Friday, May 30, 2008

Alaska!


I will have to post individual day journals later, but for now I will give this update:
We made it through Alaska! We are at the Canada border today, and will be ending our first week on the road in the great Yukon. To summarize the week, we rode 15 miles out of Anchorage the day we flew in.

The next morning it started raining... and didn't stop. We rode 78 miles in the rain, soaked to the bone, UPHILL without any downhill sections. We were worn out and slept late that night. We were late getting on the road the next morning because we had to dry our things and get back on our feet.

That day we had the wind to our back... but we were still going uphill. It was uphill all day. There were very little downhill slopes. It became clear that we were climing a mountain pass. My bike started to suffer from the gunk and mud that had built up in the axle and gears, and the rear gear system failed. The ratchet system stopped working, so when I pedaled, nothing happened. It wouldn't turn the cogs. We had to end the day early at Sheep Mountain Lodge at 38 miles for the day.

The next day, we FINALLY reached the summit at Eurika, and it was relatively flat/downhill into Glenallen where we stayed that day after 79 miles.

The next day was supposed to be flat and easy, but we had a strong headwind all day. It was very discouraging because it was like riding uphill all day again, and we were just plain worn out from that. We made it 51 miles to Chistochina.

On the 28th we rode a NICE 90 miles over a mountain pass. The day was great! It was a nice ride, and Mark and I were full of energy. We stayed in Tok at the Sourdough Campground.
The next morning was started off great with an "all you can eat sourdough pancake breakfast" their at the campground. We made it 90 miles to the Canadian border, but it was a HARD day. There were constant rolling hills that wore us out after 40 miles. The last 50 were pretty rough.
Anyway, we are getting ready to head into Canada! We will have more info and pictures later!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

So little time...

Mark and I fly out of Las Vegas at 7:00 AM on May 23, so there are really only 3 days left to wait...

I was able to drop by my Salt Lake City apartment for one last time before departing on my upcoming adventure. I needed to grab some last minute things that I forgot to pack, but as it turned out, I drove all the way up here from Price, Utah (2 hours away) and forgot to bring my keys to my room.

Luckily, I was able to get into my room using my clever thinking and my... erm... cleverness. Anyway, I got in and was able to grab my rain parka, bandana, thermal balaclava, and backpacker's fishing gear.

I also dropped by Barnes and Noble to get some more of my favorite journals made by Moleskine. I'll be keeping a written record of my adventure in conjunction with a video journal.
I do not expect to have any opportunity to edit the video footage while on the road, so from here on out, I will be posting only photos and text.

ALASKA TO MEXICO BLOG