07/29 The scenery today was nothing short of spectacular. In fact the stretch from Haines Junction to where I am now has some of the most magnificent mountain ranges I’ve seen so far. Ending the day camped next to the largest lake in the Yukon was the perfect finish to a great day. I ended up taking 89 pictures so I’ll be working on getting that number trimmed down.
The great Northern heat wave continues. Not sure what the temperature was but I heard someone say this area was the hottest in the country. My face got a little red so I’ll have to remember to put on some sunscreen tomorrow. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day and only once did I run into some shade. My water consumption was pretty high thanks to a lot of hills so I had to procure some water from the streams (except for one that had a few too many things floating in it).
Stopped at The Village bakery in Haines Junction and grabbed a cinnamon bun and coffee. They had wifi so I posted the last couple days from there. On the way out I made room for a milkshake and some cookies. Then it was over to the store for some more camp fuel, bug spray and toothpaste. This is also where I saw a notice that effective yesterday all open fires are banned in the entire Yukon Territory.
The CG here is right on the lake shore and all the tent sites are along it. It has wifi, showers and electric (in the laundry room). The only negative is that the generator is loud so unless you are at the far end of the CG it’ll be what you fall asleep to. The lady running the front office was very friendly which is rare for service-oriented people up here. I’ve stopped at every lodge and in at least one store in every town on the Alaska Highway and with 2 exceptions (now 3), the people I dealt with gave me the impression that they couldn’t care less about my being there or in engaging in any kind of conversation. Or I’d watch them talking to someone else and they’d act the same way. Someone else had commented on this on another blog but I’m too lazy to find it again. Their write-up went into the why a little more. Could be my bad luck but I’d be curious to hear what other riders have run into.
The area around this CG has the highest concentration of grizzly bears in North America so they have a guy on an ATV driving around looking to shoo them away. No food storage bins (oddly enough) so I’ll have to keep my pannier in the laundry room tonight. There are also no garbage bins. Met a nice couple who reside in Fairbanks. They gave me some good intel on the road between there and Denali. Ran into 2 guys heading down from Fairbanks on the road earlier. They were from The Netherlands so they were happy to see my bike since that’s where it was born.
I get to add my Cateye bicycle computer to my thankfully short list of things that are in bad shape. After taking a pit stop I noticed that the speed wasn’t changing from 0 mph after I started up. I’d just changed the battery in both it and the transmitter so that couldn’t have been it. It was plenty close enough to the magnet on the spoke to get a reading too. It magically started working again an hour later.
Actually the Cateye is a piece of junk as far as I’m concerned because I’m sitting in my tent 7 feet from my bike and according to it I’ve ridden 0.95 miles since resetting it 30 minutes ago. So now I think my total miles are wrong. Damn it. My GPS tracks all the same info and standing still the only thing that changes is the elevation so at least I have a backup. Maybe my laptop or cell (which is off) is interfering with it? Other things not doing well: my tent– the main zipper doesn’t seal the door but luckily the other zipper does and my (2nd) air mattress– still leaks so I’ll be looking to replace it with a closed cell one. Minor issues in any case.
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KISS= Keep I Simple, Stupid I’m a firm believer.
Last year when I was in the market for a bike computer I did some research looking to get a wireless and all the customer reviews/complaints I was running accross on REI, Performance and Nashbars soured my deside for wireless. Complaints like yours, Problems with erronious readings, picking up signals from others computers etc. Ended up with a $34 on sale wired Cateye with cadence and couldn’t be happeir. No transmitter means no second battery, no transmitter or reciever means significantly longer battery life. I now have two bikes with that same model computer and still going storng on the original battery the oldest came with after 14months.
On your tire failure problems:
I know you were running low presure at one point trying to save the tire but I think that may well be the problem. Low tires on cars and trucks fail because the extra flexing in the sidewalls overheat them and causes the failure. Your tires look to be failing at the rim where the tired flexes against it. If it were me I’d run max pressure if not a few PSI higher then listed and every few days let the air out so you can push the bead away from the rim and see if you are seeing any wear where the tire wraps over the rim.
Still enjoying the great pictures!
This area looks volcanic, maybe?
This document seems to point more to glaciation and subsequent seismic activity as the biggest influences on the area. Some of the steep, barren slopes sure look volcanic to me too though.
http://ygsftp.gov.yk.ca/publications/openfile/2002/of2002_8d_geoprocess_file/documents/map_specific/115fg.pdf