July 18, 2007
To Fairbanks: Robert and Janet's place, off the grid
That last climb to Fairbanks is not as bad as the graph in the Cycling Alaska book had made us think.
We pack up from our site on the gravel bank of the Chantanika River and quickly push back to the Elliot Highway for 11 more miles to its end at Fox. After a couple of miles of flat road and a climb we get to the "Hilltop Cafe", not quite at the top of the hill to Fairbanks but pretty close. Patrick calls Janet North and leaves her a message about our arrival, then we have a second breakfast.
Just before Fox, about 10 miles North of Fairbanks we turn off on the Old Highway, then on Gold Stream road that after about 10 miles brings us to the bottom of Murphy Dome Road.
There is a gas station/store/laundromat/showers place from where we call Janet again. She is in town but gives us directions on how to ride up to her place about 12 miles up the mountain.
Before we are done with our laundry and taking showers, Robert (Janet's husband) stops by. He has a load of cement in his pick up, but still has some room for most of our bike bags. We will cycle. The first 10 miles are okay on a paved road, then the road starts to climb and turns to gravel. All our food is in our bags Robert has taken up, we are hungry and have to push our unloaded bikes up the hill, very demoralizing. At the crest of the road we turn left on Abraham Road, then about a mile to their cabin. We find their 14 acre wooded site in rather steep terrain down a hillside with a nice view towards the Northwest.
Across the valley is Murphy Dome Mountain with a Norad Radar site on its top. Robert has built the log home himself from white spruce logs he cut himself down in the valley and hauled up here with a winch and 1/4 mile steel cable. To hoist the logs up he used a 1945 army boom truck. The house is powered by six solar panels, a bank of batteries and a generator. There is no running water, that has to be trucked in from Fairbanks. There is an outdoor shower and a porta potty down the driveway. The house is heated with a wood stove. He first built a CMU basement up to about 3 feet above the grade, then an eight sided cabin, one large space for living room, dining area and kitchen and a loft for the bedroom. The tails of the fogs in the eight sided configuration are beautifully dovetailed together. A little higher than the house sits a half metal garage/workshop where we will put our bikes and gear and tonight pitch just our inner tent.
Janet has also come home, she brought a friend from California, Kathy, who is in town for a while. We have a feast for dinner: Fish, steak, baked potatoes and vegetables...all this with plenty of beer and wine.
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Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 10,763 km (6,684 miles)
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