Bike to Alaska

 Chapter 24: Denali August 22, Friday: 60 miles (6912)  Nice weather, an uneventful ride, and some crazy trip magic. I went back to the post office in Fairbanks to check my mail one last time, though I knew I would get nothing. But that set me up to meet a couple of guys on a meal break later, who I was to meet again this evening, when their car broke down. And because of that, I ended up staying with them in a trapping lodge and having supper with them at a diner in Nenana, where I met two pilots who invited me to join them tomorrow on a flight to deliver fuel out into the bush! Oh, and I got my first glimpse of Denali this evening!   August 23, Saturday: 60 miles (6972) Got up at 5:30 to get to the pilot's house on time. Cold morning - heavy frost. The weather was "Severe clear with a chance of zero/zero in fog" as the pilots put it. (ceiling at zero feet, visibility zero) They were kidding about the zero/zero; it was a beautiful day! The plane...

 Chapter 23: The Urge for Going Dawson City to Fairbanks   August 13, Wednesday: 53 miles  (6512)  I was up, packed, and writing before Sally, Renee, or Theresa got up. After breakfast, I went down to say goodbye to Nancy and Marylou, but they were gone, so I left them a note. By the time I got back to the campsite, Shirley had returned, and the other three were gone. Shirley was very cold and distant, only saying that the other three had gone to the ferry. I didn't have it in me to try to talk it out with her to get to a better place, so I just wished her a good life, and went to catch the other three before they got on the ferry. We had a nice goodbye, and then I started up the 10-mile hill in the blazing sun and the clouds of dust. My heart was heavy with thoughts of home and friends and Laura. Several times I just started crying, for no specific reason, but just because I was so homesick and lonely.   My mind and spirit are in a complete shambles w...

 Chapter 22: Goodbye to the Dempster, Back to Dawson  August 6, 1980 - Wednesday: 60 miles (6294)  Adding extra spokes to the rear wheel didn't solve the problem of broken spokes, but it did mean that the wheel wouldn't always immediately warp when a spoke broke. Over the last few days several spokes have broken and I've been able to keep riding, but finally today when the 5th one broke, the wheel started to warp. I stopped at one of the best views on the whole Eagle Plain - the crest of the hill just before the road drops to the Ogilvie River. I climbed to the top of a mound there, and sat in the sun and wind, fixing the spokes. It was so beautiful up there that I hated to come down - I was sad to leave Eagle Plain behind. It's too faint to see in this photo, but the road zig-zags across the image, following the high ground all the way to the horizon. At one point I saw a dust cloud in the distance, and it was fully 30 minutes later that the truck making the cloud pass...

 Chapter 21: Bittersweet August 1, 1980,  Friday: Zero miles (5950) Rest day in Inuvik The weather was even colder than yesterday, with a damp chill to it. I put the tire Missoula Gary gave me on the rear wheel, and found a cheap tire in town to use as another spare. I feel home free now, always supposing these cheap tires will take the abuse to Dempster deals. I also repaired my riding shorts using Chris's sewing machine. This evening I bought food for the return trip. The forecast for the weekend is still lousy - cloudy, some rain, cold... so I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'm feeling itchy to go, so I want to be ready just in case. Buying food was a real eye-opener. Prices here are absolutely unbelievable. A few of my favorites were grapes $2.79 a pound, and OJ $2.99 a quart! Milk was cheap by comparison at only $1.70 a quart. I spent $25.  August 2, 1980, Saturday: 80 miles (6030)  It was cloudy as ever this morning, but it wasn't cold and it wasn't raining,...