Anchorage to Phoenix Bike Ride: Day 2

This day stands out as the most strenuous day of the trip for me.

At Chickaloon we slept in because it was raining and we didn’t feel like breaking camp in the rain. By 10am the rain stopped and we packed up. Paul bought breakfast at the diner and I ate pilot bread with peanut butter and dry oat meal, almonds, and dried apricots for breakfast.

Just before we left, I was filling up my water bottles at the hose outside the diner, the lady came out and gave me 2 cinnamon rolls (I think it was because I complimented her on her crocs). I gave one to Paul and we started riding. I ate half of the cinnamon roll right away.

Right out of Chickaloon we started going up a huge hill. It went on for what seemed like forever. Then we went down a hill, hitting 35 miles per hour. Immediately we went up another huge hill. This cycle repeated for 35 miles. It seemed like all day. By the time we got to the last big hill, where there was a construction site, I was ready to call it a day. We hit the construction site and got a short ride up a hill in a pilot car.

For some reason, Paul was faster than me. I thought it was either because I had more weight or because he had a newer bike.

We reached flat areas between Gunsight Mountain and Eureka and I was running low on water. I caught up to Paul at Eureka Lodge and we made good time for 20 miles. We decided to camp at a river that looked clear. I talked to some guys who were camping there, Craig and Glenn, and they invited us to sit at their campfire. I cooked mac & cheese for dinner and we walked down to sit with them. They told us a story about a guy who was hunting bears in their dens. He shot a bear and it ran into it’s den. He tried to pull it out but a momma bear came out of the den and mauled him.

We purified water from the river using Paul’s Katadyn purifier. I slept great but Paul couldn’t sleep well because he was missing his girlfriend Kelsey.