I forgot to mention in my last blog post a great little story from my second night at Tombstone Park. I was making dinner in the common kitchen shelter (which, by the way, was fully enclosed and contained a kick-ass wood burning stove that kept the shelter toasty warm and its occupants dry) when a young guy in biking gear walked in looking for his biking companion. Within minutes they were reunited but questions abound: who are these people? What are they doing on bikes 110 km from the nearest town? Where are they going?
Eventually the two guys (one 21 and the other 25 years old I would find out) were back in the kitchen shelter preparing their dinner with the parents of one of them. The group was extremely friendly and I soon learned that the young cyclists, Jonathan and Asad, were cycling across Canada together! They started in St. John’s in early May and as of August 27 had reached the start of the Dempster highway, averaging around 120 km per day. The two of them have been unaccompanied through the whole trip until now, buying provisions, preparing their own meals and camping along the way. But due to the remoteness of supply centres on the Dempster, Jonathan’s parents drove across the country from Uphill, Ontario in their camper to meet the boys and travel with them up to Inuvik. The plan was that once they reached Inuvik they would be driven back down the 740 km highway and resume their route to Haines, Alaska to catch a ferry down the Inner Passage (probably to Prince Rupert); get passage to Haida Gwei, bike the largest island there; then somehow get to Vancouver Island to bike to Victoria. All this needs to be done by Thanksgiving, says Jonathan’s mom, not-so-discreetly showing some angst over her son’s choice of adventures.
Asad, a first generation Canadian born to Syrian immigrants in Toronto, was particularly friendly and chatty, wanting to know what brought me to Yukon. I told him about the Habitat build and he thought that was the greatest thing. I reminded him that it’s rather extraordinary to bike across the country. He didn’t seem to think it was that big a deal saying that there were two things that made the ride across Canada different this time. “WHAT??? You mean you did this before?” I thought out loud. Apparently four years ago he cycled from Vancouver to Halifax solo. “This time,” he said, “I wanted to add the third ocean (Arctic) and tie the trip into Canada 150.” So he and Jonathan are in the process of interviewing Canadians from across the country on video, calling their project “As the Raven Flies.” So in addition to cycling 120 km a day, buying groceries and cooking their own meals, finding a spot to camp each and every night, they also interview people and upload the videos each night on their Facebook page.
So the next morning as I dawdled through my breakfast and packed up my tent, the boys were already long gone, heading north on the loneliest highway. I caught up with them a half hour into my drive patiently cycling through the morning drizzle up a long hill. I honked and waved and got the most enthusiastic wave back from Asad, as if to tell me what *he* was doing was nothing and that *I* was the one needing encouragement.
Kids these days.
sedativegunk 