Big sky – big dark clouds

The day started of dry, but as I got closer to Watson Lake, the big storm clouds increased in size, number and darkness. At one point I was in the sunshine with moody clouds in front

behind

and to the left (up wind from me)

It did not look like i was going to be dry for much longer! Fortunately I made it to the Nugget City cafe just as the downpour started. Dry as a bone, it was time to enjoy some soup, then more pie, while it rained and hailed outside 🙂

Made it to Watson Lake, a small village based around a road junction (junctions are a big thing here given that there are so few of them!). Finally got an international calling card that works, and stocked up on food. Canada has stock cubes (yay) and 5 minute rice – that’s carbs sorted! Also got cheese and eggs (protein sorted), biscuits, and the shopping day treat of milk and cereal 🙂
While I was enjoying the cereal and re-packaging the other items so that they’d fit, I had a good chat with Derrick. Some of it was a bit vague, but he was good company.

Finally, one for my dad – a vehicle the size of a bus that was an actual bus (not yet another Recreational Vehicle)

There hasn’t been a lot of traffic, but it has come in all shapes and sizes:
• RVs, usually towing something – a car, a truck (Sports Utility Vehicle), a camper (yes, really), a box trailer (probably containing the Sunday car – safe from the road debris!), a boat or even a horsebox!
• Camper vans – either with a detachable accommodation, or all in one (like you see in the UK)
• Motor bikes – typically a Harley, sometimes with a trailer or passenger. Also seen motor trikes and even a bike with sidecar.
• Cars – usually with lots of people and luggage, or spare fuel cans, roof racks, bikes, canoes, kayaks etc
• Bicycles – anything from sport bikes with no panniers (that’s what the support car is for!) to world tourers with at least 4 huge panniers – 2 front, 2 rear.
• Trucks (SUVs), vans, lorries and local cars (driver only, no stuff)

Recently I counted the oncoming traffic over an hour. There were about 70 vehicles – with the holiday / tourist traffic making up just over half of it (and half of that were the RVs and campers, a third were motor bikes). I also noticed that there were twice as much tourist traffic heading north than going south – I’m very much going against the tourist summer migration flow!  

Cycling Details

June 15th – 80km to just beyond Watson Lake. Not a late start, but rain avoiding and stocking up took a chunk out of the day, so just scraped a distance to keep the 80+ average going.