Dave through the Americas - 8.14.02 What goes up must come down, then up then down again.

We finished off our downhill to the Sitkine River with a fast 8% downgrade. Of course after crossing the bridge we had to climb an 8% upgrade on a windy road but it wasn't all that bad. We reached the top and saw our first view of Mt. Edziza (9,143 ft), a dormant volcano. The rest of the way into Iskut was more or less downhill with a nice steep downhill coast the last 2 miles into town. The mountain views were spectacular into Iskut. I took a photo of the valley and we coasted into the supermarket for a little restocking. We then headed another 2 miles to the restaurant for a nice burger and shower. We could hardly stand our own stench after 3 and a half days of cycling. Leaving the restaurant we had to haul ass out of Iskut to out pedal the approaching rain. We escaped most of it and began a nice ride beside Eddontenajon Lake checking out the tall mountains on the other side of the water along the way. After some miles, Thomas mentioned stopping for a break. A couple miles later, I spotted a nice pull out and slowed down as I started to ask Thomas if it was good. Little did I know he was directly behind me. The result was a rear end collision as we were on a bit of a downhill and he didn't have time to react. Thomas went swerving off the side of the road out of control and crashed hard. I turned around and saw him sliding through the gravel shoulder. I though of the worst and figured I'd be helping him get up from this crash but it wasn't that bad. He scraped up his forearm and knee and got a big raspberry (as they call it in baseball) on his hip. The bike was a little twisted up as well but we just put the handlebars back in alignment and trued the front wheel and it was back to normal. Thomas put first aid ointments on his scrapes and we had a quick snack before continuing. I felt really bad about the accident, but we both agreed it could have been much worse. Just a couple minutes earlier, he fastened his helmet, and I rode the entire downhill into Iskut without my helmet on. I guess this was a bit of a wake up call. So we moved on with huge rain clouds behind us that seemed to be on our tail. The next miles were nice and easy, either somewhat flat or downhill. We approached Kinaskan Lake and saw a spectacular view of snow peaked mountains in the distance. We expected another unpaved section and it turned out most of it had recently been paved, so that was a nice bonus. We agreed to look for a spot around 7pm. We rode through some light showers and then came to a nice rest stop on the Eastman Creek. We decided to pitch our tents across the road from the rest stop. I cooked up the last of my noodles, filtered some drinking water, and set up my tent. Thomas brought to my attention evidence of a bear using this area as well. We saw a tree with some bark scratched away and some poop that could have been from a bear, but may have been from a horse because there were horse tracks as well. We were both too lazy to find another spot so we just made sure our food was at a safe distance downwind from the tents. I flipped my bike over to do some lubing of the chain and noticed a small bulge in the back tire. Not good. I'm not sure what I'll do about it. Either ride it out until it busts or use my replacement, which is a knobby mountain tire. I'll ask Thomas about it in the morning. Tonight I am going to try to sleep without the rain fly or tarp over the tent. Hopefully it won't rain and maybe I can get a nice glimpse at the stars if I wake up in the night. Its almost 10pm now, still light enough to write, but I can see the half moon peeking out from behind the clouds. (64 miles)

Peace

Dave

Pic: Scenery coasting into Iskut

Pic: Kinaskan Lake