LOADING
heading North
I´m sitting in front of a dry cabin (as the locals call their tiny houses) in fairbanks. Dry cause without plumbing. The most of them are like this. You can get the water in canisters at a pump in the city. To take a shower you have to go to the Laundromat as they call the public Laundry with included Showers. Public Bathrooms… One of many differences up here. Every Day a more or less bizarre and funny little thing….
But let me tell the story from the beginning:
„Think bigger“ was my first impression as I cycled through Prince Rupert in Canada. The huge engines of the gigantic Pickups were roaring through the Streets, everything was exactly as you would imagine Northamerica. Every Man a potential lumberjack, women as also the men wearing Rubberboots and later in the supermarket I also met the Family package sized Food. Everything even Salsa (in a 2L Bottle).
What kept me hold my breath were the prices. Canada has it´s own price level, hope that it gets better in the States otherwise my budget for the next Months is far over my normal limit…
Prince Rupert is just a stopover on my way to the North. From here I will take the Marine Highway Ferrys along the Coast of Southeast Alaska. For some Communities in the „Panhandle“ these Ships are the only connection to the world. By the way it is a popular touristic Destination cause it leads through the beautiful partly fjord like Island landscape of southeast Alaska
Another week on the Ship took patience, my legs want to move and my mind to explore… We had a one day stopover in Juneau, the tiny capital of the State, where I stayed at the house of Jim and Janice who took very good care of me. The next day the Boat left the islands and went on along the pacific coast heading towards Kodiak Island and Homer where I left the Ship.
The week on the Boat was fantastic, there as also on the camping in Prince Rupert, i had a lot of nice contacts and conversations with locals. The language barrier was (almost) gone and so it was very interesting to get a first impression of the thoughts up here. I had my first contact with friends of weapons, with some completely different religious practitioners and met a lot of super friendly and openhearted people. Almost everyone of them invited me to their homes on my way south… Let´s see how i can put this together in my Route south.
On the Ship I met Jessie and Doug, we had a nice time together and they decided to stay with me at the beach of Homer for that night. Hope to see them again down there in California. From Homer i cycled north crossing the Kenai Peninsula. The Nature down here offers everything,wide Landscapes with Spruce Forrest spotted with lakes and surrounded by ice topped mountains. The Cook Inlet that leads up to Anchorage offers incredible views across to the Vulcanos on the other side… Breathtaking at every time of the day. In summer it is not really dark in the Night, sun sets around Midnight and comes back up at 4 and in between there is a constant dusk… The varying moods in these hours are so catchy that you don´t really want to go to bed at all…
The Beauty is well known and so you meet legions of Recreation Vehicles (RV´s) on the few roads that the peninsula has to offer. Calm traffic is different but i met worse situations on the other side of the pacific…
After 5 days i reached Anchorage where I could stay at the house of Will, Steve and Gus. I met the guys along the road and they invited me to stay with them. One night went into almost a week, cause the city (the biggest in Alaska) has some things to offer I was missing for a long time. We visited a concert with local bands and on the weekend there was a bike-polo tournament. I couldn´t really imagine what it is about and so we went there. It was impressive what they do with their bikes to play the ball. The sense for balance and the skills on the bike, riding one handed and hunting a ball with a stick, are incredible!
after another rainy day it was time to start again. I arrived after a few rain showers in palmer where i checked in on the camping.
The campsites have a peculiar (for cyclists even unfair) pricing policy. You pay for a plot, doesn´t matter how many people will sleep there. Even an RV uses one plot and so I have to pay 15$ for my little tent every time I set into it. A lot of the sites didn´t even have a shower for this price…
Here I met Jessie from germany, a nice surprise, cause we met before at the house of the guys in Anchorage. We decided to hitchhike up to Matanuska Glacier. The Day trip went to be a short holiday cause the guy who took us up there invited us to stay in his house together with his children. We were also allowed to stay a few days longer after they left. A incredible offer we took! The View from the Cabin to the glacier was incredible and the changeable weather brought new signs every few minutes.I like this moments when everything fits…
The ride back down to Palmer (the other day the guy brought us back down to pick up our stuff at the camping) was fantastic, i followed the River along a wide Valley with beautiful views to the glacier topped Chugach-Mountains. From Palmer i followed the George Parks Highway to the Denali National Park. The weather was wet and brought a lot of rain. The second day it cleared a little bit and the ride over the Broad Pass offered a lot of beautiful views. Cause we are so far north up here the vegetation is sparsely and the trees already stop at 600m of Altitude. This gives you, together with the snow topped mountains, the feeling to be really higher up that it is in reality…
On my way up I passed two construction sites. Here cyclists are not allowed to cross on the bike (too dangerous!) and you have to put the bike on the back of the Pilot Car. This car is (like in Formula One) leading the queue of cars through the „confusion“ of the construction site. Additionally, instead of the usual traffic lights back at home, they have a guide (most of them female, blond, beautiful, sympathetic and smiling) that regulates the cars with a stop-Sign (on the back it´s written „slow“). As i remarked that we use to have just traffic lights she just said „how unpersonally…“ Absolutely right, Lady!
The weather also ruined my visit to the National Park and so I took the Shuttlebus into the Park. My bike was fixed to the front so I could (if it would stop raining) cycle a part of the Road. I didn´t… A part of the Road was blocked cause of a landslide and so we went half the way in and back again. Highlight was a squirrel hunting grizzly next to the road and some gigantic Moose in the forrest along the way. In the evening I visited the employers-pub wherefore my busdriver invited me. We had a nice evening with the boys there…
From here i cycled northwards to fairbanks where i started a little side trip. But this is another story i will tell you the next time…