Day 21 - On to Alaska

STATS	DAY	MILES	CLIMBING	CALORIES
DAY	21	54.32	2005	2961
TOTALS		1154.66	47,999	64,788

BLOG INFO PLEASE READ:

• You can view previous days blogs by selecting the one you want from the ARCHIVE list on the right side of the page down a bit.
• You can post a comment to the Blog itself, but not everyone will see it.  I set up the Facebook Group to allow all to post comments and share in the fun.
• You can see a bigger version of a picture by clicking on it.

I learned a little more about the roller coasters.  The stretch of road yesterday, and a good portion of todays route were built on perma frost. When the road was originally built, they scraped off the insulative layer and built the road right on the permafrost.  What they learned was once the insulative layer was removed, the permafrost melted and the end result was mud.  The answer back then was a method called corduroying where they laid logs side by side then covered them with sub base, then built the road on top of that.  A good portion of the road today still has the underlying corduroy in place.  It seems to fail quite regularly.  When it fails there are large and deep ruts that form from the freeze thaw cycles.  These ruts can be upwards of almost a foot deep and you can’t see them until you are right on top of them.  To a car, truck, motorhome, they are nasty.  To a bike, you can navigate around them.  To repair the road they come in and tear up the old chip seal, grade it, then desposit additional gravel on the road and let the cars and trucks run over it and pack it down for several weeks.  After it is good and packed down, they grade it again for a second round of packing, then they grade it a third time, lay down a thick layer of oil and deposit a layer of chips that they smush flat with a roller, then leave it for several weeks and come back and sweep off the loose stuff.  In other words, once they start working on it, it is pretty much a challenge to ride a bike on until it is done and seasoned.

Another nice night of slumber in the Beaver Creek Westmark Hotel.  Mike and I were all snug in our beds after a dinner that easily exceeded 10,000 calories.

We only have 54 miles to do today and no showers tonight so again we opted for a leisurely start.  We decided to meet for breakfast at the hotel at 9AM.  Mike, was up and out of the room by 7.  At 8:40 he came in the room and said “Brad, if you want breakfast, you better get up, they close at 9.

The hotel was somewhat dated and had a tub that was only 4 feet long, but, as you can see, it was homey

 Just like Grandma used to make.

We got on the road about 10AM and started a slight downhill spin towards Alaska.  Immediately there was a breakaway.  Lets go to Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin with the call.

Thank you Andrian.  It certainly was a dramatic start today.  Phil, what are your thoughts?

Well Paul¸ It appears that the lead man of the breakaway has stopped for a natural break before the border and it looks like the peloton has decided not to wait and press forward.  The Sprinters are going to be angry.

It is about 20 miles to the US border.    Finally we arrive!

We made it to the border, but our bikes did not, and in case you are wondering, we CAN'T see Russia, but strangely, we can see Canada.

Tom said “You will get out of the chip seal today.  The roads in Alaska are so much better.”  We get to the border and he was not kidding.

Just like driving from Illinois into Wisconsin.

Right on the border the road goes from rough chip seal, which we have been riding on for almost 1000 miles, to smooth as silk asphalt.  I learned this trip that the US pays 90% of the cost of maintaining the highway in the Yukon.  Joe rode up, looked at the transition and said “Well ain’t that a slap in the face”.

After pictures of all kinds around the Alaska sign and boundary markers, the next stop was US Customs.  The agent was very nice and his first question was “Where did you guys pick up this Canadian?”.  Mike answered “Dawson Creek and we haven’t been able to shake him since!”.  They took our papers and ran background checks on all of us, and apparently all those judgments and warrants we have against us have not made it this far north, so they let us in.

 Lets see, if it is noon in Alaska it is 1AM in the Yukon.  How many kilometers is that?

About 5 miles up the road we come to the first commercial establishment on “the silk highway” and we decide to stop for coffee.  The first thing I noticed was a gas price sign that made sense.

Glad to be back in the land of the greenback and good old gallon.

I really have no idea if this is good price or way high since I have been off the grid (gas wise) for several weeks, but I did some quick math to see how it compared to Canadian gas prices.  The typical price we saw along the highway was $1.78 (Canadian) per liter.  At ~3.5 liters/gallon, that calcs out to about $6.23 (Canadian) per US gallon. At an exchange rate of about $0.90 us/Canadian, that all nets out to an equivalent cost per gallon of $6.92.  So I now understand the sign I saw on a gas pump earlier in the trip:

Enjoy your cheap gas US, it could be like this. (Can anyone guess where this was?)

We are riding today in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.  We stopped in the visitor center, and, like all US government tourist facilities, there is a gift shop.  This one, however, was more of a bookstore of practical guides to survival in these parts.

I almost bought this for Greg and Lorraine, but the domain name "letstanmoosehidetonight.com" was already taken.

Tonight we are camped on the shores of Lake Jager

Those are the Wrangell range in the distance. 

This lake is the local float plane port of entry into the US.  If you cross from Canada into the Alaska by float plane (in this area) you are required to land here and wait for US Customs to pay you a visit.  So far, no planes.

The surrounding land is a peat bog and the resident tree is the Black Spruce.  These trees are very small and a 100 year old tree may only have trunk of 2” diameter.

The Great Pumpkin is ready for me tonight.  Tom says we are far enough from the mountains that the sun will not go below the horizon tonight.  We’ll see how slumber goes tonight and coffee will be an hour later due to the time change.

 Brad seems to know just where to stick me

We only have 2 more days of riding left.  Tomorrow is about 64 miles and Tuesday is 112.  Hard to believe that the ride is almost over.

Tale of the tape.