Like to Bike and Hike?

Ever biked 260 km while crossing the border between two countries and simultaneously passing through a bald eagle preserve, mountain range and rainforest? Me neither. But I have biked 25 km of that whole experience, and then completely depleted all of my remaining calories obscenely cheering for seven other cyclists for the rest of the way. See below, cheering via the milieu of interpretive dance:

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…61^st 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 14^th 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