We have met many people that make our little trip look pretty insignificant - Meet Rosie! She has run (self-supported) two thirds of the way around the world so far, starting in Europe, crossing all of Russia, and across Alaska in the dead of winter. We sat down and had a cup of coffee with her on her bearskin rug on the side of the road. What a delightful person! (Note that Rosie sailed around the world with her infant son and her husband 35 years ago - she's not new to this sort of thing!)

Throughout the Dempster and the Yukon every campground and pullout and rest stop has had the same type of bear-proof garbage container. As a touring cyclist, you should know that you can open the back of these up and just put your food in them for a night - it's much easier than hanging it from a tree. This picture shows Nancy opening the back of the container. Note that the garbage is nicely separated from your foot by the trash bags.

We've had three great days in Juneau after riding down to Skagway from Whitehorse and taking the ferry to Juneau. The first day was stunningly sunny and blue, but now we're getting the real Juneau - cloudy and drizzly.
And here are some new pictures from the most recent two legs of the trip:

• Dawson City to Whitehorse: all (float over for descriptions) or slideshow
• Whitehorse-Skagway-Juneau-Haines Loop: (updated again July 14)all (float over for descriptions) or slideshow

We made it to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. We had a great trip - some new friends, some rain, some sun. A bit slower than we had expected.

When we rode into Whitehorse we saw the first traffic light of the trip. We've been almost 800 miles without seeing a traffic light! Where can you do that?

Today our friend Rob Ungless is flying in from Vancouver and we're going to ride down to the sea and visit southeast Alaska. I don't expect to be able to post anything more for a few days, but hopefully we can get you some pictures of the wonderful Klondike and Yukon area.

Since we did the Dempster from Inuvik to Dawson City this summer (2006) I thought I'd write some notes about the trip for other cyclists. If you have additional notes, please add your comments to this page.

• Resources
  • The Milepost is essential. Copy or rip out the section about the Dempster and you'll know where every pullout and campground is.
  • Alys and Pete's book Alaska Bicycle Touring Guide is getting mighty old, but it's the only place you can find out where water is available. That's something that matters to a cyclist and not to most other travelers.
  • Journals from other riders who did the Dempster: Jeff Kruys (2006), Murray Snyder (2006), Mike Vermuelen (1996)
• Things you'll need
  • Mosquito headnet (or full body suit) and repellent. Mostly we liked the headnet instead of repellent.
  • Bear Cache/Cannister (or see our note on using garbage cans as a cache)
  • Eye protection - lots of dust and things flying.

The Arctic Circle is at 66 degrees, 33 minutes north latitude, and it's the place where at least on the summer solstice (June 21) the sun doesn't drop below the horizon for 24 hours. We still haven't seen real night even though we're now quite a bit south of the Circle.

The 24-hour day (and near-24-hour-day) that we've had is amazing. It's really light all the time. We have not used our camping headlights and won't for some time yet. We did bring blindfolds for sleeping at night and they've been fantastic.

Despite the 24-hour day, there is still a cycle to things. It cools off quite a bit at night, and warms up in the day. The insects know about the cycle and function quite adequately.

Our first three days from Inuvik were quite hot, which was pretty surprising since we were way north of the Arctic Circle. It was in the 90s Fahrenheit! And the road was dry, and the dust was pretty intense. The road is all dirt of course, and the trucks can raise quite a bit of it. You can imagine the dust-bath we're about to get from this truck!

Just at Kilometer 4 of the Dempster we met Christof and Gernot, from Austria, who were just starting up the Dempster. We shared advice and stories and sent them on their way. They had just hiked the Chilcoot Trail, canoed the Yukon from Whitehorse to Dawson, put there bikes together, and started up the Dempster!

We've met quite a number of cyclists here in Dawson City. What a treat to compare notes with new friends.