The Rise Up Ride: Day 116-117, Oh, Canada…. Finally!
Date: 16-17 August 2021
Start Location: Lakeview State Campground, Alaska
End Location: Beaver Creek, Yukon, Canada
Distance: 80.71 km
Time: 5:23
Total elapsed: 6:49
Elevation: 771 m
I'd scheduled my border crossing on the ArriveCan app for six o'clock, since you had to provide a time and also let them know that you had a quarantine plan just in case the officers might require you to isolate after entering Canada. What I hadn't planned for was a long day of climbing, an extra hour of riding from the US Customs and Immigration office through limbo-land to the Canada border post 20 km away, and certainly not the two-hour time change from Alaska to Mountain time. Suddenly it was not 2:00 but 4:00 pm and I hammered past the "Welcome to the Yukon" signs, feeling pretty stupid for not figuring this out earlier.
Officer Moth hadn't seen another bicycle rider come through since the rules had changed for vaccinated non-essential Americans on 9 August and I spent a few anxious minutes waiting for him to figure out if I could cross. After checking my Canadian Nexus frequent traveler card, my passport, ArriveCan entry receipt (three minutes to spare before six), my negative 55-hour old molecular COVID-19 test, and my friendly respectful attitude, he said, rather reluctantly it seemed, that according to the current regulations, he could not find any reason to prevent me from entering Canada. My guess was that due to the lack of reciprocity by the US government for Canadian tourists wishing to enter the US (still banned) he had issues but let me in anyway. Relieved and ecstatic, I kept my mouth shut, smiled and rode towards Beaver Creek. I was non-essentially in Canadá at last.
Do not stay at Ida's Motel. I can only imagine that the crusty old coot who mismanages the place has been exiled to the most distant Western town in Canada for being a serial asshole. Incapable of even a modicum of customer service or the ability to sell petrol and rent smelly rooms without yelling at customers, it took him half an hour to check me in. Later, when I walked across the street to the store for food and mentioned that I was staying at Ida's, the cashier exclaimed, "Oh, I am so sorry."
Liam, who I'd gotten a COVID test with in Delta Junction, showed up at dawn. He had texted that he had been allowed to cross at about 11 pm last night and slept on the porch of Buckshot Betty's restaurant down the street. However, the crusty old bastard wouldn't let Liam cross the parking lot with his bicycle, yelling at him to leave his property immediately. I went all New Yorker on him, telling him that Liam was my friend and that I had invited him to join me for breakfast and that if he wanted to call the Royal Canadian Mounted Police across the street to discuss with them my rights as a paying guest at his crappy motel, I would be glad to speak with them. Perhaps this was not his first run-in with the local constabulary and he retreated sputtering and fuming. Liam and I laughed about the experience over a big breakfast at Betty's and he took off riding to the Fraser border crossing near Haines since one of Officer Moth's colleagues had given Liam only four days to leave Canada for some reason.
Tomorrow I'll begin four days of riding through the Yukon to Haines Junction. But for today I'm trying to avoid the irascible innkeeper and catch up on my writing.
