The second night I spent in Johnsons Crossing was a bit of a sufferfest as the temperatures dropped to the low single digits and without a sleeping bag or a sleeping mat combined with the permafrost underground chilling be from below,it was a tough night.I had to put on almost every piece of clothing that I had with me,including my rain gear to keep warm.Needless to say that I didn't sleep very well and my morning didn't improve when I finally crawled out of my tent to get all my gear ready and found my rear tyre was flat.Not the way I wanted to start my day.
I figured that it was a good way to lighten my load and took the opportunity to throw out the old rear tyre,which had been torn apart my the gravel,and replace it with the spare tyre I had folded up in my trailer bag.It would give me a little more room for all the other crap I didn't need but was dragging along the highway anyway.It didn't take long to put the tyre on and was kind of looking forward to riding that day as the tyre was alittle wider and hopefully that would make it a little more comfortable and provide a little more purchase on the rougher sections of road.
Once I packed all my gear I walked my rig over to the restaurant and sat down for my morning coffee and to catch up with the news of the day and more imporantly the Tour de France on my laptop.I had a chat to some biker guys about the condition of the roads that they were about to tackle and they filled me in on the roads heading east all the while shaking their heads at the amount of cyclists that they had seen during their trip.They all thought that they were doing it tough until they saw some cyclists riding in driving rain through southern British Columbia a week or so earlier.After that,they said,we cyclists had earned a lot of respect.I told them that if they ran into an Itallian chick out there on a mountain bike then they should give her all the respect and more and amazed them with the story of crazy Michelle's ride from Argentina.
I finished my chat and went outside ready to start the days ride only to find that my trailer tyre was flat.What,not another one?!So inside in went to get a take-out coffee and then unhitched my trailer and settled down at the petrol pumps and fixed the hole.As usual the offending culprit was a small bit of metal thread,no doubt picked up while riding past one of the many blown truck tyres on the highway.With the tyre fixed it was time to roll and I was soon pedalling up and down the rolling hills that followed the northern edge of the fifty mile long, Teslin Lake.It was a pretty great day to be out there as the sun had finally decided to hang around and I was cycling in shorts for the first time on my trip.I still had long sleeves and gloves on as the wind,which was blowing right into my face,was pretty chilly.
The whole mornings ride was one big photo opportuity and I stopped several times to take some happy snaps for posterity and was amazed that I had never heard of this beautiful part on the country.Seriously folks it is just beautiful up here in the Yukon.I could do without all the bloody mozzies but I guess you can't have it all.What I could also have done without was the second flat rear tyre for the day.I was rolling along happily and my tyre was great,then I stop to take a picture and the bloody thing goes flat under me.Now what the hell is that all about...and it was a brand new tyre for God's sake!!Oh well time to unhitch the trailer again,at least it was a beautiful place to stop so I took in the views as I changed tubes and patched the hole in the blown one.
The next 20 kilometers or so flew by and I was really starting to notice my bike fitness climbing pretty quickly.I was now climbing long hills at the same speed that I had been struggling to hit on the flats out of Anchorage not so long before,and it was into a headwind.That made me feel a bit better about Ultraman at the end of the month.At least I will be able to get through the two days of biking without suffering too much.Unlike the last two times I competed.Now if only my stupid knee would alow me to run for more tha twenty minutes at a time I would be a lot happier in general.I really started to wonder just what damage I had done to it during the marathon in June as it was not healing at all and every now and then the swelling gets pretty bad.I can still ride though so no point bitching too much I guess.
Just after mid-day I rode into the village of Teslin and was surprised at how busy the place was.There are two big gas stations occupying opposite sides of the highway with one of them also comprising of an hotel and RV park which sat near the shore of Teslin Lake.It was a really pretty place and I rode into the car park ,full of motorcycles to have a lunch break which ended up being a dinner break as well.
After having a small lunch and a chat with a few of the motorbike guys while enjoying the first summer-like conditions of my trip I went back to my bike to load up and head off.As I drew near I nticed my rear tyre was again,flat.Oh shit,not again!I had suffered a summer of flat tyres the year before in Penticton,when every ride,it seemed,involved dealing with flats.I didn't want to go through that again and kind of lots the plot for a minute and had a little internal tantrum before heading into the gas station office and asked about campsites.They lady told me that they had a really nice camping area and that did it for me and I rolled my gear,flat tyre and all down to the lakeside camping area where I had all the prime real-estate to myself.
A good portion of the rest of the day was spent taking my wheels off and relining the rims with new tape as well as ling the inside of each tyre with tape as well.I then did a bunch of other bike maintenance and generally fiddled around with all my gear.Being the inept mechanic that I am,this left me pretty frustrated and covered in grease and road grime and in combination with the hottest day of my trip thus far,dying for a swim.With the bike all fixed I wandered down through the trees and waded out into the firgid waters of Teslin Lake for my first actual swim of my trip.Three weeks before the start of Ultraman seemed a good time to start my swim training and would be a better preparation than I had for the two previous attempts combined.Luckily swimming is not an issue for me and I could get through a ten kilometer swim pretty much any time but still,it would be better if I actually got wet every now and then before the race.
That evening I tried to make it a three sport day and went for a run but my mood dropped when I only lasted around half and hour before realising the pain was coming back on the inside of my knee.I was reduced to a walk and even turning while walking on the damned thing felt weird.I wandered back down to the lake and stood there in the cold shallows wondering what the hell to do,so I went to the lounge in the restaurant and had a couple of beers.The next one hundred kilometers of my ride involved climbing up and over the continental divide and even though this is the lowest point that any highway in Nth America crosses that geological landmark,it meant a tough day on the bike.I wondered how my knee would feel about that once I started the long climb that begins directly after negotiating the scary steel-decked bridge that spans Teslin Lake to the east.
I didn't need to wait all that long to find out.When I awoke the next morning and crawled out of my tent the pressure on my knee sent a shooting pain through the joint and once outside the tent I saw that there was significant swelling going on.I was going nowhere that morning,time for drugs and some immersion in the cold lake before heading to the restaurant for coffee and some Facebook updates.
I must admit,I'm pretty dejected right now and as I sit here in the restaurant lounge at 9:45am,pissed off and pretty lonely,those beers in the fridge behind the bar are looking pretty damn inviting..
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