Day 11: Koidern to Kluane Ranges

July 2, 2014

Goodmorning from the Yukon!

There is never a dull moment riding with Shawn. Here's a small, small, sampling of the things he did:

• Rode on the left side of the road so he could see bad drivers coming at him and jump off if he needed to (We made him ride on the right side while with us, for the safety of everyone on the road)
• Left his helmet on the side of the road to save weight.
• Replace his belt with a piece of string to save weight.
• Carried almost exclusively canned foods: Ravioli, Spaghetti-Os, and the like, despite his obsession with being light weight. For those of you who don't know, canned food is super heavy to backpack or bike pack with. 
• Threw the lid to an opened can of ravioli into the bushes. (I got angry and made him give it to me so I could throw it away.

And that brings me to our free spirited moment of the trip: Skinny dipping in the Yukon! Haven't missed a state/territory for skinny dipping yet. We will see how far this trend lasts.

Check out the backdrop on this swimming hole:

 And while we were skinny dipping, RVs passed on the bridge overhead, but they couldn't see down. But one RV pulled over, and a couple got out. I have to stress how improbable it is for an RV to stop. There isn't a lot of traffic up here, maybe a couple cars each minute. And there aren't a lot of places they ever stop, and certainly not at this random river in the middle of nowhere where there are plenty of other random rivers to choose from. But this couple happened to stop at this river, at this particular moment while we are splashing around, naked, in the water.

Fortunately it's the Yukon, and nobody cares. Remember: there aren't any laws up here.

Nick and I got dressed on the banks where we left our clothes like normal people. Shawn, on the other hand, chose to undress himself at the top of the bridge on the opposite side of the river from where we swam. Meaning, he had to get out of the water, climb up some challenging boulders, past some thorny bushes, step over the guard rail, and then walk across the bridge, all while naked, and all while an elderly coulple pretended not to notice while they looked away, just to put his clothes on.

The couple started talking to me and Nick while Shawn dressed himself. Turns out they are from Alaska, and came to the river to pan for gold.  Who knew the river we decided to swim in also had gold?

When we stopped to set up camp that night, Shawn decided that he would keep on going. Oh to be young and have that youthful vitality that lets you keep on going and going.

And so while Nick and I sat down to heat up some water, Shawn, in his own idiosyncratic way, walked into the setting sun, uphill, pushing his bike as he went along.



Oh yeah, we also reached 500 miles!

Some pictures: