Alaska Biking Day 5

From Tok, it is about 140 miles to our next destination, Glennallen. The plan was to drive about 20 miles out of town, bicycle 70 miles, then shuttle the final 50 miles to our hotel. The weather in Tok was pleasant as we packed the van, sunny and in the low 50s with scattered clouds. 20 miles down the Tok cutoff towards Glennallen, the temperatures had dropped to the upper 40s. Unfortunately, the forecast was for increasing chances of rain.

We hopped on our bikes, headed uphill, and hoped for the best.

While the thick clouds were covering increasing portions of the sky, there were also portions of sun in the landscape which made for interesting and dramatic views.

Here is Keith enjoying both a bit of sun and a brief downhill. Keith lives in Sidney Australia although he was originally from England.

Here is another view made more dramatic by the light and shadows cast by the clouds.

While it was chilly, the scenic views more than compensated for me.

This is Mark who lives in eastern Texas. Unfortunately for us, the cloud cover visible in this photo was a harbinger of what was to come.

As the road turned towards a pass between two hills, the clouds beyond looked incredibly threatening. A couple of minutes later, the rain started, and the temperatures dropped to the low 40s.

The scenery still remained lovely, but my ability to enjoy was slipping away along with my body heat. My long gloves were not waterproof, so my fingers started to get quite cold as the water soaked my gloves. My toes were suffering a similar fate.

By the time we had reached our first rest stop at mile 20, we had ridden 5 miles in the cold rain. Chris, who was the first to arrive at the rest stop was already in the van. He has a motto of “I only ride the joyous miles.” Having ridden 310 miles in the past 4 days and with my fingers and toes actively protesting the conditions, I concluded that Chris’s approach sounded remarkably attractive. Keith and Mark agreed, so we decided to drive down the road and see if we could drive our way out of the rain. The answer was that we could not, so we grabbed lunch at a good Mexican place and checked into our hotel early.

Tomorrow is forecasted to be even colder than today. Depending on which weather service I look at, there is somewhere between a 5% and 40% chance of rain. Hopefully we can get lucky since the bike ride into Valdez is supposed to be spectacular. However, I do not think I am willing to ride more than about one hour in 37-42 degree rain. So if it rains, tomorrow might be a another short day for me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.