sound of rustling in the bush. There were some kind of animals around, but I didn’t know what. It was a cold 52 degrees F. as I slowly woke up and put my sleeping bag away. The ditch wall was too steep to push my bike up with the trailer. I carried the trailer and bike up separately and was pedaling again by 7:30am. Stopping at Stewart Crossing, I was very hungry. I ate 2 turkey sandwiches and drank 2 Cokes. It was difficult to break away from all the people. First it was a lady from Florida that blocked me in as she kept talking to me. The first 5-10 minutes was cool. I enjoy talking to people but after that I began feeling trapped. When I was able to break free, I went out to my bike which was leaning against the wall. Within seconds I was approached by 20-30 somethings. They surrounded me like water surrounding a rock. At first I felt trapped again, but everyone was really cool. They were on a group trip through Canada and Alaska. Many nationalities were present: Scotland, England, German, New Zealand, and even 2 people from the tiny country of Luxembourg. After talking to them for awhile, I told them I’d probably see them in Dawson City. My short break at Stewart Crossing ended up lasting about 1.5 hours.

As I rode away, I encountered a hill to climb up from the river.  As I began to climb I cranked up my walkman "more human than human" by White Zombie began to play.  And as the intensity of the song progressed I stood on the bike and pushed hard.   That has a great beat to work hard to and push against the pedals as I began to feel super human.  But before the song ended I was a bit fatigued from pushing myself and pedaling hard to every beat of the song.

  • 2:30pm – I started getting very tired, the previous 2 nights I’d had very little sleep. I set up my tent at a place with free tenting, $2.00 showers, and a small café. I decided to set up my tent and take a nap before continuing. After sleeping 3 hours in a deep sleep, I awoke to small raindrops on my face. Wow, that was a loooong nap! I slowly got out and put my rainfly on. My tent wasn’t staked since it’s always calm through the night. By now I decided to just stay and leave in the morning. My brain felt like mush, my left knee had been hurting, and I didn’t feel like riding.
  • 9:15pm – The Germans rode in and set up their tent. Wow, they were about 6.5 hours behind me. Hmmmm, they must have been in stealth mode when I passed them. I peeked out my tent, smiled, and said hello. The big German looked surprised to see me and didn’t say anything. The smaller one just said "hey". It was now clear skies and calm so I took my rainfly off and just relaxed in my tent.

Today - 56.7 miles
Total -  5875 miles
Avg. Speed - 10.0mph

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