Day 12: Little Salmon Lake - Engineer Creek Campground

It's almost half past noon at night and I record today's audio.

I was up early, well ahead of everyone else, and was almost done with breakfast and packing when my neighbors came out of the trailer one after another. 

I ride to Carmacks. There I meet the Yukon for the first time and cross it on a bridge. A place with phone signal, so I check my mails and work on two smaller jobs. I use my Canadian SIM for connecting to the internet, even though I'm besides a Tourist information, which usually also offers WiFi.

I still refuel, buy some water and supplies and continue to Stewart Crossing. Unfortunately, it starts to rain there and I put on my rain gear - but rain doesn't last long. I decide not to do the recommended detour to the Silver Highway, that would have been another 400 km, and I want to stick to my plan. So I ride until just before Dawson City, where the Dempster Highway goes off.

When stopping at Stewart Crossing, I realize that my spare oil container at one side of the left pannier is melted. I fill the rest into the engine, but lost some oil on the ground. Now, I have to store spare oil in another way. Then next refuel stop at the junction to Dempster Highway, fully automatic. It does not for the guy in front of me, then it does not work for me several times either, but at the fourth attempt, I can finally refuel. Good thing, because the detour to Dawson would have been another 50 km.

I ride quite a bit further - past the planned camping - because it is still bright the whole time. Advantage: I can ride much longer. Disadvantage: the mosquitoes, which are normally not so numerous after dark, are there all the time.

I cross the rain clouds at the left and the right with great luck - great scenery with the clouds and the mountains. 

In the evening I try to make a fire, and get a lot of smoke. There are - how great - canned ravioli! I put the garbage away and pack my food in one of the food lockers here. On a short walk, I meet an elderly gentleman who has been traveling with his son for 9 days. The son drives, because the old man can not see properly anymore. We quickly come to talk about God and the world, as the saying goes. The man was a professor of economics, is very humorous and very interested in many things. We walk around the square twice and I accompany him to his campsite, where we continue to chat with his son for a while.

I did ride 600 km today and tomorrow I have planned a long day too.