Day 26: Dawson City to Alaska Border and Back: How the West was Won

June 30, 2010

I decided to do the ride as an out and back. The sun stays up ridiculously late, which makes it possible to put in a long day. I woke up, had breakfast, packed up snack food and tools and then headed out at about 7:30 AM.

The ride started out with a 15 km climb out of Dawson. From there it was up and down around the tree line. On the way out, the weather was quite sketchy and I was doubting my decision to ride today. The skies were threatening and it rained off and on with fog mixed in. The road was quite rough and not paved for long stretches. I ignored how long the ride back would be.

At about the 80 km mark, I met a cyclist from Munich who had coming from the other direction. I asked him about the ride to the border, and he said that most of the road was paved from here on. He is on quite a trip. He has been through Europe and Africa and now his is visiting Alaska and on his way to Mexico.

A few short kilometers later I made it to Little Gold and the border with Alaska. Little Gold consists of a border crossing and nothing else. There is no civilization between here and Dawson. I was able to get a lady who was crossing the border to take a picture of me at the crossing for my trophy case.

The weather was more settled for the ride back. There was one storm that I thought was chasing me, but I came around a bend and realized that I was chasing it. I caught the tail end of the storm, but missed the worst of it. The road was not paved for long sections here and it made the handling a bit tricky at points. After over 200 km, I made it back around 10:30 PM. The sun had not set. If the days were not so long, I would not have been able to do this as an out and back ride.

Furthest West:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=64.08545,-140.99914&ll=64.08545,-140.99914&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1