"NORTH TO ALASKA, THEY GO NORTH, THE RUSH IS ON” by Johnny Horton
18/11/09 11:15
Thanks to my friend Vaughn Dablemont, Dr. Steve Kopp and I traveled to Anchorage to bike for about 8 days. Sounded scary at first and then after surfing the Web, I thought it was doable. We signed up with a touring group led by Walt & Deb Rowland. Walt is from the Outside (anywhere but Alaska), while Deb is a native Athabascan. Between the two of them there wasn’t much they didn’t know about Alaskan history, culture or geography. Their company Alaska Bike furnished everything except the power to push the pedals. Great bikes…Cannondales equipped for the rugged road and hills.
There were 13 of us riders + Walt and Deb as we assembled and drove (sagged) to our drop off point at which point we were to ride to Glenallen 70 miles down the road. I had inadvertently had 3 cups of caffeinated coffee prior and when we started my heart rate jumped to 150 and stayed in that area for about 30 miles. Not able to work it out of the system, I called it a day and sagged to our 1st days’ destination. We were pretty much of a mixed bag of riders; some training for tri-athlons with extensive ability to those who were there for the sight seeing bike ride. Obviously all were in pretty good physical condition and had done “some” biking.
To put it into perspective, Alaska is HUGE. It is half the size of the lower 48. More than twice the size of Texas. Picture the western edge of Wyoming ala the Teton mountain range and then magnify it 5 times. There is a lot of nothing else. The word Vast, takes on a whole new meaning. It is a long way (miles) between buildings, either commercial or residential. There are very few finished roads in Alaska. Maybe 12-15. We travelled on 5 of them and they all had wide shoulders and were for the most part well maintained and smooth. Traffic? Not much and most of it was motor homes & RVs. Occasional motor cycles, but very few 18 wheelers. Snowcapped mountains were on both sides of the road most days. Streams and rivers were constant as the snow is still melting. Many of the rivers were grey from the silt of the glacier run off. Most of the plants were small, hugging the ground. The trees too were smaller than ours and many times older. To grow there is tough and slow.
There is a 3 hours time zone difference but the real difference is the latitude…the sun never sets, well it never got dark. If you go, take some sleep shades. Our 2nd motel didn’t have much covering for the windows, so if you wanted to sleep, it was either with the pillow over your head or towels on the windows. It is cooler also. Most days it was in the 50’s. Once I called home (pretty good cell service, considering) and we were at a 50 degree high and Linda said it was close to 100. On our 5th day we had snow falling, then sleet, then rain for the rest of the day…high temp 35 degrees. I think my hands are still cold. I counted 6 layers of clothing that day. Most days tho it was sunny and mild.
On the second day of the trip, my heart rate was not back to normal of 60 per minute so I sagged the morning and rode half the day totaling 56 miles. Linda and I have a pact for me to monitor and be strict about not riding if I can’t control the rate. Not too worry fans, it was normal on the 3rd day and with fresh legs, I was the first to the Hotel after 74 miles. Everything was ok after that.
Hotels and Food were excellent and I know I must have gained weight on this trip cause I ate like there was no tomorrow. Had a lot of fish and on occasion King Crab Legs. There is a local specialty of reindeer meat sausage. Very lean and tasty with just a little spice. Locals like it morning, noon and night. From what I gathered it is domesticated caribou. Halibut and Salmon are the 2 big fish everyone likes here. Most hotels were rustic, outdoors motif and the television was very limited. We were mostly interested in the showers and they had lots. The cold water was from the permafrost area and close to freezing. We stayed in Tangle River in some fishing cabins. No telephone, TV (not even at the resort lodge)…beds and showers were all we really wanted. It was a Mining Corporation set up there and they would helicopter core samples to this camp for analyzing. The geologists stayed in tents. Pretty bleak. Most of the motels, served buffets. UMMMMM.
Aside from the snow capped mountains, lakes, streams, we were treated with the Alaska Pipeline paralleling 5% of the trip. Wildlife in Alaska is very abundant, but given the size of the state, there was not much per square acre. Hey, if you were a moose, or bear, would you hang out by the highway? Not likely. We did see several moose, swans, ravens, and snowshoe hares. We did not see armadillos. In fact, we saw very little road kill. Consider the odds…a car or RV every 10 minutes. When we got to Valdez we saw many, many Bald eagles. Everyday got even more beautiful than the last. Right up to the last day of Glacier viewing and 12 mile downhill at breakneck speeds into Valdez, followed by 2 of the largest waterfalls (save Niagara) that I have seen. Both were in the 1000 foot range and right by the road. I think the Rainbow Mountain range was the prettiest I have ever seen. Shaded with Iron Ore and Copper Runs, it completely dwarfed all surroundings. Took your breath away.
Following the drop down to Valdez, we had a ferry boat ride across Prince William Sound, where we saw whales, porpoise, sea lions. Several glaciers were viewable from the ferry.
We finished our bike tour back in Anchorage. In all we covered 360 miles. Linda then flew in from Arkansas to join me and we took a 5 day train and car ride around parts of Alaska I hadn’t seen, including Denali National Park. I will write on that later.
Thanks to Walt and Deb for an incredible, jaw dropping, inspirational trip. You guys were great! I suffered one injury?…a fixed smile on my face that hasn’t gone away yet.
Check out the website… www.alaskabike.com
Neal
There were 13 of us riders + Walt and Deb as we assembled and drove (sagged) to our drop off point at which point we were to ride to Glenallen 70 miles down the road. I had inadvertently had 3 cups of caffeinated coffee prior and when we started my heart rate jumped to 150 and stayed in that area for about 30 miles. Not able to work it out of the system, I called it a day and sagged to our 1st days’ destination. We were pretty much of a mixed bag of riders; some training for tri-athlons with extensive ability to those who were there for the sight seeing bike ride. Obviously all were in pretty good physical condition and had done “some” biking.
To put it into perspective, Alaska is HUGE. It is half the size of the lower 48. More than twice the size of Texas. Picture the western edge of Wyoming ala the Teton mountain range and then magnify it 5 times. There is a lot of nothing else. The word Vast, takes on a whole new meaning. It is a long way (miles) between buildings, either commercial or residential. There are very few finished roads in Alaska. Maybe 12-15. We travelled on 5 of them and they all had wide shoulders and were for the most part well maintained and smooth. Traffic? Not much and most of it was motor homes & RVs. Occasional motor cycles, but very few 18 wheelers. Snowcapped mountains were on both sides of the road most days. Streams and rivers were constant as the snow is still melting. Many of the rivers were grey from the silt of the glacier run off. Most of the plants were small, hugging the ground. The trees too were smaller than ours and many times older. To grow there is tough and slow.
There is a 3 hours time zone difference but the real difference is the latitude…the sun never sets, well it never got dark. If you go, take some sleep shades. Our 2nd motel didn’t have much covering for the windows, so if you wanted to sleep, it was either with the pillow over your head or towels on the windows. It is cooler also. Most days it was in the 50’s. Once I called home (pretty good cell service, considering) and we were at a 50 degree high and Linda said it was close to 100. On our 5th day we had snow falling, then sleet, then rain for the rest of the day…high temp 35 degrees. I think my hands are still cold. I counted 6 layers of clothing that day. Most days tho it was sunny and mild.
On the second day of the trip, my heart rate was not back to normal of 60 per minute so I sagged the morning and rode half the day totaling 56 miles. Linda and I have a pact for me to monitor and be strict about not riding if I can’t control the rate. Not too worry fans, it was normal on the 3rd day and with fresh legs, I was the first to the Hotel after 74 miles. Everything was ok after that.
Hotels and Food were excellent and I know I must have gained weight on this trip cause I ate like there was no tomorrow. Had a lot of fish and on occasion King Crab Legs. There is a local specialty of reindeer meat sausage. Very lean and tasty with just a little spice. Locals like it morning, noon and night. From what I gathered it is domesticated caribou. Halibut and Salmon are the 2 big fish everyone likes here. Most hotels were rustic, outdoors motif and the television was very limited. We were mostly interested in the showers and they had lots. The cold water was from the permafrost area and close to freezing. We stayed in Tangle River in some fishing cabins. No telephone, TV (not even at the resort lodge)…beds and showers were all we really wanted. It was a Mining Corporation set up there and they would helicopter core samples to this camp for analyzing. The geologists stayed in tents. Pretty bleak. Most of the motels, served buffets. UMMMMM.
Aside from the snow capped mountains, lakes, streams, we were treated with the Alaska Pipeline paralleling 5% of the trip. Wildlife in Alaska is very abundant, but given the size of the state, there was not much per square acre. Hey, if you were a moose, or bear, would you hang out by the highway? Not likely. We did see several moose, swans, ravens, and snowshoe hares. We did not see armadillos. In fact, we saw very little road kill. Consider the odds…a car or RV every 10 minutes. When we got to Valdez we saw many, many Bald eagles. Everyday got even more beautiful than the last. Right up to the last day of Glacier viewing and 12 mile downhill at breakneck speeds into Valdez, followed by 2 of the largest waterfalls (save Niagara) that I have seen. Both were in the 1000 foot range and right by the road. I think the Rainbow Mountain range was the prettiest I have ever seen. Shaded with Iron Ore and Copper Runs, it completely dwarfed all surroundings. Took your breath away.
Following the drop down to Valdez, we had a ferry boat ride across Prince William Sound, where we saw whales, porpoise, sea lions. Several glaciers were viewable from the ferry.
We finished our bike tour back in Anchorage. In all we covered 360 miles. Linda then flew in from Arkansas to join me and we took a 5 day train and car ride around parts of Alaska I hadn’t seen, including Denali National Park. I will write on that later.
Thanks to Walt and Deb for an incredible, jaw dropping, inspirational trip. You guys were great! I suffered one injury?…a fixed smile on my face that hasn’t gone away yet.
Check out the website… www.alaskabike.com
Neal
0 Comments
asdfasdf