Teslin, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Today’s ride was definitely the most fun I’ve had. For the team, the 113 miles was really tough, but no one complained about it. For the first 40 miles, I rode with a small group, and we took our sweet time. We rolled into the lunch rest stop around noon, and the team hung out for a while.

For the past few days, there’s also been a forest fire around Smithers (where we were 10 days ago). The Sierras were supposed to ride there yesterday and drive about 800 miles north to meet us in Whitehorse. Instead, yesterday they skipped the riding and to take it safe, drove south to Prince George and around all the way to the Alaskan Highway junction. They ended up driving 35 hours, and arrived in Whitehorse today around 2pm. We were expecting them to pass us on the road, but ironically, they passed us as we were a quarter-mile off the road in our lunch rest stop.

After the rest stop, people started riding in bigger groups, and by the last third of the day, we had groups of 8-10 riders. I wish we could have realized it earlier, but it’s so much more fun when everyone can laugh and talk while riding. After the rest stop at mile 99, everyone was pumped up. For the next 18 miles, we had a double pace line. We surprisingly stuck together, and it looked incredible from the back.

At our last 3-mile-out meet-up, we all wanted to show the Sierras that we’ve gone completely crazy this summer. We took our donated Badger sunscreen (a physical sunscreen that doesn’t rub in) and spread it over our bodies and faces. With our war paint, we rode to the church yelling and making a ruckus. Down the road, the Sierras could see us, and ran down the driveway to meet us. It was a glorious reunion. We spent the night catching up, telling stories, listening to music, and just having a good time. Tomorrow, there’s not much to do.