Open Heart, Open Mind by Clara Hughes

Author:Clara Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

15

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

For my Olympic service, Air Canada had given me two tickets to anywhere in the world. My choice? The Far North for a delayed honeymoon.

Peter had talked a lot about the landscape around the Yukon Territory—the endless rivers and gorgeous terrain. I had longed to share that with him. We decided to cycle the Dempster Highway, seeking light, air, and space, and an openness of experience that my bubble of training could never provide.

The Dempster is a 737-kilometre, all-weather road running from Dawson City northeast across the Arctic Circle to Inuvik. Officially opened in 1979, it was named for RCMP Inspector William Dempster, whose dogsled runs had created the trail for much of the highway.

Though many people might be surprised at my choice of a “break” from training, exhaustion always makes me feel alive and satisfied. Peter feels the same. Our level of tolerance for physical activity is much higher than that of most everyone else. For me, movement through nature is pure medicine, for both body and mind.

Since Peter had already spent a month touring the Yukon and Alaska, I was to fly to Whitehorse, then meet him in Dawson City, once the centre of the Klondike gold rush. I would be abandoning my $18,000 time-trial bike for a self-assembled $150 touring bike, which was like downgrading from a Ferrari to a VW bus.

Though Peter often sought out dirt roads, I never liked them, as they usually meant a laborious slog over washboard, soft sand, rocks, and potholes. Yet we were lured to the adventures they offered.

After a few nights at the Dawson City River Hostel, we collected our gear—tent, stove, cook pot and Teflon pan, clothing, rain ponchos, sunglasses, bear spray, Swiss Army knife, headlamps, duct tape, tools, spare tubes, patch kit, and a bike pump. To this we added food: pasta, bread, pancake mix, sun-dried tomatoes, cookies, chocolate, tea, coffee, powdered milk, sugar, maple sugar, jam, peanut butter, olive oil, apples, and a cabbage (we chopped it up after three days, then ate it raw with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice—delicious!). By the time we packed all this in our panniers, our bikes probably weighed about seventy-five pounds each. At 6:00 P.M. we set off, knowing we would have daylight till around 1:00 A.M.

That first evening was bike-touring bliss, like riding into the pages of a storybook, painted with the most delicate sunset shades, as we headed 40 kilometres east to the Dempster turnoff. The temperature cooled as the sun dipped behind the western peaks, with shadows masking their vibrant green. At a creek, we pulled over for pasta and tea. Warmer clothing came out of our packs as our breath began to show in the calm evening air. It was 11:00 P.M. before we saw an inviting camping spot along a stream.

After setting up the tent, we filled our water bag with icy mountain water, and I did my cold-water dance. Nothing calms me after a day of cycling like a cold rinse.

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