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« on: June 29, 2013, 10:25:58 am »
Did the trip (Seattle to Fairbanks and then some) back in 1988 with very little riding or camping experience.
To be brief about it, I rode from Seattle through the San Juans- ferries involved, obviously- to Vancouver Island on to Vancouver. From there pretty much followed the Fraser River up to Prince George then west until I hit the Cassiar Highway. Back in 88 there weren't a ton of tourists but there were a lot of logging trucks who seemingly had no interest in sharing their road. The side trip to StewartBC/HyderAK is well worth it. I had the most incredible tail wind climbing back up over the pass on the return trip, probably did 25mph UP the pass.
Along the way, the locals pretty regularly warned me about the bears and my need for a weapon. Especially once I got into the Yukon. A few miles up the road from Watson Lake I ran across a cyclist heading south from Alaska on his way to Tierra del Fuego. ( I wonder if he and his partner ever made it?)
Took the Robt Campbell Hwy up to the Klondike Hwy then on to Dawson. iirc I took that route and the Cassiar route after reading about them in a booklet from bikecentennial. The Top of The World Highway into Chicken, Ak was probably my favorite part of the entire ride.
There's plenty more of course. It was completely life changing. One of these days, I'm going to do it- or rather something similar- again.
Sold my Anchorage to Seattle plane ticket the night before in the Seattle youth hostel- back when you could do that- and stayed an extra month and a half in Homer then hitchhiked home.
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