Remarks on Alaska

I’m not sure exactly what I expected Alaska to be like, but I was surprised around nearly every corner. My exposure to Alaska before this had only been what I had seen on TV and in pictures, but they almost never show some of the things that I feel truly represent the sections of Alaska we had traveled through. Much of it felt familiar, but so much more of it felt strange—larger than life, in just a few words. The sky is bluer, the mountains rockier, the sun hotter, the wind colder, the climbs steeper, and the roads rougher.

Day 6 – Tok to Alcan

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Before we left on our trip we had visited many websites and Internet forums trying to find some good information and good advice about the types of distances we'd be able to ride. This was particularly important to us after we had learned that we would need to average 75 miles per day in order to meet our dad in Vancouver when he would arrive. I remember that several people said that it would be impossible for us to average 75 miles a day up in Alaska and Yukon, but the fellow whose blog we had been following said that we definitely could do 75 miles per day, but that we'd be hating life. Well, we had just finished a 90 mile day the day before and we were feeling mighty proud of ourselves. Getting up bright and early we had another 90 mile day ahead of us.

Day 5 - Chistochina to Tok

May 28, 2008

In the morning, there was still a light wind, but Mark and I were ready to deal with it. Well… almost.

Day 4 – Glennallen to Chistochina

Monday, May 27, 2008

This was the day that our real trouble started—at least, for Alaska and Canada.  Bright and (ahem) “early” at 10 A.M., we awoke to a patchy sky. Of course, the very first thing we noticed each morning was the weather, as it would greatly affect the rest of the day. The patchy sky didn’t seem so bad. The clouds looked heavy and fluffy, but seemed too small on their own to cause us any woe—but if they ganged up on us, we could see it being a problem.

Day 3 – Sheep Mountain to Glennallen

Monday, May 26, 2008

How long had we been riding? Only four days since we had left home, and I had already lost count.

Do you ever notice that no matter how odd the changes in your life may seem at first, you eventually accept those changes as your reality? Perhaps it isn’t the same for everyone, but it is the case for my brother and I. We weren’t quite used to it yet, but we were definitely adjusting.

Bright and early, we were awake and ready to make up for the time we had lost the day prior. There was a spark of excitement within us. The sky was a picturesque blue with many small, fluffy clouds, and we were warm and dry. We packed up our bikes and I plotted our course.

Day 2 – Chickaloon to Sheep Mountain

Sunday, May 25, 2008

I couldn’t tell if I was alive or not. It was all dark, and nothing made sense. Vague shadows of thoughts tried to break into view, but a shadow in darkness has no form. Something about “The Jetsons.” What? That couldn’t be right. Nothing made sense.

Day 1 – Anchorage to Chickaloon

Saturday, May 24, 2008

We woke up around 8:00 a.m. after a good nights rest to find that it was a bit cold. While I showered, Mark packed his things. While Mark showered I bundled up because the gray sky didn’t look good to me.

Over a breakfast of oatmeal bars, we discussed the morning’s immediate problem. The Glenn Highway, the only way for us to go, forbids bicycles on it. Big signs were posted at all highway entrances forbidding us to go any further. What to do? Supposedly, there was a bike path leading out of Anchorage to Eagle River, and after Eagle River, we could supposedly ride on the Glenn Highway without any problem, but we already lost the trail to Eagle River, so the highway was our only route unless we wanted to waste several hours finding that path. Another cyclist rode into our camp with the same dilemma as we were eating. It was hard to understand him. I’m not sure of what nationality he was, but it was clear that he was headed the same way we were. Eventually, he decided to just ride the highway despite the signs, and so did we.  Just as we were saddling up, small raindrops began to fall, and quickly grew to be heavy raindrops.

Day 0 – Anchorage, Alaska

May 23, 2008

Early in the morning at the Las Vegas airport, Mark and I hugged our mom, said our goodbyes, and boarded our flight. It was a surreal experience filled with silent questions. “What is it really going to be like? Are we going to make it? What is Anchorage like? What can go wrong? Did we research enough? Are we really prepared?” Despite these inner questions, Mark and I were both pumped with excitement, not fear.

We proudly told people we met about what we were undertaking, and loved the different reactions. Some people thought we were yanking their chains, others viewed us as heros, and others, as complete fools. Each reaction fueled us on.

Alaska!

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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!

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