AK to AZ Day 14: The Parks Highway

July 17

45 Miles

1,000 feet elevation gain

After a rainy night, we woke up to a sunny morning and made our way back to the picnic tables for a relaxing breakfast.

We rode the ten miles to Nenana and arrived just as Subway opened, so we stopped for second breakfast. We crossed a cyclist going the other direction, and he pulled over to say hello. He lives in North Pole, Alaska, and just completed much of the route we’ll be covering over the next week, but in the opposite direction. He warned us that we can expect a headwind, and he was certainly right about today. Although it was basically flat, and the wind was not particularly strong, it was never in our favor.

I struggled today, while Paul loved it. He really thrives with a 2-3% grade, and I struggle to keep his pace. He’s feeling great while I’m feeling sore and discouraged that the rest day didn’t seem to make anything feel better on my body. I woke up with sore knees, then my saddle bothered me all day, now my calves are sore.
In the afternoon we stopped at an RV campground with a gift shop and snacks. We got coffee and a pretzel and chatted with the proprietor, who let us fill our water bottles and pet his dog. He told us about a unicyclist riding the Panamerican that he met recently.

We stopped very early because I am not feeling it today, and also because we found some pretty nice camping near a rest area, and we’re close enough to Denali to get there tomorrow unless we decide to take a shorter day and stop in Healy. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

At camp, we noticed there was a geocache hidden nearby, and since we make sure to grab at least one in each state and country we visit, we set off to find it. It was an easy find, and marked our 39th state.