ACES bike trip
Carrie posted in Recreation on May 24th, 2009
Now I can understand why people actually go on long distance bike trips. Before it just looked like WAY too much work to me. I used biking to get from point A to point B and only on days when the weather was nice, and only because it was too far to walk or I was late. A bike had 2 wheels and that’s all I really cared about it. Ryan had his bikes out during our summer last weekend and was tuning them up for the season. He said to me, “Hop on this bike and see what you think.” So I got on the bike and rode down the street and back and had this earth shattering comment when I was finished, “Yep, it’s definitely a bike.” Sorry I couldn’t tell that it was a particularly expensive bike or anything because I find bikes rather uncomfortable and have no interest in spending a long time in the saddle.
So when Greig Bell who teaches the ACES programme asked me to chaperone the 8-day bike trip I had my reservations. But they’re a bunch of high school students, how bad could it be?
Fantastic actually. I get it. Why people go on bike trips? Bike around Spain or PEI or something cool like that, I totally see how that’s appealing.
First off, I got to use Ryan’s really expensive touring bike. Turns out bikes that cost more than Canadian Tire bikes actually ARE better for riding. This bike had such smooth shifting and brakes that actually worked and was so nice that I didn’t die when I climbed up a hill and I could cruise on the flats at 30 km/h easily. Furthermore, it was a true test of our relationship to have Ryan lend me his precious bike. When I asked him about borrowing his touring bike I think his exact words were, “I’m not sure if I love you enough…I’m really protective of my bike.” Well at least it was good to know where I stood next to inanimate objects. I think his real hesitation came from my lack of appreciation for a good bike considering my previous reaction to him “letting me try it out” which apparently was a big step in letting me touch it. Then he realised that if I crashed his bike it would be a good excuse to buy a new one. (”As long as you’re not hurt” he quickly added when I gave him a sharp look.) Love is in the air.
But biking though the Yukon down into Alaska at the end of April could have been disastrous. I mean, it had snowed on us during 2 of training days and I could not keep my feet warm in that wind. Turns out the weather-gods smiled on me once again and we had 8 glorious days of hot sunny weather. The students all suffered from some weird sunburn patterns as they realised that just because the wind is cold as they bike over the Haines summit, it doesn’t mean the sun isn’t shining. That and the reflective power of the snow (or albedo, as they learned on the trip) meant that were right crisp by the end. I guess that’s another point: though we cooked dinner in shorts and t-shirts after biking 50 km that day, we had to dig our campsites out from under several feet of snow. Winter was still holding on.
Our route took us from Haines Junction and up over the Haines Summit (1070 m above sea level) and down (17 km of down hill in one go!) to Haines, Alaska on the Pacific coast. Cruising down that hill was so much fun as we could just coast for 20 minutes without doing any work and leave the cold alpine climate behind cross an invisible barrier (literally got smacked in the face with warm air when you hit it) and were suddenly surrounded by the rich coastal rainforests of Sitka spruce trees and Western hemlock. We camped right on the coast and walked along the beach learning about coastal ecosystem and watching a sea otter in the surf and a humpback whale feeding out in the bay. We then took the ferry up the fjord to Skagway and camped right downtown watching the cruise ships come and go and doing some history lessons in the down town parks and historic buildings. We hiked up to Reid Falls where Ryan and I had gone ice climbing this winter and enjoyed some fresh food after 5 days on the road. Then next day the students did an amazing push up the White Pass (yeah, the same one that the prospectors did in 1898) and all the way to Tutshi Lake (70 km total distance with 3000 ft elevation gain) in one day. Again, no rain, only sun and spectacular views. Our coastal wildlife sightings were by far the most spectacular and the only other megafauna we saw were a cow and calf moose walking across the street in downtown Haines. Over 400 km trip spread across 8-days. The students were super pumped about their achievement, the few annoying ones narrowly escaped being pushed off the side of a mountain by me, and I had a great time. I can totally see why people like going on bike trips now.
As usually, pics on Facebook or found here.
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