Ride on, Highway Cat !!: GRIZZLY PORTAGE

DAY 5, Sun. Aug. 30, 2015
Haines Junction Yukon - Million $ Falls Campground. Haines Hwy. 3.
85 km, 20.5/km/hr. 4 hours

Well, I headed out of Haines Junction at a lazy morning hour. Stalling. http://www.hainesjunctionyukon.com/
The Haines Road is a 240+km highway that links Haines Junction Yukon, through BC to Haines Alaska and parallels Kluane National Park. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/yt/kluane/visit/1.aspx
It was windy and cold with some light rain. Mostly a tailwind, yay! So frigg'n rare, ha ha.
I was nervous for what lay ahead. Was my knee gonna blow up?, would the conditions turn unbearable? Would camping be safe during this Gizzly bear party time? Also, no Subway Sandwich shop for 350 km. What I did know however, was that there would be no turning back.
After about 1.5 hours of seeing nobody, somethingt appeared over my vanishing point. I didn't understand at first, but eventually I could see that it was several groups of x country skiers out on a training session with roller skis. It was so unexpected. One of the group leaders yelled at me as he passed, "Have a good camp dude, ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Funny guy. It was cold, very windy and intermittent rain at the time. Camping weather for sure.
I rolled onward and passed a placed called "Moe's" http://www.moesyukonranch.ca/
I saw it online and wondered about it before starting this trip. Riding by, I must admit that I felt like stopping and enjoying the shelter, but I knew that it would put me in a bad position for tomorrow's ride, so I rolled on.
My destination was nearing. I started a long descent and as I rolled down, I noticed a vehicle coming my way. As we approached each other, she yelled out of her open window " There's a BIG GRIZZLY on the road 2 km back, eh!". I couldn't stop easily, so she backed up to elaborate. "He's on your side, so if you ride on the other side of the road..." I thought, "Are you NUTS?!"
"I just don't want anybody to get hurt eh?!" ... No shit!
The nice native woman saw desperation in my eyes. She took all my gear and portaged me, Shirley, HWC and gear up the next hill about 4 km past the bear. Awesome girl. She let me out on the peak of the next hill. I took a pic. She said,"Why did you do that?" I said, " What you are doing is so cool" She didn't get it. This was a normal day. Apparently she has helped my travellers on this road.
Haines Road Guardian Angel.
I had to get my gear back together and loaded on Shirley which was challenging as I couldn't seem to stop shaking. The winds were howling and I was freezing. The descent was unpleasant and dangerous. There was a short winding dirt road into the park. I almost expected to see a grizzly every time I rounded a corner. Rattling my bear bell and blowing my whistle as I rode slowly...Dingaling aling tweeet tweeet!! OMG ha ha... Idiot Vancouverite!
I spent the next 4 hours in a kitchen shelter trying to get warm. I used my dad's old hunting knife to cut the firewood. So glad I brought it on this trip I hum and hawed about bringing it. The wind was blowing my stuff around but I was feeling a bit better. A camper came by and offered his truck for warmth. Then he said that if I hear 3 blasts from an air horn, watch for bears. I thanked him for the help. Another guy came by to tell me that there was sleet on the pass to Haines Alaska. He wished me luck on my ride tomorrow but had a sad look on his face. "Thanks for the pep talk coach!" sigh
The camp was pretty much empty and quite nice. If the circumstances were different I may have enjoyed it, but in this case I just wanted to see the morning. I was happy to find metal storage bins for food. I was prepared to tie off a bear bag or 2, but the trees were so small, not sure what I would've done.
Anyway I picked I site close to a kitchen shelter, wood and porta potty. Crashed early and wondered how the next day would play out...