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Thursday  July 25        Rest Day 4

      Watson Lake (Y)

So this is our last complete day in Yukon Territory. We’re just on the border. Tomorrow we cross into BC, dip back into Yukon for a few short kms and then BC and then BC all the time after that. We’ve spent 14 days hard cycling to go from top to bottom....Mizen to Malin is about 5 days.

I have already completed almost 2,000 km and there are almost 2,000 visits to this blog. Let’s keep the visits ahead of the kms.

So a relaxing night in Room 203 and no rush stirring in the morning though I woke up around 6:30 as if I were in camp. The same goes for everybody. Made a phone call home ( bearing in mind the 8 hour difference) and checked the news on the internet. My Bell SIM card doesn’t work here (strangely) but hotel wi-fi is more than adequate. Last evening it was very spotty and unsatisfactory.

Then over the road to Andrea’s Hotel for a ‘light snack’ of a breakfast (Truckers Special) enough to keep me going till dinner time tonight. And the plate was cleaned.

Housekeeping came next to be cleared off the to-do list. Found the washer and dryer idle for a moment and popped in my lot -washed and dried for Can$ 5 (about €3.50). Next was to get the tent out to dry in the lovely sunshine today. And the bike deserved a little TLC. Nothing worrying about the bike, all operating as desired. It was just a matter of a clean-up of the frame.....not as grimy as after the Dempster. Gave the chain and a good clean and oiling and so all ready to push off again tomorrow morning.

Watson Lake isn’t that large and so not too many tourist distractions to wreck our Rest Day. The big attraction here is the Sign Post Forest just a few hundred metres down the street. It all started in 1942 during the construction of the Alaska Highway when a homesick army engineer (Carl Lindley) erected a sign giving the distance and direction to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Others copied him and to this day the town maintains the site, erecting more posts as they are required. It’s an official Yukon Historic Site. The practice has been mimicked in many places around the world.

I spent a long time wandering about hoping to find an Irish sign but no luck. Was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But I did come across some that could be construed as relevant. In one I wondered had Shane Lowry’s feat inspire one particular sign.

I then dropped down to the Yukon Tourist Information Centre and found them most helpful. Probably helped that the lady I met was also a cyclist but ‘a cyclist for pleasure not for punishment’. I enquired where the original sign was. ‘Long gone’ says she. ‘All those were on untreated timber and just rotted away’. But she told me that the same Carl Lindley returned in 1992 after 50 years to see how his ‘home-sickness’ had mushroomed. And he painted a replica of his original sign, now hanging in the Centre which I snapped. 

She told me that there are 85,000 signs there. I corrected her. 85,002 as I had erected my own two. I hadn’t the exact distance for Tipperary but I gave the general drift. Was more exact with Wexford; Davy would insist on everything being spot-on. I wonder which of them will be free to come and see their sign after Sunday?

While I was there I met up with this biker from Argentina ( has spent 6 months making his way up here) looking for a spot to nail up his contribution. Some mighty machines they have. Andrea’s Hotel beside us is a haven for these bikers. Coming and going all day.

I then decided to go across the road to the Northern Lights Centre just in time for the 1pm show (50mins) in a cinema where your seat tilts back and the whole hemi-sphere of a building is the screen. The first half was very very technical and was lost on me (tilted seats won) but the second half was somewhat more interesting in showing the Aurora Borealis in action and a more direct explanation. Definitely looked spectacular. Exited that building more relaxed!

The rest of the day was just down time, repacking the bags and getting all set up for tomorrow.

In the morning we start out on a further stretch of the Alaska Highway...4 days to Fort Nelson. Looking forward to it.

Thank God for a lovely day.