On the road

Hanging around in Ancorage for a few more days was a bit painfull to say the least.I really wanted to get on the road so that I wouldn't feel pressed for time later on but I had to be smart and look after my injured knee.I had already done a lot of sightseeing around town and to be honest found Anchorage City itself to be pretty dull.It was obvious that this place closes down in winter as there were very few storefronts,restaurants or cafes that actually opened up onto the street.No open air cafes or noisy beer gardens full of tourists that I could see.Even the downtown malls seemed a bit bleak.Fourth Street provided some entertainment with all it's quaint little stores that focussed on all things Alaskan like the fur trade,mining,outdoor activities and dog sled racing.I enjoyed walking along from store to store checking out all the displays and while loading up on strong coffee and reindeer hot dogs.

   It is a pretty easy place to get around though and for me it was always a nice twenty minute ride into town along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail which follows the coastline from the airport into the city center.It is part of a fantastic network of greenbelt trails that wind all over the city and is the pride of the greenies here in Anchorage.For me it proved to be a highlight as I tested my knee by following random paths not knowing where I was going but all the time never really in any danger of getting lost.Unlike many others who told me about there experiences with the trail system,I failed to spot any wildlife at all.While my hostel mates had spotted moose,bear and an assortment of apparently hot looking local girls I failed miserably and spied nothing or interest on either four legs or two.

  The day finally came when I figure it was time to leave and so it was up bright and early to repack my bags for the escape out of Anchorage.While I usually don't like the super early moning thing ( mainly because it tends to be too bloody cold) the days that I ride out of bigger cities are the days that a pre-dawn run is required,not that there was much of to dawn to beat here in the north.It was about 5:30am when I finally get myself organised and on the road through the center of town.

   I was concerned that I would have another one of my,shall we say "interesting", run-ins with the cops as I ignored the "No cyclists or pedestrians" sign and rode straight onto the main highway that leads out of town to Palmer some 60k's to the north.These highways are always the best roads and probrably the safest but it never surprised me just how anal the officials can be about cyclists riding them and I had quite the history of police induced detours associated with my bike trips.This time though the two cop cars that did show interest mearly asked me where I was going and wished me luck before driving on to hopefully do some more important police work. The day I picked to leave town turned out to be a great one,blue skies,sunshine and to cap it off a mid morning tailwind all added to an auspisious begining to what I was hoping would be a memorable ride back to Penticton.

  One thing that I had started to notice and something that I has plagued me at the start of previous long trips was a huge sense of lonliness I felt after an hour or so by myself.After all the countless conversations and social interaction with my hostel mates over the previous week,to be out alone on the road agin hit me hard.It is difficult to explain just how it feels and just how quickly the feeling envelops me but it is like a shroud of sadness is cast over me,suffocating all the positives and magnifying every possible weakness.It is not unlike the sudden onset of those very sad times in my normal life,when for no apparent reason,I become very,very sad.Usually it is pretty easy for me to deal with as my treatment of choice over the years has been just to go to sleep and dream happy dreams but out here on the road that luxury really isn't an option.If I wanted to get this ride done I'd have to fight through and wait until the clouds in my head lifted and then it would all be good.They was the same thoughts that haunted me during the Challenge Cairns event at the start of the month and the same thoughts that had me sitting next to my bike,sobbing on the side of the road instead of training for most of May after my relationship ended.A complete sense of loss!It is remarkable just how quickly the sadness hits and the depth of that sadness seems infinit and incurable but most often it vanishes as quickly as it arrived and the world becomes all good again.

   My moment came when I crossed a long bridge about 10 kilometers short of Palmer.I looked over to my right as I was trying to figure out which of the two valleys I could see in the distance would be the one I would follow for the next couple of days.It was then, while staring at the  Alaskan landscape in all her beauty,did I truly realisese where I was and how lucky I am  to be able to have such a grand experience.My mood changed immediately and I was back on track.

   After a stop for a coffee and yoghurt at a gas station on the outskirts of Palmer I continued on and found myself in an ever-narrowing valley where the road started to pitch and roll as it followed the crazy contours of the northen bank of the Manatuska River.It was a beautiful ride and I felt like I was back in the Canadian Rockies where I had also spent more than one trip peddling in awe of my surroundings.This scenery was no different and it made for a slow day for this snap-happy cyclist.I stopped at nearly every pullout to check out the view and have the inevitable chat with each motorist,caravaner and motorcyclist who all seemed to have missed out on the one geography class in school where the differences between the Australian and New Zealand flags were expained.It was all good though and I got to meet some great folks and share in a nice

assortment of home-made snacks and treats offered by a couple of ladies who clearly thought that I was in need of some mothering.I love the reactions that people have when they find me on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and in all my cyclistic wanderings on four continents I have never had a bad experience.I still find that fact remarkable and wonderful.

  As the day wore on and I struggled to get used to how my light road bike was dealing with the weight of my trailer in tow.I had,in my previous trips,used two mountain bikes and a hybrid with almost every combination of pannier and trailer set-up imaginable and found them to be great but this set up required a degree of finess that I was now learning on the fly.With so much weight pulling on the rear axle the front wheel seemed,on most occaisions,to have a mind of it's own.I was going to have to really concentrate more than usual as the narrow tyres would not be able to roll over the cracks and lumps of the weather worn roads the way that  fatter tyres were able.On normal training days this wouldn't be a concern as I'd just be able to bunny hop or skip over debris but with 30 kilos of trailer attached, that wasn't an option.

  The rest of the day wore on without incident except for the re-occurance of some knee pain around 1pm.This concerned me as I knew I was in store for some serious climbing as I began my approach to the Manatuska Glacier.I had rolled into a tiny roadside hamlet to find  something to snack on and

have a toilet stop and as I was sitting having coffee inside the very rustic,old world diner I got to chatting with the staff about places to camp in the area.They told me that there was free camping down by the river behind the diner/bar but that it was very basic and without facilities but that the cyclist who left earlier that day had stayed in one of the little cabins that I had spied off to the side of the main buildings as I rode in.What,there was another

 cyclist?My competative insticts kicked in for about a minute

which was all the time needed to be told that if I came back and had dinner in the bar that night they would give me the cabin for $15.Competition over,I was staying the night,seemingly going back in time,in Chickaloon,Alaska