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Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist !

Tok - Chicken

August 8, 2009

The night had been wonderfully quiet. At last, I was able to sleep properly again, as I was used to from my other Alaska expeditions!

Around 8:30 in the morning, I heard a sound like someone turning over a tree trunk. When I looked out of the tent, I saw a baffled coyote in my face. I went to the trike and got out my camera, but in that time the coyote had disappeared again.

I whistled a few times and sure enough, the curious fellow came out of the bushes right behind my tent. I was able to take a few pictures of him.

I had been on the road for just over an hour when I was overtaken by an off-road vehicle that caught my eye because of the way it was carrying luggage on the roof.

Ten minutes later, I saw a camera crew filming me from the hilltop. When I arrived, it turned out to be a television crew from the NDR. They were interviewing me about my trip and my experience of global warming in Alaska...

After the interview we somehow got onto the subject of GPS, and it turned out that they were having problems loading their GPS with topo maps, probably because they were using an Apple computer system. I offered to transfer the maps to them using my Toughbook, which they happily accepted.
As there was quite a lot of data, it took a few hours. But that didn't matter as it was very interesting to talk shop with them about cameras, their trip and filming in general!

When the cards had been transferred after a few hours, I took a few more shots and we said goodbye.

As it was already late, I only drove about 11 km and pitched my tent by the roadside at around 21:30.
Thanks to the TV crew, I had enough drinking water again, as there were no rivers on this section from which I could have filtered drinking water!
Not many kilometers today, but the interesting hours with the TV crew were more than worth it!

Km 19,7
Pure riding time 3:25
Total time 10:30
Standing time 7:05
average 5,8
Camp 21:30

Quite curious, this guy... (Coyote / Canis latrans )

The NDR camera crew

August 9, 2009
Rest day.
Around 8:00 a.m. I was woken by the sound of pattering on my tent. It was raining. I quickly jumped out of the tent and checked my luggage, packed everything waterproof...

The night had been quiet, except for a few wild cowboys shooting into the air and setting off fireworks, it's caribou hunting season in Alaska....

The rain got heavier and heavier. Around 10:20 a car stopped next to my tent and someone called Christian. It was the NDR camera crew, they actually brought me two bottles of German beer, water and lemonade! Super nice, thank you very much!

I spent the day writing reports, listening to the radio and sorting the digital pictures.
It's nice that I now have more time than I actually need. Now I can really enjoy the trip without any time pressure...

My flight back to Germany doesn't leave until October 6. And it's “only” about 650 km to Whitehorse and I still have about 50 days for this section of the route!

More than enough time...

Regen, Regen , nichts als Regen....

Many thanks to the NDR team, especially to the cameraman Armin Plöger

I finally have enough time to write my reports and sort my pictures! Believe me, after 5–10 hours of cycling it sometimes takes a real effort...

August 10, 2009
It rained and stormed all night. It was cloudy in the morning. The temperature had dropped noticeably.
I dried my tent and set off at around 11. Uphill again, of course...

The long climbs are very exhausting. I can't go faster than 3-5 km uphill with all my luggage.
The smoke has cleared for the time being due to the rain. Finally, you can see something of the landscape.

Around midday, the first rain showers arrived, mixed with heavy hail showers. After a short time I could no longer feel my hands, it was so cold...

That's how the day went. Rain and hail showers alternated. In the late afternoon I met an American, he was much faster than me with his road bike and little luggage...

Again and again I saw off-road vehicles with trailers carrying caribous or their horns, the hunting season seems to be successful for some.

At 20:00 I set up camp at Logging Cabin Creek and cooked myself a good portion of pasta...

37 km
Pure riding time 5:20
Total time 9:30
Stationary time 4:10
Average 7
Camp 20:30

Home Sweet Home....

Not exactly rich in variety...

All around me, scorched landscape!

Batteries recharged and tent dried out

Kilometers of straight, slightly ascending, scorched landscape.

But also occasionally beautiful views of the endless landscape

It goes steadily uphill, which is quite a strain on the legs with a heavily loaded trike which weighs more than 3 normal Mountain Bikes and then the trailer and the luggage!

The bad weather is catching up with me again...

Higher and higher into the mountains.

It has become quite chilly, even in the tent it is now damp due to the high humidity

Food and drink are important on any trip, but even more so on a bike tour, everything revolves around food all day long!

What's for dinner, noodles of course...
If you are looking for a perfect stove, then buy an Optimus, much better than those stupid MSR stoves that are always causing trouble!

August 11, 2009
It was very quiet last night. You could hear all kinds of animals.

Owls, moose or caribou or maybe even bears marching through the bush and cracking branches.
It gets really pitch dark around 2:00 am.

At around 3:30 I was woken up by a hell of a noise. It sounded like two cats having a little disagreement.
However, there are no cats in the bush here, so I think it was lynxes.

Their scuffle went on for about 40 minutes. Too bad I didn't have my Leica night vision device with me, like on the 2007 expedition...

Around 5:00 in the morning, it started to rain again. Good thing I had set up the tarp.

I'm going to take another rest day today, because there's no point continuing in the pouring rain, as I have plenty of time!

I just hope that the gravel road from Chicken to Dawson City hasn't turned into a muddy track, otherwise I'll have a real problem...

It has finally cleared up!

Plenty of water for drinking and bathing...

August 12, 2009
It stormed all night and rained like buckets!
In the morning, I dried the tent and the tarp as best I could.
It was steadily uphill all day. Saw a caribou. Otherwise, nothing special happened.
Arrived in Chicken.
The gravel road is really not easy to ride, lots of potholes and some very steep climbs.
If it rains, I won't get any further because then the road turns into mud!
No problem with the car, but impossible with my trike and trailer.
It's supposed to rain again over the next few days....
I never thought it would take me so long to cover this distance!
I hope I don't get stuck in the mud somewhere between Chicken and Dawson City....
In the evening I met a German couple, the husband also rides a bike and is just as enthusiastic about the Rohloff hub as I am!
I wouldn't ride a touring bike without a Rohloff hub anymore !

Km 38.4
Riding time 5:06
Total time 7:50
Standstill time 2:44
Average 7.5
Camp 18:30

A constant up and down, quite grueling in the long run, so it is all the more uplifting when one of the few vehicles stops and cheers you on, such as

“you're the man” or “go for it”...

Should you ever be traveling in the north and see some cyclists, stop, give them water and something to eat because as a cyclist you are always hungry and thirsty and are all the happier for a cold Coke or a beer or two...
And a chat ....

What you have to “suffer” as a cyclist on some routes in the north is hard to comprehend as an outsider!

The vastness of the country is always impressive!

The surface is extremely rough, which can be seen from the abrasion of the tires

Vast landscape, overwhelming for some people, but wonderful for me, although I sometimes feel quite alone....

West Fork Dennison River would be a great river to paddle again...

Well, paddling somehow appeals to me more than cycling. Cycling with electric motor support might be more my thing, especially for long monotonous stretches ...

Every time I see one of these in the rearview mirror, my heart beats a little faster. When someone like that overlooks me...

Everything that is left of a Caribou...

I can tell you, gravel with a bit of rain, and it's a pain to ride a bike/trike!

I looked in the rearview mirror and recognized a caribou crossing the road. Can you recognize it?

If not, here's a zoomed-in version...

From now on, there will be no solid surface for a long time...

Arrived in Chicken/ Alaska

Not much to see here...

Although the saloon is quite quaint, the people there were very unfriendly, especially if you've been traveling alone for a while, it's a real headache...
Maybe they were having a bad day...
Or they just don't like cyclists, like in some places in Alaska and the Yukon, they probably don't earn enough from our one...

Continue with:

Chicken/Alaska - Dawson City/Yukon

Only those who risk going too far, will discover how far they can go!
Expedition in the USA, Alaska & Canada, Scandinavia with folding boat, motorboat, catamaran, motorcycle, off-road vehicle, bicycle ...