Chuck:
Another busy prep day. Tuned up the mountain bike and the hybrid for this trip, the other three will be left behind; two on the RV’s back rack and my new baby inside. The rough gravel road surface is hard on bike tires as well as vehicle tires. I will take two extra tires and four extra tubes for each bike. The bike I ride will have one extra tube, changing tools and a mini-pump. We plan to start at Livengood (about 50 miles north of Fairbanks) the actual start of the Dalton Highway and hope to bike the 60 miles to the Yukon crossing tomorrow. Do not know how many miles are doable each day on this road. Daylight will not be a limiting factor, but mosquitoes might be; here in Fairbanks it is light all night, even if the sun goes below the horizon. However, the bugs come out in force during the hours of lower light, just like a very long dusk, their favorite time.
Betty got lotsa groceries today, mostly dehydrated, one pot meals. There is a Fred Meyer store just across the street from us, it is huge, similar to a Super Wal-Mart. Bren & I set up our tents just to review the process and check to be sure we had all the essential parts. It is 9pm in the Alaska Time Zone (one zone west of Pacific), we just washed up the dinner dishes, watched Boston lose to Chicago in the third overtime of the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Excitement is high, a night’s sleep and we will be on our way into the tundra.
Betty: There may not be updates for two weeks. We’ve heard there isn’t much possibility of using the computer or cell phones. We will carry them along, just in case. 🙂