July 25
58 miles
3000 feet elevation gain
Today we left Denali National Park and set out for the Denali Highway. I realize some of this might be confusing so I’ll try to clarify.
We left Fairbanks via the George Parks Highway, heading SSW toward Anchorage. It was roughly 120 miles until we turned west into Denali National Park. There we rode the Denali Park road out and back. So the last 5 days we spent in the park was a side trip, we didn’t actually make forward progress, although it was totally worth it.
This morning we got back on the Parks Highway and headed south for another 30 miles to Cantwell, before turning east on the Denali Highway. This is a 134 mile gravel road connecting the towns of Cantwell and Paxson. When we hit Paxson, we’ll head north to Delta Junction via the Richardson Highway, then east on the Alaska Highway to Tok. This is a meandering route we are on, but both the park and the Denali Highway were on the list of things we wanted to do in Alaska. So the Denali Highway is not affiliated with the national park, though it does offer great views of the mountain and less traffic than the paved highways.
It was a day of good food. We bought some coffee cake when we were running errands yesterday, so this morning we returned to the mercantile for a cup of hot coffee and enjoyed our coffee cake while we charged electronics and tried to dry out our gear before riding. It was a crystal clear blue sky today, so we were quite satisfied with our decision to take yesterday off.
The ride to Cantwell was easy and followed the Nenana River. We saw groups out rafting, who told us what we were doing looked tiring. The only downside to this section was the speeding traffic. We passed a dead bald eagle, which was sad to see but also interesting to get such a close up look at one. There was also a dead beaver and two dead Canada jays. Probably all victims of the traffic.
We rode the 30 miles to Cantwell by 1, and stopped at a Jamaican restaurant called Jam Jams Spot. This is just one guy, doing all the cooking, taking orders, and bringing the food to the tables. It was excellent. I had a jerk chicken sandwich and Paul had a jerk burger, and it was better than anything we ate over the past five days. As we were leaving, we chatted with a couple traveling in their RV. They asked some questions about our journey, and we asked about theirs. They aren’t sure where they are heading next, and we all appreciated what a privilege it is to be able to travel and not simply take vacation. They asked if we’d like some canned turkey, and of course we said yes, and they also gave us a bag of frozen vegetables.
Off we went on the Denali Highway, and this might be the best part of the journey so far. There are creeks, ponds, lakes, and rivers. There are great views not just of Denali but all the Alaska Range. There are no semis. There are pullouts all over the place. The climbs are not crazy long and not double digit gradients. Basically everyone out here is RVs, vans, and bikes.
In the evening we realized we were close to a BLM campground, so we decided to push on to take advantage of picnic tables, trash cans, pit toilets and potable water. It’s the weekend though, so we got the very last space available. We enjoyed our dinner of turkey and veggies, and finished it off with cherries we got along with the coffee cake yesterday. That was my birthday dinner, what a treat!
These days, the sun sets around midnight and rises about 4:00 am, but it still never gets fully dark. But four hours with the sun below the horizon is quite nice compared to the days in the Arctic where the sun just did a circle in the sky and never fell below the horizon at all. I’m not sure when it will get truly dark but I’ll give some updates here and there about it.