Day 19 - It's my birthday and I'll lie if I want to

STATS	DAY	MILES	CLIMBING	CALORIES
DAY	19	83.63	2323	4574
TOTALS		1050.96	44,688	59,715

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I got up at sunrise today (for personal reasons) and caught the sun just as it came above the mountains.

 OOOOHHH - AAAAWW!

The sun does set and raise, however, all it does and traverse just below the horizon and it doesn’t get any darker that it does about 10 minutes after sunset for the rest of us.  Slumber last night was nice.  The wind picked up a little bit and I could hear the water of the lake lapping against the shore.

If you recall the his and her “facilities” at Skitanni River, the “facilities” here could best be decribed as exceptional.

 5-star crapper (And trust me, that is important!)

Today's ride was stated as a 74 mile ride along the remainder of Kluane Lake, then follow the Kluane River, then cross a small ridge to the Donjek River valley and follow that river to a Provential Parc (read: 0-star crappers and no showers). 

Today was another day of absolutely Awesome scenary.  About 10 miles out, we meet Juan who put everyone else we have met to shame. 

Hey guys, where is your stuff???

Juan was from Spain.  He rode from Spain, through Europe, into Asia, and to Japan.  Then he flew to Prudhoe Bay and was riding from there down to Argentina.  He looked fit, swarthy, and in need of a bath, but he was smiling.

A short time later we were in Destruction bay.    Destruction Bay got it's name from the Army who had a supply camp and telegraph relay station here.  Several buildings and loads of materials were destroyed by a freak storm.  Today is Tom’s birthday so we stopped to see if we could get cup cake, or something, to celebrate.  While there, I checked cell service which WAS available!  Funny thing, I could not make a voice call, but I could send and receive texts and had data service and could surf the web.  I guess they haven’t figured out how to require payment to do that.  I used the opportunity to send a text to my hometown bike riding friends Keith, Thor, and Sue to wish them good luck.  They are doing the DC-DC ride this coming weekend.  A one day 200 mile ride.  Now you would have to be crazy to do something like that on a bike.  The three of them are very competitive when they are together.  Take any combination of  two them, and you have a good time.  Put the three together, and they have 7 testicles between them (I think Juan has more).

Good Luck guys, I look forward to hearing the tails.  Have you considered bloging during the ride?

Next stop was lunch at Burwash Crossing.  They have neat museum here, however, it was closed for remodeling.  Only two buildings in town, and one of them is being remodeled during the height of the revenue season.

Burwash's other attraction is a left over from the gold rush days.

Pan a half ton of gravel and win a million dollars.

Where else on the planet would you find the worlds largest gold pan?

The head winds were hellacious today (the route surveyors got it right in this section).  At the second food stop, I posed for a picture in my new jersey

Hey, Harry Helmet Hair from New Jersey has a new jersey and still has helmet hair.

I tried combing my hair the other day, it would not cooperate.  I think I am permanently helmet headed.

After crossing the ridge, we come into the Donjek River valley

That classic Glacial bowl shape.

The cue board today said the campground was at 74 miles.  Well at a little over 75 we come around a corner and here is Toms van and trailer just sitting on the side of the road with Tom standing with his head down.  We rode up and he said “a million apologies, I miscalculated the distance, you still have 9 miles to go” (what he really said was that it was his birthday and he was entitled to lie this one day a year).  When you ride regularly, you learn how to meter out the energy so you leave it all on the road.  We were expecting the end and cold beer, and had another 9 miles.  Oh well, it was an awesomely beautiful day and we enjoyed the ride.

We get to camp and immediately set up.  The horsefly's and mosquito's were ravenous.  Rain was predicted so I asked Joe if I could use his extra tent fly to give the great pumpkin a better lid so it wouldn’t leak.  It all goes as plan, the oz. of prevention will insure that it will not rain.

 The Great Pumpkin (L) sports his new Toque.

  We shall see (post note - I did rain!).  Oh ya, no showers tonight.  We are little gamey, but still just as sweet.  WE CROSSED THE 1000 MILE MARK FOR US TODAY!

So today was Tom’s birthday.  We couldn’t find a cup cake, so we bought 4 kit-kat bars and were going to stick a match in it and surprise Tom.  Well, Tom surprised us with a cheesecake in celebration of his birthday.

Here is the video of the serenade.

The Three Crooners - We should tour professionally.

Another great day.  I think Mike is getting anxious for the ride to end.  He is counting the miles, lining up the cabin options, and saying things like “As god is my witness, I will never camp again!”

Tale of the tape