Monday, December 31, 2012

Goodbye 2012

2012 has been an exciting year for me here at the Alaska to Mexico blog.  I was able to give the blog a lot of TLC to get it looking and working better, and I was able to gain a lot more readership.  Last month, my wife and I went to India for three weeks, and that was a fantastic adventure.  Unfortunately though, the Alaska to Mexico blog had to be put on the back burner for a while.  I had a lot of planning to do for the trip, and things have been financially tight, so I've had to focus on things that actually pay the bills.  With most of those projects wrapped up and with a fresh new year, I will be jumping back in to tell some more tales of our 2008 bicycle adventure, so stick around.

I would love to get some feedback on my posts, so any comments below would be appreciated.  Are the posts too long?  Would you like the option to read just a summary of the day?  Are you interested in video summaries?  The new year is a time for change, so I'm open to suggestions!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

10,000 Pageviews!

Yay!  Sometime last night or this morning, the Alaska to Mexico Blog had it's 10,000th pageview!  YAHOOOOOOO!!!  It is nice to have people reading our adventure stories, and it is you readers that inspire me to keep on writing.  Thank you all!  I have a new major post coming soon...

Monday, September 10, 2012

Happy Birthday... To Me!

Ouch.  I'm 27 today.  I was only 22 when we did our Alaska to Mexico Tour featured on this page.  There is definitely a lot of life that has happened in the meantime.

A new post is coming soon, but I've been swamped with work over the past two months.  Things will be slowing down though, and I'll be able to get back to writing.  Thanks for your patience loyal readers!

~Jake

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Day 12 - Whitehorse to Squanga Lake

It was a particularly cold and blustery day for us getting started out of Whitehorse.  After clumsily maneuvering our loaded bikes down the elevator and out of the hotel, we stuffed our hands into our mittens and set off in the search of food.  While it was available, McDonald's was too good to pass up, and the novelty of "McDonald's Canada" hadn't worn off yet. 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Work and Blogging

Ugh.  I'm about halfway done with the post for Day 12, but I've been scheduled at work pretty much non-stop, so I haven't been able to finish that up.  Ah, if only I could pay the bills by blogging.  Even with the few thousand hits I've had over the past month, my Google AdSense ads have only made about ten cents. :P

Anyway, look for the new major post next week.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Is Mexico Safe?


One comment that we got from people ALL THE TIME--especially in Southern California as we were approaching the US/Mexico border--was to avoid going into Mexico.  Actually, I still get the comment all the time.  It poses a tricky question:  Is it safe to enter Tijuana from San Diego on bikes?

The short answer is no.

Here is the long answer:

The entire US/Mexican border is a volatile place where much crime and violence has taken place in recent years for various reasons.  Stories of kidnappings and shootings along the border are fairly common in the news and by word of mouth.  So is going across the border dangerous?

Yes.  

But so is riding your bike down a mountain going 50 miles per hour with nothing between you and the pavement but a thin layer of Spandex.

Or spending the night in a tent in the middle of bear territory.

Or drinking water from a potentially virus contaminated stream off the side of the road.

Or sharing the single lane highway with geriatrics driving 50 foot long motor homes requiring no special training.

Need I go on?  By the time we got to Tijuana, drug cartels with automatic weapons and explosives weren't any more frightening to us than what we had already endured.  Any of those things I listed are potentially life threatening.  You can't be "deader" than dead.  It is like rock climbing; You get to a point that if you fall, you are going to die.  Climbing higher doesn't increase the severity of death you will experience if you fall.

The fear of death can drastically limit the flavors of life that you can sample.  Everyone dies.  Don't fear death.  Fear passing up the opportunity to live.  Given the choice between dying while just living an ordinary life (AKA, in a car accident, by terminal illness, or natural disaster) or while living an extraordinary life (AKA being mauled by a grizzly bear, eaten by wolves, or shot by a Mexican drug cartel) I'd have to pick the latter.

One can influence the chances of death or injury under given circumstances though.  How do you do that?  Well, to increase your odds of surviving a bike wreck, you wear a helmet, and learn how to ride safely.  To increase the odds of surviving a bear attack, first learn how to avoid them with proper backwoods techniques, and learn what others have done to survive actual attacks.  You can decrease your odds of danger when visiting Mexico too.  I'll talk about more of that in another post.

As a final thought for this post, we've visited the marketplace just over the US/Mexico border at Tijuana numerous times in recent years without issue.  One time, we actually asked one of the shop owners who we'd become chummy with if we were in any danger.  Here is how he put it:

"Our entire economy [in that area of Tijuana] relies on you Americans coming over the border and buying from us.  If you don't do that, we are history.  You see the guys there, there, and there?"

He pointed to some dangerous looking Mexicans standing like statues in the shadows with their arms crossed tightly over their chests and eyes hidden by sunglasses.

"They make sure you are safe.  They make sure that we can stay in business."

I got the impression that those guys weren't exactly hired by the city officials--but were maybe placed there by whoever really runs that town.  I'm not saying it was the Mexican Mafia... but I'm not saying it wasn't.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Day 12 Preview

In the next major post, Mark and I leave the last signs of the civilized world behind us again as we near the border of the Yukon and British Columbia, where we will begin the most rugged, desolate stretch of our adventure--the Cassiar Highway. 

But we had to make it there first. 

Follow along with us next week as we face off against heavy trucker traffic and road construction as we discover that potable water was becoming a rare luxury on Day 12 of our adventure riding our bikes from Alaska to Mexico.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

AK2MEX for Kindle!



Woo hoo!  The Alaska to Mexico Blog is now available for Kindle!  Help support the blog by subscribing for less than a buck per month, and enjoy the blog ad-free on your kindle whenever and wherever you want!  The blog will download automatically using Kindle's Whispersync, and you'll be able to read new posts without having to get online.  Cool, eh?

Friday, July 6, 2012

Day 11 - Champagne to Whitehorse


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

We were on the road earlier than ever--9:30 am.  I was excited because the day was supposed to be only about 56 miles of riding with our sights set on the city of Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory.  We had poked our heads out of our tent happily surprised to see the sun shining brightly as the air carried a warm tail wind.  All days prior had been too cold for shorts, but we were feeling optimistic and dressed for warm weather.  On days like the one prior where there was hardly a cloud in the sky, even the SPF 80 sunblock we were using couldn't completely keep my ears from being cooked like bacon in the intense sunlight.  I decided to try something new to protect my ears, and wrapped a bandanna around my head with my ears tucked beneath.  The day was looking like it was going to be great--except for one looming problem.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Pacific Coast Cycling Guides

I have decided to launch a new sister blog to Alaska to Mexico.  While the Alaska to Mexico blog will continue to tell the story of our 2008 adventure, the new blog will focus specifically on Pacific Coast travel guides, travel conditions, gear reccomendations, and bicycle touring tips, so for you readers who want the most in depth guides ever published for cycling between Anchorage, Alaska and Tijuana Mexico subscribe now to http://www.pacificcoastcycling.com/ and keep an eye out.  Right now it is just a baby, but it is growing all the time.

Oh, and did I mention, its FREE!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909

If you enjoy reading my blog, this book might be worth a look.  Kinda sounds like us...except in 1909!  It is called Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909.

Two boys on a bike trip are sure to find adventure. Send them off into the wilds of the American West, and it's a safe bet adventure will find them. (Its true!  That is what this whole blog is about!)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Pacific Coast Tour 2012

Mark and my dad, David, are off on a tour without me!  They just flew out to San Francisco yesterday afternoon with plans to ride down the coast to San Diego.  I'm very sad that Amanda (my wife) and I aren't able to join them this year, but it is for another good cause:  Amanda and I are planning a big trip to Northern India this year!  That should be a great adventure in and of itself.

Last year, Mark, my dad, Amanda, Renee, and I all did a tour from Vancouver, British Columbia down to Lincoln City, Oregon.  It was pretty open ended, and we hoped to complete at least down to the Oregon/California border, but we only had two very unflexible weeks, and we ultimately didn't want to rush.  I have been kind of left wanting for another tour sometime soon, and I would have really liked to join my dad and brother.

As I've been completely overhauling my photos and videos from our 2008 tour, I'm finding myself constantly longing to be on the road of some spectacular journey.  Actually, I've been frequenting Google Maps to entertain ideas for possible routes and itineraries starting in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.  I'm not sure how to make the timing and funding work these days though.  My wife has a job that she loves, and I can't imagine her having any interest in uprooting from that for 6 months to live on bikes without any income.  I, on the other hand, feel like a fish out of water at my job, and would much rather my job be blogging about my adventures down the Panamerican Highway.

Good luck to Mark and my Dad, and if you see them out there on the road, give them some Oreos and a Red Bull for me!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Day 10 - Kloo Lake to Champagne... Kind Of



June 2, 2008
 
We were beginning to wise up a bit regarding the wind.  The pattern we noticed was that the winds ceased at night, and started up again around 10 A.M..  As it so happened, our morning was wind free as we quickly broke down camp--but just as we had hypothesised, the wind picked up just as we were hitting the road around 10:00.  It was a familiar foe that we were beginning to love to hate.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

2012 Update

Wow, it has been too long since I have been able to keep the chapters rolling, but I should be able to pick it back up where I left off. As of writing this, I can see that my blog design template has not aged well, and most current browsers make a mess of it. That will be one of the first items on my "to do" list.

For a little update, Mark is currently attending college, and I recently married the love of my life, Amanda. We all (Mark, Amanda, my dad David, and our friend Renee) did a little tour from Vancouver BC down to Lincoln City, Oregon last summer. That was great to get back on the road, but I didn't train AT ALL and ended up with a pretty inflamed knee that slowed us all way down (though everyone was secretly happy to take the pace down a few notches). Mark, Amanda and I have decided to begin preparations to climb Mt. Everest in a few years. We want to get in much better condition as well as gain experience climbing other mountains first, but we have officially begun training.  Yahoooooo!

UPDATE: Alright, I think I've got a good replacement skin for the blog.  It works quite a bit differently, but it should be a big improvement.  Also, note that you can change the style on the fly up in the navigation bar. :)  Give it a try!  If you want to just browse the various photos posted throughout the blog, try switching to "Snapshot" view.