The Kluane-Chilkat bike race follows 150 miles of some of the most scenic highway in Alaska and the Yukon. Riders compete as part of a team or solo. It is always a good idea to sign up for races in scenic places, if you need an excuse to travel!
My role, since I'm not road biker (yet), was to be the water van for Dash. There were so many support vehicles on the road that the riders were seldom alone!
Kathleen Lake, my first stop while waiting for the front pack to arrive. They must have been biking close to 60 km/hr, because they caught up to me fast!
Morning at Dezadeash Lake in Yukon Territory
Rock glacier in Kluane National Park. Looks just like a regular glacier, and still has ice, except on the surface it appears to be only rocks.
Because the race course crossed an international boundary, all the racers had to stop and go through customs!
Still plenty of snow in the alpine in mid-June. There were a lot of raw glacial valleys that looked like their glacier had retreated very recently.
At one pullout along the road, I heard the strangest sound. Sort of like the sound made when you blow across the top of an empty soda bottle. It was the mating call of a blue grouse, and I had found myself in the middle of dozens of them calling all around!
I had a little bit of time, maybe 30 minutes each stop, to walk around and explore until the bikers zipped by and I had to be on water-duty.
At one point I offered Dash a snowball, but he declined. Too difficult to handle while biking, I guess.
There were TONS of these flowers blooming
One thing I love about the tundra, is it looks like you could effortlessly hike to anywhere.
The race ended in Haines, which in the summertime with clear weather is a paradise.
We went hiking through some dark Hemlock forest
The devil's club was HUGE!
There are lots of HUGE plants in Haines. It feels like a jungle, sometimes
Octopus birch tree
There are waterfalls everywhere, and hanging glaciers too
The intertidal zone doesn't have much growing, except for lots of cucumber kelp and barnacles.
Haines is known for having a large population of eagles, and they were everywhere.
The next day, because Dash had recovered, we went on a longer, more strenuous hike up Mt. Ripinsky in the evening.
It was a classic Alaska trail, going straight up. In the distance is the peak we were aiming for.
The ferns were incredibly thick... and tall
The smoke from wildfires in Canada was starting to move in this evening, which is why the sky is hazy.
The flowers made a thick white blanket on the ground
Lots of lupine in shades of pink and purple
Paintbrush
Near the summit, we were rewarded with more flowers and fantastic views.
At the top, looking down the fjord past Haines. It's 9 pm and still light, but the forest was so dim that at times it was hard to see by the time we got back to the car, at around 10:30.
