Last week Homer’s Jaclyn Arndt completed a solo bike trip from the Arctic (Deadhorse, Alaska) starting on July 18th to Homer arriving on Tuesday, August 4th: the trip took 2 weeks and 3 days. Arndt explained the basic logistics of the trip:
Derek at Cycle-logical helped me box up the bike, and then I stayed at the Aurora Hotel, and then put my bike together, and then started south: went through Atigun Pass to Fairbanks, and then I did cut over towards Delta Junction, and then I took the Richardson down to Glennallen, and then through Palmer to Homer.
Arndt began her story by describing the landscape/ terrain and road conditions on the Dalton Highway north of Atigun Pass: The first 50 miles of the highway is paved without trees or elevation in sight. Then, the landscape changes daily and the highway has quite a bit of gravel conditions. The gravel is treated with calcium chloride to maintain dust for the semi-trucks. Arndt explained some of the impacts of what this maintenance does to road conditions for a cyclist: “And as soon as it gets wet, it turns into this basically wet cement texture. It's super slippery. It just gets everywhere. I was expecting that, but what I wasn't was as soon as it hardens, it's just super corrosive, and I actually broke my derailleur and hanger the second day, which caused like a day and a half delay,” she said.
With the assistance of friends and family, Arndt was able to get the parts she needed to fix the derailleur. Once on the road she also had internet connections via oil pump stations and was able to post and update travel stories via Instagram. After the initial breaks, the only equipment problems Arndt encountered were two flat tires for the entire rest of the trip.
What other kinds of traffic did you see?
So on the Hall Road: I mean, there's the trucks. They're just going nonstop. It is neat, like North Atigun Pass. You can just hear them for miles. I did pull over. Anything coming behind me, I just pulled over and gave them the space. I mean, I had time, and I wanted to respect their time on the road and make sure they saw me because there's not a lot of bikers, I only saw two other bikers. It was a couple, I think, south of Coldfoot. But there, after Atigun Pass, there's definitely more traffic,” Arndt said.
Arndt encountered and described one particularly difficult night of bad weather:
“I saw the thunder and lightning, and I decided not to go down because I was like, "Oh, this doesn't look great. And my forecast through the Garmin was like a thunderstorm. So I was about to set up camp, and it just started downpouring and blowing.
And I was trying to set up my tent, and it was like whipping everywhere. And I was chucking these huge rocks in it to try to just keep it on the ground. And it was just dumping. And then I I just went in with like my clothes dripping wet, my helmet, and I just kind of laid on the tent floor, listening to the storm like pass, and then I was soaking wet, so I put my footprint that's supposed to go under your tent inside, so I had somewhere dry, and then I slept for a couple hours, and then I actually did haul through the night from like 9p.m. to six a.m. through Atigun Pass because the weather was just supposed to turn again in the the next day, but it turned out to be yeah, blessing disguise because it was it was there was barely any trucks. It was just beautiful. I actually peeked Atigun Pass and the sun came over the mountains and it was very surreal,” Arndt said.
Arndt concluded her story explaining the portion of the trip from Anchorage to Homer, she said she’s been on that portion of the highway so many times it was nice to know what to expect but the traffic and wind were still problematic. “One thing that just kind of threw a wrench was the wind. It was just like a full-on headwind through Turnagain, I think it was gusting like 38 knots. So like every turn, I just would feel like I hit a brick wall,” she said.
For the trip as a whole, the average distance for each day was about 60 to 75 miles on the gravel or about 8 miles/ hour. Once travelling on pavement her distance increased to 75 miles or more per day. Distance was dependent on elevation and weather, noting one day in particular near Fairbanks where the temperature was 79 degrees and not quite enough sources of water and that slowed her down.
Arndt said the real highlight of the trip was the stretch on the Richardson Highway: “I feel like it's just a hidden gem, and it really didn't add much time. I did it because of the traffic. I didn't want to go down the Denali Highway with all the RVs and tour buses. That was the highlight, by far, of my trip.”
She shared personal inspiration for the trip in general:
“I love being outside. So basically, like every year, I have done something challenging. I feel like I'm not good, like great at something, but I enjoy doing kind of out of the ordinary things and seeing what my body and mind is capable of. I think a lot of things you can physically do, but sometimes it's that mental hurdle of like I can do this that I enjoy. I am currently in nursing school, so this last winter it was a lot between work and school and life, and I was like, I need to kind of reset, and so that was like a big goal of mine on this trip,” Arndt said.
Arndt concluded with these thoughts: “Some people aren't even aware that there's a road, and I mean, one person was like, "Oh, it's all downhill, and I was like, "I can attest it is not all downhill.” I think I did calculate the elevation. It was about 60,000 feet of elevation gain, which is a lot.”
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
