Preliminaries: From
Michigan to Fairbanks, Alaska
and Fairbanks to Chatanika River starting point
Before I started my journey, I needed to get ready
and get to the starting point.
March & April
It was a really awful spring in Michigan. I had hoped to ride
a couple of thousand miles on my new Cannondale touring bicycle
before leaving for Alaska, but it was snowing into May, so my
training was quite sporadic. I only managed to ride about 600
miles.
May
I'd read several horror stories about people's experiences with
shipping their bikes in airlines bike boxes, so rather than just
stuff my new bicycle into a Delta Airlines box and hope for the
best, I elected to have Central Park Bicycles pack my bike carefully
in a proper bicycle box.
On
the way to Central Park, I stopped at Williamston True Value Hardware
and purchased some foam pipe insulation sleeves to use as packing
(for the Cannondale's big aluminum tubes I bought the large 1-1/2"
pipe sleeves). At Central Park, ace mechanic Al Ruegseger broke
the bike down, pulling the cables (because my Girvin Flex Stem
didn't pack as easily as a normal stem/handlebar combination),
removing the front panniers and wheel, etc., then he packed it
in one of the boxes they'd received a new bicycle in.
May 22, 1996
I flew from Detroit today via Delta Airlines to Fairbanks, via
Atlanta (is Atlanta really on the way from Michigan to Alaska?),
Salt Lake City and Anchorage. Delta Airlines accepted my bike
box as luggage--no extra charge (perhaps that was due to the smallness
of the box). I left at 12:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) from
Detroit, but didn't arrive in Fairbanks until 11:00 PM Alaska
Daylight Time (3:00 AM EDT). It was a really long day.
Fairbanks International Airport
5/22/96 @ 11:15 PM |
Scanned photo (float plane pond in center) |
May 23, 1996
I took my packed bicycle to All
Weather Sports in Fairbanks for reassembly by ace mechanic
Simon Rakower. Simon appreciated the professional packing job
undertaken by Al at Central Park. All Weather Sports is famous
for its winter bicycling expertise; they sponsor the Iditasport
Bike Race.
From there, I went to Mountain Sports, where I bought
a new ThermaRest mattress (my 20 year old ThermaRest wouldn't
stop leaking) and some nylon cargo straps to replace the bungees
that seemed too flexible to tie down my load.
May 24, 1996
I picked up my bicycle at All Weather Sports full-reassembled
for the paltry sum of $15 (money well spent). I trust a professional
bicycle mechanic better than myself to connect everything properly.
May 25, 1996
I met with Doug Toelle, owner of PolarNet,
my Fairbanks internet service provider, and configured my PowerBook
(MacTCP and Config PPP) for Alaska access.
Doug Toelle - PolarNet
May 26, 1996
I loaded my bike and started my journey. With front and rear panniers
filled, three full water bottles, my computer strapped to the
front rack, and my tent, sleeping bag and ThermaRest strapped
to the rear rack, the bike was dauntingly heavy. [I
think it weighed about 125 lbs]
Loaded bicycle 5/26/96
Steering was really awful. But I took off from Fairbanks
heading north.
Just about a mile south of Fox, the Steese Highway crosses the
Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. The pipeline is primarily buried under
the ground, but where it crosses permafrost (permanently frozen
ground) it is supported above ground by VSM's
(vertical support members) which are anchored in the ground by
freeze pylons, so as not to melt the permafrost.
At the Fox crossing you can see the 48" insulated
steel pipeline submerge from the VSMs into the ground. In the
winter the snow melts much earlier over the buried parts of the
pipeline because the oil is heated in order to flow through the
pipe and some of that heat radiates through the soil to the surface.
At one point I looked into leasing a one mile segment of the pipeline
from Alyeska (the consortium of oil companies that built and owns
the pipeline) in order to build a 10' wide by 1 mile long greenhouse,
so we could have tomatoes in Fairbanks. I don't remember what
happened to that brilliant idea.
Though there are numerous no trespassing signs, we often rode
our snow mobiles over the pipeline corridor from my house about
4 miles from here to a restaurant in Fox.
After stopping at the pipeline, I continued along the Steese Highway
to Fox, where I turned right 
and headed
toward Cleary Summit. Along the way, at milepost 16.5, I came
to a monument commemorating Felix Pedro (Pedroni), the man who
in 1902 discovered gold and started the Fairbanks gold rush.
Then I rode over Cleary Summit to the Upper Chatanika
River campground at 39 mile Steese Highway. Altogether, according
to my Avocet chronometer/altimeter, I climbed about 1,800 ft.
today. It was a really tough day.
Cleary Summit, a 7-8% grade, is a tougher climb than anything
I've ever ridden in Michigan. It is made more difficult by frost
heaves in the pavement, especially on the downhill run heading
north. I could have gone 50 mph, but I was afraid of the bumps
in the pavement with my fully-loaded bicycle and braked down to
about 15 mph. At this weight, the aluminum bike (known for its
rigidity) seemed to flex too much. Have you ever noticed the wings
on a jetliner flex in a storm and wondered if the aluminum wings
were really strong enough to withstand the bending? Well, that
was the feeling I had riding down from Cleary Summit. I braked
more than ever before and didn't let the bicycle get to speed.
I ate an early dinner at Chatanika lodge a couple of miles from
the bottom of Cleary Summit (halibut burger and a Pepsi = $9.85)
and headed out to the State campground at 39 mile. It started
raining about 3-4 miles from the campground and I pitched my tent
in light rain, but I was so tired that I "crashed" at
about 5:00 and slept a couple of hours.
Upper Chatanika River Recreation Site 5/26/96
It's been several years since I've stayed in a public
campground. It is Memorial Day weekend, so the campground is particularly
crowded, but this is NOT my idea of a wilderness experience. Campers
leave their homes that are separated from their neighbors by something
like 100 ft. to camp out in paper thin tents separated from their
neighbors by only a few feet. Children normally in bed by 9:00
are allowed to stay up and make all the noise they want until
all hours of the night (it is now 11:04 PM and I hear all kids
doing all sorts of noisy activities). I don't recall hearing the
constant rumble of ATV's when I camped here years ago. While I
have nothing against motorized transport in the wilderness, I
am not a fan of "playing" with dirt bikes, 3 wheelers
and 4 wheelers. It was too noisy all night. Am I just getting
"old"
Perhaps I am just not accustomed anymore to 24-hour
daylight. People used to complain in Pt. Barrow that it was difficult
to sleep at the hotel because kids were playing basketball outside
the hotel all night long. There is no sunset for 80 days every
summer at Pt. Barrow (on the Arctic Ocean--well above the Arctic
Circle).
© Ed Noonan
1996, 1997
