July 9th:
210 km Wolf, Moose, Bear, Mink!
(Rob) Today was a really, really long day. It was won of the longest so far. Wildlife observation was very good, however. We saw two large moose, one of which we saw jump into the large Dease Lake and swim across it! Later we saw two black bears just beside the road. One of the bears we actually stopped by and filmed. He was the closest I’d ever been to a bear. He looked at us as if to say, “Ok, what are you? Should I run or should I stay here and investigate you?” A giant wolf also crossed the road 50 meters in front of us. We saw a mink and all sorts of beautiful birds.
We
left the Cassiar Highway finally tonight after having pedaled almost 150
miles to get out. After lunch we looked at the map and realized we really
only had 60 miles left to go so we just pounded. At about 10:30pm we had
only a few miles left to go but we had many large hills to climb up. We
were, however, greeted at the end of the highway by a great shower and
a nice campsite. That is, of course, why we went.
(Joseph) Today Rob and I hammered out the last 140 miles of the Cassiar. We roared until 11:00 at night, where we ended up at the Alaskan Hwy Junction. There we found hot showers and met some fellow cycle kids headed for Argentina. They where amazed to hear that Rob and I had seen a wolf earlier that day. In addition to the wolf we saw two more black bears just off the rain soaked, dark foggy road. We had to outride a lighting storm at our backs. The thunder was 6 seconds away. We cranked our Treks up the long winding hill into the mist only to soar down another hill leading into a lake wooded hole, over and over again for hours. Our day ended in the tent, but instead of the usual listening intently for large carnivorous animals that may be lurking just outside, we heard our new companions talking about how burly Rob and I must be to ride the kind of bikes we have. It turns out that there are bikes, which most touring cyclists use, that have easier gears for all the climbing with luggage. Rob and I are using big difficult racing gears. On my next cycling trip I’m going to buy a touring bike. .
