Alaska Bike Tour Planning
As I mentioned in my previous posting, I’m riding my bicycle to Alaska this summer. Well, those plans are shaping up.
Last week, I booked a ticket with the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to take me and my bicycle from Bellingham, Washington to Juneau, Alaska.
I’ve been using the touring bike I purchased recently to commute to work each day. I’ve been stretching my 13 mile round trip commute further and further each day. I’m now up to about 35-40 miles a day carrying about 20-30 pounds of gear (depending on whether I carry my laptop with me). I haven’t been able to commute every day, but three to four times most weeks. Besides getting in shape, I’ve been able to save a few dollars — actually, with gas prices what they are these days, quite a few dollars — not having to fill the gas tank in the car as often.
Last weekend, for the first time, I loaded up 60 pounds of gear onto the touring bike and took it out for a ride. For the tour, I estimate my total gear weight to be more like 50-55 pounds. I threw 60 pounds on figuring there might be some last minute items that I’ll add. The photo you see here is me in the front yard just before I left the house to ride 55 miles last Saturday. It went fairly well. I even managed to do a route with about 3000 feet of climbing in it. It took me four and a half hours to ride 55 miles. That’s about 12 miles an hour on the average.
