I think that this
photo pretty much puts the whole experience into a nice, tidy nutshell. Lol,
trail mix in the bottom right corner. Wow. And yup, that’s me on the right,
apparently attempting to punch my own knee.
This was the Kluane to Chilkat bike relay that starts in
Haines Junction, Yukon and runs across the Alaskan border to Haines, Alaska –
incidentally the most normally-named place in Alaska, when you compare it to
places like Deadfoot and Chicken – and what place do you think Squirrel Camp
achieved? We climb spruce trees as tall as 35 feet daily. We hike for about 6
hours a day. On our free time, we hike more, and sometimes play Ultimate
Frisbee just for shits. Out of 65 eight-man teams, we got…DRUM ROLL…61st
place. What the fuck. PEOPLE ARE CRAZY. Biking is an intense sport, that’s what
I learned that weekend. Never mind that there are ONE MAN teams who do the
whole thing solo. Someone who we know from the Arctic Institute, a research
center on the Alaska Highway, biked as a solo team and got 14th
place. Just the quietest, mildest guy (who we’ll say is named Duncan) but then
he busts that one out. Whatever.
Anyways, as you can see, I am appalled at the fitness levels
of certain people. After the roughly 16 hours that it took to complete the
race, we spent the night camping in a field at the center of Haines and playing
bad drinking games with a pair of geologists. I say bad not in the way that it’s
like “haha yeah, they were so bad, but actually fun haha” – I mean bad like we didn’t have any cards or
ideas or energy so we just played Catch the Football and If You Drop It, Drink.
A classic of our times.
On that note, I should sign off. I feel like I should leave
you with something inspirational from my life-changing bike relay experience.
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you think, “no, I can’t do this”,
just imagine Squirrel Camp cheering you on:
Because roadside
pushups are inspirational. And ridiculous.
Love and Kisses from da
Yo-kon,
Sarah
