We are on the ferry to Sitka. We rode 84 miles in Juneau and had 64 sea miles Haines to Juneau. Just had a shower and that is where Cal is now. Then breakfast and laundry and arrive in Sitka about 2:30 this afternoon. We'll meet up with Bruce and Sharon there.

Missy, Chip and Adelli at the Alaska State Museum

We took the ferry from Haines yesterday AM. We've had a nice weekend here in Juneau. We spent some time yesterday evening and this afternoon with Chip, Missy and Adelli. It looks like they are about to become trike owners also. We are planning a trike trip to the end of the road here tomorrow. The rain is still following us around, but we are learning to ignore it like the locals.

The "big one" got away

We rode our trikes 5 miles today down to portage cove and then decided on a new plan. It was still windy and cold so we rented a car and drove up to Haines Junction -- back into the Yukon. We saw several Bald Eagles and lots of swans and then 2 grizzy bears. The first one was large and got away before I could get a photo. The second was small and posed for us. I am sending a photo. In case you are interested, we have now seen 15 black bears and 2 grizzly bears. I'm glad we were in a car for today's sightings.

We are sitting at our picnic table at our campground in Haines with 2 coats on. The temp isn't bad, but the wind goes right through you. When we got off the ferry today, we weren't allowed to ride the 4.5 miles into town because of road construction, so we loaded up our trikes into the pilot car and portaged around the work zone. That was a first on the trip.
We rode 30 miles today and had 12.8 sea miles on the ferry. We headed up toward Chilkat State Park, but as soon as we entered the park we hit a 14% grade on gravel and had to turn back. We were going to ride the Haines Road up to the Bald Eagle Preserve, but the cold wind changed our mind, so we will try that tomorrow if the wind goes down. We did see 6 Bald Eagles and were shown where a nest was so we can watch tomorrow. Looks like we will head to Juneau on the Saturday am ferry.

we had a relaxing day of museums and a walking tour of town. Tonight we had pizza with Mark (the bike cop) and his wife, Rebecca and new baby. When we got home last night we discovered a wonderful loaf of homemade bread in our tent. Thanks Rebecca.
Tomorrow we start the sea portion of our trip, so we will post sea miles and also land miles when we take our trikes exploring.
For the people in Juneau, you can contact us at calndeesimmons@aol.com. We should be in Juneau in 2-3 days.

We are enjoying a day off here is Skagway. We did lots of shopping today and mailed a huge box home. We ran into our favorite Skagway bicycle cop (previously met him in Carcross) and hope to spend some time with him and his wife tomorrow. We are going to Dave's house for steak dinner tonight (met him on the Tagish bridge).
We went down to the ferry terminal and bought all our tickets for Haines, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangle, Ketchikan, and Prince Rupert, so we are set to leave here Thursday, June 25. We should end up in Prince Rupert on July 11 or 12 to start the trike ride home. I'm really looking forward to this part of the adventure.
Both of our trikes are repaired and ready to ride. We gave them a trial run this afternoon and all went smoothly. The boys up here had never worked on trikes before, but they figured it out. Our biggest problem was that the chains had stretched.

Monday, June 22, Austin's birthday. We heated water and ate the last of our emergency food supply -- instant mashed potatoes and soup for breakfast. Then we headed for the summit of White Pass. The wind was really cold and in spite of the toe warmers, my feet were freezing. Thank goodness for the US Customs agent who gave us hot tea and let us warm up at the border before making the final decent of nearly 3300 feet into Skagway.
As soon as we got the tent up we headed to the Red Onion for a celebratory beer and meal (see photo). Then it was time to take Cal's bike in for a major overhaul, including all new gears.
Our final ride was only 27 miles for a grand total of 3207.3 from Wichita to Skagway.

Sunday, June 21, Father's Day! Cold morning with south wind, so we stayed in the sleeping bags and left late. It seems only fitting that we should end this portion of the journey with another nasty, cold headwind. Also, we have a 1000 ft elevation gain before the drop down the other side of White Pass.
By afternoon Cal's failing gears had gotten the best of him and he was exhausted -- only about half of his gears were usable on the hills. About that time we encountered 5 black bears. The first one ran away, but the sow with cubs didn't know what to think of us and didn't let us pass. When we moved over to the far side of the road she also moved her little family over there. We had a 45 minute stare down with her before a pickup finally came along and shielded us so we could ride past her.
We knew there was a log cabin ahead so we decided to bunk there for the night. But the "log cabin" turned out to be a long-gone boom town with just an outhouse to mark the spot. We knew we couldn't make it to Skagway in the wind and cold with Cal's gears not functioning, so, yes, we put our tarp down on the floor of the outhouse and rolled out the sleeping bags and locked ourselves in the smelly outhouse. We tried the trick of putting the bag of food in the back of the trash bin, but some little critter got in and nibbled on our peanut butter and honey -- at least the bears didn't get it. Total miles today 39 hard ones. GPS N59-45.552 W134-57.316, elev 2619.

Saturday, June 20. Left the dry "war tent" and rode slowly down the beautiful road to Carcross. This was our shortest and easiest ride so far, just 23 miles. Visited all the historical sites and did the walking tour. Then we had more ice cream before watching the narrow gauge train arrive from Bennett Lake. We are now ready for the final push to Skagway tomorrow (only 66 more miles).

Our rock art at entrance to Big Creek Campground June 15

Better dead than attacking us, June 18

Friday, June 19. We woke up early and I packed up all the sleeping gear while Cal was in the bathroom -- the usual program. However, we discovered that it was only 30• again and too cold to ride, so we sat 2 1/2 hrs in the laundry waiting for it to warm up. It would have been much better back in the sleeping bags. With no second breakfast, we stopped at Jake's Corner for a huge lunch, including another cinnamon roll. It seems like every diner tries to make the biggest and best home baked breads. We now left the Alaska Highway and took the cutoff towards Tagish. We were warned by lots of folks to watch out for the sow grizzly with cubs along the road. We put the bear bells on the trikes and kept our eyes peeled, but never saw her. We rode just 42 miles to Tagish -- which is beautiful and sits on the river connecting 2 huge lakes. Unfortunately, this beauty comes with more skeeters and we bought our 4th bottle of repellant and went for a hike down to the river. Here we met David with Green Jeep tours and promised to look him up in Skagway. We also met Frank and Vicki from Niwot, Colo and they invited us to their RV for wine and cheese and a great visit. Thanks to the nice German campground owners, we spent the night in a 1940's war tent out of the rain. GPS N60-13.502 W134-16.433, elev 2365.

Sharing a 2 day old cinnamon bun at our 3000 mile mark, June 17

Celebrating at the Red Onion in Skagway, June 22

View approaching White Pass June 22

Back in the USA!!!!! June 22

Continental Divide, here we come, June 16

June 19, Tagish River -- shortest river we crossed (only 6 miles long).

View between Carcross and the log cabin (outhouse) June 21

Teslin Bridge June 18

Our sign at the sign post forrest at Watson Lake on June 14

June 13, official Yukon border -- after crossing back and forth between BC and Yukon 6 times

Forest fire June 11 just 12 miles north of Liard Hot Springs

Cal at Liard Hot Springs June 10

Cal at Muncho Lake

June 9 moose on way to Muncho Lake

Folded Rock on the way to Muncho Lake, June 9

Top of Summit Lake, June 7

Thursday, June 18. Woke up to another cold morning -- 30•. We had a late, lazy breakfast and rode the 7 miles into Teslin, where we crossed the longest bridge on the Alaska Hwy -- see photo. We visited a couple museums and finally found some very expensive fruit in a little store. Cal made some derailer repairs and we rode another 33 miles to Johnson's Crossing, (GPS N60-28.980 W133-13.509, elev 2337, 40 miles) where we camped with the hoards of mosquitos and a semi-tame fox who came nosing around when we arrived. This campgound is for sale for $520K if anyone is interested. Most of the small places along the highway are either closed or for sale. The big RVs with the 300 gallon gas tanks are just passing them by.
Our wildlife count now includes 1 very dead black bear that had just been hit on the road minutes before we rode up. See photo.

Wednesday, June 17. We woke up to a surprise -- only 29• And ice all over the tent. We had a late first breakfast at the lodge while everything thawed out.
We reached the actual continental divide 1 mile down the road. At 3:00 pm we reached our 3000 mile mark and shared a 2 day old cinnamon bun. GPS N59-55.245 W131-42.937, Elev 2715 (back in BC).
Late in the day we reached some major construction, but decided to get it over with while the traffic was light. We were escorted through the first mile by pilot car and then were on our own for the next 9 miles of DUST and ROCK.
We met a young couple riding bikes in the opposite direction. They were just starting out for their day as we were finishing ours. They were having the best luck riding from 4:00 pm till 2:00 am while the traffic is down. They gave us some advice on how to store our food at camp in the back of trash bins away from bears.
We finally made it to camp at Dawson Peaks Lodge. The restaurant had closed, but the owner was nice enough to heat up some chili for us. GPS N60-06.623 W132-33.133 elev 2316 (back in the Yukon) (71 miles)

Tuesday, June 16. We left camp at 5:30 am to get away from those blessed mosquitos and didn't find a place for second breakfast until 11:00. We covered our trikes and waited out a couple down pours in the restaurant. When it cleared we rode on to Rancheria Falls for a short hike (in the rain again). After riding a very slow, tedious 5km through rough gravel and inconsiderate RV drivers, we made it to the Continental Divide Lodge for the night (48 miles, GPS N60-54.755 W130-54.342, Elev 3248.

Monday, June 15. We had our second breakfast today just 15 miles down the road at Wolf-it-Down Cafe (best breakfast of the trip so far). We stopped after just 39 miles at a beautiful (but mosquito infested) campground at Big Creek, GPS N60-09.542 W129-42.345, Elev 2561. We did a little exploring and then copied the local tradition of making our mark on the site with rocks -- see photo to follow.
It started raining so we set up our tent in the kitchen shelter and built a roaring fire in the stove to boil the well water and drive away a few mosquitos. Good thing we were sheltered because it rained all night.

We have arrived in Skagway. I sent lots of photos to Travis to post. Battery just about dead so I will fill in all the details tomorrow.

On Friday Cal and Dee rode 41 miles to Tagish. They ventured off the main Alaska Highway onto Yukon rd 8, and planned on being in Carcross Saturday.
Friday they were on bear watch, as many locals had told them to watch for a Grizzly and her cubs that had been spotted along the road. They didnt have to dodge traffic much, there just wasnt any, so they spent most of the day riding side by side in the middle of the road.
It doesnt look like they are going to head up to Whitehorse, so they should be in Skagway either today or tomorrow.

I (Travis) am posting on behalf of Cal and Dee today. On Wednesday they officially passed the 3000 mile mark!! They left the tiny town of Teslin yesterday afternoon after repairing Cal's Trike, which had some derailer problems. It sounded like a rock hammer was the appropriate fix ;) Really though, all is well with both of them and their trikes, as they make the final push toward Skagway, hopefully arriving by Tuesday, June 23rd. There will be little to no cell phone service until Skagway, but if I get any correspondence from them at all, I will post there whereabouts. Lots of pretty country and a good downhill run, about a 2000 ft descent, will keep them busy for the next 4 days.

No biking today! We slept in and then did laundry and phoned the folks and kids. Then we had second breakfast at the only grocery store in town (first breakfast in the tent, as usual). Then we hiked through the Signpost Forest and created our own sign -- photo to follow when we get broadband service again. We made some more tent repairs and bought supplies that should take us through to the next store (assuming it is open and has supplies). Next we will take in the Northern Lights Centre show. Then bike repairs involving zip ties and chain lube. Then ICE CREAM and a good nights rest for a 5:00 a.m. departure (so we can beat the RV's out of here)and then a second breakfast 16 miles down the road at Nugget City.

We'll try to give you an estimate of where we might be for the next week since we will probably not find much internet service until Skagway.

Monday night - Big Creek Campground, milepost 651?
Tuesday night - Continental Divide Lodge, milepost 698?
Wednesday night - Swan Lake Rest Area, milepost 746?
Thursday night - Teslin Lake Campground?
Friday night - Jake's Corner?
Saturday night - Carcross?
Sunday night Skagway?

Just a few tidbits from the last few days: Toad River got it's name from the military vehicles that had to be "towed" across the river during the construction of the Alaska Highway. Irons Creek was named for the "irons" (chains) that the vehicles had to use to get up the hill there. One of the most interesting rivers we crossed was Racing River. I have never seen water move that fast. The best ice cream so far was the chocolate at Contact Creek. The most unusual tent site was at Toad River. We had a covered shelter, sink, electricity and water, picnic table, and it was fenced around our site. Also, the lake was just feet away, and that was also where the computer was in the laundry room. It also had 7,800 baseball caps pinned to the ceiling of the restaurant. The biggest letdown of the trip so far was after the 104 mile ride to Fort Nelson, the campground sign said CLOSED. I heard Cal say "I'm glad that's not our campground" and I almost cried. We had to ride another 6 miles to camp under a bridge in the rain.


Now a quote from Cal: "Do you think they rent paddle boats at Muncho Lake?" This was after a miserable hill climb in the heat up Peterson Mountain. I almost hit him!!!!!

Today we rode 42 miles to Watson Lake. On our way into town we passed a weigh station and asked if they would weigh us. They were nice enough to do it and Cal's whole unit (including him) weighs 150 kg. Mine weighs in at 130 kg. People had been asking us all along the way how much our gear weighed, now we know.
When we got here we discovered the town was celebrating their 25th anniversary with a free BBQ, so you can we were right there.
Cal and I have worn off all the fat on our back sides and the trikes were getting hard on the hip bones, so we found some chair cushions today to soften the ride on the 3/4 inch chip and seal.
While on the road today, we were stopped by a couple who had seen us on Peterson Mountain and taken a photo of us. We are looking forward to getting a copy of that photo from them soon.
Wildlife count today -- 3 black bears and more buffalo. Cal spooked one of the bison and we thought it might charge, but it decided to dart across the road a couple times and then run for the hills.

On Friday, June 12, we planned to camp at Irons Creek but found out it closed due to the economy, so we rode 48 miles to Contact Creek, GPS N60-00.358 W127-46.570, Elev 2110. There was no campground there, but the owners of the gas station let us camp in the grass behind their store. There was already another biker (from Japan) there. On the road today we met a couple bikers from Austria who were on a 2 1/2 year journey biking all over the world. See, there are people out there crazier than us. We bought our fellow biking camper a round of ice cream and tried to talk to him about his trip, but it was difficult and he used mostly hand signals and a lot of bowing. We had a nice conversation with a young couple on their way to Anchorage.
We crossed into the Yokon Territory today.
Wildlife count today, one fox.

I forgot to give you mileage for Wednesday, which was only 36 miles -- told you we were slowing down.

On Thursday, June 11, we went down to the Springs for an early morning dip and then had breakfast at the First Nation store. We got a really late start because we had to dry all our gear from the previous night's rain, but at least it put the fire out and opened the road north.
We road to Coal River and stopped for air for the tires and, of course, ice cream for the trikers. That is where we found out about Whirlpool Canyon on the Liard River, GPS N59-37.476 W127-05.175, Elev 1578, 42 miles. We set up camp right near the crashing waves of the whirlpool and built a good campfire to keep away the bears, but soon discovered that the river was too noisy for sleeping and moved camp up the hill after a couple hours of not being able to sleep. It's a good thing it never gets dark or the move would have been difficult.
Wildlife count today -- 3 black bears and several buffalo.

On Wednesday, June 10 we left the lake early so we could get to Liard River Hot Springs for a good soak. Before we checked into the campground, we stopped at the First Nation store across the road for pie and ice cream. That is where we met Terry and Cathy from Grande Prairie. We ended up setting up camp right across from their camper and spent a wonderful hour soaking with them at the hot springs. After a shower Terry and Cathy invited us to ride with them to Smith River Falls, but we soon discovered the highway was closed north of Liard because of that fire I mentioned earlier. They said they might have to evacuate our campground, but the rain came just in time. Terry and Cathy invited us over for a wonderful steak dinner and good conversation while the rain poured. This time our tent didn't leak too bad. The patches worked.
Our wildlife count on our ride today was one moose.

On Tuesday, June 9 we rode 39 miles to Muncho Lake, Macdonald Campground. We were warned for weeks about Steamboat, but nobody mentioned that Peterson Mountain is even higher with a bigger hill to climb -- plus it was 82 degrees. At the top of Peterson we met a lady who gave us an apple, the only fruit she had with her. We had no healthy food since Fort Nelson. We were planning to pick up things at the gas stations/stores along the way, only to discover that all they sold was candy and chips. The closest thing we had to fruit was chocolate covered raisens.
We saw a moose up to her belly in water and another that ran away before we could get a photo.
We also had our first "near miss" today when a lady decided she had to pass an RV and drove headlong towards Cal, who had to "hit the ditch". The real problem was that there was no ditch, just a narrow strip of gravel before the cliff -- no guardrail. Cal gave the lady the one finger salute, but she didn't seem to even notice.
Our camp was just feet from Muncho Lake and made for wonderful sleeping.

Hi again. We are safely in Watson Lake. Still no cell service, but a nice fellow camper loaned me his computer. We have lots of stories to tell, but that will have to wait. First I have to shower off 3 days of sun screen, sweat, Deep Woods Off, campfire smoke and mothballs. I think 3 days without a shower is an all-time record for me. Not only is there no cell service for hundreds of miles, there is not much else either. Some of the places we planned to stay have closed for the summer or permanently because of the economy.
The only pay phone we found was in Liard Hot Springs, but it was always in use because of the fire near there.
I'll update later tonight or tomorrow.

We ended up riding 47 miles today to Toad River Lodge. We are in the laundry -- what a great place for a computer! A moose darted in front of us today and we saw several Stone Sheep on and near the road. We stopped and took cover from a short thunderstorm this afternoon and then continued on into Toad River. It still looks like more rain is coming, but our tent is under a shelter, so we will be dry. The views here are spectacular and we haven't decided where we might end up tomorrow. We'll take a look at the map after dinner and update before we leave here.
The ride over the summit wasn't as hard as people have been telling us for the last 500 miles. The lake at the top is small but very nice.
We have already had our daily dose of ice cream so life is good.

Top of Steamboat

I found that if I stand in just the right place in the parking lot and point my phone in the right direction, and hold my mouth just right, I have pretty good service. Verizon is better than I thought.
We are resting at Tetsa River Services and Campground (famous for their cinnamon buns) after about 27 miles today. We stopped early so we will be ready for another climb tomorrow to the top. Our GPS is N58-40.977 W123-46.108, Elev 2592. Our climb tomorrow will be about 1750 ft.in 16 miles. Grades are between 6-10%. After the climb we are planning another short day with a stop at Rocky Mountain Lodge at milepost 378. On Tuesday we are planning another short day (this could become a habit) to The Poplars Campground at milepost 407.5. The next stop will probably be at Muncho lake at milepost 436.6.
Since I have been rounding the daily miles, I will give the actual total as of today -- 2623.9. Skagway is only about 560 miles away and we are ahead of schedule, so we are on a slow-down and enjoy program.
We haven't seen any more black bears and that is just fine with me.
If you would like to take a look at our terrain, check out http://tinyurl.com/cjgm39 or check out Donnal's blog at http://vicarious-triker.blogspot.com, or follow the link from this blog to his.
The mosquitos are getting bigger by the day and so many sit on our tent netting that it turns it black.
We rode past miles of wild strawberries in full bloom. I wouldn't want to be riding there is a few weeks when the bears are grazing on all those berries.
There are so few hours of darkness now that we are wearing sleep masks at night.
Time for a good game of cribbage now. I'll write again whenever cell service pops up.

We made it to the top of Steamboat -- beautiful views!! Now we have a few miles of downhill to our camp at Tetsa tonight. Tomorrow we will climb again to Summit Lake -- the highest point on the Alaska Highway. I'll post again if another cell tower shows up.

Hey, lookie there, someone put a cell tower at the top of Steamboat. We stopped after 45 miles yesterday at N58-42.643 W123-39.898. We got part way up the first hill and decided to save the good part for fresh legs. We are now just a couple miles from the top of Steamboat and I'll try to get a good photo from the top. We tried the mothball trick last night and also left the Ipod & speakers on. We had seen a bear just a couple miles before we camped but no visitors in the night. Other campers were also pulled over near us so that also helped.

We've had our big breakfasts and are just waiting for the grogery store to open so we can get more V-8 for the road. Then we will go get our trikes that the owners of the laundromat were kind enough to store for us.
There is a large forrest fire (10,000 hectars) ahead of us and the Alaska Highway was closed here at Ft. Nelson for a couple days. That made all the RVs and trucks back up here, so the town was really crowded yesterday. They finally opened the highway yesterday afternoon, so all the traffic should be gone by the time we leave this morning.
We're planning a fairly easy day -- just to the base of the difficult incline up Steamboat Rock. After a good rest tonight we will make a run (crawl) for the summit tomorrow.

Time to head into the Rockies

We are in our motel in Ft, Nelson. I just talked to some locals who said this may be my last blog entry for many days. We will run out of cell service just a few miles out of town and may not have any service until Watson Lake. There are pay phones at Muncho Lake and sometimes there is spotty service at the top of Steamboat Hill. Whenever possible I will try to let our son, Travis, know where we are so he can update the blog.
Locals have told to set out mothballs at our camps for bears, so we bought some today. Cal has repaired his trailer (the 100 lb rating didn't hold up to 50 lbs). We are doing laundry again and then museum time. We also have to repair a seam in the tent. We had a lake in it last night after the rain.
We spent last night at the lowest elevation on the Alaska Highway and within 90 miles we will be at the highest point on the highway, (3,250 ft gain) so we have some tough climbing ahead of us -- time for Advil again.

We weren't exactly planning a 110 mile ride today, but that is what it turned into. We are safe and very tired just a couple miles south of Fort. Nelson GPS N58-47.204 W122-39.491. Elev 954, which will be our lowest point until we near Skagway.

We are 53 miles north of Buckinghorse River Lodge and trucking on. We finally saw a cell tower in the distance so decided to update while we can. We were planning to camp for the night at Prophet River Provincial Park, but just found out it has been turned into a wilderness area. If we have service when we stop for the night, we will update.
Just wanted to give a special thanks to the entire Shannon family for all the hospitality and great food last night.

A little closer view of the Rockies

It took 20 minutes, but we made it up Sikanni hill

I forgot to give our GPS coordinates -- since we are not really in a town: N57-23.267. W122-51.273, elev 3361.

After a short 33 mile ride we are at Buckinghorse Lodge. We could have ridden further, but the next camping option is another 45 miles. We have decided to camp at established camping areas whenever possible now that we are in bear country.
We had a steep accent out of Sikanni River valley (8% grade), and it looks like another steep one first thing tomorrow out of this river valley, so we will get an early start on it tomorrow.
The road yesterday and today would seem like just a tree lined strip of pavement to most motorists going 70 mph, but there were actually several awesome view areas of the Rockies if you were on a trike.
Several fire camp trailers passed us and we saw smoke in the distance. Someone said the forrest fire is about 60 miles ahead of us.
Ok, now that we've showered, it is time to do the laundry.

Forgot to mention that we saw another roadkill today -- a big wolf -- maybe they don't haul off their own.

The Canadian Rockies are still days away

We totally pigged out last night and then had their "to die for" raisen cinnamon rolls this morning. We stopped for lunch at Wonowon. I thought that was an Indian name, but it is actually pronounced 101 because the town is at milepost 101 on the Alaska Hwy.
We had a really hilly day, in fact, if we had tried this ride in our first week, we would have turned around. I'd love to see a graph of the hills we crossed today. I only remember a couple 1/4 mile flat stretches. We are finally getting into pretty country. We rounded a corner and got our first glimpse of the snow covered Canadian Rockies that we will be riding through in a couple weeks. After 69 miles we are camped at Pink Mountain. The weather is finally great -- high 60's.

Helpful hint #9: If oncoming traffic has their windshield wipers running, stop NOW and put on your rain gear.
Yes, we got more rain just as we hit Fort St. John. We didn't get too wet, mostly just mud splattered by passing vehicles.
After 42 miles we are at a real motel. I forgot how much I prefer towels over Shamwow. We have been told by numerous people that the Shepherd's Inn has the best food on the entire Alaska Highway, so here we are in the middle of nowhere (about 27 miles north of Fort St. John) at the infamous Inn.
Cal and I tried out some bathroom scales at the last Walmart and discovered we are both down 9 lbs., so we can pig out a little tonight.

Now that is one bad 4 mile hill down to the Peace River. Can't wait to TRY to get up the other side