Just another day on the Dalton

July 2- Day 5

After tackling Atigun pass yesterday, I wanted to cover some serious ground today.  It wasn’t to be.  I spent a good part of this morning truing my rear wheel; it had taken a real beating over the past few days.  It had gotten so bad during yesterday’s rough section that one side of it was actually rubbing the brake with every rotation.  Every spoke was covered in mud so it took a considerable amount of time just to clean the wheel so I could begin to work on it.  After about 45 minutes, I was able to get the wheel spinning cleanly; so back on the bike it went and off I rode. 

Early into the ride two women passed me I didn’t get their names but, they had offered me a granola bar yesterday during the portion of Atigun pass that I had to walk, they slowed to the speed I was riding to wish me luck and tell me that they appreciated what I was doing.  It is a very strange feeling to have people telling me that, it is not something that I am accustom to.  However, it does tell me that there are a lot of people who believe in what I am trying to accomplish and that gives me the knowledge that this is truly what I need to be doing right now. 

I felt great on the bike this morning, and think that taking it relatively easy the previous two days really paid off.  The road was hard packed dirt, which for the Dalton hwy is a good as it gets.  I was able to lay down 35 miles in no time compared to the last four days.  Unfortunately for me it was not to last, bring on the gravel and pot holes.  There was a serious head wind all day, I didn’t mind though because it did wonders to keep the mosquitoes off of me. 

After 20 or so miles there was a problem.  There was a road crew doing construction on a 4-mile section of the highway.  A pilot car was leading all the traffic thru and they wouldn’t let me ride behind.  I tried to explain that I was doing a fundraiser and had to pedal every mile but I guess my sales skills aren’t what I thought they were, I was denied.  We got lucky though, the beginning of the construction zone sat near the only village along the Dalton highway. So Azure and I took a detour to visit Wiseman, Alaska a town with about 20 year round residents.

We killed an hour or so and waited until the construction crew called it for the day, when they had left I rode the 4-miles they were trying to deny me.  It is not like 4 miles would have made a difference to anyone back home but it would have haunted me.  When the bike broke on the first day and I hitched a ride to Azure, she drove me back to where I had been picked up so that I could ride it.  Today we waited for the construction zone to clear so that I could ride that section too.  I don’t think that it will matter in the end but there is just some driving force inside of me and I feel and overwhelming need to cover this route in its entirety on bike or foot where necessary. But I give you my word I will ride every mile of this journey.

63.7 miles

13.7mph average

33.9mph max

4:36:30 ride time

Atigun Pass

July 1

This is part of the country is surreal and very hard to describe.  Picture the most remote untouched wilderness that you can, and then slap a 800 mile pipeline smack dab in the middle of it.  Oil or money, I should say, has changed this land.  But it is also the reason that it is accessible.  If it weren’t for the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay the Dalton Highway wouldn’t exist. I really can’t describe it, I guess it is just one of those things that is best experienced for yourself.  I highly suggest it; there are some of the most amazing landscapes that I have ever seen in my life.  I suspect that they will remain that, because I’m not sure there is any place such as this anywhere else on earth.

So yesterday I took it pretty easy, and it paid off.  My knee felt much better today; actually it really didn’t hurt at all.  I guess the e-stim that I did on it yesterday really helped (yes I have my own TENS unit, and yes I brought it with us). 

The road conditions were slightly better today, still very rough but it was solid until I reached the pass.  Atigun pass is intimidating in a car much less on a bike.  After about 30 miles I met up with Azure at the base and took a break.  I need to rest a bit since I had spent most of the morning climbing to reach the base of the pass.   After a half hour or so I headed up the road, my only thought, ride as far as you can and walk it if you have to but get to the top.  I actually got much farther up it than I expected and would have been able to ride all the way but on the steepest section the gravel was too loose to climb out of the saddle.  Even worse if when I stayed in the seated position I almost flipped the bike every time I pedaled (it was really, really steep).  I walked for about a half mile and then was able to get back on the bike and ride the rest of the way to the top.  It was an amazing feeling.  There was a semi waiting at the top of the pass and as I reached the summit he blew his horn several times.  An idiot on a bike reaching the summit of Atigun pass probably isn’t something these drivers see every day.

The climb was the grueling part the decent however, that’s the dangerous part.  The gravel was loose and the road was rough.  I was on the brakes so hard that I could smell them smoking.  By the time I reached the bottom my fingers were cramping from squeezing the brakes so tightly, and I was able to safely descend the pass.

(This picture doesn't even come close to what your looking at in reality, and its just the part you can see from the bottom it continues to go up and up into the mountains)

I covered about 10 miles after the pass but it was pouring rain, and really cold so I decided to call it.  We are just chilling in the van and my plan is to lay some miles down tomorrow to try and make up for the ground I should have covered yesterday.

40 miles

11.3mph average

38mph max speed (while holding the brakes)

3:30 minutes ride time

Day Three on the Dalton

June 30

I have to admit; that I knew this was going to be the most challenging section of the trip.  To be honest though, I had no idea what I was getting into.  Like I said yesterday, I underestimated the amount of climbing necessary to get out of the tundra.  I expect to be climbing in the mountains, but had no idea there would be such grueling climbs before I even reached the mountains.

 I have been struggling with some serious knee pain, and yes, it’s my bad knee.  This however, is a new pain not where my knee is damaged.  I would also like to note that in all of the riding I have done in the past year.  Never once did my knee hurt me.  So go figure, it would start to hurt on the first day.  I rode through it yesterday and the day before.  I raised my seat a little and that seems to help a bit.  One piece of advice that several very seasoned distance riders unanimously had was, “you need to listen to you body.”  Today my body was saying stop.  I only got 23 miles in this morning, but it was a grueling 23.

The climbs in this section aren’t very long but they are really steep.   Here is the bad part once you reach the top you don’t get to go down, you just get a clear shot at the next climb.  I guess it makes sense though, I started at sea level and now we are in the Brooks Range staring down Atigun Pass.  

Trying to rest up so that I can tackle the pass tomorrow.

More trouble, I couldn’t keep dinner down and it wasn’t Azure’s cooking this time.  I am hoping that I just have some kind of stomach virus, but we will just have to wait and see.

A rest day already and I’m only 144 miles into the ride.  This is going to be interesting.

23.54 miles

10.6mph average

42.9mph max

2:12:17 ride time

Dalton, How Dare You Call Yourself a Highway!

June 29

Well it was a long day today.  Yesterday I had ridden out of the flat portion of the tundra and knew that it was going to be a climbing day. The day started on a semi-paved portion of road and I promptly cranked out 20 miles in a little over an hour.  Pretty good considering the hills that I was climbing. 

And then came an 11-mile long section of road that was big loose rocks and by big I mean the small ones were baseball size.  This was an extremely challenging section and physically it took a tremendous amount of energy and strength out of me.  I was scared to try and ride it fast because I didn’t want to risk having a rock jump up and break my derailleur.  This section of road (I use the term loosely) was so bone jarring that I should have had a mouth guard.  It would have been a painful stretch on a full suspension mountain bike, much less my cross bike. 

I got through that only to hit a long gravel section with lots and lots of climbing.  The hills on the ride today were very deceiving; I am guessing it is because the mountains behind them are so immense.  One of the climbs was so steep that I actually almost fell, as I hit the steep section of the hill my rear tire began to spin out, because of the gravel.  I was barely able to clip out in time, I had to walk it the rest of the way up.  The only thing worse than climbing such a hill is descending it, I had both brakes as tight as I could get them and still I was accelerating.  I actually hit 26mph while riding the brakes all the way down.  At that point, in loose gravel, the only thing that you can do is hold on and try not to shift your weight.

A bit later in the day, a truck waved me across the road so that we could talk with out me having to stop. 

“Hey man, I just saw two huge grizzlies about 10 miles back heading this way.” 

“Really”

“Ya, they were HUGE, and moving fast, I clocked them at about 30mph”

“Shit”

“HUGE”

“Thanks for the heads up, I appreciate it”

“HUGE…good luck”

As he drove off I felt alone and defenseless.  About twenty minutes later I came across Azure and told here about the conversation.  She kept the van close by for the rest of the day.

I missed my goal for average mileage again today, but this terrain is brutal and tomorrow I hit the mountains of the Brooks Range.

Who’s idea was this again?

62.2 miles

11.8mph average speed

43.6mph max speed

5:13:50 riding time

Here Goes Nothing!

June 28th

Well after failing to make it to Prudhoe Bay last night, we woke up this morning and finished off the drive in a little under 4 hours.  As anticipated, BP didn’t give in and let me onto their property, so I started the ride a little bit North of Deadhorse just a few miles short of the water.

(Yes that it ice on the water)

  Speaking of water there aren’t any hoses up here, which I was expecting, however, it made it very difficult to clean the bike off so that I could start riding.  We used water bottles and wipes and after about an hour or so we had it clean enough to ride. After two PB&J’s and a banana, I was off.  Let’s just say I was feeling less than confident about what lay ahead of me, but after some contemplation, the only thing left was to start pedaling. 

Mud & Gravel is what passes for a highway in these parts.  The wind coming off the water was fierce, it was the coldest wind that I have ever felt in my life and certainly wasn’t helping the confidence.  I found myself pedaling as hard as I could and I was barely going 10mph.  As I turned the corner thru Deadhorse and out of town, two gunshots rang out.  I looked toward the airport where the shots had come from and saw a very large Grizzly slowly sauntering away from the runway.  Not a good feeling.  About a mile after this, Azure passed me heading out of town to our first meeting point.  I watched her disappear over the tundra and I was all alone.  The only noise the gravel and mud under my tires, and the wind ripping around me.  I must admit that it was a lonely feeling; I knew that she would be waiting for me down the road, but the vast emptiness around me was incredible, indescribable.

A few more miles and I ran across a caribou herd, the funny thing was that when we passed them in the truck not a single one raised its head to look at us. But as I pedaled past I had the attention of the entire herd.  Trust me, they look a whole lot bigger up close than they did from the van.  What an amazing experience, riding past such enormous animals within mere feet of me.  Knowing that if one of the males decided to charge, I was screwed.  But they didn’t, they just watch me roll by. 

Then it happened, the first disaster of the trip barely 10 miles into the ride the rear derailleur snapped in half at the base.  For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the most rare bike failures you could possible have.  So rare in fact, I didn’t bring any extra.  Now, I am walking thru the mud, simple trying to figure out what the hell just happened, wondering just how far down the road Azure was and how long it would be until someone drove by. 

Lucky for me I had only been walking for a mile or so when a truck came past and picked me up.  They dropped me off down the road where Azure was waiting, I thanked them and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do. I had two options, try to clean the mountain bike and ride it or take the derailleur off the road bike and put it on the cross bike.  Water being limited I didn’t want to try and clean the mountain bike, which looked like it had been sitting at the base of Pompeii when it erupted.  Swapping derailleurs was not going to be and easy task especial seeing as my previous most complicated fix was a flat tire.  But after an hour or so I had changed them out and had Azure drive me back to where I had been picked up.  Yes, technically I had walked that last mile not ridden it, before I was picked up, but walking counts in my book

I started back on the bike hoping that I would not break this one too. 

The next time I saw Azure there was an older man that had pulled his motorcycle into the same pull out where she was sitting.  I could see that he was struggling with a flat tire so I asked if he needed help.   (I was only three miles further down the road at this point) 

I hooked up one of my bike pumps and began to put air in the tire.  But the more we put in the faster it came out.  I tried to put a plug in it for him but still we were losing air.  I doubled the size of the plug and it seemed to work, at least long enough for us to pump up the tire.  He gave Azure and I Apache angle tears, the only translucent rock in the world, as a thank you.  He had just ridden the four corners on his Harley and decided to do a fifth and hit Prudhoe Bay.  Apparently he just did some movie last year, and his other Harley hit 1,000,000 miles so they had given him the one he was currently riding.  Oh yeah and he used to be a state senator for Wisconsin.  You never know who you are going to meet on a trip like this and I am sure he won’t be the last character we run across.  I just hope that the plug held long enough for him to get back to Prudhoe Bay.  The irony is that in desolate places such as Alaska you can see the best of human nature.  People up here help each other, they have to, so just like the people that picked me up and drove me to Azure, we stopped and lent a hand as well.  You have to pay it forward.

So after delay after delay I was finally able to plug some miles about 60, the cold and wind were starting to wear me down, and the warm bed inside the van was too much to resist. 

I know this was a pretty long post so sorry, but hey a ton of shit happened today.

57.28 miles

12.4mph Average speed

33.6mph Max speed

4:35:50 Riding time