Riding Alaska's Dalton Highway

Pine Lake, http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldwidewandering/433724894/in/set-72157594447700585/

It was September - the sixth month of a Florida to Alaska bicycle trip I had planned to complete in four-months. I had misjudged the time it would take and was now in a race against the approaching winter. If not for a little known at the time weather phenominon called El Nino this final Dalton Highway stretch of my trip would not even have been possible.

The Dalton Highway was the last stretch of a very long journey. After having ridden a bicycle some 6700 miles across the North American continent another 414 miles should be a piece of cake - right? Well, actually I knew better - and as I prepared to make that final trek from Fairbanks I anxiously anticipated what the infamous Dalton Highway would be like. . .

And what a long hard road it would be. It's a stark contrast to any road I've ever been on in my life. It was not so much a road as it was a humongous trail of dirt, mud, and rocks. And not just little rocks either - there was a good deal of softball size stones and, unbelievably, some even larger. If anything, the Dalton highway is a slave to the terrain - the natural lay of the land. Not much altering was done to the surface it was not graded near as thoroughly as a regular highway would have been and consequently has some pretty steep spots with 12% grades and crazy twists and turns at spots. Often the road seemed to go straight up and straight down. And it seemed to go straight up and straight down while at the same time going what seemed like 180 degree turns - around mountains, around hills.