Day Twelve
Camped on the grass in front of the Red Lodge Inn in Chistochina AK, Monday night, at least I think it was Monday. I’ve pretty much lost track of the days, and that’s a good thing.
There were also about 60 students from the University of Texas doing the Texas 4000, a ride from Austin to Anchorage that helps raise money to fight cancer. After riding 91 miles that day there were still a large bunch sitting around the campfire having fun at 1 AM.
Had breakfast at the lodge with the owners and a gentleman from Venice Italy. The owner of the lodge, Richard Dennis like to talk, in fact he makes David appear to be the shy retiring type. 😉
We headed north from the lodge on the Tok Cutoff towards Tok a bit after 9AM. Stopped for gas in Tok where we met a couple from Argentina that were riding two up. They started in Argentina and had ridden to the “Top of the World”. They had just come down from Dawson and were heading to Valdez where we had been the day before. Their bike was really loaded down for the trip.
After leaving Tok we were back on roads we had ridden less than a week earlier, the section from Tok to the Canadian border had a fair amount of gravel patches and one large section of road work. David passed a couple large motorhomes while we were following the pilot truck as the motorhomes were going so slow uphill we were on the verge of stalling. After we got by them we were able to cruise about 65 on the gravel. Just before getting to the border we came around the corner to find a RCMP who I was sure was going to turn around to ticket us. The speed limit was 90 kilometer per hour. We were doing 75-80 MPH. He pulled off but didn’t turn around.
For the first time I wasn’t the one the border agent asked lots of questions. David and Marcus got more questions than I did this time. David rolled through the stop sign to the agent like I did the first time into B.C., border agents don’t like that at all.
After getting through the border we headed back to Buckshot Betty’s for lunch where I had borscht soup. A first for me, it was really good.
Headed to Haines Junction after that, got in just after the fuel light started blinking. Grabbed dinner at the Village Bakery/Deli and stayed in a cabin next door for the evening.
We’re headed to Haines today and we’ll get on the ferry to Prince Rupert tomorrow. Probably won’t have any wifi until we get to Prince Rupert.
