On the Road again

The clock is ticking, so our time in Fairbanks has come to an end.  My legs really needed the rest, so we took an extra day. I also got some media coverage while we were in town.  The local NBC affiliate came out and did a story on me and the ride.  It actually aired before the LeBron story in the sports report if you can believe that... I can't.  We had a lot of trouble getting the window fixed, but without getting into a bunch of needless detail after three days they got it done this morning.  We finished up running some errands and headed back to where I had left the road a few days prior. 

I made the right decision calling it when I did. The last 16 miles into Fairbanks wasn’t terrible, but there were definitely two serious climbs that my knee would not have been up for after 9 days of climbing.  But today they were not a problem.  I only road a few miles today, it was late before we got out of Fairbanks but I still needed to get a little bit of road under my tires.  About 25 miles into the ride I blew another tire, this time I was on the side of the expressway- and Alaskan expressway is not a lower 48 expressway but still a very busy road- not the best place to have to sit and repair a tire. I got it changed out quickly and was on my way.  We stopped outside of Fairbanks in North Pole, AK and yes; we went to Santa’s house.  Yes, we saw reindeer; I am even pretty sure we saw the big guy himself.  And yes, I am almost 30 and believe in Santa. You got a problem with that?  I didn’t think so! 

It is unseasonable hot up here, go figure.  We leave all our summer gear in Seattle with my uncle and it is a hot in Alaska as it has been in a millennia.  I mean we are in North Pole, AK and when I finished my ride it was 83 degrees.  If we had left our winter gear at home I guarantee it would be in the 30’s.

I really need to put some miles down tomorrow so we will see what happens.

39 miles

13.8mph average speed

44.1mph max speed

2:47:30 ride time

Fairbanks and loving it!

Well it’s a little late and I see that a lot of you have already started reading my posts from the past week, but here is a explanation.

On much of this trip we will be unable to post nightly.  So what I will do is write my entries and then put them up as soon as we have coverage.  Hopefully it will not be 9 days in between updates after this but who knows.  I have put them up in the order that they would be in had I posted them on the dates that they happened, in other words you need to start at the bottom and work your way up.  I have added some pictures from the past week, sorry I didn’t do that originally but I was just trying to get the info up there and worry about the rest later. 

So yesterday, was the first day that I have spent off the Dalton Highway, I cannot tell you what a difference pavements makes.  I am talking real pavement not what passes for pavement on the Haul road.  I covered some miles with great ease in comparison to the effort that I was previously exerting. 

I caught up with a solo touring cyclist name John from the UK.  He had just completed the Dalton as well so we instantly hit it off bitching about what a disaster the ride had been for both of us.  It had taken him longer than expected, me too, so I gave him some camping fuel and some additional snacks and supplies.  I was glad that we were able to help him out, we exchange information and continued on our way. 

Late in the day my knee was really starting to work on me again so I decided to call it a few miles short of Fairbanks.  The lure of a cold beer and a hot tub was too much to resist.  So we have been running around town trying to get some errands done and when we leave we will head back up the Elliot hwy where I left off.

Yesterdays ride stats

53.3 miles

10.8mph average

46.7mph max speed

4:55:50 Ride time

Last day of the Dalton

July 5

We had some excitement last night there was a bear hanging around.  There was a restaurant at the bottom of the hill and the owner (I’m guessing) came out with a hand cannon and chased it into the woods.  Several gunshots and minutes later he emerged, grabbed more ammunition and ran back into the woods.  The bear was persistent but he did finally manage to scare it off.

We awoke this morning to cold temps and rain; I tried to wait it out hoping that at least the rain would stop.  It didn’t. So after waiting as long as possible I started to ride, the mud and cold were fierce, and within minutes I was soaked to the bone, as cold as I have ever been on a bike and covered head to toe in mud, and another broken chain.  The Dalton Highway was not giving up without a fight.

Today was guess what… more climbing actually it was the worst climbing day yet.  Multi-mile climb after multi-mile climb it took me over two hours to cover the first 12 miles.  Then it happened, as I was trying to control my shivering and concentrate on climbing the mud road ahead of me I caught the unmistakable smell of a bear. For those of you who don’t know wild bears have a very unique smell, it cannot be missed. Its like B.O., the mustiest urine smell ever, and the packaderm house at the zoo all mixed together.   A few more cranks of the pedals, my head on a swivel I saw the tracks in the mud, enormous paws heading to the woods, directly to my right and the smell grew stronger.  At this point I had no option I had to keep pedaling, and pray that it wasn’t a sow with cubs.  So I pulled out my bear spray and moved to the middle of the road and continued to climb.  Luckily for me I rode by without incident, but it surely made me forget about how cold I was for a bit.

The weather actually broke after a few hours; it was still cold but no longer raining.  I change my jersey out and continued climbing.  I don’t understand how it was possible to spend as much time climbing as I did, I feel like we should be sitting at 28,000 feet elevation with all of the climbing from today alone.  But like I said, the Dalton Highway was not going softly into the dark night.

You cannot beat this road you can only hope that it allows you to ride it.  One final shot from James W. Dalton, as I was taking the final decent about one mile from the end of the road I blew my rear tire.  It was a large hole, there was no way I could limp it in, and I was way to cold and too close to the finish to sit there and fix it.  So I walked the final three quarters of a mile to the end of the highway.  One final kick to the groin, 8 days of grinding, but I finished the first and what I hope will be the hardest portion of the ride. 

In the morning I have about 75 miles to Fairbanks via the Elliot Highway there will be lots of climbing involved but at least I’m back on the pavement.

61 miles

6.4 mph average speed

38.6 mph max speed

9:35:42 ride time

Happy 4th

July 4, 2010- Day 7

Well I hope that you all had a better Fourth of July than I did. 

Two Flat tires

Two Broken Chains

Hill after Hill after Hill (several miles of climbing at a time)

3 Hour thunderstorm delay

Two Owl’s of some kind

One Lynx (best part of the day)

But other than that I am going to adhere to the old saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”

Sorry but you don’t want to hear me rant, it was a really bad day but I should be off the Dalton Highway tomorrow and in Fairbanks the day after that.

One good thing did happen today... as I was grinding it out on the road Azure took this amazing picture of this grass that grows all over the place up here.  Its really pretty stuff and this is a great picture of it.  I wish I could take some credit but it all goes to her on this one.

55miles

9.4 mph average

38.7 mph max

6:13:30 ride time

I'm riding from North to South shouldn't it all be downhill?

July 3- Day 6

Well the good news is that I had pavement all day today.  Bear in mind that by pavement I mean the roughest, bumpiest, most gnarly pavement you have ever seen, but at least it was solid.  Today was a brutal day, yes, yes, I know I have said that before and will probably say it again.  It was just big climb followed by bigger climb followed by biggest climb.  Then I had about 10 miles of relatively flat stuff and then the climbing kicked in again.  So I guess what I am getting at is that I was climbing all day.

We had to call it a little early today though, there was a really bad thunderstorm bearing down on us fast.  I made it to the Article Circle line and we decided that the storm was coming to quick to keep riding, so we headed to the campgrounds. 

I walked over and introduced myself to the only other person around who also is riding a bike.  He is riding from Anchorage up to Prudhoe and doing it with out a support vehicle.  People think that I am crazy, but I can’t imagine being out here carrying everything on me, mad props to Brian from Anchorage.  As he and I were talking Azure had just finished making dinner and that storm I was telling you about hit, hail and rain drops that felt like hail came crashing down around us, so we tossed everything into the van and ate inside.  So now we are just hanging out getting ready to call it a night.  Hopefully the rain stops by morning, another short day today I really need to cover some ground tomorrow so we can take a rest day in Fairbanks.

60.56 miles

11.8mph average speed

48.3mph max speed (actually was faster, the computer was blinking 0mph when I reached the bottom of the hill, it was probably 53-58mph though it was reading 48 halfway down and the bike just kept going faster and faster)

5:05:13 riding time