Chuck:
We had an early start, packed lots of “last minute” items into the little Honda CRV, it is now ‘officially full’. The RV is parked in a holding slot for the next two weeks at the Rivers Edge Campground. Driving north out of Fairbanks, our biking start point is the southern terminus of the James Dalton Highway. The northern terminus is in Deadhorse, Alaska at Prudhoe Bay, about 450 miles away. Depending on conditions, we may only bike as far as the Arctic Circle, about 200 miles, then drive on to Prudhoe. At the start, we snap some pictures and I am off on my bike, it has been ten days since I did any biking.
Immediately, the asphalt paving turns to loose gravel. This means more care must be taken, especially on turns and braking, down-hill runs must be slower and gravel requires more effort. The B-Team beep as they pass. They will wait a few miles north while checking how the hybrid bike handles. Jeez, these hills are exhausting me. After only a mile, I can see this is not working, the rear brake is dragging, I cannot shift into the lowest gears and it feels squirrelly on the gravel. Yesterday, I took this bike for a short test ride at the RV Park and must have missed the brake and gear problems. There is nothing like climbing up a steep hill to uncover mechanical issues. I tried adjusting both but had little lasting success. When I reached the B’s, I swapped the hybrid for the mountain bike; much better. As I am pumping along, the thought occurs to me that the hybrid bike has been on the RV’s rear bike rack since we left Florida. Maybe, 4,000 plus miles of dust, grit, rain, engine heat, etc. has taken its toll. We transported both the mountain bike and my new road bike inside the CRV and both work fine? Betty & Bren leap ahead, ten miles at a time, while I try to get myself back in gear. We are still 18 miles short of the Yukon River, but that is enough for today. We load up and drive to the Yukon River Camp which is mostly a truck stop arrangement; they have a restaurant, showers, rooms and, of course, fuel. The rooms are “crew rooms”: spartan with showers down the hall. Except for the short summer tourist trade, truckers enroute to Prudhoe and maintenance crews for the pipeline and highway are their mainstay. I think we all slept well.