Tom and I stayed in Anchorage with Chad for two and a bit days. I thought Anchorage would be a small community with a single, homely pub, where everyone would have a big bushy beard and stories about bears. But actually it has a population of 150,000 (people). We left on the 28th, stopping to watch an air show on the way out, which was pretty cool except the sickeningly patriotic commentary. We still had our tailwind for the next two or three hundred miles up to Glennallen. Riding up here is amazing - there are always mountains somewhere and a decent chance of seeing wildlife. So far we’ve seen moose, eagles, owls, ravens, falcons, a fox, two black bears and lots of rabbits.
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After a break in Glennallen we rode up to Tok, which was our most northerly stop in the Americas. Another day’s rest and we were ready to head to the Canadian border. It happened to be the fourth of July but neither Tom nor I are American and so we weren’t too bothered about missing the celebrations. We did get to ride down the parade route just ahead of the parade though and enjoyed wishing people a “happy fourth of July” in our English (redcoat) accents. We were making pretty good progress until Tom got a puncture (his third in four days). Unfortunately we had elected not to cycle the extra four-mile detour from Glennallen to get a new inner and as the puncture was on the valve we couldn’t fix it. We messed around for about two hours in vain with patches and gaffa tape and then saw two cyclists approaching. They gave us a new inner, which we were grateful for even though it was the wrong size. Then Tom put three holes in it while trying to force it on his wheel. So we then had to fix the new punctures with used patches from the other tyre and after another couple of hours finally managed to finish our shabby job. Overall it was a five hour job to sort out a flat, not bad. We were determined to push long distances but were lured into a bar in Northway by the promise of cold beer. Northway is a very small, very inbred community that welcomed us warmly once they found out we were Australian and not English. We celebrated independence with them over our warm beers until the family feud started (which involved everybody but us).
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We crossed into Yukon territory, Canada, yesterday morning and cycled through incredible scenery, stopping in Beaver Creek for dinner, which was bought for us by a great couple that had enjoyed hearing about our trip. After dinner we cycled on through some pretty miserable weather, which has continued today with a consistent headwind, sometimes gusting strongly enough to bring me to a near-standstill.
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We’ve been pushing some pretty long days so far and it has been a shock to both of us (though I feel especially sorry for myself with the additional element of breaking in a new saddle). Soon we will be in Whitehorse where we plan to have a decent break and drink some beer.
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Update: 08/07
I just read through the blog myself and noticed how very flat it sounds. The tone is directly correlated to the ride. Earlier that day Tom’s achilles tendon had started to ache - because we were about 40 miles from anywhere and not wanting to agrevate it he hitched a ride ahead to Haines Junction (for concerned parents it is not the tendon that snapped a few years ago and he has seen a doctor and it should be OK so long as he lowers his saddle and rests a couple of days). So I was then riding alone into the headwind. I found a computer to write the blog on after 50 miles, and having just found out that a bag of Haribo would cost me eight dollars. I clearly struggled to muster much enthusiasm at the time, even for the guy that bought our dinner, which was really quite fantabulolistic of him. I left without Haribo at 11pm and cycled for another three and a half hours, covering a miserable 25 miles. Luckily the next day was much easier and by early afternoon I had caught Tom up in Haines Junction. So, Tom is now resting here a couple of days and will then hitch back up the road so that he can complete the ride. That means I’ll get a few days here to catch up on my beer intake, which is nice.