PowerCycle

07/06 First day on the Alaska Highway and it was a wet one. Just yesterday I was telling Steve how I hadn’t had to pack up my tent in the rain yet. Well, that sealed the deal. This morning was the first time for that. It hasn’t stopped raining yet and the wind started to pick up so I grabbed a motel. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow but I’ll be pressing on. It’s not that cold, maybe 52 F, so even if I have to stop for a bit and I’m pretty well soaked, it’s not that uncomfortable.

I’ve had to worry about a few things that normally aren’t issues for me. Combined with the weather and the heavy traffic it kind of made for a tough riding day. My least favorite thing about the rain is that is doubles the noise of cars/trucks going by you. Nothing is louder than an 18-wheeler passing you within a few feet when it’s raining.

Not having a spare tire right now is making me paranoid about running over just about anything. Something is also messed up with the gears. The chain is catching for a half-second in the highest gear which I use a lot on the hills. I’m worried that it’s going to get sucked up into the derailleur and cause a bigger problem. I’ll try cleaning it tonight and have the bike shop guys check it tomorrow. Finally, the internet connection at the CG kept cutting out until it finally died at 9:15pm. At 9:14pm I was getting 500 server errors so all day today I thought my site was down. When I got to the motel that was the first thing I checked and amazingly enough it was working. I have no idea how though.

So far I’ve been pretty impressed with the condition of the highway. For the amount of heavy truck traffic it gets not to mention what the weather does to it, there weren’t that many bad spots. As far as the scenery goes there’s not much of that yet. Since the land is pretty flat it’s all ranch/farm land. I think it’ll be that way for the next couple hundred miles. Best part of the day was a massive downhill to the Peace River. I didn’t tear down it as fast as I normally would because it was raining and rain that doesn’t feel that great hitting your face at 35 mph. Just glad I didn’t have to go up it. Not sure what the climb out of Taylor is going to be like because it’s right next to the river.

First stop this morning was bike shop #1 in Dawson. They didn’t have any touring tires so they pointed me over to shop #2 just down the street. They had a couple tires that might have worked but they were some brand I’ve never heard of and were only $19.99. I don’t think they would have lasted 100 miles. So Fort St. John, which is only 8 miles up the road, has a couple bike shops so I called them up. Shop #2 up there might have something a little better so I’ll check it out. I have my heart set on a folding Kevlar tire from Schwalbe but they wouldn’t be able to get that for 3 days and I can’t be hanging around.

Bad pictures today. I didn’t have easy access to anything dry so I could wipe the lens off.

GPX Track