I spent a night sleeping in my hammock under the vivid pinks and reds of the arctic summer's sunset-sunrise transition. It is never dark here. I flew from Denver at 9PM in the dark and landed in Fairbanks at 1AM in the light. I do miss the stars but they don't give me energy like the sun. The biking days stretch late in to the night. Partly because of the difficulty of the terrain and partly because the sun never gives me a cue to stop. Shortly before midnight the sun sets; slowly sinking below the horizon after a 2 hour light show which the clouds and white birch trees capture and expand upon. By 1240 it is already getting lighter, and at 130 it feels like morning, re-energizing me as I try to fall asleep.
The terrain part of the long day equation is the mountains. Gerry and I set out from Fairbanks towards the arctic circle. In my mind and my food bag I had planned on it taking 4 days to get there and come back. In reality we slept just north of the arctic circle after 4 days. The hills were big and many of them forced me to get off my bike and push. Not such a terrible thing as it helped warm up my feet during the cold mornings and nights. The sun was warm and it shone around light cloud cover most of the days. Short stretches required squinting into blowing snow squalls or suiting up in my rain gear. I did manage to stretch my food until I got back to Fairbanks, however the meals got rather unique as my assortment of ingredients dwindled to nothing. Peanut butter and rice anyone?
I saw some great things along the way. My wildlife sightings included two moose, a brown bear, giant hares, and so many birds. I met a man running from the northern end of the highway in Alaska south toward the southern end of the road in Argentina ( Roadsendrun.org ). I crossed the Yukon River. I saw the Ray Mountain range from a new angle every day. I followed the pipeline for a hundred miles at least. It was all good enough to see twice and so I got a second pass on my way south. I've wondered how different the view would have been if I had gone the other direction during my journeys and this was a good sample. The view is great both ways and surprisingly different. Every racing decent that requires focus on only the road turns into a long climb with the focus turning entirely to the vistas for distraction from the burning climb. The light is different, the wind is different and in this case even the trees were greener as they had marched a few days further into spring.
Now I am 400 miles into the trip with already 39000 feet of climbing done. The next leg will take me into Canada and the headwaters of the Yukon river. I am excited to find out what Canadian food is like!
