Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Vancouver Island

Well, we are getting closer to civilization. Currently we are in Campbell River right in the middle of the Vancouver Island. There is a McDonald's here. With the exception of Juneau, we haven't seen a McDonald's since Fairbanks. I finally feel like we are making progress and I think today was the last 60 mile day where we had to pack food for two days as a precaution. As much as we are eating right now, that extra food is very heavy. James made a list of what he ate yesterday. It's amazing at all the calories we go through. I think I am a bigger fan of Hershey's right now than my G'Pa.

We had around 5 hours of sun today. We have had nothing but rain for the past 2 weeks and I think that will continue until we leave Oregon. The sun gave us a great opportunity to dry out our stuff. Haha. That's how it is for us right now. We are learning a lot on how to stay dry. I will post some pics later today or tomorrow of our rain gear.

Thanks,
Steve

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Juneau


Juneau is awesome!

Downtown Juneau is a typical tourist stop. When we went downtown to check it out, there were 5 cruise ships docked, and people everywhere. We saw a lot of cheap t-shirt shops and a few signature bars. Downtown is ok. If you go about 10 miles north, you will find mountains to climb, rain forests to walk through, and glaciers to explore. James and I spent 9+ hours climbing and hiking a few days ago, and I could probably spend another 900 and still not be over how incredible Juneau is. This is one stop I will try to make again.

A few days ago, James and I were standing in an ice cave saying, "this is one of the coolest things we had ever seen." Words won't describe how amazing, so I'll post as many pics as I can.

We are currently in Ketchikan, and should be biking down the Vancouver Island in a few days. Our legs are sore again, but I think it's mostly the climbing this time, not the biking.

We also had our first fall of the trip. Neither one of us are hurt too bad. Well, I guess my belly hurts a little from laughing so hard, but other than that, I think it's just a few scratches. I'll have to let James tell the story.

Thanks,
Steve

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Haines Junctions to Southeast Alaska

We are in Juneau this morning, and it has been raining for the past 48 hours. Here is how we got here...

Saturday - Saturday was a rest day for us in Haines Junction. We were at the last RV stop until the border, so it was very busy. Busy is good for us. (They hadn't closed for the year like the last 5 or so we saw) This rest day gave us time to heal, shower, and get some laundry done.
The day was beautiful. By 3pm, it was 70degrees and sunny, but we could see snow falling in the mountains right behind us. When night came, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This is great for seeing stars, but it also cooled the temperature down into the 20s by midnight. We had a huge fire going to stay warm, when a local couple from Whitehorse came over to share the fire. We talked for a while, and they told us they had two campers at the site we were at. One they were staying in and one they were selling. Luck was on our side. They asked if we wanted to plug it in, turn on the heat, and stay in their second RV. I think I was inside less than 5 min after they asked.

Sunday - Sunday morning was a great morning. James and I made breakfast over the campfire when Bob and Deb, the couple who let us stay in their camper the night before, offered to show us some sites around the Haines Junction area. After a few more cups of coffee, we were on our way.



We started out going to a small river village where the locals used the river to catch salmon. Every house had a bigger smoker next to it. It wasn't the kind of town I could see myself living in, but James would probably fit right in. haha







Our next stop was at the Million Dollar River. This was one of my favorite stops so far. The river and falls were awesome. It reminded me of Chagrin Falls, but there wasn't anyone else for miles.









After the falls, we stopped at a roadside fort. There are a few of these around the Yukon. The forts are used for anyone who is passing by and needs a place to stay for the night. There are blankets, supplies, and a wood burning stove inside. The rule is, if you use something, leave something behind. If anyone plans to bike through the Yukon or BC, try looking up the locations of these forts. I didn't know anything about them until Bob and Deb showed us. Luckily, we overplanned each night and didn't need to stop at any fort, but if we were broke or injured in the rain, it would be nice to know where the next for was.






The rest of the day we spent riding south to Haines. We rode the final 50 miles into a downpour. It was hard to be mad because we finally had a ride that wasn't into a headwind. We were riding pretty quick in the rain, around 17 - 18 mph until we were around 12 miles away. We hit a strong swirling wind when we got near the port, and that slowed us down to around 8mph average. We got into Haines around 7pm and decided to get a hotel room for the night. Everything we had was wet and the temp was dropping below 40degrees again. 15min after we were in the hotel, the room was trashed. We had fans going, blow dryers on and the heat cranked up to 90degrees. It was a good night sleep.

Monday - We woke up and went straight to do laundry again. We were completely dry again and ready to continue our trip. We drove around Haines for awhile, then went to the local port to get on a ferry. The ferry took us to Juneau which is where we are now.



More updates to come soon.






If you ever go to Alaska, I would highly recomend going to Haines. The town itself isn't that great, but we saw over 12 Bald Eagles pirched over the river and some were catching fish. It was unreal to me. I guess there is like one nest for every mile around Haines. Alaska has over 50% of the world's Bald Eagle population. I think most of them must live in Haines.


Steve

Friday, September 18, 2009

Best Pics of the Day
















Onwards to Haines Junction

Hey fellow blog readers!

Yesterday was kind of a wash. It had taken us 2 hours to "bike" to Destruction Bay; only 12 miles down the road. Winds were at their worst. After a couple hour coffee stop, we departed towards Haines Junction...still 75 miles away. I had a bit of knee tendinitis pain along the inside of the patella that kept me from going full throttle. We found a campsite 12 miles past Destruction Bay and built a fire to cook some canned food and perhaps let my inflammation go down. 2 hours later and after some episodes of "Peep Show" (A British comedy) we headed out again around dusk. I could only muster 3 more miles before I had too much pain. We set up camp on a beach, which had nice driftwood for a fire --- but was also very windy!

We left today around 10am and cycled all day until 7pm. I had thoughts of flagging someone for a hitchhike because I had tendinitis pain all day, but didn't want to let the crowd (read: everyone reading and following us) down. The wind today was manageable and the scenery was at its best for the Yukon. We just grabbed some grub at the local diner called "Northern Lights." It was quite pricey, like most places up here. We will be paying Taco Bell a visit though, the next time we see one (last one was 350 miles ago!). Also there will be some nice pictures added shortly...

Time for a Bud Light...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Destruction Bay

We are traveling at 5mph right now into another 40mph headwind. Haha, this is great! Well, we're hoping to get to Haines Junction by tomorrow. We just ate lunch at a lounge in Destruction Bay. Destruction Bay got it's name from the damage the wind caused when the military tried building forts 80 years ago. The forts kept blowing over and were destroyed. Destruction Bay! We were told that when we get another 30 miles, the wind will calm down.

Here are a few pics from the Yukon...


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tok to Burwash Landing

We are at a lodge in Burwash landing now after 4+ days with no phone or internet. The trip from Tok started out ok, but we're battling the wind and now the road conditions.



Saturday - We had a good night sleep at the Mooseberry Inn on Friday night in Tok, and felt fresh for the weekend. We loaded up with groceries and started out towards the Yukon. A few miles into the trip, James blew out his front tire. Luckily, we were in front of a bar. We grabbed a few drinks, made the change, then started out again. The next 25 miles were the easiest we rode, but then the mountains came, and that quickly changed our pace. We climbed two or three hills which were tough on their own, but then the pavement changed as well. The easy ride into the Yukon was gone.



This week starts "winter prep" for the roads. Apparently before each winter season, when most of the RV stops close down, the roads are oiled and then "chips" are shoveled over top. If you have ever seen Cool Hand Luke, you will know what we are riding on. The "chips" are a mixture of light gravel and sand. These road conditions have moved our average speed down to 8-9mph and we're getting behind schedule.



We also are still fighting the wind. Everyday, around noon, we get a head wind of 30+mph. It was hard at first to hate it because it brought such nice weather from the south. I hate it now! My legs are trashed right now and we have only been able to ride 50-60 miles/day the past 4 days.



OK, back to the trip and enough complaining...



Sunday - When we woke up Sunday, we had around 30 miles to the border. All day long, rain was circling us, but we never got too wet. It seamed like we were following the eye of the storm, or maybe the eye was following us. Either way, we rode the whole day on wet sand, and saw our first gas station 1 mile from the border. It was the first stop we saw sinse Tok 80+ miles before. We got 4 cups of coffee and rode into Canada. The Canadian border patrol was 22miles into Canada. By the time we got there, it was 1AM and we had frost in our beards. We stayed the night at a campground in Beaver Creek.



Monday - We got up around 10AM Monday and got a warm breakfast. We then went in the campground facility to pay for the night and got some groceries. After looking around for less than a minute, I got just about all that was left on the shelves. The store was closing for the winter later in the week and hadn't restocked the shelves in over a month. I purchased 2 cans of chili, 1 can of apple juice, and a shower (you can buy showers at campgrounds for $3-$4) The price of the 4 items came to $18.98. After I heard the amount, I skipped out on the camping fee and took a 30 minute shower out of spite. We were refreshed and on our way. Then, the head wind again... Then, the chipped roads again... Then, the mountains again... and again, and again, and again. We must have stopped every 5 miles to eat. I don't know if it was that we needed the energy, or we were looking for a reason to stop peddling. Either way, we were taking our time. About 40 miles into the day, we met a couple at a Visitor Center. We hadn't seen anyone all day, so we were very happy to come across this place. The couple gave us some great pointers and told us of a camp site where were could put our tent up under an overhang and cook our food on a wood burning stove. We had warm chili for a change. Life is good.



Tuesday - I don't want to talk much about Tuesday. It was a very physically demanding one and I'm so glad it's over. Most of our ride was up hill (45miles or so) and the wind was as bad as ever. The only good thing to come out of Tuesday, was around 10AM on top of the tallest pine tree, I saw a bald eagle. I had never seen one before, so I was pretty excited. It flew away before I could get a picture, but it was awesome! Other than that, it's nice to have the day behind us.



Wednesday - We are currently at a lakeside lodge about 65 miles west of Haines JCT. There is a storm across the street in the mountains, but we are still dry. The wind is blowing the trees sideways right now, so we are going to wait a few hours to see what the weather is going to do. There is a good campground about halfway from here to Haines JCT. We may try to get there by the end of the day. I am looking at today as a rest day.

I'll update again soon. We should have interenet signals for a few days now.



Thanks for reading,

Steve

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Leaving Tok

We are about to leave Tok with one full day of Alaska ahead of us. We hope to cross the border into Canada tomorrow afternoon. The weather right now is overcast with temps in the mid 40s. We are expected to ride into a light headwind again today, but it shouldn't be as bad as we saw the past few days. Our next real stop is Beaver Creek which we should be at Sunday night.


If you are ever in Tok, we just stayed at the Mooseerry Inn and I would highly recomend it to anyone. We had a great breakfast and the rooms are incredible. They also allow you to have mail sent here, which I took full advantage of. (Thanks mom and dad for the care package!!!)


I hope to post later today if we get a signal, but if not, I should be able to Sunday night.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Favorite Pics from the Week

Here is a reindeer eating by Trapper Creek. It was a pet. The only wildlife we have seen so far is a porcupine and a few squirls.


On our trip from Trapper Creek to Fairbanks, we saw beautiful mountains in the Denali National Park. These mountains in this picture are just northeast of Mt. McKinley.


What would a trip to Fairbanks be like if we didn't eat at the Northern most Denny's in the World?

This picture was our morning view at our campsite in Sulcha. We sa a lot of bear tracks, but not bears.
While biking into the wind on our way to Tok, views like this made the hard work worth while. As you can see, we are a week or so into the Fall season.
Mornings in Alaska are beautiful. Just about all the mornings so far have been between 35-45 degrees, but by 1pm, it's up to 70 degrees.






The North Pole (Sept. 7)











If you are ever in Fairbanks, you must go 15 miles east to the North Pole. The whole town is decorated like it's Christmas and even though it is September, it felt like December.
James and I spent some time around town and even got to go into Santa's house. Santa was too busy for pictures, but he let us sit in his chair for some of our own. 15 minutes in Santa's house put us in the best mood. I think my G'Pa loaned Santa some of his Christmas records, which Santa played at full volume in his workshop. I loved every minute of it. James and I sang Bing Crosby Christmas songs for the next 50 miles. It was a real treat.


Delta Jct to Tok....long and windy ride

Hey all! We ended up leaving Delta Jct around noon yesterday. I had swapped out my 6 gallon milk crate I so graciously received from Safeway and replaced it with a much lighter wire basket from IGA. It probably lightened my load by 3-4 pounds!

Upon leaving Delta Jct, we were immediately greeted with a 30mph headwind. The headwind was coming from the SouthEast; exactly the direction we were travelling (towards Tok--110 miles away.) For the next 8 hours, we battled through some of the harshest windiest conditions and it was hard to maintain a positive attitude at times. Around 7:30pm, we reached a town called Dot Lake, which I was looking forward to sitting down and getting a coffee and hot meal. A couple of houses and a miniature school later had us departing the entire "town." I was displeased but on a positive note, the wind started to die for the night. Onward we pressed until 11pm, with no more than 5-10 minutes resting at a time, hitting 100 miles for the day, just shy of Tok.

We slept decently last night at our campsite (Moon Lake) and woke up to the sound of a squirrel with a loaf of our bread in its mouth. Walking over to our bikes had me in for another little surprise, as it had eaten through one of my saddlebags--trying to get to my stash of almonds and oatmeal. Packing up our tent had us witness a nice battle between the squirrel and 3 birds--fighting over a couple pieces of bread, and it was nice amusement. Departing the campsite around 11am this morning had us pulling into Tok (90 miles from Canada) around 12:30. Personally, I was worthless for the 10-12 mile ride to get to our bed and breakfast (Steve's mom reserved us a night at a bed and breakfast in Tok--sorta an early birthday gift for Steve) had run out of water (I was holding 3 20+ oz bottles) and was tired and sore from our first "Century."

Time for a nap...

P.S. We welcome any and all people who follow us, even a little, to comment. We look forward to any and all!

From North Pole towards Delta Jct (Sept 8-9)

North Pole, on St.Nicholas drive!!

So we made it to the North Pole! To continue where Steve left off, we ended up departing Fairbanks yesterday afternoon around 4pm. The day prior to that, we had "clocked in" at a Home Depot for a good 7 hours, constructing a more rigid support bracket for the front rack. A few metal support bars later, and a milk crate to sit on top of that --- put us in business! We wondered how we made it as far as we did with our prior setup WITHOUT the milk crate; but these bike look quite rugged now. (We also fined tuned our racks and I put on my spedometer, which took us until 4pm yesterday to leave.)

A little bit about our bikes...I had done a good 4-6 hours research concerning the touring bikes available to us in Fairbanks. We opted to buy something brand new; to give us some confidence in our equipment leading into the stretch of highway through Alaska, Yukon, and B.C. ---down the very scenic Cassiar highway. The best bang for our buck ended up being the "Kona Sutra." It is a 100% Steel bicycle that weighs 32 pounds (about 12 pounds heavier than our old road bikes) but comes equipped with front and rear racks, wider tires, and bombproof shifters *knocks on wood.* I ditched my large pillow for a smaller camping pillow (sorry mom,) bought Neoprene glacier gloves, Bear Mace, and 2 coolers that are essentially 2 smaller saddlebags. One learns very quickly what is needed and not needed. Organization is something I am starting to finally give in to as well!

Steve and I biked through Fort Wainright army base and into a town called North Pole. After spending 90 minutes waiting for a pizza and salad at Pizza Hut, we decided it was too late (by this point, 9:30pm) to start biking down the Richardson Highway (Route 2). We camped off a street called St. Nicholas drive, 50 feet into the woods.

Getting ready to head towards Delta Junction now!

P.S. I uploaded pictures onto photobucket.com which links pictures to ak2fl.com, for those interested!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Touring Bike vs Road Bike





After a week of riding with a load on our road bikes and countless adjustments and breakdowns, we shipped the road bikes back home and upgraded to Kona Sutra touring bikes. The touring bikes weigh 31.5lbs compared to the 17lbs the road bikes weighed. They are steel framed and have larger wheels and tires. The wheels have 36 spokes where our road bikes have 23-26 depending on the day. haha. The Kona touring bike also has disc brakes which are better for stopping a heavy load that we are carrying. One other difference is the shifting. The touring bikes have bar end levers that click into each gear. It's old fashion, but stronger.

James and I picked up the bikes on Saturday and spent the past 2 days upgrading the Konas with some aluminum and steal brackets on the front fork. We then attached a milk crate above the front wheel to transfer some of the weight off the rear wheel. The bike rides like a tank. If anyone is thinking of going cross country on a bike, do not attempt to do so on a true road bike if you have a load over 25lbs plus your weight. We are around 50 - 70lbs and these touring bikes seem to be a great fit.

If you have any questions on the two, we will try to answer the best we are able.

Thanks,
Steve

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Ready for the Road...Again.

Well, after our first week of riding through Alaska, we learned more than we ever thought was possible. After our road bikes broke over and over last week, we are sending them home. We just picked up two touring bikes that will handle the load we are carrying. Our road bikes are build like race cars and just couldn't handle a load meant for an SUV. We now have the proper bikes and should be able to get back on schedule.

With all the break downs, (I had 4 flats in 30 miles of 45degrees and rain) I was very discouraged and thinking about throwing in the towel. James did a great job researching bikes and we got the best bikes we could for this trip. It's a very sick feeling to not have control a situation and with these new bikes, we shouldn't have the same problems we were having with our road bikes. I think we are both excited for the trip again.

We are leaving Fairbanks later today and really want to thank Blake and James for letting use their living room. Blake and James are members of CouchSurfing.com and WarmShowers.com which is a couch surfing website for cyclists traveling across the world. They took us in for a few days while we swapped bikes and were great hosts. Good luck in your studies!

Thanks,
Steve

Friday, September 4, 2009

A little lucky....A little UNlucky....

Hey all! This is James here, my first blog post. It is Friday afternoon now; I will have to give a recap of the last 2 days of what happened.

Following Steve's last blog post, he ended up getting his spokes repaired by a guy named Terry, who was very gracious in helping. We were lucky, in that, he was the husband of a woman who was serving our food at the Trapper Creek RV lodge; it was coincidental and we got lucky once again...for a little while at least...

We headed out of Trapper Creek lodge (we had slept under a pavilion in a tent, which was nice in that it protected us from the rain) and got on the road around high noon. It was 48 degrees with a slight drizzle. Within 5k, Steve had gotten a flat on the rear wheel (where essentially all the weight is located.) After 30 minutes, we headed out again, only to be sidelined with a 2nd flat in the rear wheel another 10 miles up Rt 3 towards Denali. Another 10 miles went by before Steve got his 3rd flat on the rear wheel. He was drafting off me closely and a piece of triangular aluminum which I mistakened for one of those flexible road reflectors (as to why I didn't "call out" the debris as to avoid it) caught his rear tire and it went flat instantly. At this point, we were only 1/2 mile from a coffee shop at Mile 144. We got a free coffee from the guy working in there that was friends with Terry. I bought a nice 4" folding Frost knife for 3 bucks.

Upon leaving the coffee shop, we got on our bikes and Steve noticed a flat FRONT tire. We were amazed and shocked. I knew we weren't going to be making our goal of getting to Cantwell (95 miles north of Trapper Creek) but figured there was nothing we could do about it, so it wasn't worth getting frustrated over (though I'm sure Steve was -- from his troubles.) I joked to him and gave him a hard time since by this point my bike hadn't had any troubles, and my tires were found in a dumpster! :)

We hit the road after repairing Steve's front tire around 8pm. The next 20 miles were quite nice; we were cruising between 15-20mph and caught some nice pictures along the highway. It started to get dark around 10pm and I heard a pop come from under my rear wheel. Inevitably, a spoke of mine had broke. I decided to try to limp it best I could (Steve was able to limp his 100 miles with 2 broken spokes, so I figured "what the hey") as long as I could. Only 5 miles later, 2 more spokes broke and it rendered my bike useless. We walked our bikes a mile in the dark (around mile 167, which fell 43 miles short of our goal to Cantwell at mile 210) and found a decent place to camp. I kept my laptop playing my collection of music all night as a mechanism to create noise and keep any surprise wildlife (bears) at bay.

After a decent night of sleep, we attempted to fix my rear wheel with the 3 broken spokes. Only 1 was able to be fixed. We didn't have another wrench that we needed to take apart the cassette and gears to access the area necessary. At this point, we were a bit disappointed and knew we had quite a ways to the nearest "anything" unless we hitchhiked. Well in the midst of packing up, a guy who pulled off the highway for a quick potty break (and who was towing a trailer) offered to give us a ride. And guess what? He was heading through Fairbanks (still 200 miles north) to North Slope on a hunting trip, therefore having the ability to drop us off. Another lucky day (though equally unlucky in other ways.) We got some nice pictures of the mountains and Stampede Trail (where Chris McCandless tragically died in the movie Into the Wild.)

After getting dropped off at Fred Meyer's (similar to Wally World, and close to much activity) we landed ourselves a room in a hotel within eyeshot. We showered (for those in question) and headed out for a walk to the nearest bike shop. Beaver Sports is the towns' largest bike shop, and we found a nice selection of cyclocross bikes (basically a road bike that is beefier and better equipped for rough terrain) since we plan to ditch ours. We have learned a lot these last few days; about bikes and equipment that is essential for our needs of getting through Yukon and eventually...Florida.

We are at Alaska Coffee Roasters right now and need to go to Great Land Sports (look at their selection of bikes), Sport's Authority (to return my sleeping bag and gloves--I bought a 0F degree bag 300 miles ago and although the temperature rating is borderline okay for our needs, I am a bit too tall to fit---and the gloves are not worth the 50 I paid, I plan to get a fleece or polypropylene liners with a cordura shell, for half of what I paid), and then to UPS to pick up my new -25F extra large sleeping bag (okay, probably a bit of overkill.) :)

More later...

Chow!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Good Start


We are on the road and have very little reception. Currently I am using wifi for internet access at a campground in Trapper Creek.

We got our bikes together Friday night after a long day at the UPS store and their hub. One of our packages wasn't delivered to the store, and the young lady working the UPS store offered her car to us so we could drive to the local hub to pick up the missing package. At the hub, we were told we would have to wait until Monday to get that missing package. James and I sat down and said, "Ok, we're waiting." We got the package in 5 minutes.

After we got the bikes together at 10PM, we started our ride in the pouring rain. We set up camp about 30 miles from our start at Eagle River. This was a very good test for us and we probably learned the most from it. When we got to Eagle River, I was in full rain gear, but James tested how he would do without. I was completely dry and James couldn't get warm all night. We learned that if we see any sign of rain, we are going to dress like we're in a thunderstorm. We also knew we were going to have to upgrade some supplies. I needed gloves, rope, propane, and socks. James needed a mummy sleeping bag, and some more rain gear. We would pick this up in the next few days.

Day two of the ride was very frustrating while we were in route, but when we finished, we were more than happy we traveled around 50 miles off route. We started at Eagle River and went north on route 1. There was a bike trail that followed route 1 until we got to Edmonds Lake Park. After riding on the freeway for a few miles in 2 inches of cinders and sand from previous winters, we knew we had to find some back roads. We got off at the next exit and took the Old Glenn Highway east until we got to Knik River Road. That was our best mistake of the trip. We went east on Knik River Road for 10 miles until we came to a dead end. Keep in mind, these roads don't see much traffic, but they are all 55mphs and look the same. We got the best pictures of the trip from this mistake but became very agitated. When we finally got back on track and reached Palmer, we were very hungry. We stopped at a Taco Bell at midnight and found a pavilion off the road about 500 feet and set up camp for the night. Total miles: 68.8

Day three on the road was only 20.8 miles, but we met a lot of great people and were able to stock up on supplies. James and I got our needed bags and gloves from the local shops and we stocked up on groceries as well. While getting groceries, James met Dr. Brian and Brenda who own their own veterinarian hospital in Wasilla. Brian and Brenda are very experienced cyclists and are "fitness buffs" to say the least. They run or bike to work every day and were very helpful with our biking setups. They also fed us twice and let us sleep in their home and use their showers. James and I were very inspired by their willingness to help us, complete strangers. I don't know if before that day, I would have done the same in my hometown. It's amazing how helpful some people are. James just said, "We wouldn't be able to do this trip without the people we have met who have helped us so far." We are very lucky and thankful for everyone's help so far.

Day four on the road started out to be a beautiful day for riding. We ate lunch at a local 3/8mile dirt track which felt like home to me. That lunch was just a small portion of what I ate today (Huge bowl of oatmeal, two apples, one banana, 3 slices of NY style pizza, one bacon burger with fries, a half gallon of V8, one brownie, one Hershey bar, and about 2 gallons of water.)

Trouble at mile mark 101.
We were just over 50miles into our ride for the day, when I broke a second spoke on my rear wheel. I limped the bike to Trapper Creek and we set up camp around 8PM. We traveled 70 miles for the day.

We are currently at Trapper Creek and we are waiting on some help from a local bike shop. We should be back on the road later today or first thing tomorrow. If I don't get a signal the next few days, I will give a wrap up when we get to Fairbanks.

Steve