August 10, 2007
To Nugget City: Alaska Highway Mile 1003 near Cassier Junction
It's cold this morning, 5C according to the thermometer. our bikes have been parked overnight in the kitchen shelter so all the gear is dry. It didn't rain overnight, just dew on the tent. We eat breakfast in the shelter, and pack up and of course just as we leave, it rains a few drops, but once on the road, the sky seems to clear. We hope for good weather ahead.
Our route today has several long but gradual climbs and descents, we are able to ride fast. After about 30km we stop for muesli bars and decide to try to make it to Nugget City by 11, so we might have a second breakfast there. We make it with 20 minutes to spare.
Immediately upon arrival, we are offered jobs!
Today the last hired hands, two backpackers in a Cadillac and a cyclist are moving on after two weeks of staying here. We watch them say their goodbyes and head out, all in an old Cadillac that is converted to a diesel engine and mostly runs on spent vegetable oil. Cannisters full of the stuff are lashed to the roof rack. Patrick notice the cyclist, where bike and trailer are also on the roof rack, wears a "new Belgium brewery" t-shirt. This is Ben, heading to Anchorage and is in touch with Jesse Roberts there, the WS host we stayed with and helped us so much! A small world.
Patrick briefly talks to him and then they are off. We ride into the adjacent campground, mostly an RV parking lot and find the unfriendly caretaker. He informs us there are no tent sites, he doesn't like tenters because "they mess up the bathrooms". Patrick asks to talk to the owner, because this guy "only works here".
So cyclists are good workers but can't camp here, eh? Patrick asks him what he does if RV'ers make a mess? We head back to the cafe and talk to Dave the cook. He radios the boss who says they indeed don't have tent sites yet, but we can certainly camp in a little wooded area behind the cafe building. There is a picnic table, but nothing else and they charge us $18.
We checked the other campground at the junction and the charge is $15 plus $5 each for a shower, so we go back to Nugget City and pitch behind the fuel tank next to the picnic table.
It's sunny so we hang out our gear to dry, Patrick showers and pitches the tent. Rachel showers and does laundry. Two cyclist headed South pull in, a Belgium from Gert named Phillip and a Dutch guy called Wouter from Nymwegen. They got a similar story we received, talked to the owner and end up camping next to us. They met the vegetable oil Cadillac about 8km up the road, it had broken down.
The Cadillac is towed back to the campground where there is a shop and repairs can be made. We talk some more with Ben, the cyclist and meet Maria from Berlin and John from Washington state. They'll just work a few more days here.
Later Maria comes over with the owners laptop so we can access our email over the campgrounds wifi system. They also invite us to the employee lounge room where we eat a meal thrown together like only backpackers can: cooked rice, backed potato, potato soup, stir fried vegetables, sliced ham, cucumber and spices. Ben plans to hitch a ride on the Cadillac for awhile, spend the winter in Alaska, then do some more adventuring, possibly by canoe on the Yukon or Amazon rivers. Maria and John will drive up to Alaska, then start a long drive down to Tiera del Fuego, using vegetable oil for fuel.
(Addendum 2020: Ben continued cycling, met Tiffany, they worked on sailboats for awhile. They cycled in India and met on the road Karan, who we had stayed with in Delhi. They visited us at our home in Boise this summer)
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Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 12,242 km (7,602 miles)
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