Fielding Lake to Delta Junction

Day 26--Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 71.76 miles

We had difficulty getting to sleep last night because the wind was FIERCE. It was snapping and cracking the roof flags, and we could hear the rain. Our bikes were out on the porch under plastic but the plastic was making such a racket, we brought the bikes in. Both of us were thinking of the long day ahead.

Yahoo! It's now 8:30 a.m. and we've got a crystal day with wind (unfortunately) out of the north, but nothing like last night's roar. Woke up this morning early and fought the wind to the pit toilets (actually clean and well maintained). A sign on the toilet's heavy metal door says: "Please close this door so the wind doesn't knock it off its hinges." Well, the wind was trying to knock me off my hinges. It was sweeping down from the nearby Amphitheater and HooDoo Mountains—which we couldn't see clearly yesterday because of the clouds and rain. This morning they are magnificent in the sharp morning light . . . newly whitened about a quarter of the way down with snow. Our rain was snow at the higher elevations. Forgot to look at the porch thermometer when I first got up, but when I got up again at 8 to bright sunlight, the thermometer read 38 degrees F. I'm thinking it got to freezing or close to it earlier.

Chopped wood to warm up the cabin while we dressed and ate breakfast. The stove is small, so some of the pieces had to be split and then cut in half. Splitting was no problem, but cutting the split pieces in half was "a challenge." I propped them against a bigger log and tried to "break their backs." After enough whacks, I was usually successful. Lewis came over to supervise. Told me I cut wood like lightning. Never struck in the same place twice. Har de har har.Landmark 2400-foot mound along the Richardson highway near Delta Junction that looks starkly out of place against the surrounding flat glacial valley. This mound somehow escaped the extensive repeated glaciation of the entire valley.

Despite our vow to get an early start, we didn't get off until 10:30. Since we knew that we had a six-mile climb and a long day with absolutely nothing between us and Delta Jct., we were carrying extra water and enough cheese and bread and sardine's, etc., for a good lunch.

We were in shorts (neither of us brought or needed long riding pants) but wore our warm jackets, hats and long-fingered gloves. The wind was very cold. I don't think it got out of the 40s all day.

Lewis and Harriet and Tonga came over to say good-bye and to bring the frozen chili, and their cell phone so that I could send the update (didn't work). We said a fond good-bye to this lovely couple and Lewis took a photo of us front to back in our Mutha/Dauta helmets. My last photo (see left though the pic is so low resolution that one cannot read the helmets).

We hadn't gone much more than 4 miles when we came to four miles of road construction. Gigantic machinery and mud, mud, mud. When we got to the flag person, she told us to load our bikes in the pilot truck and she'd take us through. That we did. This woman had a miniature poodle named Mojo who took an instant shine to me. Stepped oh so delicately with its tiny feet onto my knee and then curled up in my lap. I wondered for a moment whether it would like to ride in a handlebar basket.

We had no shoulder and roughly paved road today, but because of the construction, very little traffic other than the construction trucks, which were infrequent. They were releasing north-bound traffic at fifteen minute intervals, so that helped also, though very little traffic was traveling north.

The scenery today—when both of us are out of film—was breathtaking. For the first part of the ride we had the HooDoo Mts. to our right and the Delta River on our left. At times the Delta River appeared to be nearly a mile wide. Streams and waterfalls fell from the mountains to the right and the road bridged many of them. 

This from the Internet as I'd no film to capture more than the photo  above  it

We kept leap-frogging one northbound couple in a gold car as they stopped to view the scenery or picnic. Just before we stopped at Black Rapids Glacier for lunch, we saw them sitting on the rocks up Gunnysack Creek eating their lunch. 

The historical sign at Black Rapids Glacier describes the rapid advance of this glacier. In 1936, this mile-wide, 300-foot high river of ice advanced an average of 115 feet per day over four miles, to within 1/2 mile of the highway. It has been receding ever since. We were high above the Delta River at this point and we looked in vain for the Delta bison herd that the sign said grazed below from June to August. While eating I could watch Dall sheep on the mountains to the right of the road. The mountains on the other side of the river were part of the Alaska Range, I think.

Another from the Internet; we were on the road at the bottom of the photo

Just as we were about to leave, the couple in the gold car drove up and jumped out in great excitement. While they were eating, they looked up the creek and there was a large grizzly. Despite advice not to do so, they ran to their car. Think I would have done the same.

Several miles from Donnelly Hill I could look up and see an airplane skimming up the mountain ridge. No, wait, that was not an airplane but a white RV climbing the hill. Oh, hill! How were my muscles, which had been cold and cramped all day, going to tackle that?

As usual, my imagination had built the climb into much more than it actually was. Not too steep and with two flattish places, it was not too bad. Part way up, we met a bicycle touring couple going down. They and Jess stopped to talk. I kept spinning slowly up. I was "in the zone" and knew if I stopped I'd never get started again.

When we came out of the mountains and passed the last big knobby hill, we could see ahead for miles and miles . . . of perfectly straight road. Toto, were we in Oklahoma, now? Actually all this flat depressed me. I had been cold all day (believe it), my muscles were still crampy, and I was ready to get off the bike. We still had about 30-some miles to go. Jess urged me on with her usual, "Come on Mom. We can do it. We're closer than we've ever been before!" We passed Fort Greeley military installation, "Home of the rugged professional," and that spurred me on, too.

When we got to Delta Jct., (it was after 6 p.m.) Jess stopped at the IGA (what a treat) and I, cold very irritable, and miserable pushed on the extra miles to our motel, which was four or five miles further on. This motel was the only one, other than that in Fairbanks, that I had reserved in the original plan. I knew we'd be tired after a long day with climbing. (I didn't know how tired.) I took a hot shower but was still cold. Took the extra blanket and cuddled up in bed.

When Jess arrived, we had our chili and I fell asleep while Jess watched "Law & Order."