Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 23 June 1997
Day 84 - Pink Mountain, B.C.
23 June 1997 (sunny; cloudy; 2 spurts of light rain; windy [head] in
morning; still at night; mileage = 88) -- X - We got up and got ready with
no problems. We left shortly after S&H and before Stefan. He passed us
early. We met a guy from Mass. who owned music stores there. He was with a
group (which we saw later) riding the Alaska Highway. Those Mass. guys seem
like they're using stimulants. We stopped at a gas station (115.3 km) for a
pit stop and talked to Harley guys who were from CA. Nothing like Stefan's
trip. We waited out some light rain at the rest area and read about bear
attacks. At one of our later breaks, we had just gotten food out for a
snack when we noticed a car about 1/2 km behind us slowing and driving on the
shoulder and then parking. Of course, the dumb ass wanted a good look at
the bear that was there. They must have scared it since it ran across the
road. That was when we realized what was going on. We stashed our food
quickly and got out of there fast! We must have ridden right by it. It was
a black bear and bigger than I thought. We didn't see much of it since
right when we realized what it was, we were fleeing. Also, it was nice and
far away. I got out the air horn and put it on my bike's stem. After many
goodly hills, we finally dragged into Wonowon (a.k.a. mile 101). We ate at
the truck stop. We were tired from a hard day already at this point. We
looked for S&H at the camp area here. There were dozens of tents (very
odd), but not theirs. They said they would probably go a bit further than
there anyway and camp in the bush. I was freaked out by the bear a bit, but
with 4 people, it would be OK. We weren't too exhausted for a bit more
riding. So we pressed on. About 5 miles later, what do I see up ahead in
the roadside -- bears? OK. That's unnerving. We just spun around and
dropped behind a hill out of site. We got up our courage and turned back
toward them with air horn blasting and they were not in sight. Also, after
this morning's sighting, we had a car slow down to ask us if we'd seen the
bear right behind us. No, thanks! So anyway, we were riding in the SERIOUS
middle of nowhere. We were yelling to scare bears or to alert S&H if they
were out there. They weren't. The mosquitoes which had been bad were now
incredible. Huge clouds of them would follow us if we went under 8 mph. I
could see April's back covered with them. We really had a hard time when
stopping and we stopped doing that on our 1/2-hour intervals. The terrain
became very mountainous. One sign facing a climb we'd just come up said
2,100 m, 6% that was typical for our evening's ride. Certainly no flat
ground, up and down forever. I was always looking for bears and S&H and I
hit a rock badly and got a snake bite on my front wheel. The first thing we
had to do was suit up in our bee-keeper suits. Then I patched the flat
quite quickly and we were off again. April eventually had to wear her bug
pants and shirt while riding (and climbing) because of the mosquitoes which
were insane. I used a bandana as a horse tail both for myself and April. We
could see the Rockys out to the left and it was very spectacular, but we
were so tired and nervous about being stuck out there with the bears and
mosquitoes that we didn't appreciate it very well. When we finally dragged
into camp, the showers were locked and S&H were already there. Hanspeter
said they got there at 18:30! We got here at 21:45! They said they had a
flat, too. They saw a moose, but no bears. The bugs were super thick here
and we put on full armor which made it difficult to eat. We were starving
since we hadn't wanted to get out food on the road. We ate, put up the
tent, hung the food, covered the bikes and slept very well!
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
