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| Who names a town Deadhorse? |
It was 32 degrees in Deadhorse, in mid July, at noon. The gas pumps are kept in enclosures, presumably so they wont freeze. The ground is covered in these weird patterns caused by the freezing. I put my bike together in the airport, then went to the general store to buy some bear spray. I went to one of the two hotels to buy lunch, then headed out since there wasn't much to do and I want'd to get out of polar bear territory.
The second day I woke up at about 6am to the sound of something moving outside my tent. My worst fears coming true, I grabbed the can of bear spray I slept next to. I grabbed the knife I slept next to. I waited. I watched as a silhouette of a rabbit slowly made its way across the side of my tent. I went back to sleep.
I saw 4 other cyclists on the road, and about 100 motorcyclists.
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| Markers to show you where the road is during winter |
For the most part the highway was easier than I expected, with only the last two days being annoying. Something must have bent my derailleur because even after forcing my chain into the lowest gear on the crankset the chain still rubbed against it. I couldn't move it any further since the fender was in the way, so with my 9 lowest gears unusable I spent a lot of time pushing my bike. Also I forgot to bring my leg clip so I tore yet another pair of pants.
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| Arctic circle |
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| taking a bit of the road with me |
One thing I hadn't read about beforehand was just how much standing water there is on the ground. Even though the amount of rain that falls isn't that high, the permafrost prevents the rain from sinking so there is water everywhere.
After Fairbanks, on the parks highway it's about 300 miles of pine trees with occasional spots to view Denali.
Once in Anchorage I booked the standard glacier tour through Prince William sound, which was fun.
On the way back I finally saw a moose.
Also I finally had a reason to use the telephoto lens I bought.
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