We took one final bike ride before departing Whitehorse just like we found it, grey and rainy. But this place is awesome, highly recommended for anyone that likes to bike, hike, xc ski or generally play outside.
We tested out the trails on the west side of town this time and they were equally awesome to the east side where we've been riding.
Our team was the fastest on bikes, but due to naked lap bonuses, we were relegated to 2nd place (7 bonus laps for the winners and only 2 for us). But the organizers recognized us anyway as the fastest on bikes and gave us some nice prizes. We were super tired at that point so went up to the lake nearby, rinsed off and took a nap, then we met up with our new friends from Smithers for dinner before finding another amazing camp spot and settling down. It was a little sad saying goodbye to Jeff, Kikkan and Alex before we went to bed since they had to wake up early and hit the road.
We met up with Alex, Jeff and Kikkan for the 24 hours of light here in Whitehorse. It was a blast, we made friends from Skagway, AK and Smithers, BC. The race was a fun time too complete with naked midnight laps!
There's a little sand dune just out of Carcross called the Carcross desert and since we had our Fatbacks, we figured that we would go play. It was pretty fun.
We headed up to ride Montana mountain out of Carcross today and despite reports that it is more of a downhill biking area, we had a great time, found trails to keep us busy for 4 hours. Then we relaxed at the same awesome camp site.
We headed to Carcross in the evening and it's on a lake so I was determined to find a perfect campsite by the lake, we drive past town and kept going with no luck. I think that Kara was getting a bit annoyed, but I held strong and finally stumbled on this beauty. No one around, and beautiful scenery.
So we caught the start of the Yukon river quest 400+ mile canoe race out of Whitehorse sort of by chance, we were riding a trail on the ridge above town when we noticed the canoers gathering. It was a running start and pretty fun to watch. Top teams finish in around 48 hours. MWG s2s paddlers should consider this race, if you do it I'll be race support for you. Then we continued on riding and found more great trails. Whitehorse is pretty awesome.
Made it to Whitehorse on Monday night. We camped out then hit the trails which are excellent as claimed. We rode around on the lower trails a bit at first, then decided to hit the grey mountain trail. This was a mistake given our equipment, full downhill gear and body armor required. Kara was not super excited about this.
Is that a van down by the river? Why yes, it is indeed. And some classy van folk taking a "shower".
Headed into Canada today planning to spend the night in Haines Junction.
We're on our way, it's a bit sad, but exciting at the same time. Lots of great memories from our time here. We'll miss all our good friends and all of the fun things that we have done.
Also, we celebrated Cider's 10th birthday before leaving. That's an entire decade of being a dog, happy birthday Cider! He earned those strawberries and whipped cream.
We're all packed up. Going to hang out tomorrow and then head out first thing Monday morning. It wasn't quite as painful as we thought packing the van up.
Corey and Jeanie came to town for a wedding this weekend so we took them for a hike at lost lake and hit Railway Cantina again for burritos. Another amazing day here in AK.
We took our last ride on the Kenai peninsula today and it was amazing. Johnson pass trail doesn't get much better than this. Also got to Seward for a burrito at Railway Cantina and back to Anchorage in time to see Midtown Revival at the Taproot.
9:40pm and its still hot out here. Had to take Cider down to the creek to cool down earlier. It was 82 degrees.
For the blog and the van. Here's a photo from a couple of months ago when we were testing things out.
