An Alaskan Century
Today’s planned ride was 82 miles. However, the ride had limited climbing, was somewhat downhill on average, and generally had a tailwind. As a result, I averaged just about 20 mph for the ride. When I got to the end of the route, I decided that I might as well add another 18 miles to get to a century. What I did not realize was that the last 18 miles had 1400’ of climbing with over 1100’ in the final 9 miles, so it was a bit harder than I anticipated. Nonetheless, the ride was great, and for the moment, my body is not complaining too much. This century is the 101st of my life. I have now ridden centuries in 28 of the 38 states I have cycled in.
Today’s ride started from our lodging. It was chilly when we started, perhaps mid 40s. While we had cloud cover, it did not feel like it was going to rain.
At about the 12 mile mark, we got to the main entrance to Denali National Park. We did not enter the park, but continued north towards Fairbanks skirting the eastern edge of the park. Yesterday was the day when we could have had views of Mt. Denali, but with the low clouds, it was not possible.
At about the 25 mile mark, we reached the town of Healy. For those who have either read Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book “Into the Wild” or seen the movie adaptation, Healy was the last place the protagonist, Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp, was seen alive before he headed into the wilderness. Chris/Alexander ends up finding a bus in the wilderness where he lives for a while. Eventually, he tries to return to town for more food, but is unable to ford the river and eventually dies of starvation. This is not the original bus, but rather the bus that was made for the film.
The inside of the bus accurately represents how it looked when Chris/Alexander’s body was found. The placards along the wall include information about Chris/Alexander.
As we biked along, the weather improved both with clearer skies as well as rising temperatures.
After lunch, we left the mountains behind and entered into the plains.
This continued until the scheduled end of the ride at mile 82 and for a couple of miles beyond.
However, eventually the road turned up. It is never a good sign when there is an extra lane added and a sign that says that trucks need to keep to the right. Since I did not have an elevation profile, I kept thinking that the end of the climb might be just around the next turn. But no, it was raising all the way to mile post 324 which marked the end of the century for me. Tomorrow, we ride 75 miles southeast from the outskirts of Fairbanks. I believe that the day is a net climbing day, so my legs may be struggling a bit after today’s ride.