Anchorage to Phoenix Bike Ride: Day 20

It rained a little at night and I woke up at around 6am. We ate breakfast and left the campsite at 8:30am.

We met another cyclist named Paul who was touring on a Wal-Mart bicycle. He rode the Top Of the World Highway in Alaska and Canada and by the time he was done he needed to take his bike to a shop. They told him there was a lot that needed to be fixed so he threw the bicycle away and bought another one at Canadian Tire (similar to Wal-Mart).

I bought a 2 lb bag of bananas that was marked down. I also bought some dinner rolls, pastries, margarine, and brown sugar.

This was a memorable day of riding. It was mostly sunny and the terrain went from flat grassland to rolling hills with some spruce trees. We stopped at a lookout place and enjoyed the scenery of mountains and a river.

We dropped down out of the mountains and into a forested area and we noticed large anvil-shaped rain clouds in the distance. Paul and I were almost out of water so we were looking for a water source to purify from.

We noticed a buffalo on the road and it started running from us. As we rode behind it we could hear its hoofs galloping on the asphalt. Paul spotted some water and we stopped to fill our bottles.

The buffalo was still in front of us when we got on our bikes with the intention of finding a campsite. We looked behind us and the huge storm cloud we had seen earlier was close and coming straight at us. We tried to out run the storm cloud but it caught up. Soon it was pouring rain, lightning was cracking above our heads, and it was really cold. I hadn’t prepared for rain so my hands were exposed.

We saw a sign: Fireside 14 km. We decided to go there. I thought we were in trouble because we were so wet and cold, it was getting late, and the rain was so heavy. I stopped in the downpour to put on gloves and a fleece shirt. It wasn’t pleasant but it was worth it.

I met Paul and Kosuke at Fireside. There was an abandoned roadside diner and motel. We pitched our tents on the front porch under the cover of an awning and sheltered from the rain. Kosuke and I agreed that our hands were useless. Our grip was weak and I was unable to fasten the hooks on the tent poles when we set up the tent.

I cooked dinner of Chinese-flavored rice, with instant rice, added salami, cheese, and dinner rolls. The food lifted our spirits and we were ready for sleep.

Over the course of the day there was an emotional progression from happy-go-lucky to fearful concern to gracious relief. That made this day memorable and one of my favorite days of the entire trip.