Dawson City, (6/10/23)

Early in the morning Anne messaged me the bad news from New Hampshire to FedEx the sprockets and tool to Dawson City was $300 with an ETA of 6/28. That wasn't going to work.

The GPS cried wolf again, claiming the known gas stops exceeded my bikes range. The key is known gas stops. I played it safe and filled my gas can, but tiny open gas stations occurred about every 100km. So this was just unnecessary weight for my poor chain.

The ride itself was very remote and scenic. I have a number of photos along the way from the phone, lots more on the cheap camera.

A number of abandoned vehicles from prior accidents remain in the ditches along the road. That's a bit errie when you see a rolled over car in the ditch.

Many sections of the road have gravel stretches and are being actively worked on. In two places there was a stop light and you had to wait for a pilot truck to take you through the worksite. So the route being used varried by what work what being done. One stretch of that was pretty soft and effectly in the roadside ditch. If the chain was to start skiping this is where I had suspected it, or some long uphill. But all was fine.

Very near the center of my long trip between these two locations I had stopped for a photo and added my rain gear over my normal riding gear. At one of the construction stops I approached two other riders with bright yellow rain gear. Once I got to the stop and they waved us all through I realized these two are on bicycles! Wow.

I saw two Coyotes and two bear on this section of road. One particularly troubling sight was bullet holes in the roadside out house. I was in a bit of a hurry to get out of my rain and riding suite when I saw the first hole. At that point I didn't have thoughts beyond peeing. Once that thought passed I wondered about the hole. Then noticed more in the other shed like toilet building. Lets just say I didn't want to spend much time there.

The newer plan included this ride to Dawson City for the D2D event. Then contact Fairbanks shops and get them to order the sprockets. Followed by another day like to where I ride 600km to Fairbanks. Best case they have the sprockets and I just buy/hold them. Worst case they need to order them. I might even be able to them from Amazon in a reasonable time, but certainly not the 1 day I could have it at my house in NH. I really should have called Fairbanks shops before riding today because they had closed by the time I reached Dawson City. So now I wait until they reopen on Tuesday to start the "order".

During the D2D event I'll ask around to see if there are others going my way. Ideally with a support truck or trailer space.

First thing in town I bought a coffee and tried to figure out what to do with myself for a half dozen days. First find a place to stay. Expedia said only one place in town had a spot for me Saturday-Thursday. It was far more than I had bean spending to camp. But I would be there awhile and it's going to rain and be colder this week. But I did want to see what I was getting, so I checked where it was on the map. I had parked about 100 feet from it, just around the corner.

Front desk staff at The Dawson City Bunkhouse was amazingly friendly and everything seemed well kept. I booked my room and went up to see it and drop a handful of stuff. On my way out to get my bike I ran into 3 guys traveling through. We sort of became instant friends. I retrieved my bike and they checked the chain and sprockets was concerned about. They believe I can make Fairbanks, as they just came that same route.

That settled we all went off for dinner. They had plans for a show at Diamond Tooth Girties, and they let me tag along. It was a good show, all three sets. We didn't get out until 0100 and walked home in the "daylight".