May 17th, 2010

Happy birthday Amanda!  You couldn’t have asked for a better present from the man up above; clear skies with lots of sun.

 Nisutlin Bay Bridge at Teslin, YT is the longest bridge on the Alaskan Highway; 1,916 feet of steel grate fun.  Although we’ve ridden over many steel grate bridges over the past months, we’ve never felt 100% comfortable crossing over them.  Kinda feels like riding over soft sand; the urge to grip the handle bars deathgrip-style is hard to resist.  By keeping relaxed and the throttle steady, we’ve managed to cross the bridge without any problems. 

In retrospect, I guess it was a little shallow of me to suggest the role of “white horse” to Amanda based on the color of her skin.  Yes, you can call me Jerky McJerkinson from here on in. 

We stopped at the public library in town to scope out potential camping spots up ahead, update ride report, and keeping in touch with family and friends.  We also stopped at the main post office where Amanda’s insurance renewal papers were waiting to be picked up.  She had it sent through general delivery.

I was hoping to take Amanda out for supper at a sushi buffet restaurant, but settled for the next best thing.

After a diet that consisted of carrots, raw oatmeal, and canned fish over the past couple of days; this meal was mighty fine tasty.

We stocked up on food at The Real Canadian Superstore and picked out a birthday cake.  We rode to the S.S. Klondike, an old sternwheeler that ran freight between Whitehorse and Dawson City along the Yukon River back in the day.

Make a wish!

Mmmmmm Oreo Cookie Cake.

Finding a place to camp was a bit tricky in Whitehorse.  No point in traveling too far from the city limits since I needed to do an oil change first thing in the morning at Wally World.  We ended up riding along a gravel road that took us up a hill overlooking the city.  We maneuvered our bikes onto a narrow mountain bike trail that had us pretty close to the edge of a cliff.  It was too narrow to turn back so we hoped that the trail would eventually lead to a clearing of some sort.  After duck walking the bikes for a hundred yards or so, we managed to find an area that had enough room for us to turn the bikes around.  It was getting late and we were tired so we decided to camp right where we were.  It was the beginning of the work week so I can’t imagine many people, if any, would be using the trail at this time of night.  I think we might have found the perfect spot actually.  Happy birthday Ladybug.

220 km

Birthday in Whitehorse.

Steel grate bridge; ride with caution.

Try not to look down.