Right after we pulled the car out of the garage in Filbert St, we continued the road East, leading up and down a huge and steep hill. I think we found the steepest road in SF, and we both felt we were in a rollercoaster when we crossed the top..

Snow and champagne in Truckee, saying goodbye to 2008…

After my new camera had arrived (yes!) we packed our camping gear in the car and drove to Truckee, a few hours east. We arrived in the dark and noticed that most of the town was covered in knee deep snow and the car slid back and forth over the slippery roads.

It was so great to see Colie again. I had been climbing in Uganda 4 years ago together with Romke, Ali & Andy and now we had seen the entire team again, spread out over Amsterdam, Seattle, SF, Truckee and a bike! Colie took us on a tour of Lake Tahoe, which looked wonderful in the winter snow.

Finally after avoiding the snow since Northern Alaska, it was great to be surrounded by the cold white stuff!  We went for a nice winter hike with some of her friends and got ready for a new years Eve party with more friends and lots of great food and drinks.

Goodbye 2008, we will miss you..

We have no idea what 2009 will bring, but 2008 was again amazing. I had been on 6 continents (alas no Antarctica this year), hiked with friends in Australia, almost got scammed in Kuala Lumpur, proposed to Ivana on the summit of Kilimanjaro, witnessed by all 26 clients. We saw Machu Picchu with Ivana’s mum, watched a lion grab a gazelle in the Serengeti and cycled 7000km through wonderful North America. It was not always easy, but it felt that we had been more alive in one year than most in their lives…

Off to Yosemite: big walls and black bear?!

We had a great time in Truckee, but as bad weather was coming, and we wanted to see Yosemite park before it became impossible to get there, we headed out on New Years day.

The road to get to the valley was high and steep and there were several spots with snow and ice, but the views of famous walls like Half Dome & El Capitan made up for the nerves.

The final part into the village and campground was even completely covered in it, but I managed to reach the famous Camp 4, home of all Big Wall climbers. The camp was covered in deep snow, so we had to prepare a campspot by packing some snow.

Just when I was busy preparing the tent, I saw a big shape passing just behind it. It was almost dark, so I turned on my light and called Ivana. ‘Look at that, a bear!’

Just as we though we had definitely left ‘The Wild’, we had the closest encounter with a black bear so far, less than 10m away. The big animal did not pay attention to us and slowly walked into the foggy forest…

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We made sure to leave no food in our tent or car (Yosemite bears are known for ‘opening’ cars) and put everything safely in the special bear-proof containers. We managed to cook a nice pasta meal and finally sacrificed our last Adventure Food meal, before heading over to the restaurant for a cup of hot chocolate.

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The night was cold and uncomfortable, but we got no more bear visits and the next morning we took the free shuttle around the village and walked back past great views of the Yosemite Falls and Half Dome.

Oakland and Berkeley

It was time to get out as more snow was expected. With much effort I managed to get the car back on the road and down to drier elevation before the rain hit hard. We contacted Mikelanjelo & Jessica, who had invited us already a long time ago and stayed a few days in their place in Oakland.

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Together with their friend Kristan and her kids (including “I-love-you-Leif”) and boyfriend they made us feel at home.

They showed us around in Berkeley as well, a nice college town with a friendly atmosphere, unlike Oakland which had an air of aggression, which was confirmed after the shooting of an unarmed boy on the subway a few days later…

We visited a multicultural fleamarket and were chased by fat squirrels in the park on yet another sunny winterday..

Ivana had left a comment on an Argentinean newssite, where bicycle touring was criticized, and soon after we were contacted by Ramiro, an Argentinean living in the US. he asked us to come over to his girlfriend Barbara’s house for some great homemade empanadas! And he even invited us back the following week, so I guess we are not such bad guests after all

The good life in wine country

Mitch had introduced us to his good friends Adriana & Gerard. It as fun to speak some Dutch again with expat Gerard and after inviting us in their home for a great meal, they asked if we already had seen the vineyards. We explained that we had been on the coastal road all the time, and they immediately made plans for a tour in the weekend.

We had a great day, cruising in Gerard’s convertible in the warm winter sun. We visited many wineries, tasted some good wines and olive oils and thoroughly enjoyed the company and places we visited.

The good thing about a bicycle trip is that you sometimes get taken to places where you would never had gone yourself, but that are great anyway…

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My knee was feeling a bit better and though I could not step down stairs properly, we decided that we would try and start cycling again. But first it was time to say goodbye to SF!

Next and final SF report coming very soon : Critical mass, bellydancing B-day and many friends…

We could not resist George’s offer to bring us back to the Meziadin junction. Though the ride from Stewart is beautiful, loosing a day –of which half would be uphill non-stop- cycling a stretch we had already done did not appeal. George was happy to get put of town and spend some more time with us, so we put the bikes in the back of the pick-up and 50 minutes later we got dropped off at the exact same spot where we had left the Cassiar Highway a few days before. Back to business!

After all the bear-less hours in Hyder, we got a pleasant surprise. I stopped to pick up CAD $3 in change from the shoulder: our total is now up to about 9 dollars in change found along the road, somehow people literally throw money away… Ivana came up to me and asked if I had stopped for the bear. Bear? Which bear? I looked ahead and saw a large black spot on the side of the road. Damn, she was right, a huge black bear was strolling in the grass. We filmed a bit and tried to warn a passing car, but he did not decease any speed and nearly hit the poor bear as he was crossing the road…

We had planned to stop for lunch and a few minutes ahead we rested near a so-called ‘bear-container’. No it does not contain bears, though that would be funny (funny/interesting and funny/haha), but it is a strong trash container. These are useful in more ways than one: the lids cannot be opened by pear paws so bears cannot get to the trash and will not get used to human food remains. As the sticker on it says: ‘be bear aware, a fed bear is a dead bear’ as once a bear is used to human food, it will no longer be afraid of humans and will have to be hunted down.

The containers have another very useful feature: the backside can be opened and campers can place their food bag inside, next to the hanging plastic bags hat are inside as well. So the supplies are safe from bears and other scavengers, but outside the actual trashbag, so everything stays clean. The availability of a bear container was one of the most important reasons for us to stop at certain places along the highways of Canada & Alaska; even though most are on ‘no overnight camping’ rest areas, we rather be breaking a non-enforced law than attract and feed bears…

It was clear that we were getting into the last and warmer part of the Cassiar Highway. Not only were the glaciated and snowy peaks disappearing out of sight, but we also encountered new types of animals: small yellow and black-striped suicidal caterpillars (even though only a few cars pass the Cassiar per hour, it takes the critters longer to cross it) and some small garden snakes, though mostly in the flat and/or dead variety.

Ivana and I always use to joke that we are collecting airmiles when we are climbing yet another hill and Newton would probably kinda agree as basically we are gathering gravitational energy. The long sweet downhills we always refer to as ‘free miles’ , even though we were riding in Canada, which is a metric country. It was nice to see that after a day of collecting airmiles, we not only cashed in our accrued miles for some free miles, but we ended up at the aptly named hidden but beautiful ‘Bonus Lake’ rest area to top it off.

We cooked in the dark by the light of our headtorches, sitting on the floating jetty, protruding onto the lake, while the stars winked at us. After I discovered my favorite Sea-to-summit titanium folding spoon on the bottom of the lake (thanks Ivana) and managed to get it out we could enjoy our pasta.There were three other travellers who had met at a famous Couchsurfing house in Vancouver, bought a van together and travelled North. We shared a campfire together as well as some wine and beer, but most of all: the spirit of travelling.

16th September 2008: Bonus Lake – Kitwanga, 84km

We rolled quickly over the last hills of the Cassiar Highway and ended up in the small towns of Kitwancool & Kitwanga, with a lot of First nation history.

We felt relieved that we had finished the Cassiar Highway. It had been tough, physically, but maybe even more mentally. One more big part of our trip was now behind us.

Kitwanga is where we had to make a big decision: do we continue cycling and go East to Prince George and then later South to Vancouver, or do we go west to the ferry at Prince Rupert and skip 500km by taking a boat down to Vancouver Island? Many cyclists had had enough of the bad weather and the drians of the Cassiar and had already chosen the 2nd option and we were several months later than them..

Ivana had the idea that she still had not seen the ‘real Canada’ and her people and as we also felt that taking a Southbound ferry was undermining our goal to cycle from one end to another, we decided: we will go East and go all the way!

We had planned to continue cycling on the Yellowhead Highway a bit more, but we noticed a set of large totempoles. After wandering around, it was almost sunset and we asked a man who was standing in his garden if we could pitch our tent in his yard. Sure, no problem, we could come in as well and eat with him if we cooked! It turned out that our host was Roger A Johnson, an elder of the Gitsxan First nation. He told us about his work, being an interpreter between the different chiefs and the mining companies wanting to buy and mine the mountains. Just as Roger was talking about the disappearing of the original culture and language – he was one of the few that could still speak it- a few very white Jehovah witnesses came by and handed him a booklet. It was called something like “First nation News” and depicted on the cover was a traditional First nation burial. But the inside of the booklet just rambled on how the original cultures were nice, but in order to be really saved everybody had to let go of the uncivilized habits and go with the religious flow..

Meanwhile Ivana was making hamburgers for all of us and we ended up with a nice meal together. The next morning Roger was waving us goodbye, loudly shouting his trademark ‘Good Morning Canada!!’, went into the house and gave me a nice present: a Gitsxan flag, which I have been carrying on my bike ever since.

17 September 2008: Kitwanga – Smithers, 114km

We were now on the Yellowhead Highway, #16. There were houses and farms everywhere but also too many trucks and cars. The scenery was still outstanding, but quickly we both realized that we missed the Cassiar: the wilderness, the wildlife, the loneliness, the pain.

One new thing we noticed that there were many field of cattle: a field with cows, a field with horses, a field with bears…

Wait. What? Yes, there were 3 bears in the field right beside us! They were eating the leftovers from the grain harvest and moved away as we came closer. It was wonderful to see these majestic animals roaming freely.

We spend a long time watching them, not feeling threatened at all by their presence at it seemed that this was mutual. When we got going again, the sun had dropped behind the glaciated mountains and after a long day and 114km of cycling, we entered the city of Smithers in the pitch black night.

It was a shock. Traffic Lights. KFC, Taco Bell, Mc Donald’s. More traffic lights. We were overwhelmed by the abundance of food and confused by the hectic city life, even though this would be considered a small town by North-American standards.. We called the number Willie Williams had given us in his home, a week ago, as we would like to meet his wife, who might be in town. His daughter answered and told us that not only Grace, but also Willie was in Smithers, and they were having a coffee in the ‘Tim Horton’. In the what? It appeared that Tim Horton is the Canadian version of Starbucks, but much more affordable and with delicious freshly baked muffins, bagels and sandwiches.

It was great to surprise Willy by riding up to the window with our bikes and talk with this great man again. He introduced us to his wonderful wife, whom we felt we had met before through his stories.

Moments later, a befriended couple joined our table and they invited us to stay in their house, up the hills. We were prepared to pitch our tent, but they invited us in and we had a comfortable night on the couch of the Hofsink family!

The next day we woke up to a beautiful day and rode back into town, to spend the day working at the local library. We stayed until it closed, which was after sunset and found ourselves to find a place to stay. We were still in shock by the neon, fastfood city life and ended up pitching our tent behind the local Boston Pizza, which had given us permission after serving us our dinner…

Day 70, 19 September 2008: Smithers to Houston, 70km.

Just when we headed out of the town of Smithers, a large pickup stopped next to us, with a big bearded man and a young girl leaning out.

‘Are you guys travelling around the world?’. That seemed a bit of a strange question, but in fact at least half true, so we stopped and said yes.

‘I am Paul and this is my daughter Jo. You have to come to Houston tonight! What would you like for dinner?’.

We tried to tell Paul that we had planned to pass Houston and cycle another 30km or so, but he would not take no for an answer.

‘Just take your time, here is the address, we will see you tonight!’.

It turned out that Paul had been cycling with his family for the past 30 years. He had a house full of bikes and a heart full of stories. He had hosted the South Africans Johan & Charmaine, whom we had met on the Cassiar. Their motorbike had broken down as as Paul is as big a fan of motorbikes as he is of bicycles and hosting new friends, he took care of them.

First we had some business to attend to: when leaving Kitwanga a few days before, Roger had asked us to check if his old friend “Oepie” was ok and send him his regards. When we found the gasstation that Roger had described, a cheerful man came up tro us. It did not take long that Oepie was Dutch-born and the next hour we spend talking about The Netherlands, British Columbia, while eating a real Dutch style richly-filled soup.

That night we arrived after a pleasant, sunny day of riding and had a great meal, cooked together. It was so nice to hear all of Paul’s stories and spend time in this bicycle haven and heaven. We simply could not leave the next morning, even though we had said goodbye to Paul as he left for an all day motorbike trip with his friends early in the morning. Ivana went on a tour of Houston with Jo and I spend the day catching up on work and emails and in the evening we enjoyed more stories and good food. We also got to use Paul’s well-stocked garage and finally cleaned our chains and Santos bikes…

Day 72/73: 20/21 September 2008: Houston to Vanderhoof via Burns Lake, 97 + 120km!

Our clean bikes raced over the Yellowhead highway, as the wind was in our back. Even with a late start, we still managed to ride over almost 100km of rolling road. We picked up our old habit of staying in rest areas (close to the No Overnight camping! sign), but this one was definitely the loudest so far, even though we were about 10km from the town of Burns lake. Not only was the traffic passing very close, but a large truck had its engine on all night (as the driver was sleeping here as well). To top it off, about every 30 minutes a huge and very loud rumbling turned into a deafening noise as the freight trains passed our tent, merely a few metres away…

One definite change since the quiet solitude of the Cassiar were the trains, the artery of British Columbia. For the next weeks, we would follow tracks, with usually hundreds of wagons linked together, filled with goods, grains, ore and other necessities for Western Life. It made shopping for our daily meals a lot cheaper though, as not everything had to be trucked in.

Another change was the disappearing of the forests, though we could smell them. Likely this is partly natural, as we were cycling on the Central Plateau, but looking at the dozens of logging and sawing mills and stacks and stacks of cut down trees, I suspect a large part is man-made as well.

Thanks to the friendly wind, we managed to have our longest day so far, even though there were numerous hills. After 120km we entered Vanderhoof, whose claim to fame was apparently that they were at BC’s geographical center. What impressed us much more were the friendly people we stayed with, the Himmelrights.

Though we had asked to camp in their garden, we ended up in their son’s room and had a great time with the family. It is always a pleasure to meet fellow travellers, whom you do not have to explain why you would want to see the world…

Just one more day from Prince George, then we finally can go South again! One thing that worried me is that the slight back pain I had the last few days, has grown worse and worse, to the point that I cannot lift my heaviest of Ortlieb bags without a grimace of pain on my face. Maybe it would be a good idea to see a doctor in Prince George. Or would it?

We managed to delay ourselves until about 16.00 in Whitehorse and then left in a terrible downpour, and as the first few km were steep uphill to get out of the valley, we were feeling down. But the sky stopped dumping water on us and soon we found ourselves going up and down over rolling hills besides more Wonderful Lakes. We had set ourselves a new goal: get to Scott’s Anarchy Farm! We had met Scott in the Potlatch (see previous post here) and he had invited us to visit him when we would pass.

Unfortunately he was not in the Greenhouse: a big plastic covered collection of wonderful smelling flowers and vegetables. We waited outside for some moments and cycled around in the area, but as we did not had the directions to their house, we returned to the greenhouse. The rain started again, and we decided to sleep inside the greenhouse, setting up our inner tent only. It was by far the best smelling campsite on our entire trip.

In the middle of the night we heard some noises and Scott came in. He did not seem to surprised to see us sleeping in the middle of hundreds of flowers and added one more log to the slow burning woodstove, so the temperature stayed above freezing.

The next morning he came back with coffee. A few weeks later he sent us a great poem, please check it out here on his 1000 Americans page. We stayed close to the warm fire all morning and only after noon, we packed our tent and continued riding through the rainy Yukon lake District. The wind was friendly and even with our late starts we did over 100 km, ending up late at a deserted state campground, close to Teslin lake.

August 28 – 30: through the lake District with Mate & tortas

We had promised ourselves to start earlier, and actually managed to get on our bikes before 8 ‘o clock! We arrived quickly at the small place of Teslin, where we spend several hours in the library. We were surprised at the many small libraries we met, there is so much great stuff to see and hear, most offer Internet access and the ladies running them are without exception all nice and friendly, so support your local Library and get your kids to read!

We spend some time in the Teslin Motel, working on our reports and chatting with Heather, who was on her way North, on a big BMW motorbike (see her picture here). We fixed her iPhone for her and chatted with this lovely woman, who was in great spirit.. Do not pass the Motel without seeing the hidden gem: a small museum with stuffed animals in the gift shop (some of Ivana’s images are on Flickr here). This sounds much worse than it is, they have done a wonderful job. Oh, and the Wifi is free at the Motel

Ivana managed to cross the scary and long bridge, which had a steel bottom, through which you could see water below. As with most rivers, we had to climb a steep hill to get out of the valley it had created, but during the climb a van stopped.

‘Hola!’ Ariel & Claudia stopped besides Ivana in their van which was totally covered with pictures of Patagonia and maps. Ivana started chatting away in turbo-spanish, but I reminded her that we wanted to get to a rest area for the night before dark, 17km ahead, so we had to keep going. No problem, they said, we will wait for you there with mate & tortas fritas. These words had a wonderful effect on Ivana. She started cycling faster then ever before and raced up and over hills with a determined look on her face, it was very hard to keep up!

When we reached Claudia an hour later, she was surprised to see us already, but immediately invited us in their van. I heard a hissing sound and noticed that Ivana’s rear tire was making the noise. A staple was stuck in it: our 2nd flat tire! I quickly fixed it and set up the tent together with Ariel, while it slowly dawned on me that he really did not speak any word of English

We drank several rounds of mate and Claudia made her tortas fritas as promised. We had such a great time, they were so happy to travel and see the world and eachother. Ivana was happy to speak Spanish again and drink and eat the taste of home, even though she was so many miles away…

In the morning we said goodbye to them and headed up more and more. Fortunately the wind was still good as we kept on climbing until we actually crossed a continental divide, where rivers on one side were draining into the Arctic Ocean, while water that falls just a mile back makes its way into the Pacific via the Yukon. Logically this meant some downhill as well and we raced towards our stop for the night: a rest area next to the nice Rancheria Falls, where we ate our spaghetti next to a big campfire we managed to get going, though all wood was soaked.

31st August: Frost, bear & Nuggets

We woke up by a strange sensation: a yellow light came into our tent. Sun! I got up quickly and took off the tent to dry off the condensation. When I noticed that some small pools were actually frozen, I checked the temperature: it was only 2 degrees and it had frozen in the night! We had not noticed it in our cozy warm Carinthia sleeping bags, but when outside it was crispy..

We headed out early for probably the first time in, well, almost ever and got rewarded right away; not just with a deserted Highway, but with our first sighting. Ivana and I both heard some cracking noises in the trees left of the Alaska Highway. We stopped and looked. A black bear looked at us, hesitated and then ran up a steep hill, out of sight. Our first Black bear! We had thought that we would be scared, but we were both so happy to see the beautiful animal and had not thought about the usual precautions, though the bearspray was always within reach. We celebrated our first bear with a breakfast in the first restaurant, and as they had Wifi, we – as usual – managed to limit the actual cycling hours drastically by typing and reading..

Soon it got warm enough to take of my jacket, we were in T-shirt again! It was great, with the wind in our back and sun in our face we hardly noticed the many rolling hills and did our 2nd longest day so far: 110km. We ended up at Nugget City, a huge RV campground just before the junction of the Alaska Highway and the infamous Cassiar Highway. The friendly host allowed us to camp for free next to a picknick table in the trees, while the endless line of RV’s (Recreational Vehicles) lined up on the boring, empty and soulless patch of gravel. We have never understood why people need to take such large vehicles: the typical set-up is as follow:

- A 30ft or longer RV (Recreational Vehicle)

- With a Jeep, Truck or similar 4 wheel drive behind (the RV is towing it!)

- With (sometimes) some muddy bicycles on the back of either vehicle, usually too dirty to ride and clearly only dirty from the transportation, not from using it..

- Often a senior citizen is peering over the steering wheel, controlling (?) a 15 meter long combination, for which you only need a regular driving license… We are not afraid of the trucks in North America, these are professionals and know what they are doing, but these RV’s scare us, however friendly the people inside may be.

Some quick calculations tell me that they burn about $1/km, but I need some confirmation here. Anybody know how many calories there are in a couple of Snickers bars and a pound of pasta as apposed to a tank of gasoline? Then we can calculate the relative efficiency of moving two people and their belongings over 100km..

This was our last chance to change our plans as the two roads/routes would only meet up over 1000 km ahead: should we continue over easier ground with much more services or take the road less travelled? Choose the comfort of lighter loads

or choose the chance of more wildlife? What would you do if you were on a bicycle?

Kowalski! Status report!

We had some very nice long days, and the distances seemed not so long as feared. Still quite a few hills adding up to an average of almost 750 meters up and down per day… Almost 3000km on (and off) the road: Kowalski is still puncture-less, Greeny had her second, but otherwise the Santos Travelmasters have no problems!

‘Now you be careful and watch out for that bear! He’s is not afraid of no humans, look at these pictures!”

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?….