East of Dot Lake
Kodak DC50 digital photo (by Nelson Kibler)
We rode 100 Miles today (my fist Century since last year's DALMAC). Today was a
really tough day but we had a 10+ mph tailwind all day.
We stopped often throughout the morning to take pictures. There was was
much less traffic as we got further away from Fairbanks and Delta. In the
first 16.9 miles we had only 3 cars pass us in the southbound lane, but,
at one point about a dozen huge (bus sized) motor homes passed us in a single
caravan going north. In the entire 100 mile day, I don't think more than
20 vehicles passed us in our direction. We took our time sightseeing, spending
almost 2 hours to ride that first 16.9 miles, mostly as a result of stopping
at "photo ops."
We stopped at the ice-filled Robertson River and photographed the mountainous
backdrop.
As of mile 24, we'd only climbed about 410 ft. We were climbing
often through the day: 3,840' vertical for the day, including some 7% grades,
but mostly gradual 2-5% grades.
We stopped at Moon Lake for lunch and climbing up the gravel road from the
lakeside park where we ate, I mis-shifted and managed to damage my chain.
As we reached the road, my chain was slipping on every revolution and Nelson noticed that one link had opened and was about to break. We stopped and using my chain tool managed to get it repaired. We then rode for quite some distance with Tom Sheehan, the Cyclevents boss.
At mile 33 we saw a bald eagle.
In Tok we mailed some postcards and attempted to locate a bicycle shop for
a new chain for my bike. There was nobody around the one bike shop we found,
so we gave up.
A few miles out of Tok we came across a man from Osaka, Japan who was WALKING
around the world pulling a two-wheel hand truck.
East of Tetlin Junction we had a big hill --7%-- when I had NO
reserve energy. By then the road was starting to break up due to construction.
The road was frequently twisted and rock strewn and there were several segments
of gravel.
Around 4:00 PM (near mile 80) we ran into a cyclist from Holland who had
laid down his bike and cooked himself some dinner. He had taken a ferry
from Skagway to Haines and was riding to Fairbanks, then traveling to San
Francisco and New Zealand.
Just west of Northway, at Tetlin Junction, the Taylor Highway
heads up to Chicken,
Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. This would be a very interesting bicycle
route but for the fact that it is a winding gravel road.
Chicken's great website proclaims Chicken to be "The French Riviera of the
North Country." I've never been there, so can't speak authoritatively,
but I do have my doubts.
When we got to Northway, most of us (10 riders) took showers and a few of
us did our laundry. After dinner, I had hoped to use my computer, but I
went to my tent to find some things and fell asleep on the tent floor with
my tape recorder in my hand.
End: 100 miles
 Alaska Page |
  |
 Tailwinds Home Page |
© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997