Well, after months of planning, we finally were on our way.
No, we weren't taking a train to Alaska, we were taking a train to Canada, from Alaska. Just keep reading, it'll all make sense someday. :-)
We had flown up to Juneau, put our bikes together in the terminal, and hustled like mad to make the 2:00am ferry, then spent a day in Skagway, AK getting our bikes organized.
The climb out of Skagway to the Canadian border is about 4000' of steep. So rather than destroy our confidence and our knees the first day of riding, we took the scenic White Pass Railway to the top and started riding from there.
Left to Right: Luke, Kristie, John and Jenny.
We then learned a couple of things. First is that you can't bring a pistol into Canada, no matter what the Canadian consul in Los Angeles tells you. Also, if you didn't want to spend the ~$US80 on the train to the top of the hill, there's a bike shop owner in town with a van who will take you to the top for much less.
At the Canadian border, Luke, Jenny and I hung out while Kristie and John hitched back to the U.S. to mail his gun to our rafting outfitter in Alaska. They had a bit of trouble doing that, since it was the 4th of July, and the postoffice was closed. However, they found a really helpful bike shop owner, who not only mailed the gun for them, he sold them a book about working on the railroad and gave them a ride back to the top of the hill.
Stops like this one, to change clothes, were common.
After a "quick" lunch, we were on our way through the Canadian Wilderness! The views were beautiful, but there was something wrong with the road!
You see, the book I'd gotten on Cycle Touring Alaska had route profiles. And they showed it as being all down hill from the Canadian border to the 1st town, Carcross about a day (82km/51mi) away. Like a fool, I believed them. Well, since it wasn't all down hill, since we got such a late start, and since we hadn't ridden nearly enough to prepare for riding ~100-150 pound cycles it took us two full days. After exploring Carcross, which was a fun little town, we headed north about a mile to the campground.
The riding thereafter wasn't as bad as before. Not because of the terrain, but because of our attitude. We had realized that we weren't going to be making the kind mileage that we initially expected. If, at first, you don't succeed, lower your expectations. :-) Another day and a half and we arrived at the campground outside of Whitehorse, less than 60 miles away.
The morning of the second day of riding, my tent blew away as we unstaked it. I went running after it and jumped on it, which kinked a pole. Luckily, John had a tent pole sleeve that held it until we got to Whitehorse. In Whitehorse, I managed to get a new pole section and replace the kinked section. I couldn't get the end off the pole, so I had to cut the bungy in the middle and re-tie it after removing the kinked piece and inserting the new piece. I also got a sleeve and an extra section of pole, just in case. :-)
Since we weren't in the shape that we needed to be in, and we had a hard deadline coming up for the rafting trip, we all started to get stressed and tempers started to flare.