Radlroas - or the BIG tour

"Post cycling trip" photos (July 6, 2007 – July 24, 2007)

2007-07-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

070706-08 Denali National Park - 070706 day 1: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559868067GEtDIQ?vhost=travel

070706-08 Denali National Park - 070707 day 2: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559865936vYtXIQ?vhost=travel

070706-08 Denali National Park - 070708 day 3: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559868858OGHAla?vhost=travel

070710 Nick in Anchorage: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559865052OLJKcw?vhost=travel

070711 COLDSTONE & movie night: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559866607jhuBTy?vhost=travel

070712 Lucy's cabin & my red bag arriving from Chicago: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559866608HqCXHu?vhost=travel

070714 weekend market in ANC & Frisbee: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559916045cTXdEe?vhost=travel

070715 hiking, Fern Mine, Hatcher Pass: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559917972LTjYaS?vhost=travel

070716 Kincaid Park, McHugh Creek: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559916717IkrWdG?vhost=travel

070717 Lake Hood, Anchorage centre, cycling along Coastal Trail: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559931989GbWepG?vhost=travel

070719 ANC centre, frisbee at Goose Lake: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559996823quwuar?vhost=travel

070720-22 Kenai Peninsula - 070720 day 1 - arrival in Seward area: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559997768KnPafN?vhost=travel

070720-22 Kenai Peninsula - 070721 day 2 - Exit Glacier: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559997125IaysVU?vhost=travel

070720-22 Kenai Peninsula - 070722 day 3 - kayaking in Resurrection Bay: http://travel.webshots.com/album/559998568kNFRQD?vhost=travel

070723 Bowling: http://travel.webshots.com/album/560008865FkbPUR?vhost=travel

070724 bye Anchorage, bye Alaska, by North America: http://travel.webshots.com/album/560130980EnDTwA?vhost=travel

In and around Anchorage & rest of the summer

2007-07-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2007 – July 24, 2007 – in and around Anchorage, and my return to Germany:

As my tour has come to an end, it’s time for a brief summary and outline of my plans from now onwards.

Alaska:

Now that I actually made it to Anchorage, I’ve got a few days left in Alaska that I can spend together with my friends here, with travelling around in Alaska a bit in order to get to know this great state a little further, and I will use the time to simply relax from a year in North America full of action and often being a bit too restless.

I will continue (try to, at least) uploading links to photos of my remaining time here in Alaska.

My cell phone provider continues to refuse providing me with reception – therefore I will not be available by phone until I am back in Germany. However, I will be able to go online a bit more regularly and check my emails. So, getting in touch with me by email is the way to go for the next 2 weeks.

Oh, and I can ensure you that I am doing perfectly fine over here: they do have Coldstone Creamery in Anchorage – so, my regular ice cream consumption is guaranteed... that’s probably the reason why I instinctively picked Anchorage as final destination ;-)
When talking about ice cream, something else comes to my mind also which some people asked me before: did you I weight? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m sure I gained some weight because of some news muscles, and I did not get the impression that my little belly got any thinner (not that I would care, I have to say). And, how could I have lost weight? During the day I ate what I felt like I needed in regards to calories; but I got a lot of my calories from the not so healthy food such as plenty of chocolate like Mars bars (or Milky Ways, as they are called in the U.S. – finding that out was quite an adventure!). And when I got a chance to and had enough with me or was somewhere where I could buy stuff, I often at A LOT in the evenings (and that’s “a lot” for me, not the average “a lot”). Anyway, I guess that’s my answer to “Have you lost weight?”

Germany:

And there is a bit of an update regarding my plans concerning the exact date of my return to Germany – I slightly changed my flight date – from July 28 to July 24, 2007. Simple reason: with my initial travel schedule I would have arrived at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday, July 29 – that’s exactly the day when the so-called “Arber bike marathon” is going to take place. That is a fairly popular and famous bike race/marathon/challenge in my home area (the “Arber” being the highest mountain of the Bavarian forest) [http://www.arberradmarathon.de/arber_neu/]. For years already, I thought about participating, however, I was either completely out of shape or not in Germany – and now that I finally am kind of well trained (hopefully enough), I really didn’t want to miss that chance. So I signed up for the marathon on two days ago… and out of 4 options I decided to go for the longest route. 250km, approx. 160 miles. Not really that I felt like necessarily doing a distance that I have never cycled in my life before, however, when I looked into the details of the routes, I had to realize that only the longest route actually goes completely up the mountain road – and you might have found out by now how it is with me and the mountains… I love cycling up on top of them.

Besides that, I’d love seeing as many of you guys in and around Bavaria (since my time in the U.S. “around” got pretty much re-defined into “everything that can be reached by car within 15 hours” ;-) ) while I am back home during the month of August and the first part of September. After that, Leeds and a one-year Masters course are calling me back onto the small island in the west of Europe.

Last but not least thank you for all your support during my trip. It’s been great to see how some of you helped me in making this dream come true… helped me in all sorts of different ways. No matter if it was motivating me with encouraging and critical statements (“I’m sure it can be done physically, but where will you find your food???” “Did you really think about this properly – there are no chips, no sweets, and especially no ice cream along the way?” “I hope that you won’t be eaten by wild animals when you broke down with a problem with the bike in the middle of nowhere.”), or if it was by bearing me talking about the tour and this trip being THE thing on my mind since March or April, or by providing me with “hands-on” support, or if it was simply following this blog and being a little interested in what I was doing there, it all helped, and it’s definitely time to say thank you for that, to all of you!! Dankeschön!!!

Special thanks to:

2007-07-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

- Lucy Baranko – for being one of the main reasons why this tour actually happened… without her asking me to visit her in Anchorage at the end of my internship in New Jersey, this tour would have never made its way onto my mind; in addition for being great support before and during my trip, plus for driving parts of my luggage from New Jersey all the way up to Alaska; last but not least for being a great host in Anchorage

- Jens Bergmann – for helping me with the research, for tips and tricks, for regularly motivating me, and for always being available for any sorts of questions

- Robert Broughton – for being my very first point of contact regarding this tour who did not only give me a lot of very helpful initial advice about the route, about the type of bike to use, about realistic time frames, and about a lot more of such basic knowledge regarding a long bike tour which I have never ever done before, he also probably was the one because of whose optimistic approach that such a tour is definitely doable, the idea for doing this tour did not remain a “crazy idea” in my head, but actually came true [http://broughton.ca/bcakfaq.html]

- Cosmic Wheel (bike shop in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey) – for great support regarding all matters concerning my bicycle (initial advice, getting me a very good bike together, and making it ready for the trip including a lot of the extras – all in a competent, patient and friendly manner with reasonable prices) [http://www.cosmicwheel.com/]

- Laura Daub - for being one of the main reasons why this tour actually happened… her being in or near Calgary during the summer made it even more obvious that my starting point would be from Calgary; as well as for being available during my tour – in case of an emergency I knew that she would have helped me in whatever way; last but not least for being a great motivator, always positive about my crazy plan

- Mario Farnhammer – for providing me with a bunch of tips and helpful information concerning cycling in that area, helpful material, precautions, and tips & tricks for along the way a few days before the beginning of my tour

- Daniel Grab – for being one if not the main source for planning the details of my trip (I could use his website for both information about the route and what he experienced while cycling in the northwestern part of North America, as well as for extremely helpful information about necessary and relevant equipment); in addition for providing me with helpful answers to concerns and questions I had during the planning period of my trip (http://www.danigrab.com/)

- Annetta Grant – for being one of the main reasons why this tour actually happened… without her asking me to visit her in Calgary at the end of my internship in New Jersey, this tour would have never made its way onto my mind; in addition for providing me with some answers to questions in preparation for my tour, as well as for being available during my tour – in case of an emergency I knew that she would have helped me in whatever way; last but not least for being a great host in Calgary

- Kerstin Jura – for providing me with helpful information regarding “living in the outdoors”

- Hape Kerkeling (German comedian) – for having written this great book about his experiences while walking the St. James way in Spain… reading this book during my tour gave me a lot of extra-motivation, helped me to get through difficult days, and it simply inspired me a lot

- Steffen Link – for being a great motivator and inspirer

- Uschi and Stefan Paul – for providing me with Mario Farnhammer’s contact details as well as for giving me the idea for the title of this blog

- Shane Prosser – for picking up my huge bag in New Jersey and driving it all the way to Alaska; for positively supporting my idea and for being available as point of contact during my trip; in addition for being great to hang out with in Anchorage

- Siemens Iselin intern crew, current and former interns– for being my main contacts during this past year, for being friends, and for giving me the chance to be myself in a foreign environment which made me feel comfortable and optimistic about what I am doing and therefore it was so much easier to make this trip reality; for being there for me when I needed people around me, for listening to my stories even if my bike trip might have become a little bit of a too often mentioned topic during the past months, for giving me all sorts of advise and providing me with help where necessary, for motivating me in person or by emails/SMS from all over the world, and simply for being there for me – how often did I think about you guys and my time with you in the U.S. while I was cycling… numerous times!
to name just a few:
* Tobias Ackermann – for being the most critical supporter of my trip by checking a few days before my departure if I actually thought about the whole thing well enough
* Martin Bäuml – for being a very supportive roommate who accepted both our apartment getting fuller and fuller with bike stuff and who clearly showed me that I am on the right track with my “inform the world about this amazing place on earth – Bavaria! – mission”
* Juliane Belz – for providing me with information about Alaska, for worrying about me, for providing me with updates from the east coast during my trip, and for being one of the four people who got up way too early in order to taking me to Newark airport on the day when I left for Calgary
* Birgit Bußmann – for taking me to Newark airport as well and for making sure that I could finish my Siemens internship with the knowledge that she’ll make a very good successor
* Jens Gehnen – for being one of the four people who took me to Newark airport, as well as for being host to Formula 1 watching Sunday mornings which ensured that I’ll survive the time not being able to watch the races while cycling
* Susann Goldgräbe – for continuously motivating me during the trip, for keeping me in the loop what was going on in Iselin, and for voluntarily getting up in the way too early morning in order to take me to Newark airport with all my stuff – otherwise I’d probably have had to cycle to Calgary also
* Jenny Harris – for the interesting updates from Iselin and simply for being such a kind person
* Philip Hetjens – for helping with some technical preparations for my bike trip, blogging etc.
* Mandy Kratina – for being one of the very few people who never had any doubt that I will be able to realize my idea and that it is not actually that crazy
* Andre Larberg – for his humorous approach of supporting my tour and for his warning not to get myself into becoming married in one of the mountain villages where people might be seeking for spreading such strong cycling genes that I am carrying around with me
* Ulrike Linge – for lending me her big enough car several times for transporting my bike; without her my bike would still be in the bike shop in Northern Jersey
* Katrin Paul, Corinna Steinweg, Tim Kastellan, Christian Maurer – for motivating me in all sorts of ways before and during my trip

- Siemens Shared Services, International Human Resources Department – for having provided me with a great work environment during the past year and for being positive about and interested in my plans for after my internship

- Ken Stahl (Northern Jersey President of Bicycle Touring Club of Northern Jersey) – for providing me with very helpful information about where to find good bike stores in New Jersey; in addition for providing helpful links, and for offering me to join their club for some rides (and I sadly never managed to get to it)

- Bertl and Franz Zavesky – for sending me a “bear survival kit” a few days before my departure from New Jersey

- People whom I met during my trip – for being friendly, for motivating me, for being interested, for being helpful, for being inspirational
especially Remo Seiler who offered me to pick me up along the way in case my knees had gone on strike completely and to join him for his tour across the north by car
and Dr. Arend Heise who very much inspired me with his cycling stories from and to all over the world

- Numerous people who helped and motivated me (both positively and in a critical way) by phone calls, SMS, emails, postcards, and above all the good, old personal chats that helped me a lot to both getting information from others and for being able to communicate what I felt during the time of preparation for that trip and during the trip itself

- Last but not least, my family… my parents and my sister – for supporting this idea, for being worried about me, for not being too worried to interfere with my plans, for being available all the time during my trip in case something might have happened, for tips & tricks, for being interested in my stories during my trip, and for being my “headquarters” for all sorts of things

In Anchorage!

2007-07-13T13:55:00.001-07:00

I arrived! Friday, 2:30pm, after 30 days, 2,813.5 kilometres (or 1,748.2 miles), my tour has come to a successful end.

After my arrival, I was given 1.5 hours by my friends in order to get ready (i.e. shower and re-packing) - and we left for Denali National Park Friday afternoon for the weekend, hiking and enjoying beautiful nature. Since Sunday evening, we're back in Anchorage - so I actually AM here now... and will use this week in order to catch up on sorting photos, answering emails... and at a certain point this week I'll update this blog with all the stories and photos... just give me a little bit of time.

From Anchorage - and from a happy, healthy Martin!

Day 30

2007-07-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 6, 2007 - day 30 (Palmer - Anchorage)

Distance: 49.6 miles (79.9 km); OVERALL distance: 1,748.2 miles (2,813.5 km)
Average: 16.9 mph (27.3 kph)

Weather: 17°C - 22°C, some clouds, mostly sunny, bit of tailwind

One more night of sleeping… and there it was, the very last day of my tour – I was pretty optimistic that I could do those 40 or so miles that where left in one day.

Perfectly enough, after all these days of clouds and rain and wind, it turned out to be a beautiful day with only a few clouds, nothing serious at all. The Chugach mountains ahead of me, I cycled along Knik Arm that led into the Cook Inlet and at the very south of Alaska into the ocean then.

Cycling just went perfectly well. The little bit of tailwind combined with a little bit of downhill let me almost race towards Anchorage...

… until there suddenly was this big bang while I was going down a hill along the Glenn Highway that suddenly wasn’t empty, windy and in the middle of nowhere anymore, it was two-, later on three-laned with a lot of traffic. So, there I was standing, on the hard shoulder, trying to figure out what just caused that noise. I though it came from the front part of my bike – but there was nothing. When looking towards the rear section of the bike, it very quickly became obvious what has happened: a flat – completely flat – tyre. Exactly 20 miles before the end of Glenn Highway, maybe 15 miles before the city border, maybe 27 miles before the end of my tour, a puncture. I couldn’t believe it. Everything went so well all the time, and then on my last day cycling…
Well, I didn’t have a choice – I started taking off all my luggage right next to that busy highway (which easily can be imagined as a highway like anywhere else in the country [ok, well, maybe not New Jersey, but other than that…], I turned my bike upside down and took the wheel off the bike. The real funny part about that story: only half a mile before that I saw a little sign saying: “Pedestrians and bicycles prohibited” – that sign was nowhere before, so being on the highway already I had not chance to find out about that earlier (it probably was prohibited all the way from just after Palmer where Glenn Highway crossed with Parks Highway going up to Fairbanks; also, there was not really an alternative route other than side roads that would really have slowed me down and would have been anything but a direct route). So, I stood there, always kind of waiting that in a second the first cops would come around a give me a $1,000 ticket for illegally cycling on the highway (driving 84mph instead of 65mph on a highway by car cost me $250, so that would probably the US police’s way of punishing cyclists...). Anyway, the reason for the puncture was more than obvious: a big, rusty nail, half of it outside the tyre, half of it, as I would find out a couple of minutes later, inside the tube. So, I simply replaced the whole tube, had to realize that even the inner rim tape was slightly damaged by the nail, so also my good, old duct tape was of use once again, and soon I was finished with the repairing and ready to move on. The wheel definitely did not run very smoothly anymore, it felt quite bumpy actually. But I couldn’t be bothered to check into that in detail, nor did I feel like standing any longer than necessary on that busy road.

I made it to Anchorage without any further incidents. Not that I ever saw a sign saying something like “Welcome to Anchorage”, but it was clear, I was there. The city has a population of approx. 500,000, but seems to be way more spread out than e.g. Calgary that has 1 million. It was an endless cycle through the roads of Anchorage, and entering from the north east and my friends being at the south west of the city did not make the whole thing shorter. But I like city cycling, even with a heavy bike. At exactly 2:30, I arrived at the cabin where my friends live – and exactly a month after I started my tour, I arrived in the city that has once been sooooo far away. What a feeling, what an amazing feeling.

My friends, however, decided that me being in Anchorage is ok, but I shouldn’t spend too much time there – so they gave me 1.5 hours to unpack my panniers, re-pack stuff into a rucksack, take a quick shower, and then they put me into their car and off we went, to Denali National Park for the weekend. My friend Lucy working during the week, and one of Lucy’s friend being in Anchorage for visiting obviously meant that the weekends needed to be used for trips – and Denali, an amazing National Park, was the plan for this weekend. I never regretted that I went. It was gorgeous, despite not so good weather on Saturday. But the nature up there, just 4 hours north of Anchorage, combined with a strenuous hike on Sunday up Sugarloaf Mountain made the whole thing pretty much fun – and even now I feel my muscles that weren’t that much used to hiking anymore… but Lucy’s friend was in extremely good shape, and obviously I couldn’t let him go up that mountain faster than I did.

Sunday late afternoon we left Denali again – and since then I can truly say: I AM IN ANCHORAGE!!!

Motto of the day:
"Anchorage!!! 30 days, 2,813.5 km or 1,748.2 miles, ascents, descents, hot and cold weather, sun and rain, head and tail wind, adventures and ‘normal’ things, sore and trained legs, north and south (but mainly west), sleeping bag and beds, mosquitoes and bears, kilometers and miles, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Alaska, forest, mountains, lakes, the sea, rivers, creeks, puddles… and so much more… an amazing month on my bicycle that did really well is coming to an end… and I will never ever forget what I’ve experienced. Next bike trip in… from… to… across… who knows…”

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070706 day 30 - Palmer - Anchorage:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559868457sNKIMm?vhost=travel

Day 29

2007-07-13T13:53:00.002-07:00

Thursday, July 5, 2007 - day 29 (Matanuska Glacier - Palmer)

Distance: 55.7 miles (89.6 km); overall distance so far: 1,698.6 miles (2,733.6 km)
Average: 13.4 mph (21.6 kph)

Weather: 9°C - 13°C, cloudy, rain, fog, bearable headwind

Approx. 100 miles to go – and sadly the weather wasn’t a lot better than the day before: grey, foggy, rainy, just not as much headwind.

The first 25-30 miles were challenging, not only because there was quite some climbing involved, it was also in an area completely and closely surrounded by high, steep rocks, plus a windy road without any hard shoulder at all– and in there they had a long road work going on, including areas where they blasted the mountain away to widen the road. In that weather and with these conditions, it was quite tricky to cycle (one could say dangerous, but I’ve hardly ever felt that any of the cycling in my “career” so far has been dangerous… maybe stupid, ok, but again, that’s part of the whole story ;-) ).

But these challenging 30 miles were not only that, they also led me through amazingly beautiful parts of Alaska – stupidly enough the majority enough was hidden behind the clouds. But I saw enough to realize how nice everything was.

Another experience within that section – I met a Moose. After I saw it standing next to the road on the other side, and after it almost ran into the last out of 3 cars driving in the opposite direction of mine, it started crossing the road and the running along my lane, just ahead of me. I kept a safe distance (those animals are huge, even if it was only a female moose) and slowly cycled behind it, not quite sure what to do, so, also not quite sure if I chased the moose or the moose played with me. What so ever, after a minute or so a car passed me an scared it away by honking continuously – and I got the chance to peacefully continue cycling.

And after an unspectacular last 20 miles for the day, I arrived in Palmer, just 40 miles away from Anchorage. The last evening of my trip has arrived. Once more sleeping and then…

Motto of the day: " ”Pugna almost finitus est” (that clearly is an insider, and also, it never really has been a fight, simply an amazing time)”

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070705 day 29 - Long Rifle Lodge – Palmer:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559858472HkiwJk?vhost=travel

Day 28

2007-07-13T13:53:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - day 28 (Tolsona Lake – Long Riffle Lodge (Matanuska Glacier)

Distance: 68.3 miles (109.9 km); overall distance so far: 1,642.9 miles (2,644.0 km)
Average: 11.5 mph (18.6 kph)

Weather: 9°C - 21°C, strong & painful headwind all day long, in parts horrible weather: fog, grey all day long, misty, rainy, cold, clouds

July 4, Independence Day, the day I initially possibly, maybe, perhaps, somehow had in mind to reach my destination. That day clearly showed me that I was still far, far away from where I wanted to be. What a day. The fact that it was Independence Day was something I completely did not realize – and I was not surprised that I didn’t as I was pretty much back in the middle of nowhere. But what I did not expect is such horrible weather. Not only was in cruelly headwindy, no, it also rained from time to time and the entire area was just covered in clouds (nothing new, happened before), but in addition also in mist and fog. Horrible!

It would only clear up a little bit towards the end, but it was a long way to go to that end. Really not a nice day to be on the road by bike. But well, that’s all part of the whole story, and I tried to accept that I was only able to cycle with 5 mph uphill and without pedaling no faster than 10 mph downhill. It was really a pity as especially towards the end there were great downhill sections.

Also a pity that I missed so much of the beautiful countryside I cycled towards. I think, every mile brought me closer to amazing mountains, dramatic rivers and creeks, gorges, the whole area seemed to become more and more spectacular. Despite the limited view, I was lucky enough to see Tazlina Glacier while I was cycling along Nelchina River.

And just 10 miles or so before I finished for the day, I got stopped in a steep downhill section, just before a 180°C bend – road work. But not a normal road work. Less than 6 hours before I got to that section, a rockslide came down and blocked half of the road (well, when it came down it probably blocked the entire road). Good timing, wouldn’t have wanted to be there when those rocks and mud came down! As after the curve it went uphill again, the roadworking guys stopped cars on both sides of the road and let me cycle all by myself through that section – not that it was really necessary as I caught up with the cars slowly driving ahead of me, lining up at the point where the actual slide was, but it was a nice gesture after such a painful day against the wind.

I stayed right opposite of Matanuska Glacier, a 27 miles long glacier – which one would never ever have guessed. I could see maybe half a mile of it, and the very bottom section seemed to have pretty much melted away.

Typical Alaska: guns & planes in front of the house:

Motto of the day: "Fireworks for the country… for me, not quite yet."

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070704 day 28 - Tolsona Lake - Long Rifle Lodge (Matanuska Glacier):
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559855730DzByaS?vhost=travel

Day 27

2007-07-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - day 27 (Grizzly Lake – Tolsona Lake (near Glennallen))

Distance: 86.6 miles (139.3 km); overall distance so far: 1,574.6 miles (2,534.1 km)
Average: 14.1 mph (22.8 kph)

Weather: 18°C - 28°C, mainly sunny, some clouds, light headwind for short time

If I managed to find the right way that day, I basically couldn’t get lost anymore (not that there seriously ever was any sort of issue with finding the route… maps is something that definitely was not necessary in order to find my way). But that day I got to the end of the so-called “Tok Cutoff” on Highway 1, went along the Richardson Highway 4 from Gatona Junction for approx. 10 miles till almost Glennallen, and got onto the last bit of my route, back on Highway 1, Glenn Highway (I think, Tok Cutoff is also part of the Glenn Highway, I think). Glenn Highway then went all the way to Anchorage.

And, believe it or not, I managed to find my way. Got to Gatona Junction without anything real spectacular to tell other than it was still beautiful to cycle along Wrangell-Saint Elias. And despite some headwind, I made it into Glennallen where I stocked up on food – and actually finally wanted to make a proper break to get some food and drink more than I did. But for whatever reason, maybe because this woman was talking to me, being impressed about my trip and telling me in a very excited way that her husband was working in Germany for years, I did not really do anything in Glennallen apart from quickly checking my emails in the library and getting back onto my bike. And I had to realize that even on the 27th day of my trip, on the 20th day on the bike, I managed to get dehydrated and suddenly felt kind of sick and dizzy. Great, I thought, 10 miles to go, and almost falling of the bike, that’s what I need now. But stopping for a while, eating and drinking, and I was ready for the last few miles to the place where I stopped for the day. One never stops learning apparently, even after such a long time cycling and thinking that one knows kind of everything now. I made sure that I drank a lot that evening – which I did… the plan of having an early night wouldn’t really work out… as mentioned before, I enjoyed reading till 3am.

Motto of the day: "You never stop learning."

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070703 day 27 - Grizzly Lake - Tolsona Lake Resort (near Glennallen):
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559854852GROOMc?vhost=travel

Day 26

2007-07-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 2, 2007 - day 26 (Tok - Grizzly Lake Campground (near Slana))

Distance: 71.1 miles (114.4 km); overall distance so far: 1,488 miles (2,394.8 km)
Average: 13.9 mph (22.5 kph)

Weather: 15°C - 24°C, some rain showers, very humid; later on sunny with clouds, no significant wind

With good intentions and the definite plan not to rush it anymore from Tok onwards on the last 330 miles or 550 kilometres, I left around lunch time only and spent a fairly “normal” day on the road.

Leaving Tok on perfectly paved road for the first 10 miles already made my mind calculate again how far I’d have to go per day to maybe being able to make the remaining distance in 4 days… or who knows, maybe even three days – which would have meant I could have arrived in Anchorage on the American Independence Day, something I was talking about before I started my trip: it would be kind of nice to arrive in Anchorage on July 4, being welcomed with fireworks.

But thank God the road became more challenging and it was really unpleasant to cycle for a while due to some rain and real high humidity – which slowed me down a bit and brought me back into reality.

But in general the day was fairly easy going. Some up- and downhill, some head-, some tail-wind, some sun, some rain, and towards the end on the far, misty horizon I could see the mountain range of Wrangell-Saint Elias National Preserve. I never got extremely close to it, but it was always impressive, also because of the forests and lakes that seemed to stretch out endlessly before the mountain range.

That night, I would stay at a campsite at Grizzly Lake (still haven’t seen any Grizzly bears, and also wouldn’t see any that night, just some horses on the other side of a gorgeous lake) in a nice little cabin. Having gotten the Da Vinci Code’s predecessor “Angels and Demons”, written by Dan Brown, I started reading a book I hardly could put away anymore – and as it never really gets dark in this area, I read till after 1am that night despite having had the plan of going to be really early – it wouldn’t change during the following nights. I finished the book in three evenings, by reading until 3am and 1:30am the next nights. Good book, I can recommend it! And I’m definitely back into reading again, hope I can continue doing so a bit more regularly than I did in the past when I’m back in my “normal life”.

Motto of the day: "Down South!"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070702 day 26 - Tok - Grizzly Lake Campground (near Slana):
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559858657ITYSpy?vhost=travel

Getting closer...

2007-07-02T13:02:00.006-07:00

As you can see by the raw data/facts from day 21 - day 25, I'm getting closer to Anchorage. I'll provide you with all pictures, stories and more when I have arrived in Anchorage... at this point there are approx. 330 miles (approx. 530 km) to go... I'm optimistic that I'll make it ;-)

Martin

Day 25

2007-07-02T13:02:00.005-07:00

Sunday, July 1, 2007 - day 24 (Beaver Creek - Tok)

Distance: 110.2 miles (177.4 km); overall distance so far: 1,416.9 miles (2,280.4 km)
Average: 13.7 mph (22.1 kph)

Weather: 14°C - 24°C, no wind, cloudy, some rain, getting stronger towards the end

Something that worked the day before would work again, I told myself… and off I went from Beaver Creek, with the plan to reach Tok that day – 110 miles, 180 km further on.

The weather was ok, i.e. no rain, but cloudy, and sadly enough no headwind anymore. But it might have been a bit too easy, so I simply did what I had and wanted to do: I continued pedaling and pedaling and pedaling.

No clue where exactly I was for the first 30km. Beaver Creek is the place with the Canadian border, so, people travelling eastwards into Canada would cross the border into Canada in Beaver Creek. Me, however, cycling westwards towards Alaska, I did not have a border yet for the next 30km. The U.S. border post only was in Port Alcan. I made it there, got my picture taken in front of the “Welcome to Alaska” sign (which was on the Canadian side) by probably the world’s worst photographer who more centered her and her husband’s RV than me and the sign, crossed the border without any trouble (I didn’t expect any trouble as I successfully entered the US on a still valid tourist visa waiver from Prince Rupert after some trouble back there), and I finally and for the rest of my time in North American was in Alaska! It felt nice to have reached that last and final section of my trip – but at the same time I had to realize what an amazing time I spent in Canada. An amazing country with great people and a lot of wonderful experiences – I will definitely not forget my time there, and it was kind of, well, sentimental might sound a bit too exaggerated, but something along that line, that I actually left Canada on Canada Day. Only thing left to be said, direct quote from the anthem: “O Canada… I’m going to miss you”.

First thing I found out that was better in Alaska, however, were the sections of the road that were unpaved but with gravel due to construction – the U.S. gravel sections seemed to be way more solid and easier to cycle on. Strangely enough, however, apart from that 1km of gravel when I was taken on the pilot truck 2 days ago, I did not see any actual road work going on. No clue if they hope that these sections will get paved automatically by some sort of miracle, or if they actually care about weekends in that area of the world (I would totally support that, not only because I’ll have to get used to non-24/7-supermarkets when I’m back in Germany).

Just a few miles (so, I’m back in miles-mode now) after the border, I saw one cyclist riding along the road into the same direction as I was. Actually, the very first cyclist whom I saw actually riding into my direction since I saw a road cyclist passing me on the third day on Icefields Parkway. I soon caught up to him – and cycled along a 76-year old American with whom I was chatting for quite a while. He was part of a group of 5 cyclists who started in Whitehorse and went to… hmm, I forgot, either Fairbanks or also Anchorage. But anyway, he was the oldest, the youngest around 60 years, and all of them were supported, i.e. they didn’t carry any luggage but had two people with two cars with them, with gear and food. So, not travelling self-contained in the way I am doing this, however, me being 25 years old and them being up to 76 years does put the whole thing into a slightly different angle. I enjoyed talking to them, and finally also got a chance to meet their two supporters, two young guys from Anchorage, one recommending me a good place for good pizza and beer (why only did I kind of ignore the beer advise but very well kept the pizza recommendation in mind?!), and he would also want to meet up when he is back in Anchorage. Will see if that’s going to happen.

Having Tok in mind, I needed to get going, soon passed the other cyclists of that group and continued on a road that was less flat than I expected it to be. The day before was only a little bit hilly and from what I heard the rest of the highway to Tok would be very similar. But it was quite a challenge due to continuous up and down – and rain starting towards the end of the day wasn’t really longed for either, but that’s how it is… and the weather God managed to get me completely wet again before I arrived in Tok – the most northern point of my entire trip.

That’s probably also why Tok was somewhat of a special point from the very beginning of my trip onwards. Whenever I read and informed myself about the route, I considered Tok as the “point of no return” in the sense of ‘Martin, if you’ll manage it to get there, then you’ll also manage the rest’. And there I was, after 5 days back on the bike since I restarted in Haines, and my body doing surprisingly well. New muscles came into play during those past days as I got out of the saddle way more often due to being able to do so because my knees would allow me to finally do so. That’s why some muscles in my legs which I haven’t felt until Prince Rupert on the first 1000 miles at all, suddenly were in pain. But sore muscles are good pain… and I had no intention to pause or rest another day. It all went way too well. Therefore I only used Tok after a 110 miles day of cycling to get a nice dinner, do my laundry, and being able to go online briefly.

Motto of the day: "O Canada... I'm going to miss you"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070701 day 25 - Beaver Creek - Tok:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559854949EJhVsu?vhost=travel

Day 24

2007-07-02T13:02:00.004-07:00

Saturday, June 30, 2007 - day 24 (Burwash Landing - Beaver Creek)

Distance: 106.5 miles (171.4 km); overall distance so far: 1,306.7 miles (2,103.0 km)
Average: 15.9 mph (25.6 kph)

Weather: 8°C - 11°C, rain all day long, sometimes strong; tail wind most of the day

That day is a bit hard, and fairly short to describe: it generally was a horrible day weather-wise, but it was great! It rained all day long, from the very beginning to the very end, sometimes not that strong, sometime it poured down as if it was the last day of the earth. But I had tailwind, pretty strong actually, and that most of the day also. So I just cycled, and cycled, and cycled. First stop for a break after almost 70 kilometres (other than a quick clothes changing stop quite at the beginning – I found it really difficult sometimes what to wear when it was raining; with 8°C I would be wearing my long sleeved bike shirt as an outer layer above my short sleeved shirt, plus long cycling pants; but wearing these things plus waterproof pants and my rain jacket meant that I was sweating like crazy – but I had to wear them because otherwise I would have been completely soaked even earlier; with taking off the long sleeved stuff underneath the rain gear was too cold again… it was a pain in the a…).

Anyway, the tail wind pushed me westwards – and towards the gravel section. On that day I started to understand what people meant when they told me that there were very long gravel sections on that highway just before the border. Overall, I think, I was cycling on at least 30km of gravel that day… and it even if it was a change from the “normal” road, it was no fun. Some section were really loose and I’m still surprised that I didn’t fall off the bike at all. Some parts had deep holes. And as I couldn’t ride on the hard shoulder due to it simply not existing, I had to use the same lane as cars, RV’s and trucks did. Most of the drivers were really cautious and I could really feel that they felt a bit sorry for that completely wet cyclist fighting his way up and down the gravel road. But some are just idiots and racing through that section so that the flying rocks from the road would be all over the place, including hitting me, luckily enough not in the face. And some people really don’t seem to know the dimensions of their cars when passing.

It all kept me going, and I managed to get to Beaver Creek without any incidents (well, the chain of my bike thought for a little while that it needs to be funny and was swinging up and down loosely when I wasn’t pedaling; I never found out why that was the case; I first thought my rear wheel might be loose – but that was not the case; but riding on all that bumpy gravel seemed to “repair” the chain and the issue never came up again). And due to being wet, wetter, Martin, I got myself a cheap motel room in Beaver Creek that night in order to kind of get my stuff dry again. Very nice to be inside and not having to care anymore about the weather or anything.

But as I said at the beginning: it was a great day as the wind pushed me very nicely and I moved quite a bit forward.

Motto of the day: "When things are going well, they're going well" (rough translation from: 'Wenn's laeuft, dann laeuft's!')

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070630 day 24 - Burwash Landing - Beaver Creek:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559856656XpWchy?vhost=travel

Day 23

2007-07-02T13:02:00.002-07:00

Friday, June 29, 2007 - day 23 (Haines Junction - Burwash Landing)

Distance: 76.5 miles (123.2 km) + 1 km on a pilot truck through some roadworks; overall distance so far: 1,200.2 miles (1,931.6 km)
Average: 12.9 mph (20.9 kph)

Weather: 17°C - 22°C, sun/clouds mix, towards end mainly sun, almost no head wind

I wasn’t hoping for too much – that first day on the Alaska Highway was a very good one… and it would become the day with by far the most cyclists along the route that I have seen on my whole trip.

Stocking up on food in Haines Junction did make sense as not too many places would be along the route for the next kilometers. And a slightly cloudy, but often sunny sky made me set off from Haines Junction (without a sore throat, by the way) happily and pretty motivated. And the first ascent began immediately. I was actually cycling up to the highest point of the section of the Alaska Highway I was on, i.e. the highest point between Haines Junction and Tok. And it was one of these points which reminded me again that it has actually been quite a while since I’ve seen the last bear. The last one was in the middle of Juneau, crossing a road and climbing across a wooden fence into a private garden. So, you might have guessed it, that summit with an elevation of 1,004m was called Bear Creek Summit – and was immediately followed by another summit, the second highest point along the highway, with an elevation of 1,003m – not without a nice downhill section in between, ob viously.

While clouds were really getting darker, I met two cyclists from San Diego who cycled from Alaska back to Whitehorse, i.e. into the opposite direction. Pretty good dramaturges. They told me their stories about what kind of trouble they had on their way from Tok to where I met them: “everything is closed, there is not food along the way for the next 250 kilometres; and between a 180km section there is no water… and the only dirty river they found immediately clocked their filters.” And so on. So my only thought was: great, that’s going to be interesting then! But then again, I have cycled a certain mileage already and slowy started to know how much food and water I needed. Therefore I was more concerned about those clouds getting really – impressively, but also unpleasantly – dark.

It wasn’t long after I met those two guys that I hit the first roadwork. Often announced by all sorts of people whom I met along the way, and there it was, the first 8km of gravel road. The Alaska Highway is famous for its road works. The only time for repairs is summer due to the rough climate from September till April – and not only are there quite some sections of the Highway that need to be improved in order to keep up with road standards, the hard winters usually destroy quite a bit of the road as well and things need to be repaired. So, basically when I got the first glimpse of Kluane Lake, one of the largest if not the largest lake in the Yukon, I got to that gravel section and other than what I was about to come across later on during my trip, there were actually also some people working – and the person with the stop sign decided that I should not cycle through the first kilometre of the roadwork. Therefore my bike and I were loaded onto the pilot car that was normally guiding cars through that section of the road work, and I unintentionally cut my trip short of one kilometre. With the best wishes by the road workers (women, of course, I was still in Canada after all), I continued on the gravel. Not the nicest part, but well, it had to be done.

Getting a bit confused by the physical kilometreposts along the highway that up to a certain point were renewed and amended to the actual new distance of the Alaska Highway, I then got to a section were the old kilometreposts were still up, un-amended to the road having gotten a bit shorter over the years due to constructions and cutting out some bits and pieces, and as a result I was further already that I thought from my initial plans for the day. So I continued cycling after re-considering how far I would want to go and what would make sense distance- and accommodation-wise.

Despite it being pretty warm towards the end of the day, I fairly easily got to Burwash Landing (not only after having seen new sorts of wildlife for the first time: wild horses crossing the road) – where I stopped for the day. And it really must have been the day of cycling. Apart from those guys from San Diego earlier on that day, at Burwash Landing Resort, I met a Swiss couple cycling from Anchorage to Haines Junction – on a tandem; I met an American and a German cycling together for the day and in general somehow from Alaska towards southwestern Canada. The American was also a good partner for a conversation about the Adirondacks State Park in New York State – where not only he was more or less from, but also I was hiking in there three times while I was in the U.S. Well, and definitely the most impressive person I met that day – and probably along the entire trip: a 65-year old German man from Northern Germany – who was on his way to Whitehorse. But not only was he on the way to the capital of the Yukon Territory, he also did the famous Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse/Prudoe Bay, the most northern point in Alaska that can be reached by – gravel – road. There really is not much along the way anymore. And if that hadn’t been enough by itself, he let me participate in his cycling history – only word for it: impressive. Since 1989 he didn’t spend a single vacation not cycling anymore. And his big cycling career began in 1989 or 90 from Northern Germany to Moscow, when it was basically impossible to get a Russian visa for such an undertaking. Since then half of the world seems to have been explored by him and his bike: Germany to the North Cape; across the Baltics, down to Istanbul, into Spain, North America, etc. etc. Not that I’m going to plan on exactly following his example, but there clearly is more to do! ;-)

Motto of the day: "It must have been 'World Day of Cycling/Cyclists', as many as I met today"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070629 day 23 - Haines Junction - Burwash Landing:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559856050ImMCIg?vhost=travel

Day 22

2007-07-02T13:02:00.001-07:00

Thursday, June 28, 2007 - day 22 (Million Dollar Falls - Haines Junction)

Distance: 56.8 miles (91.4 km); overall distance so far: 1,123.7 miles (1,808.4 km)
Average: 11.6 mph (18.7 kph)

Weather: 13°C - 32°C, mostly sunny, some clouds, some rain, strong thunderstorm in the evening, bad headwind first half of the day

As there was no drinking water at the campsite where I stayed, it was finally time for using my water filter for the first time – and the filtered river water did not only taste very good, it also was very important to have because that new day wouldn’t be any better to me than the day before. I was still cycling through absolutely gorgeous scenery, mountains, lakes (the wonderful Dezadeash Lake, for example), quiet roads (way less traffic than what I was used to from the trip so far), forest, it was wonderful. But at the same time, it was headwindy again – and in addition I simply didn’t feel that well that day. An upcoming sore throat wasn’t really helpful in moving forward. The first 30 kilometres felt like if they would never end anymore.

But it got a bit better later on – again, when it started to rain a little, funnily enough. Rain seems to really support me as usually the wind seems to get less then, and also, it’s nicer to stop for a break in rain than in an area like where I was when it does not rain – because in that case I’m just eaten up by mosquitoes. I really had to limit my time during breaks to quickly getting some food out of the panniers, eating some of the things while continuously walking around, and eating the rest while cycling again.

I made it to Haines Junction after a fairly short leg, and therefore arrived in the village where Haines Highway would finish and go into the Alaska Highway. The great, endlessly long Alaska Highway I would cycle on for the next days. Somewhat of an impressive feeling. That Highway runs all the way from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Delta Junction, close to Fairbanks, in Alaska. No wonder I was looking forward to the next day, despite a heavy thunderstorm that night with lots of rainfall, and my exhausted body and slightly sore throat.

Motto of the day: "This is what heaven and hell at the same time must feel like (and... could somebody stop this wind, please?!?)"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070628 day 22 - Million Dollar Falls - Haines Junction:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559854044DhNWuW?vhost=travel

Day 21

2007-07-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - day 21 (Haines - Million Dollar Falls)

Distance: 97.5 miles (156.9 km); overall distance so far: 1,066.9 miles (1,717.0 km)
Average: 11.0 mph (17.7 kph)

Weather: 11°C - 31°C, beautifully sunny almost all day long, some dark clouds & a bit of rain towards end; extreme headwind

Properly sitting on the bike again after 5 days of having a break felt more normal than I expected it to feel like – and despite headwind from Haines onwards, I felt just great. All the different parts of my body that were sore and aching were still far away from being entirely fine, but my body definitely used the break to recover a bit – and I could feel that. Especially my knees would be doing so much better for the remaining part of the trip, and realizing that was just great. Additionally, the weather was just perfect (disregarding the nuisance of having headwind).

Haines to Haines Junction along Haines Highway is supposed to be one of the greatest sections of my tour – so the prospect of seeing the scenery and not having to cycle through it while everything is covered in dark clouds helped me get going early that day, and the first 40 miles cycling in Alaska until I got to the border back into Canada were very enjoyable – including some sort of additional adrenalin when four pretty big dogs came running from a lonely house across the road, barking, surrounding me, and not appearing to be interested in letting me go anymore anytime soon. The owners successfully called them back to their house after a while – and I had to think about the statistics that during the past 10 years more people in Alaska were killed by dogs than people were killed by bears during the past 50 years! Maybe being equipped with bear spray was the wrong pre-caution?!

Crossing the border back into Canada was uncomplicated – the woman at the border post seemed to be impressed about the tour (and I was impressed, during my whole trip already, how female oriented Canada seems to be… everything that seems to be more of a male domain in other countries seems to be dealt with by women in Canada: border inspection officers [both at the airport and on that day], road construction workers, lawn mowing in towns, all these sorts of things), and right after the border the ascent began.

I was climbing uphill for the next 30 kilometres (being back in Canada did not only mean that I lost an hour due to re-entering the Pacific time zone from the Alaskan time zone [despite the next part being more and more western than Juneau that actually is on Alaskan time], it also meant being back on kilometers – although I decided to keep my bike computer in miles to not get completely confused). That uphill meant leaving more or less sea level and climbing up to 1070m elevation. Nice climb, but also a strenuous climb – as it was not only steep, but also warm (up to 31 degrees Celsius).

Reaching Haines Highway Summit was nice – but the following part was so much harder than I would have ever thought. Being a little tired already after 100km and all that ascent, I headed further towards north and wanted to reach the only campground along the way – still 60km away. Well, believe me, not funny when suddenly the headwind kicks in again and you are just feeling is if you were pushed backwards. And the weirdest thing: dark clouds came up, however, they moved away from me into the same direction as I was cycling to. Clouds moving with me would normally mean tail wind, right?! It must have been a very strange day, thermally. Didn’t help me. I had to go on. Stops every single 10 kilometres (no even), cursing, eating, drinking, and cycling on with a speed of under 10kph, all of it helped me to move forward… and finally make it from the Canadian Province of British Columbia into Canada’s most northwestern territory, the Yukon. This was also the point when a short rain shower cooled me down and calmed down the wind a bit.

In absolutely stunning nature, endless forests, mountains, pure nature... in that environment I managed to get to Million Dollar Falls – where I pinched my tent, was almost entirely eaten by mosquitoes, and had a very good night sleep after most probably the most exhausting day of the entire journey.

Motto of the day: " 'Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.' - Today I couldn't have done a lot more to fully utilise my cycling talent."

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070627 day 21 - Haines - Million Dollar Falls:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559857333TaQPCU?vhost=travel

All photos (and reports) online now!

2007-06-26T16:04:00.001-07:00

Finally, the public library in Haines made it possible: all my photos are uploaded, i.e. photos from day 6 until yesterday (day 19) are finally online and can be viewed (today's photos will follow sometime later on). Links can be found at the end of each day's posts.

Reports are also online, have fun reading!

Martin

PS: Thanks to all those who looked into the possibility of "bulk-uploading" photos without ActiveX. There seems to be the chance of bridging a gap in the market!

Day 20

2007-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - day 20 (ferry ride from Juneau to Haines)

Distance: 0 miles; overall distance so far: 969.4 miles (1,560.3 km)

Weather: warm & sunny, great day!

Believe it or not, we managed to get up on time and all board the ferry to Haines at 6:30 on that Tuesday.

It’s been an amazing day, very warm and sunny, just great! I spent most of the time sitting on deck in a lawn chair, a bit of reading, enjoying the nature, again including whales, being teased by the ladies, and sleeping (rumours said I was snoring… which I can hardly believe).

We arrived in Haines just before noon… and I got onto my bike and Lucy into their fully packed car which they had left behind at Haines terminal while they were in Juneau. Amusing story about the fully packed car: Lucy is moving to Anchorage, that’s why she is bringing basically everything she owns. Shane is staying with her for the summer, so I assume she has also got some stuff. And in addition, they offered to pick up and bring along some of my stuff which I had in New Jersey and will either need in Anchorage or the latest back in Germany – but couldn’t ship or bring along on my bike trip. This stuff was packed in a nice, big, huge bag… and I was informed in Juneau that it will cost me some extra beers for the ladies for all the trouble they had to undergo with my luggage. The bag with its fairly sturdy structure simply wouldn’t fit into the car anymore… so they had to unpack all my stuff into the backpack that was inside the bag also, and Lucy’s mom will have to mail my bag from Chicago to Anchorage…

Well, and when I saw the car at the port in Haines, I also understood why they didn’t have too much flexibility anymore… the car was really fully packed. And with that car they were driving into Haines which was just 4 or 5 miles away… and I cycled there. We met up for lunch, I got another book for my remaining 1200 and something kilometers or now that I am back in the U.S. remaining 700 and something miles, and then Lucy and Shane left by car with the direction Anchorage – and will probably do the trip in 2 days… me, however, it will take another, well, hard to say, as always, weather, body fitness, other stuff that might happen, road conditions, motivation, etc. etc., but it’ll take me another 2 weeks plus minus a little bit, until I am going to be there then.

In the meantime, i.e. today in the afternoon, I checked into a hostel a bit outside Haines, am now sitting in the library for hours already writing all of that, am going to stock up on groceries and other little things I will need for getting back onto my bike tomorrow (camping gas, cash, etc.), and then, well, then it’ll be me back on my bike, kind of refreshed (I’m sure my muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons and more were not unhappy about having these 5 days of break), and the tour is going to continue – probably starting with quite a stretch on the first day already: I will have to pass a pass that’s higher than 1,000m above sea level within the first 60-70 miles, and currently I am at sea level… also, there is a campground after 20miles, and the next one after 100 miles, i.e. 160km, i.e. it’s going to be very hard… and as I’m going to cycle through an amazing area beautiful at the same time…

I will keep you posted… maybe from Anchorage only the next time, maybe earlier, hard to say. But you can assume that I am having a great, great time until you are going to hear from me again!

(P.S.: And I was able to write all of that on an Apple!! I’m impressed myself a bit ;-)
P.P.S.: As staff at the library changed in the meantime the new guy does not really know that I've spent my 2 hours maximum of internet per day at Haines library already... and here I am, also being able to upload all my novels... if you ever get to Haines, I can recommend the library!)

Motto of the day: next motto is going to follow when I'm back on the bike

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070626 day 20 - ferry ride from Juneau to Haines:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559843203aKOCDd?vhost=travel

Day 18 & 19

2007-06-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday/Monday, June 24/25, 2007 - day 18/19 (Juneau)

Distance: 0 miles; overall distance so far: 969.4 miles (1,560.3 km)

Weather: both Sunday & Monday: grey, cloudy, some rain, fairly cold

So, Juneau. Well, Juneau. I hardly saw it during the time I was there as Lucy’s friend lived somewhere in the suburbs (suburbs sounds large… however, the whole area surrounding the state capital Juneau has only a population of 33,000 people!) and we didn’t really go into the city – however, apart from relaxing, sleeping in a bed with bear and moose sheets which they provided to me, and eating way too much, we mainly focused on seeing the beautiful nature around Juneau. Mendenhall Glacier, St. Mary’s chapel on a lovely island, just to name two things.

Also, we had very tasty New York Cheesecake flavoured Frozen Yogurt and played two board games during our stay there: “Alaska Monopoly” – which I won… well, not too much of a surprise as I practiced a lot during my time in New Jersey (not with the Alaska version though). But more interestingly, I also won scrabble… me, the German and only non-native speaker… But besides these few glorious moments, Shane and Lucy had the time of their lives teasing me… and we all, including our hosts, had a wonderful time.

And, we were all not capable enough to read the ferry schedule properly. We thought about taking a fast ferry from Juneau to Haines on Monday evening – well… when we arrived at the port and had securely locked the keys into the car we could borrow from Lucy’s friend, as arranged, we wanted to get our tickets… and were told that there was not ferry… only one leaving the next morning… Great, so us being at the ferry terminal, locked out of the car, and both of our hosts still at work… but AAA quickly helped us opening the car again and we spent another night in Juneau.

Motto of the day: next motto is going to follow when I'm back on the bike

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070624 day 18 - Juneau:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559841549cZzLxF?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070625 day 19 - Juneau:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559845360AkFmYg?vhost=travel

Day 16 & 17

2007-06-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

Friday/Saturday, June 22/23, 2007 - day 16/17 (ferry ride from Prince Rupert to Juneau)

Distance: 0 km; overall distance so far: 1,560.3 km = 969.4 miles

Weather: Friday: coolish, sunny & some clouds during ferry ride; Saturday: cloudy, some rain, grey during ferry ride

One of the highlights off the bike during my time in Canada and Alaska, certainly the ferry ride from Prince Rupert into the Alaskan capital city of Juneau. That ferry ride went through the so-called “Inside Passage” and passed by beautiful nature, both in the sense of scenery and wildlife.

But before being able to board the ferry around lunch time Friday, June 22, I first had to successfully pass U.S. Immigration on Canadian ground in order to be allowed back into the U.S., i.e. Alaska. And that was, as expected, not completely without any trouble. I was in the U.S. on a training visa during my internship with Siemens – and left the U.S. when I flew into Calgary, Canada. However, for officially being eligible for another entry into the U.S. as whatever, I would normally have needed either a Visitor visa (which I possibly could have gotten in Calgary, but it would have been both expensive and time-consuming), or I would have had to leave North America completely, i.e. fly into North America from a non-North American airport. Anyway, I was lucky that the border officer did only check my Siemens internship visa which expired in January already and therefore he probably assumed that I was back in Germany between January and June – the document indicating that my visa was extended (as my internship in the States was extended) I did not actually show him, and well, as he did not ask about it… So, he just told me that I do not actually qualify for the 90 day tourist visa waiver through which I can enter the U.S. as German citizen, however, he will make a one-time exception. Good that I played the lost German, how has never heard anything about U.S. visas in his life before, and just wants to cycle from Calgary to Anchorage… Funny story there as well: he asked me where I am going to go from Prince Rupert… so I explained him that I will take the ferry to Juneau and cycle from there to Anchorage… stupidly enough I did not mention that I will also have to take a ferry from Juneau to Haines (short ferry in order to actually get back onto roads – as Juneau can only be reached by air or by water) – and that made him, well, me, even more suspicious. But as I could at least prove my intentions to leave the U.S. again by showing him my flight ticket out of Anchorage, I was left back into that country that seems to be so afraid of having illegal immigrants… always amazing.

So, well, anyway, I got onto the ferry, “parked” my bike together with many other cars, and found myself a comfortable chair on deck – where I would be for the next 35 hours. I thought the ferry ride would be less than 24 hours, but that’s where I was wrong – but it didn’t matter. I just relaxed and enjoyed. I read almost an entire book, I ate way too much food, I watched strange movies which they showed from time to time, I listened to interesting presentations about some things connected to Alaska. Wildlife, geography, the tempered rainforest. And, above all: I enjoyed the beauty of the inside passage. Not only was the weather on Friday pretty good (Saturday not so much), it was also wonderful to see all these mountain ranges, forests, the water, eagles, and… whales! I don’t think I ever saw whales outside zoos/aquariums.

We stopped at several Alaskan harbours along the way – in Ketchikan we saw a missile destroyer ship which didn’t really fit into the scenery in my opinion, but well, and besides that, we slowly got more and more to the north… and arrived sometime with a 2-3 hours delay (due to other ships still being in the port) in Juneau – or well, in the port 14 miles north of Juneau. I had no clue where to stay yet, just heard some people talking on the ship that the hostel is full already and that it’s not easy to get an accommodation in Juneau, especially at 10 o’clock at night.

The bigger and the more positive was the surprise (even if it was completely unexpected) that my friend Lucy was waiting for me at the ferry terminal, picking me up. That’s the friend who is going to be in Anchorage in the end. Well, and she and her friend Shane are currently also on their way from the U.S. American east to Alaska – by car, and arrived at a stop in Juneau just the day before. Nice coincidence – and a bed for the following nights was secured as Lucy has got a friend in Juneau with who we all could stay.

I was warmly welcomed by everybody, and guess what… Lucy’s friend’s husband is… ta ta… State Trooper, i.e. a cop, in Juneau. Great, me staying at a state troopers home… my U.S. speeding ticket from last September ($250 for nothing!) was a topic more than once. Well, but on a serious note: they were wonderful people hosting us with a wonderful dog named Sydney… and I was really glad to be welcomed there so warmly… and it made it very easy to decide to take a break from all the cycling for a few days.

Motto of the day: next motto is going to follow when I'm back on the bike

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070622 day 16 - Inside Passage ferry ride:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559842241myVvTg?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070623 day 17 - Inside Passage & arrival Juneau:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559841349KlnMMs?vhost=travel

Day 15

2007-06-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 21, 2007 - day 15 (Exchamsiks River - Prince Rupert)

Distance: 92.5 km; overall distance so far: 1,560.3 km
Average: 23.1 kph

Weather: 11°C - 14°C; no wind, cloudy, some rain during second half of ride

And there it was, that day I am going to arrive in Prince Rupert. I started early (Martin early, i.e. I sat on my bike at 9:15… I guess some other people would call that late… but when it’s daylight till way past 22:00, there is just no point in getting up early, out of the warm sleeping back into the cold morning). And for the first 50km I just set some record speed – average of almost 26kph – which is quite ok with all that luggage. But then again, it only went along Skeena River and was basically flat and there was not wind.

The remaining 50km were a bit harder. It went from almost sea level up to Rainbow Hill (160m above sea level) in pouring rain (yeah, wet again!), and then up and down till almost Prince Rupert. While singing “oh happy day” just 10km before reaching the ocean, I saw another bear, my 5th bear, just starring at me, probably thinking what a crazy person he just saw passing by…

And there I was, early afternoon, Prince Rupert. I checked into a very nice hostel, great atmosphere, great staff, very comfy – and a wonderful hot shower! Although, I’m not sure what was better, the shower, or the washing machine which I could use for finally doing my laundry again after 6 continuous days of cycling in mainly wet conditions. There have been days were I smelled better than the day when I arrived on the Canadian west coast, I guess. I didn’t do a lot more there other than some online work, wandering around in the town of Prince George, and having a dinner together with some guy from Calgary – who came all the way from Calgary by car… lazy bastard!

So, to put it into a nutshell: really bad knees and a not so ideal state of my Achilles tendon, plus a little puncture on day number 1, but apart from that: it’s been amazing during those past 1,560km (or 970 miles). And I very much hope that it’ll go on in a similar way when I continue cycling in Alaska.

Motto of the day: "The Pacific Ocean!"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070620 day 15 - Exchamsiks River - Prince Rupert:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559635399xBntUd?vhost=community

Day 14

2007-06-22T01:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - day 14 (Kitwanga - Exchamsiks River Provincial Park)

Distance: 154.9 km; overall distance so far: 1,467.8 km
Average: 22.9 kph

Weather: 13°C - 16°C, rain all day long incl. one downpour, only short sunny bits, no wind

Surprisingly enough I finally managed to set off fairly early that day – just to lose all that time again while being back down at junction Highway 16 and 37. There was a gas station – and the only public phone in an area of, I don’t know100km or so. And as it became clear that I am moving forward fairly quickly, I finally needed to book my ferry – and it took me ages to get that stupid phone to work. But, it worked out, somehow, after trying all sorts of different credit and debit cards, as well as different numbers, as well as some Dutch whom I made happy in between by telling them the secrets of using 011 in order to call from North America to Europe. So, on that Wednesday morning, I got a ferry ticket from Prince Rupert to Juneau for Friday.

And as 250km were left in order to actually get to Prince Rupert, I had to get going… out into the rain. It was the wettest day so far. Rain almost all day long… and not just that. After 60km and already being completely soaked, I got to a roadwork. A roadwork I knew about in advance. There was a mudslide a few days before and the entire highway (including railway) was closed and Prince Rupert wasn’t accessible by road. The closure was history already when I got there, however, they were still transporting mud and all the other things that are included with that (trees, rocks etc.) away from the place where it happened. A helicopter was checking the area for further instabilities. So, I had to wait for more than 20 minutes in front of that lady with a typical road work “stop” sign, after a while freezing as I was so wet and already thought about going for a run along the hard shoulder… but then thought that all those cars and trucks waiting in a long line behind me would probably call me completely crazy then; therefore I focused on eating, both fruits and a Mars bar (no clue how many Mars bars I had already during that trip… thank God they are being sold in Canada; no clue what I am going to do in Alaska as Mars simply does not seem to exist in the US)… and when the trucks and diggers finally stopped and the road was opened for my direction of the traffic, I covered myself in mud, completely. It all was so dirty and wet. But it was fun, and leading 50-70 cars with my bike through this roadwork through the mud was kind of interesting also.

A completely random side note: imagine you are somewhere just after Prince George and the next bigger town is maybe 200, 300, 400km away… don’t imagine that certain companies would simply not make advertisement for a while. No, no, you find big bill boards saying something like: “next McDonald’s 250km ahead”. Or, “400km straight ahead, something Inn Hotels in Terrace”. Marketing is something very strange…

Back to that specific day: due to the rain and very low hanging clouds, I could hardly see anything of the beautiful countryside around. I was cycling through the coastal mountain range – with mountains such as the Seven Sisters… but I simply could not see them. That was a pity, but well, I can’t change the weather, I guess.

When I arrived in Terrace after 100km, I was not only very hungry, I was also cold, so I really needed a break – which I took. And it made me fit for some more kilometers, two major ascents, and apart from that, the hardest rainfall in ages but just a few minutes later also sun. So, I had a good time – and not only the train conductor because of whose train I had to wait for 10 minutes at a crossing of tracks could feel that… and gave me a long honk especially for me. People are just wonderful.

And then, I arrived at this great Provincial Park that was completely empty and officially declared as “no campsite”. But well, it was a good spot for camping anyway, I cycled 155km that day so I simply had to stop sometime, and the place was just wonderful. Next to a mountain with a great waterfall and right at a lake. Very romantic – I lived through that romance by having a quick dinner together with many, many mosquitoes, and off I went, into my tent, preparing mentally for the last 100km to Prince Rupert. Somewhat of a good feeling if you know that the next day you are going to reach the place which is way more than half time already, it’s kind of the end of being in Canada (despite this little stretch out of and back into Alaska), and it’s the place which I defined as the minimum I have to reach in case my knees will completely kill me. So, I felt wonderful in my tent that was “attacked” by plenty of rain the entire night.

Motto of the day: "Back into childhood: completely soaked & covered in mud - it feels great!"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070620 day 14 - Kitwanga - Exchamsiks River Provincial Park:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559635105hwELxG?vhost=community

Day 13

2007-06-22T01:44:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - day 13 (Telkwa - Kitwanga)

Distance: 133.2 km; overall distance so far: 1,312.9 km
Average: 22.8 kph

Weather: 10°C - 18°C, night before really freezing, rain in the morning, most of the day dry, mainly cloudy, in the end: rain

I’ve never been superstitious, so day number 13 was just one out of many great days on and off my bike. But still, it was fun seeing that I had a great day, that 13th day since I started in Calgary.

Again, I needed quite some time to get started in the morning as I had to stock up on all sorts of things in Smithers, 10-15km after I started from my campsite in the morning. I got a breakfast, I got new food supplies, I got a new camping stove, and I got a new book as the other one I had with me was almost finished. And so it came that I only left Smithers at just before 13:30.

But then, it was great being on the bike. Passed by Moricetown with its famous canyon and hardly realized how time and kilometers passed until I was in New Hazelton. But there was just no point in stopping yet, so I didn’t even stop in this last village before Terrace – which was quite a long way away.

During a short break later on, I met an English guy (also cycling the other way round, but in Canada only) – and I got more and more the impression that Britain seems to be a great cycling nation! What’s wrong with all those Germans?? Am I the only one representing them? Who knows, it really seems that the only cyclists are coming from Switzerland, North America, obviously, and, well, the UK.

While I was cycling along Sheena River already – the river I was going to follow until I arrived at the Canadian west coast) – it started to rain, only 10km or so before my destination for the day. That’s life, I guess. So, I was all wet again… but did a good distance, and in addition, I cycled for 4km on Cassier Highway 37 – the Highway I would have taken as an alternative to my route that I am cycling now. Initially I had in mind to only cycle to Juneau – and in that case I would have cycled up the partly unpaved Highway 37 towards Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon Territory. This junction of Highways 16 and 37 at Kitwanga, near Hazelton, always felt like something very special. Don’t ask me why, it just felt like something very far away, very remote, almost a bit mystique – and now I was there… and apart from the rain that made everything pretty grey, it wasn’t mystique at all. Still, it felt good that I reached that point in a good time, without any major issues. Well, and back to the point: as the only campsite in that area was along Cassier Highway, I got to cycle it for a few kilometers that evening.

Nice campsite – they gave me, due to the rain, a spot for my tent right under a big birch, right next to the showers, very convenient. And an elderly Dutch couple invited me to join them on their roof-covered pavilion for dinner and some nice stories (and some German speaking, as they both clearly preferred speaking in German to English… well, I gave my best to speak properly so that they could understand me and my Bavarian accent ;-) ). It was a good day.

Motto of the day: "Lucky No. 13"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070619 day 13 - Telkwa - Kitwanga:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636492SuLiWW?vhost=community

Day 12

2007-06-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 18, 2007 - day 12 (Burns Lake - Telkwa)

Distance: 140.4 km; overall distance so far: 1,179.7 km
Average: 19.9 kph

Weather: 13°C - 18°C, first grey & cloudy, later sunny & blue sky - strong headwind all day long

Wind-wise the next day wasn’t better. Actually, it was worse. 140km of fighting against the forces of nature. But still, it was a much better day than the day before. It took me quite some time to actually get started that day – after calling home and getting some groceries plus new medicine (I’m now only carrying a max. of a third of what I have initially… but I hope that I won’t need it anyway). And it took me even longer to manage the first part of my day… to Houston. Not the one in Texas, just the one in British Columbia, with the world’s largest fly rod. I almost wanted to stop there for the day, but as so often, sitting down for a little while motivated me again and it was a good decision to move on – and funnily enough the main reason for actually not staying in Houston was that I saw a single police car within 5 minutes stopping two different drivers within the village/town of Houston. Not a place for me to stay, clearly.

So, off I went, at almost 5 o’clock already, with the plan to fight myself against the wind for another 50-60 kilomtres… and how could it be differently… out of the first 10km it went uphill with an ascent of 8% for the first 5km. Great! But as you know, I like mountains. Also, I am used to getting pretty useless information by the visitor centres in these towns (Houston was the third visitor centre I visited on my trip, and the third one with really friendly staff whose information was next to completely nonsense), so their information that it won’t be particularly hilly on my further route was, well, not completely unexpectedly wrong. And, after all, despite the wind it turned out to be one of the sunniest days so far. Beautiful countryside as I got closer towards the Coast Mountain Range, so, all good. Further more, I met the first female cyclist riding in the opposite direction and she told me that she just met those crazy guys from Prince George who cycled from Patagonia to Alaska and then on in whatever way… those guys started one day before me in Prince George – and I seemed to have been only 2-3 hours behind them that day then. Nice motivation.

I managed to get to Telkwa, just before the bigger town of Smithers, where I stayed at a campsite of the Provincial Park – and I met very nice people there. The guy who ran the campground together with his girl friend was really nice, chatting away with me for ages. And an elderly couple from the States was totally excited seeing me – as they also used to cycle long tours, one of those tours, for example, diagonally across the USA from Florida to Washington State – together with their 9-year old son! And these people at the campsite were not the only nice ones I met that day: at the top of a fairly long uphill stretch, a car with to young people standing outside was waiting for me to reach the top… I first thought they’d have some trouble with their car. But they actually just wanted to speak to me as the guy just finished a long bike journey all over South America and is always very excited about meeting cyclists now. So, even if I don’t see that many cyclist on the road actually cycling, I come across quite some people who did similar things before – and after my only bad experience in Vanderhoof (which would remain the only bad experience up to this day so far) it was very good meeting all those friendly, interested people along the way.

Motto of the day: "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070618 day 12 - Burns Lake - Telkwa:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636490ccOVTW?vhost=community

Day 11

2007-06-22T01:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - day 11 (Vanderhoof - Burns Lake)

Distance: 124.1 km; overall distance so far: 1,039.3 km
Average: 20.6 kph

Weather: 24°C - 27°C, later 11°C - 20°C, first sunny, then dark cloudy, then rain; headwind for first 70km, rest: rain

As much as I liked the fact that I was in Vanderhoof the day before (I simply liked the name of that place… it sounded Dutch, and not only is it always fun seeing the Dutch lose in soccer matches, no, I simply like most of the things that are somehow connected to Germany’s neighbouring country), as much I disliked it the morning after I got out of my tent. Due to missing bear proof containers I stored one of my bags - as I call it, the “smelly bag” (for the simple reason that all of the stuff that’s in this bag is potentially attractive to bears, smell-wise) - in the wash/shower room over night. Well, big mistake. The next morning I found the leftovers from that bag spread all over the place – and ¾ of my things were missing. The good parts of the food (things such as my good German pumpernickel bread that I found in a supermarket in Prince George, and… a Ritter Sport square chocolate!!), but the more serious things were my camping stove missing, as well as the complete bag with all my medicine (which I don’t really need, it’s all simply “just in case stuff”, but still…). I was very angry, and took that anger into the day. But well, I didn’t really have too much of a choice. As there was hardly anybody else, I’m sure it was those drunken idiots with the boom-boom music, but neither them nor the campground staff was there when I left in the morning… so I could only be angry, wished those drug addicts all sorts of things which I shouldn’t have wished them as a Christian person, and started cycling… as always, with a lot of pain in my knees, and a lot more not so nice things to come that day (as a side note: I left a note with the campsite staff, and they actually got back to me by email, mentioning that those youths were kicked out of the campsite for causing all sorts of trouble anyway, with the offer to reimburse me for my missing belongings… nice gesture as I found, but well, as it wasn’t the campsites fault… I just got myself a new stove, new medicine, new food, and that’s it… at least it didn’t happen in an area where I wouldn’t have had access to those kind of things anymore).

That day number 11… not the best one out of all of the days, not just because of the morning. The first 60km it was totally depressingly windy – so that the only thing that kept me going was a break in Fraser Lake where I bought a big burger that made me feel half alive again. After that break, the headwind got less, however, it started to rain and didn’t stop anymore until I reached my destination, just before Burns Lake, after more than 120km. I was soaked and all my stuff completely wet. The only thing that actually is good, out of all my waterproof things, is my helmet cover. The shoe cover is completely useless, and I guess my good, blue, well-known Schoeffel jacket also has had its best time before nowadays. Not so great things apart from that: my knees… but that’s not really new, but I had the feeling it got worse every day. Getting up in the morning from the tent is a torture every single day. I can hardly bend my legs… No fun, believe me. Also no fun: while I was chasing a slowly moving, Canadian train that just started going, a car came from a side road and wanted to turn into the Highway I was cycling on. Well, I saw the car, the driver did not see me, however, and only stopped in the very last second. As I could prepare myself for almost having been involved in a crash (or some sort of maneuver that would have avoided that crash), I probably was less shocked than the driver was… And, well, I leave it up to you to guess what gender the driver had ;-) Maybe the excuse could also be: the reason was not gender-related, but nationality-related?! Who knows.

I somehow made it to a campground – and at the end of a not so good day I was offered something very nice: instead of a campsite I got an own cabin with heater and a proper bed at that campground. Very comfortable, especially with all that dry stuff. And due to not having gotten a new camping stove yet, I had a cold, but delicious dinner anyway. German Herring and Spanish sea food salad – combined with biscuits. Martin’s cuisine.

Motto of the day: "One needs these kind of days also in order to better appreciate the nice things in life."

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070617 day 11 - Vanderhoof - Burns Lake:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636487aIZLCr?vhost=community

Day 10

2007-06-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 16, 2007 - day 10 (Prince George - Vanderhoof)

Distance: 100.1 km; overall distance so far: 915.2 km
Average: 23.1 kph

Weather: 25°C - 30°C, sunny, later sometimes cloudy & temperature down to 21°C, wind from all directions; while at campsite: thunderstorm

It took me a while to find the technological possibility again to provide you with an update on how my trip from Calgary to Anchorage went on – but here I am, at Haines’ Public Library – already having used my two hours which I was allowed to spend on computers with internet access; however, they are nice people here, so I’m now sitting at a computer with Word only – which will be fine at least in order to write my stories… and, some of you guys will get really excited now… they sat me at an Apple computer! Andre, my Windows Vista was so close today, just maybe half a metre away from me in my friends’ car who are driving to Anchorage and who are taking my stuff, including laptop, with them… but they hit the road again a little while ago… and I’m left all alone with this fruit computer… another first-time experience…

Anyway, I’ll start from the point when I last wrote to you… and that was from Prince George. I used the day of rest to kind of get my body fixed again as far that I could more or less properly cycle again – what I did in a fairly relaxed way from Prince George to Vanderhoof. Actually, a not too exhausting day at all. I just did approx. 100km in a fairly relaxed way. It also was the last time that my German cell phone SIM card worked – and I received a call from Iselin with New Jersey updates which was very nice… but just to mention it to you, any texts or calls directed to me later than that day way more than a week ago did not reach me anymore… and probably won’t reach me anymore. So, email it is… or being patient until I’m back in Germany!

Which will still take a while, especially after that day number 10 I thought it’d be almost impossible to ever get back anywhere… soon to be told more about that… just to finish off: I found a fairly nice campsite right in Vanderhoof where I pitched my tent very close to a river – which had a water level way higher than it was supposed to have; but my tent and me were not flooded and I spent a night with a lot of sleep next to a campsite with some youths and a lot of boom-boom music.

Motto of the day: "There is no rush!"

Photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070616 day 10 - Prince George - Vanderhoof:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636389wyMnsg?vhost=community

Day 6 - Day 9

2007-06-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - day 6 (Jasper - Tete-Jaune Cache)

Distance: 108.4 km; overall distance so far: 538.7 km
Average: 20.5 kph

Weather: BAD headwind all day long! 10°C - 14°C most of the day, 24°C towards end; cloudy, later on sunny

Continue the adventure relaxed and with a fully functional bike - that was the plan. None of it was, however, really true when I set off from Jasper on a cold and very windy Tuesday morning after a day of rest. First thing that happened in the morning when I attached the panniers to my bike was that the front rack that caused trouble on my first day in Calgary already fell apart. But some interesting constructions and duct tape (that is the correct name for what I called duck tape all my US time long - and only found out the real name of that strong tape on my last day in the U.S.!) helped to quickly fix that.

So, off I went, down that 3km steep downhill I cycled up two days ago when I got to Jasper initially. It was COLD, despite long pants and long sleeved shirt, plus gloves that fully covered my fingers - the gear that I wore all the time for the following three days on my bike. If anyone expects me to be strangely tanned at the end of my trip: it's not going to happen. The only thing that's really facing the "sun" (or better: daylight), is my face - and that's covered in sun lotion with sun blocking factor 45.

After that little bit of downhill, I came to junction Highway 93 (Icefields Parkway) and Highway 16 (Yellowhead Highway) - and made a left turn onto 16, the road I'm going to be on for all the remaining time in Canada until I'm at the west coast. [Yellowhead Highway being another trans-Canadian Highway running through several provinces - and was named after Pierre Bostonais, an Iroquois-Metis trapper/furtrader/explorer, who first crossed the Yellowhead Pass in the Rocky Mountains which was also named after him.]

Crossing Yellowhead's (or Tete Jaune's) pass was also the first main task of my day - and besides my knees that didn't feel any better at all I quickly had to realize that headwind is going to be my biggest enemy that day. Still, going up the least steep pass of those 5 passes in the Canadian Rockies wasn't that much of a problem, and even before noon I was on top, leaving the province of Alberta and entering British Columbia - and with that a new time zone (Pacific, -8:00GMT), so I won one hour!

British Columbia's slogan was the first thing that increased my bad and demotivated mood a little bit - "The best place on earth". Most of you guys don't need an explanation of the following picture, I guess, but I decided that not BC, but my good, old Bavaria is, if anything at all can be, the best place on earth. And it made me think in the following quite some time about what "a best place on earth" would really be... I'm sure I'm not alone with my opinion: there is no such thing. Too many individual factors play different roles - and I'm just happy that I get to see so many different places that different people call their best place on earth.

Anyway, what made me really smile was the situation when that above picture was taken. I asked a French speaking person whether she could take a picture of me with BC's welcome sign - it took her quite some time to understand that I didn't want to take a picture of her, but the other way round. While finally posing for the photo, her friend got out from the car, saw me standing there with my Bavarian flag and shouts in a very excited way: "Sind Sie aus Bayern?!?" (Are you from Bavaria?). So it turned out that they were Swiss, and she knew my home area quite well.

With having experienced that nice encounter, I fought myself through the next 70km. It's quickly summarized: generally, it went downhill. Approx. 300-400m descent on a distance of 70km, so not a lot, but still. However, it felt like me cycling uphill all day long. When I stopped pedalling, my tyres [Lynne, proud of me now?! Please keep correcting me, I don't want to run into any serious "Brittons-getting-mad-at-me-because-of-my-Americanized-English" trouble on my return to Europe] stopped running.
A guy from Seattle cycling on the other side of the road came to my side, and after a little bit of chatting (he is on his way from Seattle all the way through Canada to St. John's at Canada's east coast - with probably half the luggage I have got, no bike computer, nothing, very basic) he warned me that he saw some bears (mother bear and her cubs) just a few kilometres further on - grateful for the warning I was extra cautious the rest of the day... but did not see any bears or other dangerous wildlife at all.
Passing by the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, Mt. Robson, was only a little bonus for having all that headwind, especially because it was completely covered in clouds. Nice to see, however, that some interested Australian elderly ladies at Mt. Robson Visitor Information Centre invited me to their country/continent for my next biking tour.

I was glad when I reached Tete-Jaune Cache (yes, this Yellowhead guy followed me that day, that's for sure), where I pitched my tent at Tete-Jaune Cache Lodge next to Fraser River, a very rural place. Felt like being somewhere in the mid-west on a farm. Quite nice. Also, I was completely on my own, it was sunny, and I simply enjoyed not doing anything anymore that day apart from making my daily notes in my little black notebook, reading a little bit (this book which I mentioned before, written by the German comedian Hape Kerkelin, really keeps motivating me and kind of follows me along on my way - on good and not so good days; also, I make it lose pages due to strict weight restriction regulations set by myself; so I'll have to buy the whole book back in Germany again), and going to bed early that day, having a big plan for the upcoming day.

Motto of the day: "The best place on earth... I don't think there is such a thing."

Wedensday, June 13, 2007 - day 7 (Tete-Jaune Cache - Purden Lake)

Distance: 210.5 km; overall distance so far: 749.2 km
Average: 22.8 kph

Weather: 10°C - 21°C, mainly cool, tail wind for first 80km, strong rain from time to time, some sunny spells

Yes, the big plan... My following route along Yellowhead Highway 16 should have the following places along the route: Tete-Jaune Cache where I was camping that past night. McBride, a bit more than 60 kilometres after Tete-Jaune Cache - so too early for a final stop for that day. And then... Prince George, another 220 kilometres further from McBride. Only thing between McBride and Prince George: nature, nature, nature, more nature... and Purden Lake - beside the lake itself a ski resort with RV and camping facilities. That was 210km from Tete-Jaune Cache... and what does crazy Martin do? He decides to cycle the whole distance in one go, rather than wildcamping somewhere (still a bit sceptical about that because of the bears; I'd have to hang my food in the trees far away, and still, it wouldn't be particularly safe).

The first 60 and a bit kilometres to McBride went very well. Had a bit of tailwind, and even if I only got up at 7:45 rather than 6:00 when my alarm was actually trying to wake me up, I made a very good time to McBride and was absolutely optimistic that my plan will work out - despite fully stocked up food (in case I wouldn't have made it, I would have needed some extras), plus my standard 5l of water (5kg), added up to 35 kg of luggage.

The rain along the way let me test some of my rain gear initially - until I could not be bothered anymore. Very strange rain. It rained for 5-10 minutes very hard - and then sun was out again, or at least it was dry. So after a while I just accepted to be soaking wet - just to dry out until the next rain shower again.

But this rain-sun game was not the dominating topic of the day: it was the route between McBride and Purden Lake. I thought I would have left the mountains, or at least be very close to have left them. Also, I thought the road was running along Fraser River - DOWN Fraser River. And what happens: the entire route is maybe 5 km away from the river and leads from one valley into the next valley of side rivers and creeks leading into the main river. So me poor little guy has to cycle down those valleys - just to cycle uphill a few kilometres further on again. Funny for a while, but not after 150, 160 kilomtres. Then you just wish for either one proper uphill and then one proper downhill, or for some kilometres on just straigh ground. But that wish did not come true. After 170km, I was really struggling, from 190km onwards it worked again - probably because I changed from singing all sorts of songs (well, singing... as I usually don't know any lyrics to any of the songs, no matter if pop, classical, musical, church, hymns, folk, it was more me shouting some lalalaladadadadayabadaba to the actual melody into the forest - top in the charts that day was "I'm singing in the rain" and "You are loved, don't give up.") to just screaming all sorts of swearings into the country. Good that the only ones who heard me were the bears, and I hope the little baby bears didn't hear any of the bad stuff I was saying...

Back to the valleys, up and down. It's surprising how a road sign can change in my personal preference from being very much liked to being totally hated. Being the passionate car driver I am (still am, will always be), the sign "passing lane 2km ahead" usually indicated something very nice: I finally got a chance to overtake these slow drivers ahead of me. Well, on that day that sign indicated one thing very clearly: in two kilometres, there will be passing lanes again, and this for the simple reason: slow trucks/lorries/motorhomes will crawl up the hill, so the faster drivers should get a chance to pass them; i.e.: uphill ahead, nothing else was told by those signs. Oh, did I hate them at the end of the day... And guess what: the passing lanes normally had between 2-4 km of length, covering the steepest part of the uphill. What was with the passing lane 15km before my arrival at Purden Lake? It did not end anymore. Almost 10 bl**dy kilomtres just uphill. I couldn't blieve it - and still, I made it: at 19:30 I arrived, happy, but also pretty exhausted, and the only thing I wanted to do is getting some food, having a hot shower, and then laying down. All of that worked out pretty well, annyoingly with way too many mosquitos bothering me while I was cooking, putting up my tent, and trying to get settled in. I wonder what the mosquitos will be like in Alaska then. Apparantly even worse. Bad thing: using mosquito repellent is not really advisable because bears like it, and therefore are attracted to your tent...

Speaking of bears (last story for that day, promise!). In Jasper Youth Hostel one of the guys saw 26 bears between Prince George and Jasper (that's what he said, at least). I started getting a bit, well, not disappointed, but maybe felt disadvantaged that I still haven't seen any bears by that day - but that changed. I saw three bears on Wednesday, some crossing the road behind me, some just standing next to the road, watching me, none of them being particularly interested, but all of them definitely not being shy (as the majority of bears is supposed to be, apparantly, when they see humans). In addition to that, I saw two female elks). But something else happened later on: at the campsite, they didn't have any bear proof containers, so I left my food with the reception. And being the only tent-camper, I was told that there is a mother bear with some cubs in the area and they would be coming to the campsite on a regular basis. Great! So I'm laying in my tent, all ready to fall asleep, and what happens? I hear this animal wandering around the outside of my tent! Obviously, I couldn't see anything, and I definitely did not feel like opening the doors. But I figured that most likely it must have been one of the cubs, according to the way this animal walked. The only other option could have been the dog of the neighbour's RV, however, dogs walk differently, and the people were sleeping already, and to my knowledge had the dog inside with them. Maybe the bear liked the smell of my creme that I had to put on my knees and achilles tendons which were heavily overused from that long ride? (remember: I started in a complete unfit way - and even if my body seems to be surprisingly fit, my bones, ligaments, and tendons seem to be a bit slower in developing and getting ready). Anyway, I slept well that night, dreamt a lot as every night since I started (one of the big changes of my body which I realized since I'm on the road), and hoped to still be able to move the next day and not be eaten by the bears...

Purden Lake

Motto of the day: "Passing Lane 2km ahead - or: Martin, his bike, and the bears on the road of 1001 valleys"

Thursday, June 14, 2007 - day 8 (Purden Lake - Prince George)

Distance: 65.9 km; overall distance so far: 815.1 km
Average: 21.3 kph

Weather: 11°C - 23°C; cloudy & wet at the beginning, later on sunny & warm

me & the bears:
information leaflet,
bear bells (to warn them about my presence while riding;
whenever there is no car/truck passing by me for a while
I'm sitting on my bike, ringing those bells continuously,
feels a bit like being the "Chriskindl"),
cayenne pepper spray in case of an encounter with a bear
(doesn't really help me anything in case a bear surprises me at night in my tent -
or if I've got headwind as then it'll be me who can feel the result from the spray)

And guess what, I was not eaten, and I was still able to move, however, knees and especially achilles tendons told me that I overdid it a bit the day before. So my plan of simply somehow getting to Prince George was plan A, and there was no plan B. No "maybe if I'm feeling better later on I'll go further" or anything, Prince George, approx. 60 kilometres, and that was it.

I started my day with an hot apple pie with Cookies & Cream ice cream at the cafe of Purden Lake Reception - my award for the achievement the day before... and then I set off. Nothing particularly exciting to tell about that 65km ride. My body was tired, I was tired, my knees hurting (but I got used to that by now), and my achilles tendon aching and feeling very weird.

So I arrived at the tourist information centre in Prince George and decided to find a place where I could give my body the chance to relax for another entire day without cycling, i.e. two nights. Information by the friendly staff at the Tourist Information Centre was pretty useless, so I almost decided to go for the standard option camping again (knowing that my Thermarest wouldn't provide me with as relaxing sleep as a proper bed does)... and then two guys came into the centre: a Swiss and an English from Middlesborough. Both gave me some sort of feeling of "home" - Switzerland, well, obviously, Alps, chocolate, and a similarly strange dialect as the Bavarians. And Middlesborough being close to Leeds, so, also almost home. Anyway, they recommended me a student accommodation at CNC - College of New Caledonia. Cheap and good - and perfect location for me. So, that was excellent. Even better: they showed me that I am by far not the craziest person on earth (although my 210km impressed even them): they started cycling in Patagonia, Argentina, separated along the way, and met again in Vancouver, now going the rest up to Alaska together. But especially the Swiss guy has an impressive plan: he started in Argentina, cycled some way up from South America into the U.S. until Denver, flew to Boston, cycled from Boston via Vermont, Montreal to Quebec City and from there to Ottawa. Took a plane from Ottawa to Vancouver; is now cycling to somewhere in Alaska; will fly out from there to Vladivostok, will take the Trans-Siberian railway to Moscow, and then, will cycle from Moscow via St. Petersburg, the Baltics back to Switzerland - and as he wants to be back home for Christmas, this will be during winter time. It's a pity that I didn't get his email address or website or anything, otherwise I'm sure redirecting you to his website would have given you the much more fascinating stories.

But now you'll have to bear with me, and I'll conclude that Thursday with letting you know that nothing exciting happened anymore: I found the accommodation, relaxed, had a shower, and then I felt like having some "globalized moments" by having a burger at McDonald's and a nice refreshing Vanilla Bean Frappuchino at Starbucks. One needs these things once in a while, as a change to cereal power bars, dry bread, some fruit, and endless amounts of water.

Oh, sorry, not quite the last thing: I just realized that today's motto needs a bit more explanation than just being written down: Thank you, simply to all of you. On my 65 kilometre ride, basically just struggling because of all the pain, I actually got some chance to think (it's harder to think properly while cycling than one might imagine - I'm busy with myself, the route, the thoughts about the route, paying attention to the environment, etc., not too much time left to think about other stuff). And while thinking during having all that pain, I just realized once again how lucky I am, with all those people helping me, supporting me, being there for me, simply being in my life; above all my family, but also all the others that, well, make my life! So I thought it's - once again (I don't do it often enough anyway) - time to say thank you... to you!

Motto of the day: "Thank you!"

Friday, June 15, 2007 - day 9 (day of rest in Prince George)

Distance: 0 km; overall distance so far: 815.1 km
Average: 0 kph

Weather: sunny

I try to choose my mottos (motti?! motten?!?) generally in a sensible way, however, forget motto of day 5. Martin and short stories, that does not really go together, especially if I've got enough time to write... but this day 9 will actually be short.

What I've done so far is pretty simple to summarize: slept almost 11 hours, cleaned and dryed my tent on a very sunny day, had some food, organized my stuff a bit, and went to downtown Prince George and am now sitting in that internet cafe where I'm doing the standard stuff - emails, informing myself about world news, and updating my blog. Stupidly enough one can really only go the internet here, so I'll have to find another place for accessing my photos on the camera and uploading them later on. Hope there's such a place in this fairly big town in northern British Columbia. Definitely not the easiest thing not having a laptop...

Plan for the next days: I hope my legs will be fit enough to continue tomorrow. They don't really feel like that so far, but I'm optimistic anyway - and in case I'll just continue to do what I did so far: I ignore the pain and talk about it in this blog later on then ;-)

Sevenhundred and something kilometres to go, then I'll be in Prince Rupert at the west coast. If everything goes fine, this can be done in 7 days, depending on weather (there was a mudslide and flooding before Prince Rupert a few days ago, so the town was not accessible, neither by road nor by train... but apparantly that's all re-opened again now), my body, and my motivation (so, it could also take 14 days... I've got enough time and there's no need to rush anything). I've heard pretty often now that especially the last 200-300km before the coast seem to be very, very nice. And depending on when I get to Prince Rupert, I'll either be able to take the ferry to the Alaskan capital Juneau immediately, or I'll have to wait for 3-4 days in Prince Rupert, until the next ferry through the inside passage departs. I'll keep you informed, whenever, from wherever.

Motto of the day: "Give your body some time to relax"

Photos day 6 – day 9:

Calgary-Anchorage - 070612 day 6 - Jasper - Tete-Jaune Cache:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636889DskfEJ?vhost=community

Calgary-Anchorage - 070613 day 7 - Tete-Jaune Cache - Purden Lake:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559637785rORaxl?vhost=community

Calgary-Anchorage - 070614 day 8 - Purden Lake - Prince George:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559637281UUmoJK?vhost=community

Calgary-Anchorage - 070615 day 9 - day of rest in Prince George:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559636483BXwVtU?vhost=community

Day 1 – Day 5

2007-06-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 7, 2007 – day 1: START (Calgary – Canmore)

Distance: 101.1 km
Average: 19.0 kph

Weather: 14°C – 27°C, sunny with some clouds, bit of headwind towards end of the day

[I think you can do what I could do: put km, degrees Celsius, kg, etc. in Google and say, e.g. “101.1km in miles” or “14 Celsius in Fahrenheit” etc., and you’ll have the measurement you are more familiar with]

The big day has come, and I finally started my big tour from Calgary further into North Country. It might seem strange, but that morning when I started there was no real nervousness anymore, more curiousness about what was going to come.

As planned, I started my tour from Calgary Tower, together with my friend Laura. More than 1km into the wrong direction (in order to get to the tower) showed me already how it would be with more than 30kg of luggage on my bicycle – heavy, and “handling” rather, let’s say, interesting.
Anyway, Laura used the first hill in the city of Calgary to show me were my limits were and cycled away from me… but I always intended to start slowly. Not my intention was to actually stop at almost every single traffic light. It must have been the day of the “red wave”. But also that did not stop us to get outside the city, past by the ski jump of the 19.. I forgot it again, 88’s (?) winter Olympics, and further towards west, slightly up- and downhill all the time, on the “Trans-Canada Highway” No. 1, that runs, as the name says already through whole of Canada from the east to the west. It’s more than just “I was kind of riding on a highway” – Laura and I were definitely riding on a highway with quite a lot of traffic. But not a problem, there were hard shoulders all along the road, so ideal for us – only when exit lanes crossed the way the whole thing got a bit more interesting. But, according to the motto that I had to learn the past days when informing myself about what to do in case of a bear charge: “Stand your ground” was the way to go. I used that bear motto to show the trucks who’s the boss – their 20 tons, or my 30kg…

Laura left me after 30km – 25km later than she originally intended to. It was nice to start the tour together with someone whom I could tell my feeling of nearly complete happiness to be able to go on that tour. It’s going to be an amazing time, no doubt.

Greatest things during the next kilometres were on the one hand that I felt so much “home” on my bike again, despite three years of not having done a lot, and on the other hand that the Canadian Rocky Mountains got closer and closer. Weather was almost ideal, just clouds, but no rain, hardly any wind, and a comfortable temperature… and quicker than I could realize it, I was in between the first real mountains of the Rockies, and I just cycled, cycled, cycled.

After 75km, I was thinking about stopping at a campsite for the first time, but it seemed to be a little bit to early. The next campsite after 90km would have been ideal, however, it was closed due to high water (from all the heavy rain the days before), so I had to cycle on, already being fairly exhausted (more cycling on one day with luggage than the whole past year might have been the reason for that?). However, after just over 100km, just outside Canmore, I found a campsite that was closed also, but I still could pitch my tent there, prepared my first dinner, completely burned my frying pan, and had a very good night sleep, right next to Trans-Canada Highway 1. Of course with all my food and other smelly items stored in a bear proof container.

Motto of the day: “Stand your ground”

Friday, June 8, 2007 – day 2 (Canmore – Lake Louise)

Distance: 90.7 km à overall distance so far: 191.8 km
Average: 18.7 kph

Weather: 15°C – 25°C, mostly sunny, some dark clouds, some raindrops, bad headwind all day long

I’m writing this on day 5 – a day off the bike as you’ll see soon – therefore I’ve got a lot of time to write. However, I am aware that most of you don’t have that much time to read it, so I’ll try to keep the following days shorter... you know me… sorry :-)

My sleeping bag didn’t really want to let me go, so instead of 7:00 (I fell asleep at 21:00 the night before, so 7am wouldn’t have been too bad), I got up at 9:30, more than 12 hours of sleep. But I managed to sit on my bike at 11:00 – not after having realized that my rear tire lost quite some pressure. Puncture from the first day?! I couldn’t be bother to repair the tire, however, so I just pumped in enough air – and the tires stayed inflated enough for the whole day, so apparently it was just a very small hole.

The second day can be summarized as cruel: headwind all day long, and quite some stretches which were not that exciting. I was dead already after 30km when I arrived in Banff, the beginning of Banff and Jasper National Park. So I stopped there around lunch time, cruised round the village once, stocked up on food, and continued cycling (or better: continued fighting against the headwind). As I was told before, however, “headwind forms character”. Might be true, but there’s still a lot more to form them, it was really hard. And above all, my knee (first knee, then knees) started hurting. But well, I knew it wouldn’t be easy… and at 17:30, I arrived in Lake Louise. Half a kilometre into the “wrong” direction in order to get to the campground showed me how nice tail wind would be. More days to come, more chances for the wind to be nice to me.

This was also the day when I saw my first Canadian cargo train. And they really are the way one hears about them: never-ending. I don’t know how many minutes it took until this train has passed me. Probably 10 or so, and it definitely was faster than I was. Pretty cool.

Lake Louise campground was not just expensive, but also pretty nice, with showers which I enjoyed, and an electric fence around in order to keep bears away – as I found out the next day, two German tourists were killed there by a bear at night a few years ago, that’s the reason for the fence. I slept fairly okay anyway, and was glad to be inside my tent – as the mosquitoes at the campground near Bow River (the river I was kind of following since Calgary) were really annoying. I must have killed dozens, still with no effect.

Motto of the day: “It’s about both, the way and the destination, so keep fighting”

Saturday, June 9, 2007 – day 3 (Lake Louise – Rampart Creek)

Distance: 95.0 km à overall distance so far: 286.8 km
Average: 19.6 kph

Weather: 9°C – 18°C, mostly cloudy, some rain from time to time, almost no wind

I started even a bit later that day, being quite angry about my knees not having gotten better at all – and actually having considered having a day of rest. But then again, there was no way that what was about to come could wait another day for me: real mountains!

After having bought a lot of food in Lake Louise village (probably food for 4 days, just in case – with no specific reason as there were places where to get food every 100km along the upcoming route; but I wanted to be on the safe side and cannot really say that I’m experienced in planning my daily food consumption yet), plus my standard amount of water I’m taking with me (5 litres), the stuff I had to carry was probably weighting more than 35kg. I would say: ready for action. And action in that case meant: the Icefields Parkway. Just a few kilometres after Lake Louise, I left the Trans-Canada Highway onto Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway. Quite a lot of people call it the nicest road on earth.

I made my way up the 40km pass to Bow Summit. 40km filled with almost everything: pain because of my knees, newly acquired expertise in using my click pedals (i.e. not just pedalling down, but also pulling up), with beautiful nature, with rain, with high mountains all covered in snow, and me right in the middle, just climbing uphill. It was a great feeling reaching Bow Lake (still covered in ice, the giving lake for the Bow River) and thereafter the summit of Bow Pass (with 2088m the highest pass in the Rocky Mountains) – and I think most likely the highest point of my whole trip (I might have to correct that statement later on, but I’m pretty sure that I won’t get as high anymore in Alaska).

Downhill was just great, despite the rain. I finally could use some more of my gear. When it levelled out, I saw quite a lot of people standing around the road… so me slowing down and looking into the direction they were looking to… and what did I see: a bear! My first bear, far away, pretty little, just playing with the berries on a bush. I took a quick shot and moved on – it does make sense that these animals should not get used to humans and therefore it actually is illegal to stop in order to get the best shots of a bear.

By the way: less people on the road than I expected. The Trans-Canada Highway was busy, of course. And the Icefields Parkway had quite some tourist traffic, but not as bad as described. That’ll probably start later on this month. The most surprising thing, however: hardly any cyclists along the way. Still can count them on one hand, and only one single road cyclist without luggage overtook me so far – nothing else. Neither have I passed somebody, nor the other way round. It’ll become pretty lonely when the touristy part of my trip is over!

Due to missing (open) campsites (they all seem to open later on in June only), I booked myself into Rampart Creek Youth Hostel, just after the little village of Saskatchewan River Crossing. Very basic place, no showers or anything, however, amazing setting, really cute place, and great people whom I met there. A Swiss & Canadian who were travelling around together for 2 months just to where the wind blows them, a group of 10 people or so travelling in an organized way, and an older couple cycling the Icefields Parkway in both directions. Had good chats with all of them, and especially the cyclists’ stories where really interesting and helpful.

Right, by the way: initially I thought I’d use the chance of being in a hostel for a day off in order to relax my knee… but same story as the day before, I couldn’t convince myself. Also, how relaxing is it really to be in a hostel with a “proper” bed… that’s way too short?!

Motto of the day: “I love riding in the mountains”

Sunday, June 10, 2007 – day 4 (Rampart Creek – Jasper)

Distance: 143.5 km à overall distance so far: 430.3 km
Average: 21.2 kph

Weather: 11°C – 29°C, sunny, very light rain at the beginning of pass, wind from all directions towards the end

There I was, in between two high passes of the Rocky Mountains. And sleeping in the hostel was nice, but didn’t contribute anything to my knee getting better. So, whatever, I just started at 10 o’clock, and Sunwapta Pass, also way above 2000 metres, really challenged and exhausted me. 30km of uphill, partly steep uphill, which made me ride in the first or second gear at times, crawling up the mountain with 5kph (3mph). Obviously not the majority of the time, but these are the moments when you really have to fight. And it works… I arrived on top after a while, and it felt great, especially because all the mountains around where still covered in snow, great seeing that, together with sunshine.

And as soon as I was on top, don’t know, all just went well. I passed by the Icefields Glacier, biggest out of seven glaciers in the Rockies. And then on and on and on. Some very steep downhill passages, with me not obeying the speed limit of 50kph at all. 64kph was the maximum – believe me, that’s when you really need to be 100% concentrated: that speed, combined with such heavy luggage on your bike, a tire that doesn’t keep air very well anymore, and wind blowing from the side from time to time…

Another story in between which explains today’s motto a bit better: before I went on that trip I wondered how it would be to be completely on my own, not having people around me all the time anymore. I definitely miss some people, no doubt. However, I am everything but alone here. And these days give me the chance again to realize how great people are. Those two Canadians whom I met in the hostel the day before started cycling way earlier in the morning, and when they saw me during a stop from almost the top of Sunwapta Pass, they motivated me by waving down and giving signs of wishing me luck. Same with the Swiss and the Canadian from the hostel. I don’t know how often they overtook me with their car, waving and cheering for me, up- and downhill. Or this other group from the hostel slowing down in their bus right next to me, and all cheering for me. And finally these completely random people with their RV from the province of Quebec who decided that I could need some motivation (at a point where it actually was helpful), slowed down, opened their window and both the driver and his wife on the passenger seat gave me thumbs up and wished me good luck. Those are the great moments in life.

Back to what I said before: on and on and on. I was just cycling and it didn’t even take me much more than 5 hours until I got Athabasca Falls, some of the highest waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies – where I intended to stay in a Youth Hostel (just after a bit more than 100km). But 10 minutes of thinking and half a pack of Toblerone chocolate later, I decided to cycle the remaining 30km to Jasper – also, as it would mainly be downhill and my knees kind of arranged themselves with not getting any rest. Funny thing: just when I continued, a fairly long uphill stretch started, and my left knee almost killed me. So I was actually pedalling with almost only the right knee for quite a while.

And the biggest surprise came at the end. When I was down almost in Jasper at just under 1000m above sea level, I made a left turn to the Youth Hostel… and found that sign saying 3km. No map, no information told me that before, but well, 3km after 140km, where’s the problem?! Guess what, they built the hostel on the highest mountain ever with the steepest road ever leading to it. If I find the guy who built that hostel at that location…

At the youth hostel, I spent an evening with a lot of people from all over the world, two Swabians who cycled all over the world already and were very excited about having met me, someone with whom they could share their passion. And after that I really enjoyed my bed in a 40 people dormitory. A long enough bed – and buy booking myself into the hostel for two nights already when I arrived I ensured that I’d definitely stay in Jasper for a whole day of not cycling.

Motto of the day: “I am not alone – people are amazing”

Monday, June 11, 2007 – day 5 (day of rest in Jasper)

Distance: 0 km à overall distance so far: 430.3 km
Average: 0 kph

Weather: ?°C, heavy rain with some sunny bits

Finally, the day off my knees were more than just asking for since day 2. I hope this day of not cycling at all and trying to avoid moving around too much will help to make me fit for the remaining 2400km. If not, well, then not. But I keep on hoping. Knees don’t feel better at all so far, I’d say, they actually feel worse. But tomorrow is another day – and the fact that the rest of my body feels wonderful will hopefully help.

I used this day to do some work on my bike – the gears didn’t really change very nicely anymore, chain needed some oil, and mainly, I finally got rid of the slow puncture in my rear tire. Inflating the tire every morning worked so far, but wasn’t really a long-term solution.
Also, I did my laundry, got some food, well, and wrote this novel plus uploaded photos, charged my electronic items, etc. etc. All those little things that become quite special when you’re outdoors, somehow away from the “normal” world.

Tomorrow I’ll start my tour on Yellowhead Highway 16 from Jasper, via Prince George to Prince Rupert. Approx. 1000km left in Canada, and only 1 – 1.5 passes left in the Rocky Mountains, before those are history for me. It’s been great here, and I haven’t been here for the last time (also, I’m really looking forward to exploring the Alps a bit more in detail sometime in the near future – see motto of day 3: I love (riding in the) mountins!)

I’ll keep you posted, shorter (see today’s motto), and no clue when. I guess the latest when I’m either in Prince Rupert or after the ferry ride in Juneau.

Motto of the day: “Martin, keep your stories shorter!”

Photos day 1 – day 5:

Calgary-Anchorage - 070607 day 1 - Calgary – Canmore:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559409415gHkleo?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070608 day 2 - Canmore - Lake Louise:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559407846jNtXge?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070609 day 3 - Lake Louise - Rampart Creek:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559409785tnBMdT?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070610 day 4 - Rampart Creek – Jasper:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559409430YibCCy?vhost=travel

Calgary-Anchorage - 070611 day 5 - day of rest in Jasper:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559409990eLKula?vhost=travel

My equipment & more photos

2007-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well, and of course you should also know what I am going to carry around with me for the next 4-7 weeks - a lot of stuff, as you will read and see (see only if you click on the photo link on the bottom of this post; for whatever reason I was not able to upload and include a photo into the text) in the following (it adds up to a bit more than 30kg, plus my bike, plus myself). The list is kind of sorted overall, however, within the different areas it is simply a listing without any specific order.

Bike, Parts, Tools:

Bike:
Cannondale T800
1x cycle computer
1x rear light
1x head torch
3x bottle holder
1x pair of click pedals
1x pair of mudguards
3x SIGG 0.75l drinking bottles
1x 3l Camelback
1x rear & 1x front rack
1x bike lock
1x bike stand

Luggage:
1x pair of waterproof front panniers [Axiom] (25 l)
1x pair of waterproof rear panniers [Axiom] (35 l)
1x Axiom handlebar bag
1x Topeak saddlebag
1x waterproof dry bag (30l)
1x Helium Dry Sack (6.5l) for camera, important documents etc.
zip lock plastic bags
tension straps and similar

Spare Parts & Accessoires:
4x brake shoes
2x brake cables
2x gear cables
1x Schwalbe foldable replacement tire (700x35)
2x replacement inner tubes
1 set of screws
5x replacement spokes
5 chain connecters
1x replacement chain
2 metres of wire for repairs

Tools:
1x air pump with adapter
1x Swiss Army knife (inc. scissors & tweezers)
1x all-in-one tool (incl. allen keys, screw drivers, spanner, spoke adjustment tool, chain tool, etc.)
1 oil
1x Rema TipTop tube repair set
1 tire remover
1 set of tie-wraps
1x cleaning cloth
1x old toothbrush for cleaning

Clothing:

2x cycling shorts
1x cycling pants (longs)
2x thermo t-shirts
2x bike shirts short sleeves
1x long sleeved bike shirt
1x long sleeved thermo shirt
1x long sleeved outdoor shirt
1x windstoper fleece jacket
3x underwear
1x thermo underwear (longs)
1x thermo undershirt
1x gloves for cycling with finger cover
1x gloves for cycling without finger cover
1x trekking trousers (shorts and longs in one)
3x pairs of cycling socks
1x pair normal socks
1x microfiber towel
1x handkerchief
1x woolen hat
1x cap
1x head & neck bandana (Bavarian rhombs – white&blue)
1x cycle helmet
1x gore-tex helmet cover
1x reflecting safety sash
1x pair of sunglasses
1x goretext jacket (Schoeffel)
1x pair of water-/windproof overpants
1x GoreText bike shoe covers (waterproof)
1 pair of Sidi bikes shoes
1x pair of Timberland trekking shoes (for time off the bike)
1x knee bandage
1x pair of swimming pants

Sleeping Gear:

1x tent (Sierra Design – Electron, 2 person tent)
repair kit for tent/spare parts
1x Thermarest
Thermarest repair kit
1x sleeping bag (Cartinthia, G-Loft Lite 850 [Comfort +25°C - +5°C; Tolerance: +5°C - 0°C; Extreme: 0°C - -12°C)

Cooking Gear:
1x expedition cooker (MSR), burning with car fuel, kerosine, white gas, diesel
1x petrol bottle (0.7 litres)
1x Cooking pot, pan, cup [set] (Coleman)
1x Water filter (Katadyn Hiker Pro)/water purification tablets
1x Spoon, 1x fork
1x lighter & 2x boxes of water proof matches
Container with salt, sugar, soup, spices, tea
Food (e.g. power bars, fruits, chocolate, bread, rice, pasta, hot chocolate, etc.)

First aid, toiletries, other general items

First aid kit:
1x Adventure Medical First Aid Kit (incl. Bandages, plasters, after-bite)
20x Water purification tablets (chlorine dioxide tablets)
30x hay fever pills
1x Penaten Creme
6x Imodium
After Bite Xtra gel
Aloe Heat Lotion (muscle & bone pain relief)
Antiseptic Healing ointment (Brave Soldier)
Polysporin Antibiotic Heal fast cream
Pepto-Bismol stomach relief
Ibuprofen pain relief
Aspirin
Tempil & Tylenol Cold Relief
sewing kit
safety pins

Toiletries:
tooth brush
tooth paste natural
Razor & replacement razor blades
Shaving oil
2x 18-in-1 biological soap (Shampoo, bodysoap, laundry, dishwashing etc.)
Q-tips
Cortison creme for skin
sun lotion
insect repellent
toilet paper

Document & money:
Passport
ID/driver’s license
Vaccination certificates
Travel documents (flight tickets, insurance papers)
contacts/address book
photocopy of all documents
cash & credit card, etc.

Other items:
diary & pen for notes
spare batteries
1x cell phone incl. charger
1x camera incl. 3x 1GB SD cards & charger & spare battery & USB cable
1x 2GB USB stick
whistle
head lamp
maps & route information: Canada MapArt Road Atlas, Alaska DeLorme Atlas, International Travel Maps Alberta & British Columbia, International Travel Maps Alaska, Milepost
bear spray
2x bear bells
approx. 5 metres of rope
3x carabiner
Duct tape
Compass
Book: ”Hape Kerkelin: Ich bin dann mal weg”
Bavarian & German flag

That is it... I wonder myself whether it is way too much, or whether I might be missing something important. But I will find out - and even if there is a lot of stuff I will hopefully not have to use such as e.g. bear spray or some of the replacement things, it is a must-have on such a tour. Leaving my backpack behind was hard enough, but it simply would not have fit anymore in a proper way.

Approx. 8 hours to go, then I will start pedalling. Weather from Tuesday evening to Wednesday lunch time could not have been more awful - thunderstorms and rainfall that humankind has not seen before, the whole area was flooded. However, things seem to be better now, and there is the chance that I might start in dry, but cold conditions tomorrow.

To conclude, as mentioned in the title, more photos:
Calgary-Anchorage - 070606 packing before the big day
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559348177aETwOh?vhost=travel

My route

2007-06-05T19:15:00.001-07:00

And for everyone to check out the route I am going to cycle

(AB = Alberta in Canada; BC = British Columbia in Canada; YT = Yukon Territories in Canada; AK = Alaska in the USA)
[time difference in comparison to GMT (e.g. London): Alberta = -07:00; British Columbia (and Yukon Territories, I think) = -08:00; Alaska = -09:00; from Germany that would be -8, -9, and -10 hours, from New Jersey -2, -3, and -4 hours]:

Calgary (AB) to Banff/Lake Louise (AB) (Trans-Canada Highway 1): 172km (107 miles)

Lake Louise (AB) to Jasper (AB) (Highway 93 [Icefields Parkway]): 218km (135 miles)

Jasper (AB) via Prince George (BC) to Prince Rupert (BC) (Yellowhead Highway 16): 1098km (682 miles)

Ferryboat & border crossing from Prince Rupert (BC) via Juneau (AK) to Haines (AK) (Inside Passage): approx. 18 hours (Prince Rupert (BC) to Juneau (AK)), approx. 4 hours (Juneau to Haines)

Haines (AK), border crossing back into Canada (BC, then Yukon), to Haines Junction (YT) (Haines Highway 7 (in Alaska) & 3 (in Canada)): 235km (146 miles)

Haines Junction (YT), then border crossing back into the U.S., to Tok (AK) (Alaska Highway 1): 479km (298 miles)

Tok (AK) to Anchorage (YT) (Glenn Highway 1): 528km (328 miles)

overall distance: 2,730km = 1,696 miles
(plus all the little detours & cruising around that will add up to an unpredictable distance)

On a map that looks more or less like that:

Part 1 (Calgary, AB – Prince Rupert, BC):
http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&amp;do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl=EN&ct=NA&rsres=1&amp;1ffi=&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=&1n=&2ffi=&2l=&2g=&2pl=&2v=&2n=&1pn=&1a=&1c=Calgary+&1s=AB&amp;1z=&2pn=&2a=&2c=Prince+Rupert&2s=BC&2z=&r=f

Part 2 (Haines, AK – Anchorage, AK):
http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&amp;do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl=EN&ct=NA&rsres=1&amp;1ffi=&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=&1n=&2ffi=&2l=&2g=&2pl=&2v=&2n=&1pn=&1a=&1c=Haines&1s=AK&amp;1z=&2pn=&2a=&2c=Anchorage&2s=AK&2z=&r=f

In Calgary

2007-06-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Here I am, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the starting point of my tour.

It wasn’t easy saying goodbye to New Jersey last Saturday – and four (!) people wishing me farewell at Newark Liberty Intl. airport didn’t make it easier. My flight left from Newark at 8:00am – and due to having my bicycle with me, I was supposed to be at the airport at least two hours before departure. So we left from what was from that time onwards my former home at 5am, and Susann, Juliane, Birgit and Jens were crazy enough to get up in the middle of the night, just for taking me to the airport. Thanks again, guys!

After a less than five minutes check-in time (why again was I at the airport 2.5 hours before departure?!), a full-security check United Airlines randomly selected me for, and flights from Newark via Denver (from where I could see the impressive American Rockies) to Calgary which I spent asleep only (I even missed the food!), I arrived in Canada’s third largest city, less than 100km eastern of the Rocky Mountains.

As warmly as I was sent off from the U.S., as warmly I was welcomed in Canada by Annetta and Laura, those two friends who live in Calgary (or in Laura’s case somehow close to the city) and who are the reason for this starting point.

Since I’m here I’ve spent my time with both relaxing a little bit (I think I slept more during these past three nights than overall during the two weeks before) and with preparing myself and my gear for the trip. The front wheel of my bike didn’t make the tour in my bike box on the plane in a 100% perfect way, however, that’s fixed now, as well as the Canadian and Alaskan Road Atlas are completely abused, and lost, to me, relevant pages that I am going to use in order to find my way to Anchorage (it’s more about finding food and campsites, and maybe information about elevation along the way, rather than the way itself); also, I’ve stocked up on remaining little things such as bear bells, bear spray (probably the first time that I’m carrying something other than a knife that’s classified as weapon), medication (as I’m never really sick I had the hardest time putting a basic selection of pills together in a pharmacy yesterday… I hope I won’t need it anyway though), and more. Besides that, Laura and Annetta, as well as Annetta’s sister spoil me by showing me around in the area, taking me to great ice cream places, with cooking all sorts of nice meals for me (including self-made chocolate cheesecake!), and with simply suggesting all the time that they’d much rather prefer having me around in Calgary for a bit longer than me going on this crazy tour. I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise to you that their attempts will not be successful.

Yesterday, I set the start date for my tour: this Thursday, June 7, 2007. This allows me enough time to get ready, and it MIGHT be the only day of those upcoming days that possibly does not see as much rain as the rest of the days. I really wonder what kind of weather I’m going to have on the first couple of days of my tour. At the moment it looks like it can be anything from warm and sunny with clouds, to cold, rainy and heavy winds, possibly snow in the mountains (which I’m going to enter on my second day). No matter what, Thursday it is – and for the first 5km or so, my friend Laura is going to join me on my way. When it became clear that I’m going on this tour from here, she immediately decided to do that, and Laura keeps her promises. Therefore I’ll be motivated by her cycling away from me and my Cannondale bike with her $100 Wal-Mart bike – only excuse for me might be my more than 30kg of luggage.

Not too much more left to be said. Calgary Tower, the red television tower which you can see on the left side of the picture, will be my starting point… and everything else, well, I’ll find out during those next approx. 3,000km.

And of course I also want to give you the chance to have a look at my pictures. The following links lead to all photos taken so far since June 2. I’ll add new links as this blog develops. So, keep checking for the "webshots" links.

Calgary-Anchorage - 070602 departure from the US, arrival in Canada: http://community.webshots.com/album/559325920RJGYZY?vhost=community

Calgary-Anchorage - 070603 Bragg Creek `hike`, ice cream, Calgarian skyline: http://community.webshots.com/album/559326209GuOQae?vhost=community

Calgary-Anchorage - 070604 baseball, periphery of Calgary:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559327961YNkEZt?vhost=travel

My last day in New Jersey...

2007-06-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

...and just one more night of sleeping until I'll fly to Calgary.

What can I say...
...I'm excited about those two months with all those adventure laying ahead of me.
...I'm sad about leaving a very good time and even better people behind.
...I'm curious about what's going to come and about what's going to happen in those next 2 months.
...I'm looking forward a lot to meeting two friends in Calgary, and two in Anchorage.
...I'm relatively unfit and I wonder how much time it'll take it until I'm in good shape again.
...And I'm looking forward to my last Vanilla Bean Cheese Cake tonight - ideal nutrition ;-)

Since a bit more than an hour ago, my bike is in a box, ready for being taken onto the plane - the first litres of sweat ran down my body already. Quite an act to fit the bike into the box - I basically had to take apart half of the bike: front rack, handle bar, mudguards, wheels, kick stand - and when taking off the pedals, I broke the first thing: my multi-best-thing-on-the-market-can-do-everything-tool. Well, Calgary should have enough bike and outdoor stores.

And not only the last cheese cake tonight should help me to be ready for leaving New Jersey for good, also from an motivational point of view I should be prepared since yesterday: my friends over here gave me a book as a present for my farewell - a book written by a German comedian who completed the 800km-walk along St. James' way in Spain - and this book seems to be full of stories about all the ups and downs which dominate the daily life of such an extreme tour.

Enough, only a bit more than 12 hours left (which hopefully will include at least a couple hours of sleep), and then: Calgary, I'm coming!

The story so far

2007-05-25T22:19:00.001-07:00

More than 2 months now that my "crazy idea", as some people seem to call it, came alive - and the tour starting at the beginning of June definitely dominated my springtime 2007. A lot of planning goes along with such a tour, as well as reading (I mainly focussed on reports and stories of other people who have done similar, actually much crazier things such as cycling from Alaska all the way down to South America before).

However, as I spent an amazing time at the U.S. east coast for my internship with Siemens, and as the life of an intern here was never ever boring, I did not get as much cycling in as it would have been necessary, or at least helpful. One tour down towards the Jersey shore - in parts no fun at all (if you ever cycled on a busy highway in the U.S., you know what I'm talking about) - but in other parts quite pretty (up Mt. Mitchell, being the highest point along the entire) U.S. Atlantic coast, and from the shore then a great view towards New York City's always impressive skyline. Another example for my pre-west coast bike tour preparations was a weekend that I spent in Maine. Beautiful countryside made me realize how many good places there are around in the wider area I spent almost my entire past year.

Anyways, summarizing the "story so far": I'll just manage to get all the organizational and administrative stuff sorted out (whom to inform, what to solve before going away from civilization for a while, what stuff to get, what risks to be considered, final internship arrangements, etc. etc.) before I'll fly out to Calgary on June 2, 2007. But I'll most definitely still be pretty unfit when I'll start my tour a few days after having arrived in Calgary - so, I'll go for the version of starting slowly and not trying to cross the Rockies all in one go ;-) However, no way of having a relaxed first few days... the Rockies start just outside Calgary - and the fact that snow came down in Calgary also clearly show that there is no mercy weather-wise. It can be anything from freezing to very high temperatures. I'll tell you what I preferred in the end.

Those two photos were taken in the south eastern part of the most northeastern U.S. State of Maine:

How everything began

2007-04-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Two months or so ago, I came up with this idea, and it got stuck in my head: I’ve got two friends who’ll be in Calgary, western Canada, for the summer. And one friend who is going to be in Anchorage, Alaska. I wanted to see all of them before I’m going to leave, and they kind of gave me the impression that they also wouldn’t mind seeing me. Logical consequence: I’m going to cycle from Calgary in Canada to Anchorage in Alaska.

It’s approx 2,800 km (approx. 1,700 miles). It’s crossing the Rocky Mountains. It’s me still being pretty unfit these days as I haven’t done any sports lately. It’s me having been in the USA for my Siemens internship without any equipment for such a trip. It’s pretty crazy. But then again, it’s me and my idea, so I’m going to do that!

I’ll fly out to Calgary from Newark on June 2, 2007. Just bringing my bike and all the equipment which I need (and compiled during these past weeks… tent, camping cooker, all sorts of replacement things for the bike, clothing, etc. etc.). And then I’ll set off and see what happens.

About the Route: I’ll cycle from Calgary via Banff and Jasper National Park (along the Icefield Parkway) to Jasper and from there to Prince Rupert. I’ll take a ferry from there to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, and will go on cycling from there to Anchorage. Hard to say how much time I’ll need, but I calculate with approx. 4-6 weeks. If I make an average of 100km per day, plus a few days just enjoying the nature, or maybe having some trouble, or the unexpected snow storm coming in, or what so ever, it should give me enough time to do the whole thing.

It’s a lot of planning involved. Planning what I need, planning what I need to think of, getting information about all sorts of things, safety precautions, logistical thoughts, etc. etc. But it’s fun, great fun actually.

I’m going to do the whole thing on my own – but there’ll be other people along the way, I’m not the craziest person in the world, there must be others too!

And if everything works out and I’m not eaten by bears (which definitely are very common in that area!), I’ll fly out of Anchorage on July 28, 2007, and have got a direct flight to Frankfurt, and there I’ll be again, back home, after a year.

Haftung/liability (please contact me personally for English version)

2007-04-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

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