Sunday 29 July 2012

Dawson City to Skagway....

Dawson City to Skagway was a journey of mixed emotions. Five days of fairly constant and strong headwind did not bless me particularly, some very hot weather leading to 6.30am starts and non-existent services probably coloured my experience somewhat.
But there was much to enjoy as well -
Great wild camp spots, watching beavers at work whilst we had tea -
Sorry, I did not get a photo of them. The beaver lodge is there though.

Crossing mighty rivers over mighty bridges

Camping beside the Yukon River. This has to be the largest 'object' I have ever seen moving at such a pace. With others we calculated it was at least 15mph, but the scary part - and it was a little scary - was that it was completely silent, like a mythological beast. Every time you looked up it was there, ready to swallow up anything that came too close.
Still camped there though, I just put Sarah on that side of the tent.






Long empty roads, with good tarmac this time...
 And windows....
(Editor: windows?)

And just to prove that I am actually on this trip....
The final road to Skagway was a real surprise, a true beauty. Wild campimg at a disused native fish camp was interesting.
A cold wind and grey skies only added to the mysterious landscape; I felt it was the equal of anything we had biked through.





Skagway itself is a very small town, which receives three very large cruise liners which disgorge up to fifteen thousand of people onto its streets. Skagway businesses are lined up accordingly. This provokes mixed feelings amongst those who live there, but for some a jobs count - an easy perspective to understand.
We arrived in town just before all the ships left, and the following day there were none due at all due to a holiday.
This meant the towns workers came out to party. We were in a quiet bar one moment, the next there was a band playing (The excellent Nat King Kong, they were much better than their name) and we couldn't move, and Sarah was dancing and so it went on....
But the only photo you get is of an empty street. Rubbish, hey?

We did meet these two cool guys on Bruce Gordon's though....(Editor: Bruce Gordon is a custom US bike builder). More of them later.





1 comment:

  1. Yay - I love following your tales - Happy Birthday Sarah for yesterday love from us all xxx

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