Saturday - 65 miles to Seward and the Ryndam
soft bed, dry sheets, hot water …
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At the end of the day we will have ridden 185 miles, with 25 miles to go until we reach the Ryndam.
It rained all night long. It never stopped. We were warm and dry in our tent, but we knew that wouldn’t last. We dressed in the rain, broke camp in the rain, ate breakfast in the rain and started our second day of riding in the rain.
Wendell had been wanting to ride over Johnson Pass on an off-road trail. It’s 23 miles long and though we were told we should be able to do it on our bicycles, I had my doubts. With the non-stop rain he decided to stay on the road. About two miles into our ride we saw cyclists riding by on an as yet undetected bicycle path. Did I mention that Alaska has a lot of paved separated bike paths that they don’t have on any map or have any signs so you can find them?
Here we’d been riding on the shoulder of a highway with cars, RV’s and trucks zooming past us, spraying us with dirt and mud and there was a perfectly beautiful bike path we could have been using. (!!!!) There was a clutch of Alaska Highway Patrol and other official looking people and a bunch of cyclists standing at an intersection with the bike path and a driveway to a campground, so we went over to find out what was going on and to ask about the path. The Alaska Highway Patrolman said that he saw us going up the hill last night and that we were very well lit up. Wendell was all puffy proud that we were so well lit the AHP noticed and commented on it. The other official looking people told us about the MS fundraising ride that Wendell and I happened to be riding with along the same route at the same time, in the same direction. So we officially became bandits*.
After getting some information about the bike path, we rode along until we got to the first rest stop. I had to use the bathroom and they had a port-a-potty. I certainly wasn’t going to use the dingleweeds when there was a perfectly good porta-potty there to use. So I used it even though we were bandits. After I came out or the porta-potty, the people working the rest stop practically begged us to eat their food.
Knowing that on these things there is always more food than they need and it gets thrown out I knew it’d be okay to have some of the food, so we had a nice second breakfast of pancakes, sausage etc. Wendell’s knee was really hurting because of being cold and wet and after doing the ride all day long yesterday where he was either pushing through a headwind or riding uphill. We were at the bottom of the final mountain pass. Federal Express volunteered its trucks and drivers to help ‘sag’ cyclists when they needed it. Scott and Andrea were there at the rest stop with their Fed-Ex truck and they hadn’t had a chance to do any ‘sagging’ all day and were really looking forward to putting their volunteer skills and services to use.
So in order to provide them an opportunity to ‘sag’ somebody, Wendell and I graciously accepted a ride from them, seven miles up to the top of the mountain pass. Really, it was for them that we accepted. They were really nice folks, Scott drove our bicycles in his truck and Andrea gave us a ride in her car. Her car had heated seats. It was sublime. There was a loud sucking noise as we both attempted to get out of the lovely heated seats at the top of the mountain pass. Scott and Andrea were both really great and I’m glad we ran into them.
At the top of the mountain as we were getting out of the truck I saw that my brake cable was in the process of breaking and had one little thread left. How does this happen? Do you remember when I said earlier that everything on this trip seemed to be going really smoothly?
Well, case in point! You can’t ride down a mountain pass without your rear break on your bicycle. And if we had been going over Johnson Pass, without a rear brake, I would have had to walk the entire way.
But here we were, right across the street from another MS Fundraising rest stop with bicycle mechanics. I went across the street and Wayne did the fastest brake cable change I have ever seen in my life. And he didn’t put in a weenie Seattle brake cable, he put in a hearty Alaskan brake cable. You can see how much thicker this new one is. It took him about 3 minutes to change it. I was impressed.
There was one part of the ride, a 7 mile stretch that had absolutely no shoulders and the MS ride was ‘sagging’ all of the cyclists past it in a fed ex truck. So Wendell and I got Fed-Ex-ed across Alaska for the second time that day.
I didn’t feel too bad about using yet more of the services en-route for two reasons; one, because they wouldn’t want an out-of-control bandit screaming down the mountain crashing into the other registered riders with my 50 pounds of gear on my bicycle, and two, because having your own set of bandits in your ride is an important part of having a real fundraising ride.
Alaska is not exactly teeming with cyclists dying to ride over a couple of mountain passes in the pouring down rain, so it was incumbent upon us to give their ride that genuine lower 48 fundraising ride element by adding bandits to it.
Lest you think this ride was all fun and games ...
It rained all day long. It never stopped. The raindrops here in Alaska are bigger and closer together than the ones in Seattle. We were completely soaked. We’d take off our gloves at rest stops and wring the water out of them. Each step in our shoes water would squish between our toes. Going to the bathroom was a pain because wet clothes do not slide over wet flesh and we had on many layers in order to keep warm. Just putting on our gloves took forever because they don’t slide over wet hands and have to be coaxed on one finger at a time. ALL of our gear was soaking wet. We were in for a cold wet night.
I pulled out the visitors guide to Seward and found listed in it a youth hostel. I called with my breath held to see if they had any availability that night and believe it or not, they did. The MS Fundraising riders hadn’t taken up all of the space. So Wendell and I reserved a double room at the hostel in Seward.
WWe didn’t really get to see much of the scenery around us because of the sticking clouds. But what we did see looks exactly like what we’ve got here at home. You see, from Anchorage to Seward, as you pass over the mountain range you go into the very northern most part of the Pacific Northwest forest that stretches all the way from Washington to Southern Alaska. So we didn’t miss much except to say that we’ve seen the Northernmost edge of the forest we live in.
Wendell got to play with his Ham radio. Very fun for him. Cell phone service in Alaska is spotty, especially in the mountains. The people providing support for the ride were using ham radios to communicate so Wendell got in on the ham radio game. He made friends with everyone.
We finally got to the edge of Seward. We were soaked to the bone, our clothes were sticking to us in that icky wet way. We were tired, we had three miles to go. It should have been easy. Guess what we ran into again? A HEADWIND!! Yup that’s right, we spent the last three miles, which should have been easy ones driving ourselves inch by inch through a headwind. It was so unfair. The only dry spot on me was the space under my ta-ta’s.
We rolled into the end of the ride last. We were carrying all of our gear and it had slowed us down compared to the other riders. They were having a big dinner for all of the participants, but you had to be on the list in order to go to the dinner. Wendell decided to employ the cyclist’s emergency kit and pulled out a check to write to the fundraiser, but had to go in the bathroom and hold it under the hand dryer for about 10 minutes to dry out the check before he could write it out and give it to them. After having taken advantage of their services all day long, it was the least we could do.
After dinner we went to our hostel and got into our room. We took hot showers. Just as we got into dry beds it stopped raining for the first time that day.
Hobbit at a food stop
Wendell and his socks
Wendell is ecstatic because he found a pair of dry, thick Filson socks in his bike bag. He was clutching them to his chest and chortling, "Dobby has a pair of clean, dry socks!"
*Bandits = People riding along with a fundraising ride that have not registered for the event and therefore are not entitled to take advantage of the support services along the way.
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