I got up at 5:30 after an hour and a half of failed sleep. The sun comes up at 4:00 am so its really hard to fall back to sleep after that. Last nights rainstorm left my bike pretty clean. The two hitchhikers were still sleeping. All three of my friends were breaking camp. Kent was going to ride with me to Laird Hot Springs and then on Whitehorse. Dirk was the older guy that was bicycling to New Mexico. Kent is traveling to Inuvik to visit an old nurse friend. Jeff was heading to Anchorage to meet his girlfriend. He was planning on getting to Whitehorse in one day - that’s over 700 hard miles. We all posed for a quick photo. Then Kent, Dirk and I went and eat breakfast. Topics of discussion ranged from politics to work to religion. I really enjoyed the lively banter and discussion.
After breakfast, Ken and I fueled up and left Fort Nelson. The day was cool and overcast. The temperature kept dropping and after an hour of riding I had to stop and put on more clothes. The road and scenery are really nice along this stretch of road. It was a great mixture of mountains, streams, forest, and straight and twisting road. We saw two black bears, a dozen mountain goats and a caribou on the road. The only problem with today’s travels was the road construction in a couple of spots, the loose gravel on the road, and the dust. Today was the dustiest and dirtiest day I’ve had. It was about 300 miles to Laird Hot Spring, which we covered by 3:30. Kent is driving a 650 Suzuki V-Storm. Nice day for on- and off-road. He allowed me to lead and I was really surprised how well he kept up. At about 12:30, I was crossing Toad River and noticed that Kent was no longer behind me. I had been moving along at a pretty good clip and wonder if he had not been able to keep up. I slowed down and parked on the other side of the Toad River Bridge. I figured I would take a quick picture and if he didn’t show up I would ride back and see what was going on.
Just as I got off the bike and was grabbing the camera I saw his headlight appear in the distances. I walked to the middle of the bridge and he pull up to me. He asked me what’s up and I told him I was just going to take a quick picture while I was waiting for him.
So I asked him if he had to stop to go the restroom or what. He laughed and said “No, your tent poles came loose and I stopped to pick them up”. “No freaking way” I said. He turned around and pointed at his pack and sure enough my poles pack was sitting there all shredded up from sliding across the road. Amazed I told him thanks, realizing just how bad the rest of the trip would have been if I didn’t have tent poles. So from how now on I am sliding the tent poles in the tripod bag for safekeeping. We both snapped a couple of shots of the stream and mountains and headed out. We continued on to macho lake and finally to Laird Hot Spring. We checked into the park, set up our tents and headed to the hot spring for a drip. 
I was tired and the hot water really zapped me. The hot springs were heated and were actually really nice. They have changing room and stairs that lead into the pool. There are three pools that are different tempertures. After that we jumped on the bike and to find a meal. Across the street was another campsite with and restaurant. The special was fried chicken and vegetable soup. We headed back to back to camp and saw Eric, another camper from Fort Nelson. We stopped and visited. Eric is from Alberta and is traveling to Fairbanks to housesit for his Uncle. He had a really nice English setter named Molly. We volunteered to dog sit so he could take a drip in the hot spring. Molly was quickly removed all my wet clothes from the clothes line and invited me to play a great game of tug of war with my underwear. Eric showed up and visited for a half an hour. He teaches 10th grade English and History. Super nice guy. Well that was my day.
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