Friday, September 11, 2009

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!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the great updates, I check everyday so don't be bashful with your posts.

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  2. Oh and I've also biked at least 1.5 miles a day since you guys left in your honor.

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  3. Thanks buddy. We will be putting up a section on here with daily mileage reports. I have it all recorded right now on a Microsoft Excel sheet (including expenses and activities)

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