Collin and I were once again scheduled to drive next to a rest day, making our butts happy but our legs sad, since they do love the pedallin'. We'd shopped the night before but we bought more bread on the way out of town since we'd gone through quite a bit of it making french toast for breakfast, and planned to work through a couple more loaves doing grilled cheesy things for dinner. Mmm, cheese!
The rest stops were mostly unexciting except for a lucky purchase of ranch dressing which allowed us to blow through a huge supply of the fresh carrots (somehow unruined by a week in a cooler with no ice) that we'd been given in Prince George. Several times were comments made equivalent to "I don't like carrots, but I sure love ranch!" or "Vitamin R is worth any cost...damn the nutrients, full speed ahead!" (Okay, I made that second one up.) And it was good.
My arrival in Jade "City" before the crew was a bit...odd. I guess actually Jade City is a bit odd, allow me to describe it: it's got a population of 12, and all of those are involved with the single building in the town--a store that sells everything jade and a few misc food/drink snacky items. I guess it's run by a family and there's jade a mine out back, or something. But this city is literally a single jade store--there used to be two, across the street from one another...but the other one closed! So I find the proprietor of the lone store and ascertain that we may camp amongst the trees and that fires are ok, and unpack the trailer. And immediately it starts to rain, so I start to repack the trailer. Argh! I'd unpacked onto the only handy tarp, to be nice. Should have saved it to cover the gear. The rain is short and light, and so we assemble tents and start dinner. I've never grilled 35 cheese sandwiches in one go before...but that night I set a new record (and added one grilled pb&j just for variety). And then retired to the tent, pitched on possibly the springiest ground in BC (yes, it totally topped the grass in Kitwanga!), but not before visiting the jade store (open 7am to 10pm--better than most gas stations, groceries, and even pubs we'd been to!) to get the most reasonably priced snack I think I've seen in canada--a buck each for canned soda and name brand candy bars! Whoa =)
In the tent, I chatted with Alex for awhile before finishing and immediately restarting Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'd meant to do that last time I finished, but I think I had another easy read along to distract me. The beauty of having only one book along is that it's easy to jump back into it..
The reason for so much tent time, by the way, is that the mosquitoes are nearly an unstoppable force in this region, and the tent was (after a bit of hunting) free of the biters, and instead we watched (literally) hundreds congregate between our rainfly and the screen roof of the tent. Eww. I've not been sucked dry yet, but it's been close a few times..
I remember when, as recently as 4 weeks ago, our directions for the day took up a page in a notebook, or a screenfull on my cellphone, and couldn't be stored in my head. Since Calgary, the directions have been: get back on the road, going northwest. Today we make our last left turn (and only our third turn since Calgary) onto the Alaska highway, Canada/US 1. In my mind I see that as leaving the pristine country route 37, and turning back towards civilization.
Today we went through some of the most deserted country we'd seen since yesterday. Nothing manmade in sight except for the road and our bicycles for long stretches of time. Just us, free in the breeze, singing with the birds and inhaling what the trees exhale.
Today had been a long-anticipated day: Katy and I had been scheming for nearly 2 months for this ride. She was more willing than I to do it anytime, but I was holding out for something special. I wanted a beautiful backdrop, a place where we hadn't seen any kind of police presence for days, somewhere that there were no towns on the road, and no payphones, cell phone service--in short, I wanted to be in the middle of nowhere. And this was as nowhere as it got!
So, without further ceremony, Katy and I waited in the back for the rest of the riders to get a good lead on us, and we pulled off the road and stripped naked. Well, we left our shoes and socks on, to be fair. we wrapped the padded part of our bike shorts around our seats, stuffed our clothes in my saddlebag, and got back on our bikes. Naked, but for shoes and helmets. We'd gone about a half mile when driver Shawn drove past and honked and hooted and hollered. We went about another couple of miles up the road without seeing anyone else, pulled off, and got dressed before we caught up with anyone or made it to the rest stop.
This is a Texas 4000 tradition: the naked mile. In past years, they've done a few miles, in the desert, in the middle of somewhere, on the coast--wherever they thought they could get away with it, I guess. All I knew was that I didn't want to just get away with it, I wanted to revel in it. And Katy was with me. So, with our proof of concept out of the way, we rolled into the rest stop and everyone cheered and hooted--apparently Shawn had outed us to the group. Which was fine--we weren't ashamed of our bodies or our mission, but we hadn't wanted to make anyone feel weird, and there are definitely those on the team who would be offended if we rode up naked, or made them watch. But, since everyone knew what was up, we took volunteers to repeat the feat this leg, only with feeling! And it was looking like it'd be 4 of us--Katy, Claire, Alex S, and myself. There were a lot of folks who had expressed interest in the past, but when it came time to strip down, our numbers dwindled. Even Alex decided not to join us at the last second. So then there were 3. We waited for everyone to leave, and "changed" behind the van. And then we were off! Going low and slow and smiling as an occasional RV honks and waves, as several did. Several others failed to acknowledge us at all, and there was one carful of a family that honked, waved, cheered, and in general enjoyed much merriment at our condition. And then there was the dipshit from Alabama (with a "W" sticker on his car) who pulled up next to us, paced us for a few feet, taking pictures, and then convinced his wife (who was driving) to pull off and let him get out for some better pictures. I can't believe she agreed! We rode past, ignoring him and enjoying ourselves--because this was great riding! It's pretty liberating to do anything naked, but to get the wind in your hair and all over you, to have nothing between you and nature (and it was a pleasant day, as well)...it was beautiful. It was a great goodbye to the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Claire and I clocked 16 miles before we stopped and dressed, and Katy made it all the way to 20 and still managed to change back before the rest stop.
Apparently others were inspired by our gushing accounts of the wonder and beauty, and a few others did get around to doing the thing, that day. Eric waited another day and then pulled off the road and hid in the trees, stripped down, and waited for people to pass, then rode up next to them with a sock or bike glove on his bits and acted nonchalant. Now that's style =)
I rode the third leg out front by myself since I was feeling fresh after not riding hard for the first two.
Today was the final Rockies-only border race, as well. I didn't even know if anyone else was playing along until I set out and found the road empty, no race behind and no race ahead. I'm still pushing as hard as I can because I like to ride bikes fast, and suddenly, there's a rider a hundred feet behind me, at 7 miles in. I figure it has to be Daniel and his superhuman strength, but instead it's Alex Chang who catches and passes me with ease and holds a 50 foot lead until we reach some construction, where and the race has to end, or at least wait. I'm spent so I concede to him as we slowboat it over gravel and ride together across the border, peacefully but efficiently in our quick-but-not-exhausting typical cadence. He'd commented earlier that he hadn't seen me ride my bike in almost a week (thanks to Dease Lake, and the day off, and the drive day)...and I'd missed riding with him too. We have similar sensibilities about speed and teamwork and how much to talk (our happy medium seems to be to point out the fun stuff but limit the idle chatter)...so, it was a very pleasant lead-out for the team into "Nugget City" (you guessed it, about as much of a city as Jade City was. except that it had a restaurant, too!)
The Alaska highway has lines painted on it, something we barely recall, since there haven't been a dividing line or shoulder on our road in over a week. Nelson comments that he's forgotten how to ride on the shoulder and I see that Alex C has too. The road is busier and quite a bit more direct than 37--less turns and short hills, but not much wider, and the pavement seems about the same as highway 37--ok but not great--for the most part. It'll be a long haul in.
Tomorrow, onwards towards Whitehorse--less than 300 miles remain until our meeting with our other half, the Sierra riders. We're all excited and a little apprehensive; nobody knows what the infusion of 22 people into our group will do to the Rockies family. It'll be an interesting sociology experiment...if only I was a more detached observer to appreciate it more fully.
I missed a free dinner with Elvis (i'm sure someone else will blog about it, since everyone except Nelson and I participated in it--I was being too frugal and oblivious and missed the boat), but I did score the free camping for the team in nugget city, which was earlier denied us when drive Vinoj came by to ask. So at least there's that! And memories of yet another pasta-and-red-sauce night, and the satisfaction that maybe I won't be completely broke when I get back to Austin.
We had a brief moment of cell reception for the first time in 8 days this evening when we drove into Watson lake to shop--of course, the stores had closed long before. The 10:30 sunsets are really screwing with our sense of time! We did get to check out Signopolis (ok, the rest of the world seems to call it the sign post forest) briefly...it's open 24/7!
Topic of bicycle-riding conversation today: the RV lifestyle.
We, as a crew, are obviously fans of the road trip--we're on the longest one I've ever been on--and we've got no way out. Love it or leave it, I guess. We all love it, of course! We may not love our bike saddle...but the trip is amazing, we're all agreed. Ups and downs like life, sure. But overall: wonderful, lifechanging, wouldn't trade it for the world.
Every day (particularly in BC and the Yukon) we are passed by more RV's than any other type of vehicle--they far, far outnumber the natives in BC except in huge towns like Calgary and Prince George. And we wonder how the life is--is it fulfilling to see the world from a box? I have a feeling I'll have a hard time doing car trips for pleasure again.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching t it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness." (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
Anyhow, the immersion you feel when you can't help but feel the breeze, the rain...when you smell the world around you, know the humidity and the intensity of the sun (OK, I cheat a bit with the sunglasses =)), and just...experience the everything. You can't have that in a car, but it seems like you get it even less when you travel in a house. Comfort is king, I used to say, and I still largely believe that--but now I need a corollary, something about "not at the cost of experience."
You have the power--power of money, time, etc. How will you use it? To get to the top of the world? (we've all been reading Into Thin Air about climbing Mt. Everest.) To be the change you want to see in the world? Or to never leave home...the world is your oyster but there's a lot of fish in the sea. Choose wisely!
Katy was having a hard day as I swept, so I gave her some jollity in the form of pointing out the graffiti "I (heart) vagina", and a hug, and we got back on track and ended up sweeping Alex Schliker by the end of the day. Poor guy's been suffering some knee and achilles issues since back in Montana and I feel for him. But he's a trooper and keeps struggling onward and upward.
This is the first time we've been out of the dense-forest-up-to-the-edge-of-the-road in some time...we're back in big sky country! Huge clouds with serrated edges (aka mountains) of all sorts--little fluffy clouds, dark brooding masses, and weird ones like cotton stuffing being pulled out of a tiny hole in a pillow. An armada of sun-traced outlines advances whither the wind from ground level up mountainsides and back down again.
Today also marked the second (but not last) day of rock graffiti...people spelling out their names in small rocks on the embankments by the highway. And my favorite one so far is a misread
I (heart) YOU
Which someone else pointed out was actually more like:
ANA I (heart) YOU
I'll keep my memory, thanks!
The sweeping was with Alex Chang as we removed our rain gear for more comfort, and cruised, then Katy, Schliker, and finally Ellen and Collin suffered a flat so I pulled up accompanied them into a wonderful campground at the continental divide (I think it's our last crossing?), at the appropriately named "Continental Divide Lodge". Free warm showers, laundry so soon after Dease Lake is a treat, and Eric and Daniel created some powerful victuals from our standard fare...they found some instant mashed potatoes and spiced em up just right to go with the typical rice n beans.
a storm blows through but our tent holds firm and dry. alex has pitched it well!
After the rain, we head to the lounge/bar/restaurant thingie and receive a huge donation of almost $1000 from the owners--between their "put your change in this jar for cancer!" fundraising over the past month and a challenge from the owner to his employees--shave your head and i'll donate $100/ea, it is a huge wonderful show of support. Claire does the shaving honors and soon there are 2 guys and one lady with no locks. They all look good bald, of course!
I still can't decide if I'm looking forward to meeting up with Sierra or not. We talked about that, too, inconclusively. A bit of a chatty day on the bike--it usually is when you sweep since you have plenty of wind left to chat and someone to chat with.
and then I fall asleep amidst a light pitter-patter of rain. ahhh.
Another cloudy day, playing hide and seek with the sun and the rain. The clouds today are as varied and interesting as yesterday's, and they're marching across the sky and the ground again (I hadn't noticed the ground effects of their shadows until some time yesterday afternoon, so it still had some freshness for my taste-for-the-new-and-interesting). I rode hard all day, alone across the continental divide (which seems not to be located at the actual lodge bearing its name, I guess?) and Alex Chang caught up with me at the border as we dipped briefly south back into British Columbia from the Yukon Territory. In BC again, we had a couple of rest stops, and rode our bikes--I think there were maybe a couple of campgrounds on the road but little else, as we continued the westward trek (although, somehow, we're on Highway 1 north, claim the signs and the atlases), and then we were back into Yukon.
I was feeling pretty impatient and my legs pretty good, so I rode at my comfortable pace which is somewhere below race pace but above where most of the team likes to ride, outside of races, so I expected to be alone much of the day. But always Alex Chang caught up with me, and the last time with him in tow was Vinoj! Vinoj's riding style can be characterized as unique...he tends to ride with a lot of a weave, though we are certain by now that he is not drunk. But from a distance he is easily identifiable especially on hills because of the way he dances over the road. He's not one of the racers for the borders and rarely part of the lead group into a rest stop; I've swept him a time or two during my sweeping career. But today he was on fire and keeping pace with Alex Chang as Alex (whom I'd class as the second strongest rider in our group after Daniel) flew through the paces, dropping me on all but the last leg. I got to ride with Shawn again for awhile and found the silence uncomfortable for some reason...so I spoiled it with small talk. Live and learn; there's no need to force issues with Shawn who's one of the most accepting and mellow folks on the team, even though he can be intense at times as well. I let him go ahead and continued in peace and alone.
But, the last leg! This time as Alex and Vinoj caught me I drafted off of them until we crossed a superbridge made of metal (which makes our bikes sing in ways that doth approximate the singing heart on a fresh morning when the body is feeling well and the weather is beautiful) and stopped at the first convenience store in miles. I drank a liter of chocolate milk and bought some cream cheese and tortillas in preparation for a possibly unsupported ride into Whitehorse the next day...because I did pick up a desire to be always prepared from my days in the boy scouts. Thus armed with a stomach full of my favorite fat, milkfat, and a saddlebag full of more of it and some delectable flatbreads (Claire had claimed that the store had "everything you could want" and while the tortillas *and* the chocolate milk were hidden, both were finally found and did in fact satisfy my needs! Her frequent use of superlatives was justified once again =)) I drafted for a bit out of the gas station then zoomed ahead and dropped Alex and Vinoj but kept shawn into the campground, Mukluck Annie's Salmon Bake (and RV park).
So, I had to try the salmon bake for dinner, and while the fish was incredibly well-grilled and the serving was texas sized, the flavor was not as exquisite as I might have hoped. I have honed my taste for salmon on sushi and once you cook it, it depends all too heavily on the flavor of the spices, so sadly, I was a bit disappointed. I did eat quickly enough to make it on the boat ride though, which strangely came free with some meals (such as the salmon plate), and was worth a few bucks in itself....we departed from a beach (in the Yukon Territory! I almost went swimming. I'm still not sure why I didn't, looking back from a few days afterwards) on a houseboat and cruised around Teslin Lake for an hour. The lake is massive and serene--I saw no other boats and only 2 other buildings on this lake--which is nearly 20 miles long. It's a serious but not sincere lake; a-la lake Austin being more of a dammed river, but easily 5x as wide and entirely more clean--it barely even smelled lakey, and the water was clear enough to see down rather deep. Oh, and surrounded by mountains, my favorite! The other passengers had all brought friends so I just sat and contemplated the sun (still high in the sky at 9pm) and the clouds and the mountains and the seagulls who were drifting around hoping for a handout...
Once back on shore the boat disgorged us and the whole T4K group seemed to be out and about or else asleep, so I read a bit and then emerged just in time to catch the sunset over the clouds over the mountains over the lake, and watch the painter's brush take them from yellow to gold to orange...under the clouds, over the mountains. I enjoyed the pastel impressionist sensation of watching the clouds and sunset painted on the lake even as everything else turned shades of dark blue-grey from lack of light...still the water sparkled and showed the life that everything else was still breathing quietly with. I also enjoy, in general, especially when mountains line the edges of the visible world, watching the earth spin and take the sun away behind a horizon--a discrete event. But today the sun set behind the clouds, so all I had was a subtle sensation of time passing, and a direct sensation of colors changing, and over the lake...as I lounged in the sand it was beautiful enough to make me forget the mosquitoes for a few minutes and just be.
Sometime in the night, we awoke to a clatter and when I arose to see what was the matter, Eric was reminding us that we should probably put our food away since a cute puppy we'd been playing with earlier had just driven some feral beast out of our campsite...and over the next 30min several sheepish sets of footsteps (including my own--I'd left nutrition in my saddlebag...my precious saddlebag!) sounded as people went and stored their food in our favorite bearproof containers: the vehicles and trailer.
Sometime in the early hours, the rain started, and my tent-pitching job was lazy and not rainproof until I went and tucked the tarp in during a convenient 3-minute window without rain, that I'd begged silently for and was granted. We stayed dry through the night.
A note to next year's riders (so buried in here, who will find it? I might have--hopefully someone will spelunk enough): study meteorology and geology, not astronomy. You'll rarely see the stars, but you'll be surrounded by geological records and the weather every day.
And here it is, the end of an era--today the Rockies and Sierra teams merge and together we are Texas4000 and we are riding out of Canada, into Alaska and into Anchorage. But this journey continues with a single mile, we need fuel to make the mile happen...
The dinner last night was merely OK but the breakfast is out of this world. All you can eat and no joke--a pile of bacon, trays of biscuits, eggs, homefries, and sausage. And pancakes bigger than your head. I eat until I can barely move and then barely pay the check and barely stumble downstairs and get the fortunate renapping incidence and thus am ready to rumble.
We set out into some really miserable riding conditions--actually, this is untrue--we have beautiful surroundings, a dry and cool morning, but headwinds reminiscent of Shoshone...close enough to relentless to make everyone hunker into their shells, and the only thing for getting going is a paceline. It's a hard way to start, with fresh legs, trapped in the draft of the rider ahead and not working as hard as you want, but outside the draft comes the wind pushing you like a hand on your chest and sapping your energy quickly. I set out first and the whole team follows briefly, and then there are 6...myself, followed by Daniel, Collin, Alex Menzies, Nelson, and Eric. Someone yells to pull for 2 miles apiece, so I pull until someone asks me if I want relief around 3. "Of course, but I figured someone was gonna pass me!" And so it goes. I immediately stop to take off my rain pants (it's cold, but I'm drenched in sweat and can't take the pants anymore.) By the time the pants are packed in my pocket, I'm a quarter mile behind the group and a quarter mile ahead of everyone else, and I decide not to take it gracefully and spend the next 4 miles catching their group, as much to Menzies' surprise (he was at the back when I arrived) as my own. Fortunately I was in time to get another shift at the front just before we pulled into rest stop 1. The rest of the team had banded together, and arrived 15 minutes later.
It was obvious that this was going to be one of those days that makes you focus on why you're riding...it's not for pleasure in conditions like these where you must fight for every mile, every inch, and just when you think you're enjoying it, the wind redoubles and even the trees bend towards you.
I left that rest stop early, as I was ready and since I was feeling like not sitting around for hours, and left the rest of the group at a gas station 3 miles into this leg. I didn't see anyone until rest stop 2 when driver Katy gave me the news: Sierra is on the road behind you, and they're riding! We'd expected them to drive into Whitehorse, and to show up the next day or that night...not to find them biking! Suddenly a little team pride kicked in and my preparations for the unsupported ride are very relevant...
I take the best wishes of Eric and Alex who've reached the rest stop, and Katy/Claire/Shawn who are driving, and I set out to reach Whitehorse first. We're 65 miles away, and the wind is against me, but I have a reasonable lead and I'm strong, though not as strong as Jordan, who I knew had a good chance of catching me. So then I rode. The miles crept by, the time flew by, and I was averaging 12.9mph, struggling to go that fast on the flats and almost stopping on the ups, and not doing too well on the downs as the wind wouldn't leave me alone. I started to hate the wind, and then I stopped for a minute to stretch...and realized that hate wasn't what the ride was about--the love had to come in. So I forgot the wind, remembered my Rockies family, remembered all the people we're riding for, and did the deed.
Fortunately I was riding through distractingly pretty country--an emerald lake, the Yukon river, and the mountains and hills. And then Katy pulled up--I'd passed the next rest stop before they arrived, and so she brought me encouragement and a soda I didn't want, but I did take some cream cheese and soldiered on for about 10 miles before Sierra's drivers passed me honking and waving and hanging bare asses out of windows, and I threw the horns in response. Elyor, Darlene, and David pulled over and gave me bear hugs and snacks (Sierra has been eating about 2 orders of magnitude better than we have) and props, and onward I rode. About 70 miles in and I was hurting...knees and butt mostly, but back as well. I was stopping to stretch about every 8 miles and it was hard to keep going...but I made it to within 20 miles of the town before my spirits really started to sag...and fortunately, just then, the pavement suddenly became perfect. So I had that going for me, at least. The wind was starting to die down...and then the rain started. And too, the flood. Of billboards for fast food restaurants with food that I craved...heck, I was even craving Mcdonalds by this point, and I don't even like their food. I'd brought some simple nutrition but I needed about 3 times as much and there was nothing until town...the joys of riding unsupported.
But the real joy was getting into town, to the church, pulling up first...not in beating Sierra (Jordan arrived less than 20 minutes later), but in the incredibly warm welcome I received from all of the Sierra folks there (there were about 14 who'd driven in) and they even had dinner ready...spaghetti with meat sauce, something we've never made for ourselves! And mac'n'cheese with chicken. Heaven and hugs and high fives.
Oh, and a mail drop! Thanks so much to Naomi for the foods that reached me late but intact, and Ari for the sunscreen! Yeehaw!
What I didn't tell you about whitehorse is everything we did! Well, actually, I don't really know that precisely, but I know what I did at least, so I'll focus on that. Waking up first at around 8:30am (well, Alex Chang was gone already, I think, but nobody else was stirring) I extricated myself from my sleeping cocoon and got my affairs in order for the day...bike readied, addresses and phone numbers found, dressed...but not in time to avoid being caught in my boxers when the pastor of the church walked in at 9am and found everyone else sleeping and tiptoed through, said hi, and left--the church we stayed at (Bethany Tabernacle Church) was extra cool--a kitchen, a shower, and they gave us full run of the place for the two days we were there--but in the morning all I could think about was the day ahead!
I rode down to the more promising bike shop, Philippe's, which was in a house and covered in art and a sign that said "please pardon the entropic" and I knew that was the right place for my bike. Another touring cyclist was leaving as I pulled up and we traded admiration for eachothers' Brooks saddles as we passed in the morning. I walked in and Philippe agreed that my brakes were all awry and promised to have me ready to go by 4, so I left my little red riding beauty in his care and set out on foot to see the town. I headed to the library and made a few blog entries, saw much of the town of Whitehorse on foot, and ate my fill (a rarity on this trip--eating stuff like rice and beans and somewhat bland pasta, I'm eating enough but not too much as is my usual wont...this is probably why my gut has shrunk. I haven't weighed myself in the last month but many people have commented on my less bulgy tummy so I guess I'm looking OK =)) at the pizza hut buffet--not great, but good food value. While I was there, much of the team stumbled through and I connected with them for long enough to realize that there was no room in their vehicle, and so I walked towards town and found them parking next to a music store where, sadly, they lacked the new They Might Be Giants album (it was nowhere in Whitehorse...I'll have to wait til Austin to hear it since I lack iTechnology to buy it from iTunes). We wandered around for a bit and then split up again...
I headed to the bookstore, since that's my vice, and randomly ended up picking up a book with an introduction by Matt Groening, which convinced me to go see the Simpsons movie immediately--I miss my fix of the silly yellow people! Ok, Mer and Lori had also been pretty persuasive via email, so I made the plan. I ran into Darlene and Kevin at the bookstore but soon departed to read my newly selected The Best Nonrequired American Reading of 2006 at the coffee shop that the bookstore cashier recommended. Of course, I ran into Alex Shlicker at the coffee shop, because it's a small world. A few hours later, my bike was ready and I walked back to chez Philippe and chatted him up for a bit until I had to make my escape, and rode back to the church.
I gathered my laundry and convinced Allison to do it because she's a nice girl and I've given her a fair number of therapeutic massages, perhaps...then I rode back into town and saw the Simpsons Movie. Why did nobody warn me that it's about Alaska and I should have waited a week to see it?! But it was great quality and I'll see it at least once more to get all the hidden jokes and fully appreciate the Alaskaness of it all. Ran into Katy on the way home and spent $6 on a milkshake and french fries at Mcdonald's, which was a bad investment cashwise, but left me full for the evening despite not having much in the way of dinner back at the church. Finished blogging, packing, and shaved the legs in the freezing cold shower (*so much better!*) just in time to go out with Tyler, Mike Glass, and Oleg--I even got dressed for the occasion! (Since I'd been undressed for bed when they decided to go out the previous night.) We did the cross-team bonding thing I'd been hoping for all day. It was kind of minor since it was such a small cross-section, but it sated me and we got back to find everyone asleep and did the same ourselves.
It turns out that the teams are still two families trying to become one. We aren't sharing food which is kind of a shame since they eat so much better than we do, but it's kinda neat, because we're hardcore and still surviving on the supplies I bought almost two weeks ago and they spend mad cash on everything...so we know who to thank for the huge donation at the end of the year =). But it's kind of depressing when they eat sausage and we get like 8 beans worth of protein. Ah well, this, too, shall pass.
The experiment continues!
Waking up at 6am was a little weird--I don't think Rockies has gotten up before 8am in a few weeks, but Jordan's been keeping Sierra on military time and there was a little slippage to 6 on account of Rockies whine. But that wasn't really enough for those of us who came in at 2am...anyhow I was still ready before anyone but Allison and we enjoyed Katrina's fabulous banana pancakes before helping clean up the place a little and getting ready to go. Of course we had a long day ahead of us, but that didn't faze us---as 40 kids, we are a force and a lane blockage to be reckoned with! (We didn't realize we were actually obstructing traffic until Alex Chang pointed out that he had a hard time passing us in the van because we were so long and fast.) We had a good dedication as a big team =)
The first 25 we had a tailwind for part, so we zipped. As well, we rode as a posse for awhile and it was nifty if crowded...to be surrounded by Texas4000 rather than just our immediate Rockies family. We got along fine on the road! The first 10 I rode with the group, but then I got a little claustrophobic in the 40person paceline, so I shot out ahead of the team and rode with Shelly through the final 15 into the rest stop. We caught up a bit about vegetarianism (the Sierra veggie folks had all turned to the meatside over the summer; the Rockies 2 had not.) and team differences and it was good.
One thing I was really interested in, sociologically, was how our rest stop philosophies would mesh. Rockies philosophy: pretend we only have one car (we only had one car for the first 3 days), and make sure everyone is supported and ok. Have rest stops be sempahores---locked until complete by every rider and nobody can leave. Sierra has always had the philosophy of do-what-you-want and allowed concurrent rest stops so that you can go ahead after 2 minutes or 2 hours at a rest stop. Polar opposites when it comes to team dynamics, but handy differences of opinion when you're a non-average rider--the fast people get a 2nd rest stop as soon as they want it, and the slow riders are still supported. and now we have 4 support vehicles. So out of the first rest stop, Oleg, Jon, and Jordan and I were ready to go first, and we did. Jon dropped quickly but I kept pace with Oleg and Jordan for about 13 miles doing my share of pulling before I realized that I was riding too fast to have fun, so I slowed down, checked out the scenery, and still came into the second rest stop third after the two of them, despite taking time to enjoy the mountain view and talk to a couple who was at a rest stop about our mission.
I left the second rest stop first, but came upon the other group of cyclists we'd been seeing all day---sadly I'd dodged talking to them around rest stop 1 due to an urgent need to urinate, and I made up for that by stopping and chatting now. And while me, horrible with names, cannot remember a single one of their names (except Rob, who later breaks a spoke! Bad foreshadowing alert!), I did write down some dedications from them--people they've lost to cancer that we can ride for:
Sylvia, cousin of the first rider I spoke with
Linda, friend of a driver, stolen too soon by breast cancer
And Nancy, mother of the other driver.
Those folks will get a swell dedication tomorrow morning! The other cyclists are on their way from Skagway to where we are going tonight, Haines Junction--get out your maps =). It was nifty but weird to share the road with other supported riders--they put their rest stops near ours when feasible and later Rob grabbed a spoke from us to fix one he broke! We're all on the same team out here =).
Into rest stop 3, I pulled for Tyler for about 10 miles and dropped Nelson and Alex Menzies while I passed Katy and (barely) Kevin--he saw me coming and put the pedal down almost as hard as I did and the gap shrunk really slowly into the rest stop!
Out of rest stop 3, I joined the "pain train", a double paceline which carried us solidly for the last 30 into Haines Junction. The paceline was great, and ended up being maybe 15 of us until a water stop that about 8 of us shot past for the last 7 miles. I enjoyed working with Daniel and Jordan and company and I'm sure a lot of the remaining miles will hurry along as well with this group of riders.
The teams are still kind of far from meshing, but tonight in Haines Junction, I talked to Eric about it and he agrees that we're on the way to recombining for reals even if we're not sharing food yet...the rest stops are getting more and more communal and we're all sleeping in the same room tonight, and we believe everything will work itself out =)
I got my first Canadian souvenir this evening, by virtue of needing a bag to carry my beer home in. It's some kind of Yukon Liquor Commission tote.