Alaskabike--Back to Anchorage

Saturday, June 29, 2019

It’s now the morning after the last day of the tour, and as I write

this I’m sitting at the front of the top deck of the M.V. Aurora of the Alaska Marine Highway.  We’ll soon be departing on the five hour trip to Whittier where we’ll get onto another Alaskabike van back to Anchorage.   The van that has gone with us all week is being driven back to Anchorage with all of our luggage plus the bikes and other supplies and will get there in about the same amount of time as it will take us.  Probably saves Alaskabike a lot of money compared to taking the van and trailer on the ferry.  It is likely that the owner of Alaskabike, Walt Rowland, will be driving the van that will meet us at the ferry.

The final day was probably the most scenic day of cycling.  We departed Glenallen in the van and were driven down the Richardson Highway about 20 miles to begin our 55 mile ride.  It was a day of mountains, streams, some waterfalls, and rushing waters.  Some of the waters are crystal clear, but others are either

gray or brown depending upon the minerals in the soil that the stream or river passes through.  Since most of the streams are fed by melting snow in the mountains, the water is extremely cold as one member of our group confirmed when he stuck his head into one of the streams.

The morning was essentially downhill, but not to a notable degree.  However, as I rode and chatted with other riders it made the morning go by pretty quickly.  One thing that was very noticeable today was that as we got closer to Valdez, the traffic on the Richardson Highway increased.  Of course by East Coast standards it was still pretty light traffic, with there often being a minute or two between vehicles passing (as opposed to three or four minutes

when we were further north on the highway).

About 40 miles into the ride, there was a major road repair project going on as the road swung upwards toward an eventual crossing of Thompson Pass.  The section of single lane traffic was much too long for them to allow the bicycles to ride through, so after our final lunch on the road the bicycles were reloaded on top of the van and we were driven for a couple of miles through the work zone.  Then we re-boarded the bicycles for the climb up to Thompson Pass. The four mile climb covered 650 feet of elevation gain, or 163 feet per mile!  That’s about four to five times as steep as most rides around D.C.

At the top of Thompson Pass there was a dirt trail that went about 400 yards up to the top of a ridge which overlooked the Keystone Canyon were we were headed.  The road down to the Canyon headed down in the opposite direction for about a mile, then went through a 180 degree turn and continued its descent.  For almost ten miles it was unnecessary to pedal, with speeds down the hill in excess of 30 mph for those who didn’t ride their brakes. 

Finally at the bottom of the steep descent the road came up along the Lowe River.  This river ran swiftly with gray colored water.  It turned into a narrow canyon where we saw several kayakers braving the rushing waters.  Several of us sped up trying to get ahead of them to get their picture.  I was barely able to and then turned my attention to Bridal Falls which plummets several hundred feet down to the river below.  Less than a quarter of a mile, after going around a turn to the right between the canyon walls we came to a pullout area at Horsetail Falls.  We all pulled in there, marveled at the plunging water, took a group photo, and the bicycling portion of our trip came to an end.

In total, I rode 378 miles (would have had 400 miles if I had not needed to take a leg out of the trip on day 3) in 30 hours and 5 minutes. That's an average of 12.6 mph.  I now have 2,226.25 miles this year.

On balance it was a very good tour.  The biggest disappointment was that most of the people did not get the chance to see a moose, with the exception of two people on the third day who saw one of the big fellows come out on the road and almost get hit by a car.  But the moose safely ran off and most of us never got the chance to see it.  The closest I got was the chance to pose with the moose statue in front of the lodge in Glenallen.

What made this tour so good was that instead of doing the normal “tourist route” of riding a bus up the Parks Highway to Denali, staying at a modern motel, and being herded in groups, we got to see the “real” Alaska.  A couple of nights we stayed in cabins and comfortable lodges.  We did not eat in hotels.  We ate in local restaurants that Walt and Greg Rowland have discovered in their years of taking cyclists and multisport tourists around the state.  And by being on the bicycles we got to hear the sounds of nature in Alaska—rushing waters, birds, and at times the most pleasing sound of all.  Silence.

Since we headed off on this trip just two days after the summer solstice, we also experienced the “midnight sun.”  Technically the sun did set sometime after midnight, but it never got dark outside.  In the evening, we’d eat and there was no feeling of a need to get done with dinner to get back to go to sleep, because even at 10:30 p.m. it was still sunny out.  I can only imagine the problem that parents in Alaska have getting their kids to go to bed in the summer.  Of course the flip side comes in the winter when places to the north like Fairbanks have only a few house of sunlight!

We left Valdez about 45 minutes ago and are slowly making our way out toward the Prince William Sound for the trip across to Whittier.  It’s easy to see why this short trip takes about five hours.  We seem to be moving at the speed of a hybrid bicycle!  As we sail down through the Valdez Arm toward the Sound, there are still some traces of snow visible near the peaks of the cliffs, but now the predominant color has become green.

Although this tour was disappointing in regard to moose sightings, near the midway point we were treated to a whale sighting off in the distance on the right, and soon after we enjoyed some even closer action as a couple of porpoises paced the boat, breaking to the surface several times, no more than about 25 feet off the right side.

As I have mentioned earlier in this blog, with the trip to Alaska I’ve now been in all 50 states.  The states in which I’ve cycled now total 32, but it’s time to turn my attention to making all of the arrangements for two more trips this summer—one to Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine in either late July or early August, and a late August trip on which I hope to bring the cycled states total to 43, with the addition of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.  Included on this trip will be ballgames in Atlanta and Detroit, leaving only four ballparks and seven cycling states to plan for in 2020.

Tomorrow it’s off to Seward, Alaska on the Alaska Railroad train and the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise, before returning to Anchorage and flying back to Washington on Monday.

Although there will be no cycling involved, I will post some pictures of tomorrow's trip and then give everybody a break for awhile until I firm up plans for states 33-35!

Bruce