Chuck:
As we were preparing to depart this morning, I saw a biker in our Rest Area eating breakfast. I introduced myself and found that Kevin Downey is a young Irishman attempting to bike from Prudhoe to Terra del Fluego. He has been on the road biking for nearly 2 years now; after biking all over Europe he biked in Asia and flew from Bejing to Anchorage. He works along the way to get cash to keep biking. We chatted for some time, then another biker arrived, Andre’, a Brazilian, is biking from Anchorage to his home in San Paolo. They spoke of another biker who Betty met yesterday, a Taiwanese guy who has shortened his name to “Wish” which is easier for westerners to deal with. Kevin and Andre’ think Wish is an hour or so ahead of us. Betty talked with Wish yesterday and said he is biking from Anchorage to San Francisco. I started biking as Kevin and Andre’ chatted.
About 25 miles later I met Betty for lunch at a busy Rest Area. Before we left Kevin arrives, we chat and I refill his water bottles then he is on his way. We are now biking through the wide Kulane valley with lots of lakes, the Kulane River and high snowcapped mountains to our southwest. At about mile 35, I am wondering why I told Betty 55 miles was a good idea. And “viola” there is Andre’, he asks if he can bike with me for a while. We have a great rolling conversation as the miles slide behind us. His native language is Portuguese but his English is pretty good (better than my Portuguese J ). We compare our mutual interest in poetry concerning the outdoors. I told him about Robert Service and at our next water break he had me write the info on a slip of paper so he could Google it later. About 4 miles from my rendezvous point with Betty, we see smoke coming from behind a large bridge abutment. Andre’ thinks it is Wish building his daily campfire. We investigate, not! It is a young couple and their kids camping for the night. Francois invites us to share their little hide-away. Andre’ accepts and I bike on down the road to link up with Betty.
Life is starting to feel good again after a shower, clean clothes and a glass of wine (our German friends and I drank all my Alaskan Ale our last night in Alaska, it seemed appropriate at the time). While Betty and I are walking with Mitzie, we see something in the underbrush just 15 feet in front of us. At the same time a car with three young gals arrives, we caution them. It is a lynx, what a rare treat for us, these elusive catlike critters are very secretive. It is the first for both Betty and I. Earlier today Betty saw a bear, probably a black bear, it was really dark.
The day is winding down, burgers grilled outside, no TV, no Internet, no cell coverage, not even a radio station, so we are ready for bed. Oops, as I type this, I see a biker with red and black panniers trudging down the highway; I quickly honk my horn, he looks back and pedals on. Must not be someone we know. It is almost 11 pm (the time changed from the Alaskan Time Zone to the Pacific when we entered Canada}, not a good time for a party, maybe we will cross paths tomorrow.
Betty: The three young gals were Canadian and had met in college. They get together for an adventure every now and then and this year they all met in Whitehorse (one of them lives in Haiti, one in Ottawa and one inVancouver) to make a trip to Alaska and back. When they drove up and realized it was a Lynx in the bushes and it had probably been stalking Mitzie (our Yorkshire) one of them said “Could you let her off the leash?” Of course she was kidding – well, I hope J