Chapter 24: Anchorage

 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 was a big old Air Force relic from WWII - a Curtiss-Wright C-46 twin engine prop, 18 cylinders to each engine, 4000 horsepower on takeoff. The cargo bay was empty except for the 2000 gallon tank that had been installed to make fuel deliveries to villages with no road access.

Very cool to see the landscape from the air - saw the Yukon River, 

 

made two deliveries of fuel and mail to remote towns north of Fairbanks,

 

and on the way back saw Denali way in the distance.

Got me excited about getting there. I so hope it will still be clear tomorrow. 

Smooth sailing on the road, and I made it to the youth hostel at the entrance to the park. I want to get a really early start tomorrow so I can ride the whole 80-mile park road. I made good time today, and felt hopeful about marathoning back to Connecticut. Winter's closing in though... snow is coming lower and lower on the mountains. 

Plenty warm during the day - rode shirtless - but boy it gets cold quick when the sun goes down! 

 August 24, Sunday: 80 miles (7052)

 Well, I guess I'm a day late. Yesterday was apparently the clearest day they've had all year here. The scenery in the park was still spectacular, though,

  and I did get a few views of Denali between the clouds.

Saw my first grizzly - that was exciting, and a few dall sheep in the distance. Another heavy frost last night, but warm today. I made it to the campground at Wonder Lake at about 8:00, and rode around till I found someone willing to share their site. We stayed up for a while hoping the clouds around Denali would clear a little, but this was the best view we got: 

Chapter 25: Anchorage

August 25, Monday: 28 miles  (7080)

 Rain sprinkles this morning, and Denali was completely socked in, so I decided to take the shuttle bus back from Wonder Lake. I had some internal conflict about doing that. It's the first and only ride I've taken on this trip that didn't let me off the same place it picked me up, and it would have been nice to see the dozen caribou and 4 grizzlies from the bike instead of through the bus window, but I guess I don't regret the decision; I enjoyed the day, and it also set me up to meet a remarkable character or two. 

I left the park at 6:30 PM and rode fast till it started getting fairly dark. I stopped at a gas station to ask if there was a shack any place around where I could crash, to save setting up my tent. Before the woman could answer, a guy came over to talk to me. His name was George Comeaux, and he used to live in Torrington, Connecticut, which is right down the road from the Wilderness School! 

 He said I could stay at his place tonight. We hung out at the gas station till closing time. He plays guitar and his brother Jim plays banjo, so there was good entertainment. Then we went down the street to the Jack River Inn, and Jim got me a "Trucker's Special" - three eggs, a big slice of ham, half a platter-full of hash browns, and three slices of toast. I ate it with gusto. 

 August 26, Tuesday: 96 miles (7176)

Dawdled around drinking coffee, etc. to be sociable, so I didn't get started till 10:30, but I made fairly good time despite an occasional headwind. The weather was beautiful - a warm autumn day - but it gets cool fast when the sun starts going down, and there are lots of leaves turning colors, and some falling to the ground. "I've got the urge for going." 

And I've got the legs to go!

 

 

I had a dream last night that made it clear I need to at least take a good crack at riding home. In the dream, I had taken a bus home, but once I was there for a little while, I wanted to take the bus back to Anchorage and ride my bike home. I can see that I would never forgive myself if I didn't at least try it. It's sort of weird - if I had never thought of riding home, it would have been perfectly honorable to take a bus or a plane or ferry home, but because I thought of doing it, now it would be a cop out not to! 

I almost literally ran into some black bears this evening. I was in a rest area and as I rounded a corner, headed for the outhouse, boom - there were two cubs and a sow! You can bet I stopped quick. It was kind of sad - they were real trash bears - every garbage can in the place was knocked over. Needless to say, I didn't feel like camping there. I rode another 10 miles or so, and pulled into what was perhaps a gravel pit many years ago. The sky cleared this evening, so I'm going to risk it without my tent, to save time. The mosquitoes will be the main problem.

 August 27, Wednesday: 70 miles  (7246)

Boy, I feel like a complete rookie. Of all the places I could have slept, for some reason I picked a spot that wasn't level, and was uncomfortable all night. The mosquitoes ate me up too. I lucked out with the weather, though. It didn't rain, but it clouded over completely, which kept it from getting as cold.

 I got going by 8:00, but the back tire had gone flat during the night, so after a couple of pumping-ups, I had to stop and try to fix it. It was that same patch-over-a-patch. I put yet another patch over it, but of course that didn't work. (I had put it all back together and packed everything up before I discovered this!) I was exasperated to the point of furious. I was desperate for a minute, but then I tried patching the tube that blew out on the Dempster, and against all odds, that worked.

 I bought food at two places in Willow. ($ ouch!) On the way out of town, I met a woman, Aubrey Nixon, coming the other way on a bike. We stopped and talked. She's from Anchorage, and she told me how to find a friend of hers in Wasilla, so I rode there. It had started raining while we were talking and continued the rest of the day.

Her friend, Roger Cowles, is building a house for his mother a little way out of town, and it's mostly closed in, so that's where I'll stay tonight. 

August 28, Thursday: 60 miles  (7306)

 ANCHORAGE. The End of the Road. I had expected to feel so much upon arriving here - so many times I sang that chorus "Oh lord am I going to fly, down into Anchorage" and even shed tears, anticipating what this day would feel like, but with the prospect of riding home now looming in front of me, I felt none of the end-of-the-trip highs or lows or nostalgia or anything that I had so looked forward to. I just rode in, through the occasional rain, feeling mostly I guess that Anchorage is a place where I can buy parts for my bike, and maybe treat myself to pizza, just because after all, it was once the destination of this whole adventure.

 I tried to create a bit of festive atmosphere by tying more streamers and a balloon to my flagpole, but when I didn't get so much as a smile out of a single person zooming by in their cars, I just gave up and took the balloon off.

 For a while when I first got downtown I really hated it - I was uncomfortable, disoriented, disappointed, and overwhelmed. I'm not a "city person" to begin with, and especially after being in the "bush" for so long, I just couldn't take all the noise and bright colors and traffic whizzing everywhere, and people scurrying around all dressed up. I was also really disappointed because I couldn't get my mail - the general delivery window closes at 3:00. "Only in Anchorage," I said to myself. 

 I called the number I had for Craig and Chris Silva, the couple I met in Glacier Park, who offered me the use of their apartment when I got here. There was no answer, which made sense - they had said it would be available because Craig would be working in the bush and Chris would still be biking across the Lower 48. I figured it would be a good place to hide out for a bit and get my wits about me, so I headed there. 

On the way I realized how tense I was, so when I got to a city park I took some steps to calm my nerves. I sat at a picnic table and ate a couple of sandwiches. I was much more rational after that, and I found a bike trail that took me almost all the way to the Silva's apartment. 

To my surprise, when I arrived, Chris was there. She had been hit by a car early in her bike trip, so she was back sooner than planned. It sounded like a terrible accident - hit from behind by a car going 50 or 60 mph. She miraculously survived without major permanently crippling injuries, but she may never bicycle again, so she gave me her bike shorts, to replace my threadbare pair. Hers are nearly new, but are torn in places from the accident - a grim reminder of how vulnerable a bicyclist is, sharing the road with cars.  

 August 29, Friday: 30 miles  (7336)

 Got my mail - lots of it! The decision just gets harder and more pressing. Lui and Rod's wedding is the 21st - she promises lots of music and fun. Kim misses me as much as ever and offers a loan if I want to fly home. Jenny wrote a deeply touching letter, and said that Dave misses me drastically. The first Maple leaves are turning color in Connecticut - summer is ending there too.

I checked bike shops - tires $10, pump $15 - can I afford to ride home? I got the rest of the money from my bank account - $395. How much weight could I get rid of? Do I want to part with my little tape player? Can I do without my stove? My tent? If not, what's the sense of sending anything home? I'll still have so much weight. Damn damn damn! I just get to where I feel panicky like I'm being physically torn in all different directions. I feel like a bird that's been left behind in the migration southward.

 But there's no way I can ride home in time for Lui and Rod's wedding - I'd have to do 250 miles a day to do that. If that's the case do I want to ride home at all? Why not just fly? "But I'll never have this chance again." So what? How many miles can I do in a day? Now the fact that I don't have a good bike makes a difference. If I'm really going to ride home for time, I ought to go all out - pull out all the stops - no tent, no stove, and send home some of my clothes even, and certainly all my luxury items. That's really risky though. So what? God, I can't stand this pressure. I have to at least try it.

 August 30, Saturday: 10 miles  (7346)

I called John and Margo this morning. They're getting married the 27th. It means a lot for them for me to be there but they understand completely if I need to miss it because there's something more important happening in my life. It was wonderful to talk to them - they were so supportive - but the decision is, if anything, harder. Well, maybe the decision itself isn't harder - I feel certain now that I will at least start riding back - but it's a lot harder to feel committed to it knowing that it will mean missing two weddings if I want to ride the whole distance. 

I keep trying to think of a way to feel OK about riding partway and taking a bus the rest of the way. It seems that part of the reason for riding more is that I missed out on all the end of the trip emotions when I came into Anchorage, and I need to get some closure to the trip. Could I get that if I made Whitehorse the end of the trip and took a bus or plane from there? 

At any rate, I went out and bought a new Zefal pump, a used 1-1/8 inch tire to put inside my rear tire, a new tube, and some spokes. I also bought a plastic tube-tent so I can send my heavy tent home - boy that's risky! That will sure make it "life on the edge." If I'm going to do it for time, though, every ounce matters. Do I even want to do it for time? If I'm going to miss both weddings, do I want to go back at all? John encouraged me to do the West coast as I had mentioned in my letter, and if I ran out of money, then so what? I could just stop and work. 

Laura called while I was out, and I called her back. We talked for over half an hour. It was nice to talk with her I guess, but I wasn't left feeling good. I tried to find out how she felt about me coming back, when I had originally planned to stay out here and thus be away from her for longer, but I wasn't even sure what I wanted to hear, and it just confused her. The minute I brought it up, I regretted it. It felt like I was asking her for permission to come home, and I hate that. I felt much less like going home after talking with her than I did after talking with John and Margo. 

 I also had an upsetting call with my mother. Things are not good between my brothers and my father, and as the self-appointed peacekeeper in the family, it pains me to be so far away and unable to help.

  August 31, Sunday: 10 miles (7356)

 The day had a few small events: I went to the Anchorage Daily News office for an interview and pictures, did some maintenance on the bike, sewed the new zipper into my pannier, etc. Mostly, though, I just spent the day wrestling with the big question - What am I going to do? 

Options presently under consideration are:

1. Ride to Homer and back and fly home from Anchorage, thus having a chance to ride into Anchorage knowing that it's the end of the trip.

2. Ride as far as I can and take a bus or plane at the last minute before the weddings. 

3. Miss both weddings and ride all the way home. 

4. Get rid of every possible ounce and see if I could ride home in time for J and M's wedding. Just under 200 miles per day - not realistic. 

5. Miss both weddings, continue slow tour to West Coast, work in California. 

6. Get a job in Alaska and spend the winter here. Chris says Craig could get me a job on an oil rig, but I would very likely lose fingers and/or toes to frostbite or industrial accident... not a great option! 

7. Ride hard and fast to Whitehorse, take bus to perhaps Ottawa, bike home for weddings.

September 1, Monday

I'm leaning toward the last option because there is no bus service from Alaska to the Lower 48, so Whitehorse to Ottawa is the only bus option. I started packing a box of things to send home. I'll be getting rid of a lot of weight. The tent is a big chunk (oooh, that's risky!) the stove, (so much for hot meals!) my little tape machine, (sad) my flute, my journal from the first part of the trip... I even took the front rack off the bike. I felt some excitement as I was packing, looking forward to riding with a lightened bike.

 I finally got hold of Judy, the sister of a wilderness school friend, and we made arrangements to get together tomorrow. 

 Sept 2, Tuesday 10 miles  (7366)

 Lunch with Judy and then this afternoon I met with friends of hers who work in alternative energy here. The conversation somehow didn't boost my optimism about working in the field, and certainly didn't change my inclination to leave.

Judy invited me to hike with her and some friends tomorrow and I think I will do it just in defiance of my sense of urgency to rush on to Whitehorse.

 September 3, Wednesday  4 miles  (7370)

My decision is made; I will leave for Whitehorse tomorrow, take the bus to Ottawa, and ride back to Connecticut from there. I sent home everything I thought I could do without... 30 pounds of stuff! 

This afternoon I did the hike with Judy and friends. We just walked a little way up into the mountains behind Anchorage, in the Chugach State Forest. It afforded a nice view of downtown, and I found I liked the city much better from that distance. While we were up there it started snowing, and by the time we got back to town, there was a coating on the tops of all the mountains. It was really pretty, but was another reminder that summer is over. 

 One last night in a comfortable bed, and then the "Final Exam" begins tomorrow!