Day 6: Glennallen to Meier's Lake Roadhouse

July 17, 2015

I have been leaving my curtain partly open at night to know how dark it gets outside. It never gets dark enough to see stars. This morning the sun started shining on my bed at 4:30. I got up at 7 and looked out the window to see blue sky for the first time.

The sky was totally sunny early in the morning but mostly cloudy by 11. Still the most sunshine I've seen so far on this trip. Late morning was the warmest part of the day, about 70F. The afternoon was overcast, 62F.

While having breakfast at the hotel restaurant I talked to 8 super-fit club cyclists from all over the U.S. doing a commercial van-supported tour. I'm carrying more gear, but today they will work much harder than me. They're going south to Valdez into a 30 mph headwind with rain predicted at Thompson Pass.

I got on the road before 9. The first two miles are uphill into a stiff headwind to get back to the Richardson highway. That changed dramatically when I turned left, north. For the remainder of the day I had a 30 mph tailwind. On level ground I could sometimes cruise at 20 mph and still feel the wind pushing on my back.

Pretty much every side road is a pipeline access road. They all have signs like this. Access to pipeline mile 680.2.

Today's route roughly follows the Gulkana river upstream but I almost never saw it. I also hardly saw the pipeline today.

The Gulkana river isn't so glacial. It has fish and fishermen.

15 miles north of the Glenn Highway junction is Gakona Junction which has a gas station and small store. The only services on today's route.

At the junction most traffic turns right onto "Tok Cutoff" which goes 125 miles northeast to the Alaska Highway in Tok. It's the main road from Anchorage to the Lower 48. I go straight, north, on the lesser-known middle third of the Richardson highway.

Everybody calls the highways by name, such as *Richardson Highway* and *Tok Cutoff*. Nobody uses the numbers.

Today's hills are moderate. No huge climbs and few steep grades. Boreal forest all day. The road stays mostly in the hills with occasional views of big swampy valleys below.

Now the landscape has a more lakes and marshes.

I suspect today would have had troublesome insects if not for the 30 mph wind. Best insect repellent there is.

Boreal forest seems to be made of toy trees.

Today I had no views of big mountains. The Boreal forest isn't spectacular but it's interesting because I seldom see it. There are no houses, no fences, and no power lines. One side of the highway has frequent gravel pipeline access roads. The other side has no crossroads.

Another nice feature of Alaska highways is that there are no billboards and there is no trash. I've never toured a place with less roadside trash. Signs announce a $1000 fine for littering but that's impossible to enforce in the outback. Everybody must think it's important to keep Alaska litter-free.

The highway stays in the hills to avoid the marshes and lakes.

I expected the shoulder to end after Gakona Junction but the shoulder lasts another 35 miles! Some of it is obviously newly built. The pavement quality deteriorates significantly after the shoulder ends. The road has frequent big depressions due to the underlying permafrost shifting. The sunken pavement usually cracks into small pieces. But traffic was light enough that I could usually wander around to find smooth pavement. Just me and the occasional double tanker truck (50 + 35 foot trailers) hauling gasoline and diesel from Valdez to Fairbanks. And a few dirty white Alyeska Pipeline company pickup trucks emblazoned with the logo "Nobody Gets Hurt".

I was surprised that the shoulder lasted 35 miles past Tok Cutoff.

Today has an uphill trend starting in Glennallen at 1400 feet elevation and finishing at 2800 feet elevation at Meier's Lake Roadhouse. But the tailwind easily offset the elevation gain. The hills aren't super big or steep.

Tonight I stay at Meier's Lake Roadhouse. I arrived at 4:30 PM, 5 minutes before it started pouring rain. I neglected to take a picture of the building but my $125 room was in a big log building with 8 upscale motel rooms. Electricity comes from a diesel generator that runs 24 hours a day.

Home for tonight. They are off the grid, run a diesel generator 24/7.

Places like this make my no-camping tour possible, but roadhouses are not generally prospering in Alaska. Some close because they can't afford to upgrade their septic system to meet current building codes. Others close because they can't get enough business to pay the generator operating costs. Lately they are closing because the owners can't find people willing to work at the remote roadhouses. Nobody lives nearby.

Service was very slow because only two people run the restaurant, bar, store, and room check-ins. While waiting for my dinner a very wet touring cyclist walked in the door. I ended up having a long conversation with Scot Heisdorffer from Davenport, Iowa. I remember seeing messages from him on the rec.bicycles Usenet group in the 1990's. He said he's read all my tour journals. He's older than me but still camps. He also does a bike tour with his wife every summer in Europe. Scot raved about pedaling the Denali highway, same as the cyclists I met yesterday morning.

Scot camped in a gazebo next to the lake, the only shelter from the rain. It rained steadily for several hours in the evening.

Meier's Lake just as a storm blew in. 2800 feet elevation but this area still has trees.

Meier's Lake is 2800 feet elevation but it still has forest, not tundra. Winters get steadily colder as I go inland, so I expected the tree line to be lower. But for some reason this area has trees at 2800 feet elevation while treeline was 2100 feet elevation in the Chugach mountains near the ocean.

Today was an easy day thanks to the tailwind. Hopefully I will be well rested for tomorrow, the longest day of the tour.

Distance: 58.8 mi. (94 km)
Climbing: 2682 ft. (813 m)
Average Speed: 10.1 mph (16 km/h)

Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 265 miles (426 km)

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