Day 18
7/8/26 Wednesday
Mosquito count: very low to none
First things first. I found a bread bakery a few miles outside of Whitehorse. It was closed Monday and Tuesday but open this morning. I’d been saving a bread purchase for this place. Landmark Bakehouse. It was just a nondescript warehouse building. Enter through the side door. They were set up for simple retail sales and made coffees and had a few other bakery items and a couple of tables but their emphasis was wholesale bread baking. So we bought a beautiful sourdough loaf and then the surprise was their English Muffins! They were thick and crusty on the outside and tender in the middle! Couldn’t resist and I’m happy to tell you it was delicious with a little butter and a raspberry jam😊.
We have a couple of tasks left to do today. The rest of the day is to explore and play.
Here’s what’s happening in Whitehorse starting Friday. The Yukon 1000. A 1000 mile canoe/kayak/SUP race on the Yukon River. Whitehorse to the Arctic Circle (Dalton Highway… the pipeline). The Record is 5 days… a team from Bend OR. It’s the longest race in the world.
On our way into Whitehorse today we saw a bunch of racing canoes and kayaks prepping their boats for an “event”. We visited with a couple of guys prepping their canoe… one from Virginia and partner from Colorado. They gave us the scoop on this race. This is their first time. They rented a racing canoe in Whitehorse. Contestants are from many countries. The entrants are capped at 30 teams and 10 days to finish. That means 100 miles/day😱 They pay an entry fee of $4000 Canadian per person. They must paddle 18 hour days and rest for 6… for safety. They carry all their food and water, there are no resupplies and no aids. All their communication devices are sealed and stowed away. An Inreach for emergency only. They must finish in 10 days or they are pulled. There is a checkpoint at Dawson that they must arrive on time or be pulled. This river does not have very many access points in those 1000 miles so it is truly a wilderness experience. Good luck everyone.
They flew in a few days ago.
I have a bit of a background in canoe racing but certainly nothing of this nature. While I admire this endeavor, I don’t envy any of them.
Today’s weather was cloudy with a cold wind. We were looking forward to biking in the trees and getting out of the cold wind.
We met our friend Lenore and her friend Pippa at the mountain bike trailhead in town at the recreation center. There’s a network of mountain bike trails and cross country ski trails in the area. The weather decided to rain some while we were out but not so much to make it miserable. It has honestly been a couple years since either Jim or I have ridden single track. I was a little tentative the first few minutes but relaxed after that and I was just fine. The hardest challenge on some of this trail was the million tree roots. Looked like veins in the trail. They were more concerning when it began to rain because they can be very slippery if you slide sideways on one. You try to hit them perpendicular.
After the ride we went Lenore’s home and she made a delicious fish and asparagus dinner. We sat and caught up on 26 years. We figured it had been about 15 years since she last came to Billings to visit. It was a really nice reunion.
cinnicrew 