Paul and I purified water out of Dry Creek. The weather was cloudy and occasional rain. Paul pulled away from me 30 miles outside Tok in an effort to avoid rain.
We rode 35 miles through hills before reaching a long stretch of flat road leading into Tok. One straight stretch was 10 miles long. There was a bike path but it was near the forest. When I rode on it there were so many bugs - gnats, flies, and mosquitos - that were coming out of the forest and hitting my face that I got off the path and road in the middle of the road where there were less bugs.
I got into Tok 30 minutes after Paul. He had been eating at a gas station. By the time I reached him he had finished a 1/2 pound burrito, a big jug of milk, some bags of trail mix, and a few other gas station snacks.
We searched the town and found out we could do laundry at the Westmark Hotel. It was $2 to wash and $2 to dry. While we were getting quarters, a bus full of tourists unloaded and we told a group of them about our bike trip. They were in awe and asked us to pose for a picture. There were some tourists from New York in the laundry room who gave us some laundry soap.
While our laundry was going we dried our gear and I cooked a buffalo chicken rice meal for dinner. I also ate dried apricots and buttered pilot bread. We chatted with several tourist couples. They were excited to be in Alaska and to hear about our adventure.
Paul and I like the idea of sleeping in the laundry room since it was heated and warm, but the night security guy came by and said he needed to lock it up. We packed our gear and set out for our first nighttime ride.
We turned on all our lights. I had a small light on my handle bars and my headlamp. These lights together gave me good forward visibility. I also had my rear light flashing.
We rode out from Tok into the night. We had a tailwind, it was dark, and it began snowing lightly. It seemed like ash was falling from the sky. The tailwind cancelled the sound of wind passing over our ears so I was quiet except for the sound of wind blowing in the trees. When I looked at my fluorescent gloves and waved them in front of my face it was like a rave. The whole atmosphere was dreamlike and surreal. We saw the lights of some radio towers flashing up into the sky. When cars drove by their lights flooded the road.
We passed a weigh station that was a large paved area with street lamps in it. We considered camping there but kept going. We ended up riding 12 miles. It seemed like free mileage. We were fed, we knew we were going straight to bed, and we were in the strange ambiance of a snowy night. I thought it was the coolest event of the trip so far.
We made camp at a bridge over the Tanana River. There was a parking lot with a bathroom and trash can so we set up our tent there. I spent 45 minutes untangling the lines on the tarp. That task made me extra tired and I fell asleep as soon as I laid down.
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| Ready to start from the place where we camped. |
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| Cruising in the rain. |
