08/03 Since my foot wasn’t giving me any grief I pushed on into Tok (rhymes with “poke”). Great ride today other than I ran out of water. I ended up filtering some out of what looked like a toxic waste site. The place smelled awful but the water tasted OK. Its possible it numbed my taste buds so who knows what’s going to end up growing on/in me. Eventually I ran into a campground about 5 miles later and filled up on that. I wouldn’t have run out but one of the riders I passed said there was a cafe further up the road. He didn’t mention it was closed though. Oops. There are also almost no streams/rivers in this area. I passed one all day and the water was brown (possibly from tanic but I didn’t check).
Much to my delight Tok sits in a very flat valley so after a long morning of riding up and down a lot of hills I was able to make some good time after getting a private escort through a construction site. I rode through town to check out what campgrounds were open and then hit the visitor’s center to find out from them who would be the cheapest. They pointed me back over to Stovepipe Campground that’s right on the edge of town. For $10 you can’t beat the price. I skipped the shower when I got here and headed over to Fast Eddy’s for dinner. It was so good. Had a 20 oz steak, Alaska Ale (x3) and a couple trips to the salad bar. For dessert it was a brownie avalanche (brownie + ice cream + hot caramel). So good. The waitress even correctly guessed that I’d been riding a bicycle all day. 
Had a funny thing happen at the CG last night. 2 sisters stopped over to chat for a while. The oldest sister, whose name I can’t remember, is in the Coast Guard and is transferring from here to Maine. Her sister, Page from New York, flew out here so she could drive to Maine with her. Anyway, thee funny part is while we were talking this crazy squirrel kept jumping up on my foot and then up onto my knee. It would just sit right here on my knee like we were best friends. This morning the squirrel was back and this time when I was sitting on the picnic table it jumped up on my shoulder. That freaked me out a little. Thought it was going to take a bite out of my ear. It’s probably the same one that jumped on my pannier at 5am and woke me up. Glad it didn’t have time to chew through it. I had it hanging from a tree so I guess the thing just jumped right down from the overhanging branch.
It was pretty cold last night. My watch showed 38 F in the tent. I was way underdressed for it and froze my butt off when I had to get up and chase the squirrel away. Glad I didn’t ship back my cold weather clothes after all.
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Congratulations Scott. This has been quite an accomplishment. I have friends that are at Denali now. I’ll have them look out for you.
Hey Uncle Dave. Can you ask your friends in Denali how the smoke is there? If it’s as bad as it is here there’s no point in going. I can only see 1/4 mile and I’m still 50 miles from Fairbanks.
Good Morning…found your blog (is this considered a blog?..I’m not tech-term savey)…I see that the last post was 8/09. I’m sure your still not riding your bike but still felt compelled to write. My husband and I traveled throughout Alaska living out of a 20ft trailer pulled behind our truck. We did this during the summer of ’07. When I look at pictures of Alaska my heart yearns to go back…someday we will. You traveled on a bike?? Wow. When I tell people about our trip, I must include in my stories what I learned after living 3 1/2 mos out of a trailer. A person needs very little “stuff” to survive. I can cook a 5 course meal with 2 pans…a person really needs only 1 sharp knife in the kitchen…2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knives…etc, etc….2 pairs of clothes: 1 set to wear while until the other gets washed…you know, stuff like that. Our experience in Alaska has made it possible to rid my life of “stuff”…how liberating!! We are (young) retirees and are now living on a lake in Northern Michigan. It’s alot like Alaska here except there are no mountains. Would love to hear about what you learned after cycling Alaska. I can’t iimagine doing that and I run marathons!!!
Hi Terrilynn. Thanks for the great comment. I’m actually still riding since leaving Alaska having made it down near Cancun, Mexico. At the moment I’m in Calgary, Canada though (had a family emergency). In 2 weeks I’ll be back on the road with Argentina as my destination (for this leg of my trip). The main page of my site has the latest updates– http://www.powercycle.net. Alaska was amazing. There’s nothing I enjoy more than just seeing open land–no houses, buildings, fences or even power lines and Alaska didn’t disappoint. The people that live there truly appreciate the feeling of independence that comes with living in Alaska and as you mentioned you certainly don’t need “stuff” to survive. I really felt like the local residents cared much more about the land/wildlife than they did about material things. It was a welcome change. Physically, riding there wasn’t that hard with the exception of the roads north of Fairbanks. The biggest lesson I learned was to make sure I carry more food than I think I’ll need.
I’ve never been to northern Michigan but it sounds like I should add it to my must visit list. Take care.