The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.
Takhini Hot Springs -> Liard Hot Springs (419 Miles)
It ended up raining all night, but luckily I got a small window the next morning where it dried up so I could pack up my tent. My tent was wet, but I’d be at my next destination with plenty of time for it dry out. The forecast for the day was more rain so I decided to ditch my leather gloves in favor of some winter work gloves I got from Bill’s dad. They weren’t the most stylish but they kept my hands dry.
These gloves may have kept my hands dry, but it didn’t keep them warm. I needed to find some hand warmers and thought I remembered seeing some at the gas station right before the Cassiar Highway intersection. In hindsight I should’ve just stopped in Whitehorse where I was guaranteed to find some since the gas station didn’t carry any.
I think I can safely say this was the worst day of riding I had yet. I never saw the sun, let alone any blue skies. It rained on me from the moment I left Takihini Hot Springs until I got within 30 miles of Liard Hot Springs. I couldn’t find hot packs anywhere I stopped. Also, my new rain pants I bought in Anchorage weren’t as great as I thought. They worked for a while, but then I noticed I was getting wet below my knees. It turns out that the high winds from riding had opened the seams and was letting water in so I sealed them with duck tape to get by.
One of the stops I wanted to make was in Watson Lake to see the sign post forest. People from all over the country have come and put up signs from their home town. I wish I could’ve walked around and looked for one from Florida or San Francisco but it was one of the few breaks from the rain I got and I didn’t want to waste it standing around.
I stopped at a gas station that I thought was an hour away from the hot springs to warm up and grab food. I was talking with the owners and they gave me the best news of the day. I was actually only 35 miles away.
When I got to the hot springs I was lucky that it was only drizzling so I could set my tent up without it getting wet inside. Unfortunately, the ground was gravel and I don’t have a self support tent so I have to stake it down. I had to use the caveman technique and bash the stakes in with a large rock, which got the job done.
After I had my campsite set up and gear unpacked I headed over to the hot springs to relax. It’s about a half mile walk down a boardwalk from the campsite.
These hot springs were way neater than the ones at Takhini, because they were in a natural setting.
The springs got cooler as you made your way away from the source on the far right. The bottom was soft gravel and they even had benches out in the middle where you could sit and relax.
Towards the cooler end of the springs they built some small water falls that you could sit under and have the water massage your back.
I was talking to one guy who had been there before and he said that the challenge is to pick up a rock and set it on the ledge where the spring originates. The key is to shuffle the water upwards because its only the top few inches that get really hot. I got within 5 feet and had to turn back. I could feel my eggs cooking.
After a long day on the road, these springs were exactly what I needed. It’s unfortunate that I had to power through the day, but with all the bad weather and road construction there wasn’t much I could do.
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