Saturday, February 20, 2010

7 hours of Pugsley love on the Old Dawson Trail

The weather has been absolutely perfect for the past week; high pressure, no snow, and warm daytime temps.  Perfect for what?  Well, among other things, perfect for setting up the Old Dawson Trail portion of the Yukon Quest trail from Braeburn to the Takhini Hotsprings into a Pugsley friendly sport surface.
The Old Dawson Trail is a great 110Km ride in the summer, and in the winter, it can be pure hardpacked bliss.  And, you end up at a hotsprings.  How great is that?
















So, with great conditions, we, being myself, Ross, Paul and Anthony packed up the beasts and with the help of a friendly shuttler, we headed to Braeburn.
4 Grey Pugsleys.  Nothing like individuality.

An absolutely stellar day.

This portion of the trail is also part of the Trans Canada Trail http://www.tctrail.ca/home.php, an ambitous project which seems to be more geared to the moto crew, which is fine, as it has spin-offs for us as well.
 
Did I say stellar already?  I have been shooting with a Nikon P-5100 the last couple of years, and I must say I hate the thing.  I'm ready for a new camera.  I'm looking at the Canon S90 and the Lumix LX3.  Both small cameras that have lots of features for people want DSLR quality without the bulk.

The halfway point has a wee cabin for anyone to use.  A hippy killer in it gets it right toasty.  We stayed here for an hour as Ross felt the need to display his fire starting skills and melt some drinking water.
 
The cabin log.  Lots of bison hunters use it in the winter.
 
A whole lot of fat.

One trys to get artistic.
I just love the end of the day this time of year as the shadows lengthen, yet the sun will still be up for a while, and it has some warmth to it.
Indeed. 
One starts dreaming of the beer and burger at this point.  However, the Hotsprings had a nasty surpise in store for us.  Restaurant closed!  Fortunately, Paul B. displaying remarkable foresight, brought along a six of Stella Artois.  It seemed appropriate to have a Belgian beer at the end of a big day of cycling.
107Km-7:10, more or less.