After I had asked the noisy neighbour to shut off their generator (which was outside their big RV!), we had a peaceful night, without any bears. Even the wind had stopped and in the morning we had a great view over the Meziadin Lake.

The way to Stewart is only about 65 km and with the sun in our face, it was a pleasant ride. The scenery is very impressive, with huge glaciers hanging on to steep walls. The road itself climbed steep for a while, but leveled out in front of the famous Bear Glacier.

Not only well-known for being one of the most accessible glaciers (the road passes right in front of the lake), but also as a backdrop in the movie Insomnia (with Al Pacino & Robin Williams). Though even in the short period since, it has retreated visibly and for the first time the glacier is no longer touching the lake directly.

The strong headwind was pretty cold and soon we continued our way: downhill! Through beautiful scenery, we freewheeled all the way back to sealevel, the first time since we started at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a few months before..

Many people warned us that there was an aggressive bear on the loose in town. When we checked the campsite, we noticed that half of it was closed.

“Yeah, that bear is messing things up, so we rather have the campers all in one side, so we can keep an eye on them…’

That did not seem to promising, so we went hunting for a free camping spot in town. We noticed a colourful supermarket with a nice level field in the back. Inside was a woman working frantically. When we got a chance to ask her about the camping, she said it was a bad plan.

‘”This is where we keep the trash and the bear is going though trash everywhere.”

“Ok, thanks. Do you know any other place we can pitch our tent? Just a garden or a lawn would be good for us?”

“Hmm, let me think. Well, I wouldn’t mind if you stayed in our garden.” She motioned to a man standing in the shop. “George! Show these people our house!”.

George turned out to be Nedda’s husband. After mentioning that they had found some fresh bearscat in the yard last night, he took us to their place. We could leave our food and valuables safely in an old defunct car and went into town and ordered a huge pizza to celebrate our return to sea-level

Just when we came out of the restaurant 2 guys came up to us in the dark, cheering.

“You made it! Well done!”. We looked at eachother: who are these people? It turned out that Amor and his father in law Al had passed us when we were going uphill towards the glacier. We told them about our plans and Amor was so intrigued that he said he wanted to buy us a big breakfast the next morning.

We camped without being disturbed by any bear and got outside, just to see Amor running through our street, shouting our names!

“Ah, I thought you had forgotten, let’s go to have breakfast!” They had to leave soon, but we chatted over a wonderful breakfast. While they were packing, they also let us use their shower in the hotelroom, which was wonderful.

After we said goodbye, we bumped into a Dutch couple, Hans & Joan vander Puijl, who were touring through Canada. We showed them where to get the good breakfast and after we found out that they had the same plans as we did – to visit Hyder, the bear viewing platform and the Salmon glacier- we asked if we could join them.

We had a great day together, though we did not see any bears on the special viewing platform, apparently there had been very little salmon this year and most bears had left the area (to roam the trash in town instead!). They drove us all the way up to the impressive Salmon glacier, we were very happy we had not tried to do this on our bikes as the road was steep, long and gravel..

That night, we were invited by Nedda & George to use their kitchen for cooking, which was nice.

We cycled back into Hyder the next day and spend a full day at the bear viewing platform, but alas, no bear in sight. Coincidentally this was the first day that no fees were charged and also the first day that no bears were spotted… How much do the bears get paid to appear? And what do they do in their off-season?

The silly thing about Hyder is not the ghost town houses and shops, but that it is on Alaskan grounds, though the only way in is from Stewart Alaska and there is no other way out than returning the same way. Though you can enter without any problems, once you go back out, you are stopped by borderguards that need to see your passport. Where did they think we were coming from on our bikes, I do not know…

The 3rd and last night in Stewart, we were upgraded to Nedda & George spare room and had a wonderful meal together. It was nice to get to know them during these days and change from being strangers to dear friends as has happened before and will happen again during our long journey through the Americas…

It was time to leave our friend named Alaska and meet another partner for the next few months, named Canada. We had so many good times and many bad times. It is funny how even a fictional line on a map can define a relationship. We felt like we had to say goodbye to family…

We had stayed another day in Tok, it was just too perfect to camp for free, behind a 24/7 gasstation and next to the supermarket. We had to take care of our belongings as there was a group of drunk locals nearby. We have noticed this often lately: small groups of native Americans, who walk or sit around with paperbags or just with a bottle of scotch. It is a sad sight and a result of many bad political decisions in a long row.

We met a few other travelers who stayed the second night on the same camp; a young cyclist from Quebec, who was on his way home and a couple from Argentina (www.amunches.com) who were at the end of their 6 year journey. It was nice for Ivana to speak some Spanish and to drink some mate, but also interesting to see that they were clearly tired. Tired of travelling, tired of telling their story. The next morning they left early, but they had left Ivana some rainpants, though they were not really suitable for cycling as we would find out soon..

We left with dry weather, but quickly the hills and the rain started. Ivana’s pants ripped and one leg came off. We stayed at a very wet campground near a lake that probably was very pretty if you could see it. Only a few days later (fortunately) we read the report of fellow cyclists Tim & Cindie, who had seen a bear while camping here. We had been less ‘bearanoid’ as we had simply not seen any bears in Alaska outside Denali park, which in some ways is more like the Serengeti than the ‘real world’…

The next day we were completely soaked again and Ivana was ready to quit and fly home to sunny Argentina… Just in time we passed a visitor centre for the Tetlin National Wildlife refuge. Two ladies, who lived all their life in the native village of Northway and worked as volunteers, came to the rescue. They gave us tea, let us dry our clothes and even prepared a few delicious sandwiches with salmon. Just before we left, they even gave some chocolate. It is people like these that we will take with us in our heart when leaving Alaska..

We passed a small building where visitors have to check in when entering Alaska, but strangely enough the customs office for Canada was another 20 miles away. Or rather, 32km, as we were now back on metrical grounds as we had passed the official border. Somehow we had the unrealistic idea that we could leave the bad weather in Alaska, but alas, the clouds passed the invisible line without needing a visa.

These 30 km in ‘Krakozia’ seemed endless as the rain came down, taking all view away. Moreover we met up with an old friend: the gravel road. Some parts were unpaved. It can be very annoying to see more than 5 signs announcing the gravel patch. Don’t announce it, fix it!

The last 10 km were on a straight road, but we could not see much of it. We were completely and fully soaked when we finally arrived at anothe rbuidling that looked like a toll-booth. There was a STOP sign and tired and wet Ivana did the one thing that Thimble had warned us about not to do: she ignored the STOP sign to park her bike a few meters ahead.

‘Where is she going?’ The lady in the window asked furiously. Great, I thought, now we are going to be sent back. At this point we did not care in which country we would get soaked, but the idea of having to cycle 30km back to Alaska made me desperate. So I put on a charming smile, asked how she was doing and that we were fine except for being cold, tired, miserable and wet.

‘Do you have any arms or weapons’?

‘No’. At least she did not ask about our bearspray. We knew that this was considered a weapon and that you were not supposed to carry it across the border, but we could plead European/South American ignorance in this matter. We needed it and wanted to keep it.

‘Do you have any mace, or pepperspray?’. Damn, she asked it. I do not like lies, so I casually said ‘just bearspray’, while looking innocently down on our passports as I had never seen those stamps and visa before.

She ignored me, which was good, as she did not ask for the spray to be handed in, stamped our passports and told us to continue. We were in Canada!

Beaver Creek was just 2km ahead on the same road, and we entered the first motel we saw. I would have paid for a room as we would need a dry place this night, in order to dry our stuff. When I asked the friendly lady if she knew where the school was (as cyclist Thierry had told us you could camp there), she said that if we really wanted to camp in this weather, there was a better place: the ice skating rink was not in use and had a large roof. We checked it out and it looked perfect.

I had a fight with our stove, when a completely drunk native girl passed by and almost out, but could fix it while mostly ignoring her; and while the rain pounded on the large metal roof we fell into a deep sleep, thinking about the many wonders of Alaska and the empty book of Canada that lay open ahead of us…

Kowalski, status report!

Just some smaller hills, but in total quite a bit of climbing. We passed quite a lot of roadwork and in one section we had to load our bike in the back of a truck, drove for about 2km and we had to get back out! The ride was nice, but we would have been faster just cycling the bit…

We passed quite a few roadhouses and motels, that were either closed for the season or closed altogether. Seems that the combination of higher gas prices (increasing the costs for the generators and heating) and lower number of tourists (also partly because of higher gas prices) already has put many businesses out of business. Still some smaller business like the Cappucino house at the Gakona Junction seemed to survive. Shame that most clients never leave their car and stop to talk with the friendly ladies that run the wildly decorated place. Louise warned us for the many wild bears that were on the coming stretch and showed us some photos of a bear on the side of the road that apparently was not afraid of humans at all, taken a few days before…

We had stopped for some internet at Gakona Roadhouse, a nice historic place in a beautiful setting. It was comfortable to stay there, but the late evening sun convinced us to go a bit further and so we managed to see the beautiful sunsets over the Wrangell-StElias national park, with its 2 dominant peaks (from this side) Mt Drum and Mt Stanford.

We arrived late at our destination, a roadside pullout at Mile 24, which had toilets and nice free camping sites. When we arrived we saw a table with two open Ortlieb bags, but nobody around, even after I shouted in all directions! I called Ivana, who came running. She was already scared as it was getting dark and because of the many bear stories on the way. ‘Oh, is that all that is left of him?’ She asked in panic.

But soon a young US boy came out of the bushes, named Thimble. He had been watching the sunset and had forgotten to close his bags. His bike and tarp were a bit father away. We learned that he had been travelling with Nico and Jason, our Dalton Highway cycling buddies, but that both Nico and Thimble were sent back at the border because of previous minor arrests in the US. Nico had been nervous and ignored the STOP sign and then their backgrounds were checked as well as their bags. Jason was let through, but the others were denied access to Canada and had no option but to cycle back towards Alaska…

Of course this made Ivana more nervous, but we still managed to have a good sleep. The next morning, the weather was still nice and we headed in the direction of Slana, halfway on the so-called Tok-Cutoff highway. Just before leaving Ivana remembered that a bit earlier she had left her lightweight Vertical rain pants in the toilet and went to get it. we had been having breakfast just behind the toilets, but apparently one of the few RV’s that had stopped to use them, had taken the pants as they were gone! That was very bad news, not only were these pants very light and dried fast, but with the current rains and dropping temperatures, one wet day would be enough to get her soaking wet and hypothermic.

We passed a small place called Chistochina and asked in the first big farm if they had any spare rainpants that we could buy. They did not, but the owners of the Redeagle Lodge, Richard and Judy were very friendly and showed us around their new collection of wonderfully decorated lodges, to be opening next season. What impressed me most were the enormous solarpanels, heating all the water for the showers.

We continued to Slana, where the rain began to fall again when we arrived late. Slana had been a controversial place as the subsistence and hunting-gathering lifestyle of the community was threatened when the National park was formed. Suddenly the local people were not allowed to do what they had been done for centuries and many angry faces were created, resulting in the burning of the brandnew Ranger station (twice!). Now some kind of agreement that gives both parties freedom has been arranged and things have cooled off.

Just past Slana is a small ‘mom-and-pop-store’ called Midway Services. It is a very nice grocery with very reasonable prices, the first time we could get Snicker bas (the cyclist’s staple diet) for 65cts! When we entered the store, we saw 3 people, 2 men and one woman, looking tired, smoking on some benches.

‘Do you want to sleep here tonight?’, the man asked.

‘We are not sure yet’, we replied. We had seen the Campsite site outside and were looking for a protected place to camp, but as always we were also very careful about our budget.

‘Cause if you do, you can pitch your tent outside or you can sleep in the old bus in the back of the yard. And the price of the staying in the bus is…’ he paused a bit. ‘Free!’.

We looked at each other in disbelief and told him that we would love it. He took us to the old bus that was parked in the back, which was turned into a campervan. It was great, it had 3 beds, many seats and a table and even a 4-burner gas stove. He checked the gas, saw it was empty and refilled the bottle for us. Then he turned it on.

‘To make it a bit warmer’…

It was wonderful. They left the store open for us, so we could wash some clothes, charge some batteries and even take a shower. We were warmed by their generosity and trust, something we had encountered so many times by now in Alaska. We ended up staying 2 nights, resting on the day in between, writing updates, cleaning stuff. We spent some time in the store, listening to to many stories of all the locals coming in for their groceries and ice-cream (apparently the Rangers and many tourists never visit or even know of the place). The story of the week was the bear that had entered a few people’s back yards, taking some groceries. One guy had shot it once, but with a small gun only that had jammed after one shot. The bear was wounded but got away and now everybody was on the lookout and shared stories about guns and bears.

it is so wonderful to be away from the world politics for a while and get immersed in the local stories. Just like the people in flooding Nenana a few weeks before (though Nenana definitely was informed about Climate Change!), the Slanans did not care about Iraq or Zimbabwe. Their life was basic and community based, which was a delight to experience.

After our resting day we headed towards Tok, with the promise of restaurants and more shops The road was nice and we made good time as we even had some tailwind! This made the dozens of small hills a pleasure to climb as most downhills would get us far up the next uphill. We even saw a very rare animal (see photo below), though none of the feared bears entered our view.

We had already heard about the all you can eat breakfast at the Sourdough campground in Tok, but as they wanted to charge us $15 for a gravel campsite (discount, normally $20!), we headed into town and found out that you can camp for free in the back of the 24/7 Chevron gas station, perfect for cyclists! Only one more road to go in Alaska, this time to Canada, but would we be admitted?

Kowalski, Status report!

It was great to have a sunny day and catch a glimpse of Alaska’s beauty. We can only imagine what was hidden under the clouds the rest of the trip… Not too many tough hills this time, though it is never flat up here.

It started out ok, with some nice roads from Cantwell, but soon the gravel came back with full force. Ivana had a bad day, so I just stayed away from her; I bit on front or a bit in the back. That is usually the best thing to do, when one of us has an ‘angry day’, when all roads are terrible, the legs won’t work or rain seems to hit you every minute. I was actually enjoying this road a lot.

It was nice to be away from the main traffic again. almost no people live here, rental cars are not allowed to drive these roads and trucks have nowhere to go to here, so all cars you see are travellers or hunters. All of them wave back when we wave at them and many stop for a chat. The landscape is simply stunning: from high mountains (even though most were hidden in thick, rainy clouds) to taiga forests and age -old glaciers. We cycled through valleys, crossed big rivers, saw al kinds of wildlife and met friendly people. We got rained upon, almost froze our hands and feet, downhilled in the dark and found cyclists’ heaven, all in a few days. Almost too much to process. Pictures do not do justice, but I will share a few, together with some short stories from the road:

Unlike the Denali park road, this area is not protected, but it feels wilder. Not being protected also means that a lot of hunting is going on. We saw many big-bellied men with big 4×4 trucks, carrying smaller 4×4 vehicles in the back. My theory is that all the glamorous hunting magazines they have out here paint this perfect picture, but in reality, works needs to be done and you need to get active and your feet wet (literally) in order to actually approach animals close enough so they can shoot them with the big expensive guns and feel like a ‘real man’.

Instead many are just nice guys, who just stay in lodges and drink beer, a more harmless way of spending time with the buddies. Somehow, those trigger-happy fingers need to shoot something, so they aim at the only things that are close enough to the road and that are even more defenseless than the animals: road signs. Every road sign between Prudhoe Bay and Canada has holes in them.. (‘I think I hit it Jimbo!’)

We camped at an official BLM campground (Bureau fro Land managemant). These places are nicely situated, not too big and mostly for small vehicles and tents. No power-hookups and free Wifi, but nice, quiet places. As we are travelling on a budget, we asked some guys if they would mind sharing their spot (you pay a fee per site, not pp), but they were happy to have us and did not want our dollars.

Ivana spent an hour picking more berries, making enough blueberry jam for the next week, to go with our peanut butter sandwich breakfast.. We also met another biketraveller, Thomas from Germany. he had come from Vancouver in a few months, was now racing around Alaska and was planning to cycle down again, so he will probably catch up with us.

The only thing that I did not like on this part is that the eternal layer of clouds took away most of the views of the high Alaskan peaks and the old glaciers. Guess we will have to come back one day.

All Alaskans we meet tell us that it is the wettest and coldest summer in 40 years, climate is changing..

A new friend!

The next day we stopped to take a look at the Gracious House cafe as it was recommended by Thomas. We were not planning to eat anything, but the aroma of food convinced us in about 3 seconds and we both got a ‘Denali burger’. Then we noticed this little guy, sitting in the corner of the gift shop. Was this the Polar bear we had been looking for, our Arctic companion for our Antarctic friend Pablito?

We brought him out to the waittress who looked as hse had never seen him before. ‘Ehm, ok, ehh, 5 dollars?’. Sold. Pablito immediately too his new friends under his wings. we are not quite sure what his name is as he does not speak much and is a bit shy, but for now we will call him Pedrito, after Ivana’s grandfather.

We were eating when an retired couple came in. They were so joyous, and clearly so crazy about eachother, it was great to see and very catchy. Charles and Elizabeth live in Las Vegas and come up to Alaska every year I think. They drive one of those huge motorhomes, but just enjoy camping out on a high spot and then watching the wildlife pass them by. They shared a large icecream and were enjoying every bite of if. As we had re-calculated our food supply after hearing that there would not be any store before Tok, about 400km away, we asked the waitress if we could buy a loaf of bread. We could, for $6.

Elizabeth went outside and came back a while later/ I left you some food on your bikes’, she said. ‘We always bring too much in our big motorhome, and you need it much more than we do!’

We thanked her and finished our meal. But when we noticed the huge bag filled with cookies, beef jerky, peanut bars and a huge jar of peanut butter, we had to get back inside and than them again, it was like cyclist’s x-mas!

‘She has been like this ever since I met her’, Charles said. ‘So generous, that it why I love her. I am not too religious, but I do believe in that you reap what you sow’. ‘Karma?’, I said. ‘Yep, that’s another way of putting it.’

Though I prefer to be totally independent, it is great to meet such generous people who know the relative value of things to different people. Even more, it is great to meet people like Charles and Elizabeth, who have been crazy about eachother for decades and still enjoy and have fun together.

We were getting quite good at dodging rain clouds, but it was getting harder as the clouds were getting bigger and well, there was only one road to choose from… Se we got soaking wet once again and decided to camp at a wayside; a small pull-out with some toilets and a stream to get water, which we could purify with our Steripen. But before we reached it we were treated on a spectacular road. We were actually riding on top of an esker, a natural sinusoid ridge, shaped by glaciers. We are cycling on age-old geography (am I correct Mike?) and without any other vehicles on the rainbow-covered road this late in the evening we felt on a different planet.

The next morning we passed some beautiful areas, including some lakes that were known for its wildlife. We already had seen some caribou from far away, but suddenly we noticed 4 huge ones, close to the road. We stopped to take a picture, but the noise of an approaching car chased them away. We searched a bit but could not find them again. I stopped a kilometer or so ahead to wait for Ivana, when the caribou popped up out of the bushes, about 2 meters away from me. We both looked surprised at eachother en then they were away. Just before, we had been watching some geese and other birds in one of the lake when suddenly a big bald eagle zoomed past on the edge of the road, maybe 3 meters away from us at about eye level. It just briefly glanced at us when it floated past, not even moving its majestic wings. Like with the caribou, we did not have time to take our cameras out and do not have photos, but the images will be etched in our minds forever.

Rain was pouring down again and we fled inside the Maclaren River Lodge, where we saw the sign: all you can eat chili and soup, with bread, for 8 dollars! yeehaw, a buffet, the cyclists dream. They let us use the Wifi as well, so we could answer some emails in the middle of nowhere, while eating hot chili with bread for several hours. It was too cozy and it was already late when we left the lodge. We had to climb a big hill, more than 10km uphill, while the rain was coming down again. We were both chilled to the bone, but the plateau we were riding on now did not offer any shelter, so we continued. We had heard that there would be a long downhill, but before we reached it it was already getting dark. Ivana suffers more from the cold than me, but I managed to convince her that going down meant being in a warmer place and so we zoomed the last 15km down in one long descent. Through the dark, dodging potholes as we went. Ivana’s Santos bike still had light, which helped a lot, but mine had been broken since the flight in, so I had to concentrate hard to find my way on the gravel road.

We made it to Tangle Lakes campground and camped right beside a toilet building, with bear-proof containers to keep our food (and the bears) safe. We only cycled for about 2km the next morning when we saw a lodge. Low and behold, there was an all you can eat breakfast buffet! I think I ate 14 delicious blueberry pancakes, as well as a great tortilla, bread, fruit salad and many other things. the women from the kitchen came to ask ‘where we could leave all that food’, but we just pointed outside and said: we are cyclists…

The road was paved again from this point, but the hills were just as steep. It took us a few hours more to get to Paxson, the junction with the highway leading South. We had rough roads and were wet most of the time, but both felt a feeling of already missing the beautiful Denali Highway.

It cleared up for a moment, when we cycled close to the wonderful Paxson Lake, but soon the rain really came down hard and at the end of a long day we tried to find shelter near a large motel. It was totally deserted and all houses were closed. Ivana found an old very small church nearby, which had its doors unlocked. All houses nearby were empty, but a few houses away a man told us that the church was not used anymore as the owner had passed away, so we could stay. So we spent a nice and especially dry night, getting ready for more wonders of Alaska…

Kowalski! Status report!

This road was way tougher than expected, partly because of the weather, but also because of the many hills and the rough gravel. Average ascent per day was about 750m and the days were about 65km long. Here are the altitude profiles for those who wish to venture here, it is still very much recommended, enjoy!

We woke up late, still exhausted from the previous 2 days. It was nice to relax again, while catching up on some work, emails and laundry. In the afternoon we checked out the visitor centres at the beginning of the only road into the park. The Denali park road (not to be confused with the Denali Highway, which we will cycle the next week), is a dead-end road that goes on for about 90 miles. It is forbidden for regular vehicles (cars, RV’s) after mile 15, but cyclists are allowed, as long as they pay the park fees. There are special camper buses that can take two bicycles as well as a lot of backpackers and it is actually cheaper to take that bus to the end of the road than a regular tourbus.

We decided that we would catch the Camper Bus into the park and then cycle back down the road. There are two options to camp along the road: you can reserve a paid spot on one of the 3 or 4 official campsites or you can go ‘backcountry camping’: The wilderness areas next to the road is divided into different sections and you can get a free permit to hike and camp in one of the sections, as long as there are still spaces, as they limit the impact on nature.

This is a great way to see the park, you can meet bears and caribou on every corner. The sections where there are known families of wildlife, like bears with cubs or a fox-den, are closed off for camping and hiking. We reserved the bus out and two sectors for backcountry camping, so we could stay in the park for 3 days.

Then it was time to go to the park headquarters where we could see the official husky demonstration. It was great to see the few dozen dogs, anxious to get picked for the demonstration. They all wanted to run so badly, but only a few were put into the ‘team’ that pulled a sled over gravel (!) in front of an excited audience, while the rangers explained all about the dogs. Yes, we were tourists, but we enjoyed it. As the rest of the crowd had to catch their bus back and we were on our bikes, we could stay longer and chat with the rangers and spend some time with the great dogs. Will be wonderful to come back here one day in winter..

When we stopped into the Visitors center’s bookshop, I was hapy to notice a healthy pile of my Denali Pocket Summit guidebook. When i told the staff i wrote it, they had me sign all 30 copies they had in stock and placed a nice ‘signed by author’ sticker on all of them

3rd August: Into the park: to Wonder Lake

We had to wake up at 5 in the morning to be able to catch the first Camper bus. We would only be gone for a few days, so we could leave most of our gear at Eugene’s place, nice to cycle with half the weight! The busdriver resembled Mrs Crabtree from South Park, who apparently was not informed by the reservations office that 2 bikes were coming. Good we had the reservations tickets to prove it; in the end she warmed up a bit and even stopped for some wildlife. There was not much, some caribou and foxes, but suddenly we noticed some wolves coming up the road behind us. They were aiming straight for our bus, but just when they were getting a bit closer, some other bus came up the road and chased them into the thick underbrush and we did not see them again. Still it was great to see a small pack of wolves strolling around in the wild..

Just before reaching Wonder Lake, we saw a big grizzly walking around, just a few hundred meters from the campsite. It was too far to make a decent photo, but we could feel the power of this magnificent king of the tundra..

Wonder lake is the end of the road and though we were planning to ride back about 20 miles, we liked the place so much that we asked some Dutch campers (that were doing the same trip but with a car they bought in Alaska) if we could share their spot. Actually, they left the next morning before we could pay them their $8, so if you are reading this, Guus & friends, let us know! We spend the rest of the day relaxing in the warm sun. Ivana picked a bag full of blueberries, which she turned into a great jam later and I just played patient photographer, lying on my back in the grass, waiting for Denali / Mt McKinley to finally appear from behind the clouds. She almost did, but the view of the rest of the Alaskan range was already breathtaking..

4th august: Wonder lake to Sanctuary Campground

The next day it was raining and as we were on a break, we took the easy way out and took the camper bus out until about halfway of the road. We were smart enough to get dropped at the highest point, the Sabre Pass (also called Highway pass). It was still raining a lot and cold and windy, but we got very warm immediately as we had spotted 3 bears alongside the park road! A big grizzly mom and her two cubs were feasting on the berries and did not seem to notice us, just about 75m away. We stayed a while and then went on a wonderful downhill, stopping only at the Igloo Campground where we had a rainy spaghetti lunch, shared with a nice family from Canada. Then a small hill and another downhill took us to another campground. We had planned to leave our bikes and food there and then to camp just behind as we had a backcountry permit for this section. But as the campground was almost empty, there was little point in going in to even wetter ground and we just pitched our tent in one of the empty spots.

We met some very nice people from Palo Alto, California. They were taking care of some less-fortunate kids from East-Palo Alto, so show them what The Wild really looked like. Not sure if the kids were really getting any feeling for nature conservation as they were freezing and wet, but it was nice to talk with them.

The leader, Lena, gave me a great gift: a book called “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (Paperback) by William McDonough & Michael Braungart. It is a great book about recycling vs what they call ‘downcycling’. It is a new way of thinking to make the world greener, healthier and less polluting. Check out this link and read more about it. One of the great things is that the book is not made of paper, but of a new type of material, which is not only recyclable, but also waterproof! So I can have this book on the outside of my bags and whenever i have to stop and wait for a few minutes for Ivan, I can read a bit. Mud, water etc, can just be wiped off

. The nice thing was that before I even noticed the book on the table, she already had written that the book belonged to her, or that it should be passed on to an ‘extraordinary individual’. Thanks Lena, I will surely do so.

5th August: back to Denali Park Village & 1000 Americans: Eugene

The next morning we plowed up yet another hill through the muddy road, but then it was mostly downhill all the way to the park gate. The last 15 miles are paved, so we zoomed down the hill. Ivana suddenly noticed that her bike was very comfortable, which of course it shouldn’t be as we are tough biketravellers. We soon found out what caused it: her back tire was half empty! After more than 1200km we had our first flat. We were close to the visitor centre, here I could find the culprit: a shiny new nail of about 2cm long had sneaked past the defenses of our Schwalbe marathon XR…

We waited until Eugene got off work and joined him for a few pitchers of beer in the Salmon Bake bar. he had worked until midnight and had to work again on the breakfast shift, which started at about 4 in the morning, so he thought it would be best if he just drank some beer and stayed awake instead of taking a short nap. Besides, we were occupying his bed! We had a great time, relaxing in the bar filled with all kinds of outcasts that seemed perfectly in place in Alaska, so we fit right in. We talked about travelling, the thing that makes Eugene happy as well..

August 6: To Cantwell

The next morning we were still packing when he came back from work. We continued working as we could use one of many free Wifi networks in Alaska. When he woke up, he took us to the place where all Denali Park employees can eat for a low fixed fee per month. They dd not ask us for any pass, so we could feast on large slices of pizza and a great salad!

Then it was time to give Eugene back his house and we headed out to Cantwell, another 40km down the road. The George parks Highway is beautiful here and we spotted a few moose. Some were at a safe distance, another one we scared off the road (and he almost did vice versa) as cyclists make a lot less noise than the 36+ft RV’s that normally pass..

We had been in contact with Tori, another Couchsurfer, but she was out that day. Also her husband Ben had to go out, but he introduced us to his dog Scout, who became a new friend almost immediately. We pitched our tent, ready for the next adventure: cycling the Denali Highway, more hills and loose gravel, combined with rain, cold and wildlife…. And maybe we would finally find our new friend that the two polarbears in Fairbanks had told us about?….