Cycling Alaska-Canada.

[polishbiker]

Well its time to start organizing another trip, have been preparing this for the last few months and just getting bits and pieces together. Anyone cycled the area?
Plan: Start in Anchorage, Alaska, then cross to Canada
Time: ~5 months or so should be enough. After reading a few blogs here and there think end of May/mid June is best time to start in Alaska.
Distance: 11.000km or so.
Route, combined other peoples routes into 1:






Full route:


Thoughts?

[Releng]

This may be easier:
http://www.tourducanada.com/

I spent 3 months in Saskatchewan last year, not the most interesting cycling on the prairies. Flat, straight roads in poor condition due to ice damage through the winter, with lots of wind and stupidly big utes.
If you are going for 5 months you probably should start early May and look to be finishing in September or early October at the latest. Their winter takes about 8 months.

good luck, I am more than a bit envious.

Mick

[polishbiker]

Thanks for the link, their route looks very similar to what i put together, mine is a combination of blogs taken from crazyguyonabike.
In regards to the dates, think May would be still a bit cold in Alaska and some roads are closed as they are seasonal, the road up from Alaska towards Inuvik is open from June or so from memory.
What time were you in Canada last year?

Ta

[il padrone]

Ah, the Dempster Highway. Riding it in June - you're soft, anyway the 'ice road' is not rideable in summer. Do it in the snow like these guys

[edit]This guy - he rode it solo, filmed it all himself.




More details about the Dempster Highway and a spring journey along it, including photos, can be found here.

[Releng]

What time were you in Canada last year?

I was there from the end of April till the end of July.
They were still getting snow and temps below zero in April. I joined a cycling club while I was there. A fantastic group.
http://www.horizon100.com/index If you get to Saskatoon, tell them Mick from Tassie says hello.

[polishbiker]

Yes, I prefer warmer weather, Its not a competition for me, i just want to go and have a good time : )

Will have a look, thanks Releng.
Is cycling popular over there, did you see many people touring on bicycles?

[Releng]

Cycling is quite popular around Saskatoon, considering the short season they have. The town of 500K people has 5 bike shops, they survive through the winter selling ski gear.
The drivers were reasonable by Australian standards, although the local cyclists thought they could be better. There is some good cycling infrastructure, cycling lanes, etc. probably better than we have here.
I did not see many bike tourists, although I did read in the local paper about a couple who had their bikes stolen.

[rifraf]

Mozzies as big as sparrows I've heard in Spring/Summer. Drop off any Polish doughnuts at my place before you leave so the Grizzly bears arent
attracted to you.

[polishbiker]

yes i heard about them too Meant to rain quite a bit in Alaska in summer time.
bears is the main concern atm, i know i can buy a bear spray and hope for the best!

[John Lewis]

Hi Pawel,

Andrew and Joanne Hooker rode their trikes from Dead Horse Alaska down through USA.
Started in Perth and rode across Aus first.
You may find something of interest here.

http://www.where2pedalto.com/journal/an ... htm#canada

Seems they have it written up in Ebook format.

http://www.where2pedalto.com/journals.htm

John

[il padrone]

Andrea Wiliams (Worldbiking) has evidently cycled through that part of the world

The Top of the World Highway - Alaska-Yukon border cycling into Dawson City

[polishbiker]

Thanks for the articles.
speaking of the worldbiking people...i cycled past them along the swan river 2 months or so ago, later realized it was actually them, small planet

[geoffs]

It's a long time since I was there but I had a great time cycling in Canada. When I was in Jasper on my way down the icefields parkway in July I met a couple who had tried to start in the Yukon but the roads were impassable so they had to come south.
When we were in Calgary a couple of years ago, we arrived on June 1st and it was snowing so expect extremes in temperature. Some of the nicest riding I did in Canada was through the Kootenays and Kokanee region. Small towns great food and really friendly people. We rode back through the Glacier National park to Vancouver where we had started from.

[polishbiker]

The plan for now is to start in Alaska beginning of June so hopefully the weather will be warming up by then, i will be carrying several merino/thermal clothes so should be OK.
Also hoping there would be no rain through to Inuvik as the dirt road meant to be very hard to ride on a bicycle, just ordered schwalbe mondial evolution 26x2.0" so hopefully they would do the job. worst case scenario there are trucks, people traveling through that road from what i know.

geoffs - do you have any blogs/maps etc you could share with me? would be good to get more ideas about the route.

[polishbiker]

flight booked for the 8th of June to Anchorage, happy days.

[polishbiker]

leaving for Alaska tonight : )

[maxknott]

safe travels

[Baalzamon]

Heard from polishbiker via facebook.
He got there safe n sound, however his bike didn't. From what I heard, dents and scratches in frame, fork squashed. Fortunately a LBS in alaska sorted out his fork. Lucky it was steel in one way

[rifraf]

Thats bloody dreadful to hear about his Thorn being damaged like that.
Sorry to hear about it.
What did the airline have to say? Do you know who he flew with? How was the bike packaged?
Any updates to how/where he is?
Glad he got some forks ok, but it must have been a bitter blow all the same.
The more I hear about that sort of thing the more determined I'm am to get the money together and explore S&S couplers to get my Ogre into a hard flight case like the Bike Fridays.
Even then the frame needs to be secured in the bag as (I've heard) bags are often opened and explored without much due care for the contents.
Tell Pawel we're looking forward to some good news and he's way overdue for an update.