Day 45
   
   6/11/01
   Mile 4207
   Some damn place in the Yukon
   
   I had clear view of the mountains from inside my tent in the morning.
   They looked inviting. I packed up and retrieved my bear bag of food. I
   always wonder if someday I will find it has been tampered with, not
   necessarily by bears, but by ravens or squirrels or something.
   
   I try not to dwell on my loss back in Houston, but it's difficult.
   This trip continues to throw roadblocks at me, of every sort. At such times
   the investment you've made in yourself is what gets you through. I
   call on the quotes I've learned, the authors whose encapsulated wisdom has
   been passed down through the ages. And, like Hamlet, though I suffer
   the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, I have the determination to
   rise up against a sea of troubles. It is one thing to dream; after
   that is required the follow-through. As Winston Churchhill said, "There is
   no substitute for persistence."
   
   Fatigue has become an issue. It takes a lot of willpower to keep
   getting up and going day after day. Mornings are worst, when my body
   has just gotten used to the idea of resting. I usually can't get a lot of miles
   done before noon like I could the first few weeks.  I was just plain
   tired this morning - so I stopped for a while to...exercise.
   
   What?
   
   Strange but true; I needed to exercise a slightly different set of
   muscles, those used for climbing. It would be time to use them on
   Denali soon enough, and I needed to start phasing in the training. I did a
   hike up to a ridge overlooking Lake Kluane, and the view was outstanding.
   At one end, the lack of rainfall had caused the water to recede,
   leaving a bare lake bottom as dry land that covered several square miles. It
   was, for all intents, an arctic desert.
   
   And on I climbed, getting the most spectacular of views, beyond the
   reach of the drive-by motorist. The ruggedness of the snowy mountains
   and barren plain of the dry lakebed made incredible contrast against the
   blue-green water of Kluane Lake, almost tropical in appearance. I sat
   on a rock, letting it burn into my mind, infinitely stretching the
   moment.  Can I stay here forever?
   
   The weather had finally cut me some slack: back on the bike, I
   actually had a tailwind, and IT DIDN'T RAIN the rest of the day. I passed
   through the "town" of Destruction Bay, so named because of a 100mph
   wind that destroyed the 1942 road construction camp here. Food has been
   hit-or-miss for a while now. You have to scavenge whatever is
   available from a very limited selection of whatever the shopowner has
   scavenged.  I resorted to eating baby food at one point - it was either
   that or potato chips and candy bars, which I've had enough of.
   
   Past Burwash Landing, the road returned to its standard, substandard
   self. Washboarded, potholed gravel, dusty as heck, not easy travelling
   but not quite bad enough to make me wish I had brought fat tires due
   to the drag involved. The Kluane river passes through this area, and is
   spawning ground for Chum Salmon. Of course, in the fall, that
   means...bears. But none today.
   
   After about 10 miles of gravel, I passed a survey crew, who asked me
   the usual questions about my trip. They gave me the coordinates of that
   point:
   
   61d 34m 01s north
   139d 24m 21s west
   765.73 meters altitude
   
   My bike, which I have jokingly renamed the S.S. Endurance, is holding
   up as well as can be expected, though it's taking a beating on this
   trip. This particular gravel section turned out to be 20 miles long.
   All those travel brochures that say "The Alaska Highway is 100% paved"?
   Don't believe it.  Would I let that stop me?  No way.
   
   I moved slowly out of view of the Kluane Icefields, the youngest
   glaciers on the continent, and the world's largest nonpolar ice
   fields. I saw some large ones, rolling down through valleys, gnawing their
   way through rock at a...well, glacial pace. The temperature down here,
   though, is hot, in the mid-80's F.
   
   Another night in the bush.

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