Almost to the Border

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Saturday August 6, 2011
Checkpoint to Blackstone Territorial Park

I made good time today; the road was in good condition even with gravel. I rode 105 km’s today with no wind to fight and also no wildlife. I rode from Checkpoint to Blackstone Territorial Campground. I even got stuck in a murderous thunder storm. I think “my” rain cloud caught up with me. I don’t think it was expecting me to take that shuttle van from Yellowknife and was it pissed at me.

I ended up paying full price for my campground only to find out the showers were not working. I was not over pleased. But then I ended up getting my camp site for half price because I ended up sharing the site with a biker from Illinois named Bill. So I guess it all worked out in the end. The mosquitos were horrendous that evening.
I saw only glimpses of the Liard Mountain Range until I got to the campground. At the campground there is a real nice view.



Sunday August 7, 2011
Blackstone Territorial Park to Ft. Liard

Leaving the park I was right in the middle of a “no dust zone” which means a water truck had just finished soaking the road with water. What a miserable way to start the day. And then the gravel went all soft. It took me 12 hours to ride 115 km’s; from 10:30 am to 10:30 pm. What a long hard day. I fought a bit of wind today but the worst of it is how covered my bike and bags are in mud. What a mess; it took over an hour at the end of a very long day to clean my bags. My gears are not shifting properly and this mud is making things worse.

Most vehicles are slowing down for me as they pass to keep the dust down around me. This is a very different experience then I am use to when I rode the gravel roads in Alberta. Also, the amount of people (natives) that are stopping to talk to me? One guy gave me a cold pop, 2 cold water, 2 bags of chips and a chocolate bar. Another guy gave me a coke.

I ended up “chasing” a bison for almost 5 km’s today. The beast was on the road and I was not feeling as brave as I was the other day. I hollered and clapped my hands to get it to move off the road. After some time it moved and then I started to roll forward and then it “ran” back on to the road. Great now what do I do? Then the beast started running down the road (away from me) so I followed. Every 400-500 ft. it would stop to look at me and then keep running because I was still following him. At almost 4 km’s I started to wonder how long an animal of this size would keep running in the heat of the day. Sure enough it got tired; so I zig zagged my bike across the road so he could see how “big” I was with my trailer. Well he ran like a bat out of hell. He ran past a bend and by the time I got around the bend his tracks finally went into the trees. I guess that is Arie 2 Bison 0.

Later in the evening I came across a herd of about 60 bison. Now what do I do? I slowly moved forward and they slowly started to move further down the road. But how long was I going to be able to herd 60 bison? An old lady in a car came by and we came up with a plan to help get me past the bison. I would ride along side or behind her as we tried to get past them. I would have preferred the protection of a truck but you work with what you have. I have to say chasing bison in such close proximity is a bit of a rush. First they are 30 ft. ahead of you, then 20 ft. and then 10 ft. Then the heard started to break up and were running along the highway on either side of me (about 15 ft. on either side of me). I thought I am dead and this poor lady is going to feel so guilty because I died while she was trying to help me. Luckily the lady had the sense to slow down and let the smaller herd to the left of us catch up with the rest of the herd and then the mysteriously connected to the rest of the herd to the right and then we veered left and around I was alive. I wish I had a head cam to catch it all. It was a bit of a rush.

I finally arrived in Ft. Liard at dusk. There were no showers but the camping was free. I had just enough food for super but have nothing for breakfast; good thing I am in Ft. Liard. I only have 40 more kilometers of gravel roads. Oh baby!

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Comments

[Mom]

Almost to the border
These pictures are something else. You never see this in a car!