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!
I came back to finish from the start! I'm such a weirdo, but I don't want to follow from the middle or anything.. I'm gonna get through your blog I promisE!
ReplyDeleteAh, the good stuff really starts at the Blog Forward (@ http://alaska-to-mexico.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-forward.html) All of these posts before that are actual entries I made while on the trip that I originally posted on the MySpace page, and then just recently transfered over here.
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