Day 12: to Destruction Bay (Kluane Lake)

July 3, 2014
56 miles
4:45 ride time

Today was the day of bears!

We saw 3 grizzly bears in a span of less than 2 hours of riding.

First one we saw was about 50 meters away, munching on some plants on the near side of the road. Nick got a couple pictures, but we didn't stick around long. As we biked away, he looked up at us and we locked eyes.

Second bear was munching on something very large and brown. Perhaps a fallen tree or a dead moose? I don't know enough about bear diets and we didn't stop to look closely.

Third bear was about 200-300 meters away eating dandelions in the ditch, dangerously close to the road. One man coming hte opposite direction stoped to warn us. Then he offered to scare it away, so he drove back and honked at the bear, but it didn't move. It just sat there contentedly munching away.

He drove back and said flatly, "That's one hungry bitch. You boys have bear spray?"  Yes. "You need a shotgun." He was a man of few words.

I figured if all the bear wanted to do was eat, it wasn't going to bother two cyclists passing by. So when the bear went to the far side of the ditch, we went for it. We gained a whopping 15 mph and slowly, but with much effort, passed the grizzly in the grass.

We made it.

We camped at a boat landing on Kluane Lake. It's a gorgeous lake nestled between mountains. It's like living in a postcard. And the lake goes on forever, we've been cycling by it for maybe 10-15 miles and aren't even half way around it.

I have no pictures from today, sorry. My camera is dead and I haven't gotten the pictures from Nick.