June 27, 2007
To Williwaw Campground Portage Glacier: the beginning of the ride to home
Today is the beginning of the last stage riding home to Boise.
After looking for so long at the map, here is another destination reached, no longer far away and it seems strange, yet a feeling of progress and the end of the tour.
It feels natural yet odd to be back on the bike after the long break with family visits.
We have another fine breakfast by Jesse. We've had to think about how we packed our food as the next few months we will be in bear country. To start the ride, Jesse drives us through anchorage and drops us off in the parking lot of a park. This saves us a day cycling and through the city as he lives 20 miles from Anchorage. It's nice not having to navigate and negotiate city traffic on our first day back on the bikes.
We are on the Seward Highway following the North Shore of Turnagain Arm through Chugach State Park and National Forest. The tide is out of the Cook Inlet. We see signs of "Gold Rush Centennial" and "Don't Trash Alaska". The road is "relatively flat", and we make good time stopping once for a food break and once for a soda and chocolate bar. We reach camp about 2pm and set up the tent...or the McTent as it seems like a mansion compared to the small one we carried in Asia. We had the Mt Hardwear tent we used in South America sent to us in Cowden.
The fee for camping is $13. We quickly have coffee and soup, sort the bags for food and drop them off in the bear box at the entrance. The caretaker tells us of a path to the visitors center. We ride our bikes there, see a movie about glaciers and how this "warming period" is melting the glaciers faster than they are being created, and someday the glaciers may once again reclaim the lane... but there is No global warming by humans!
We have a great hamburger at the Daylodge Restaurant before riding out a ways to see the Portage Glacier, then back to camp. The mosquitos are big and swarming but the cutters seems to be working.
Nice first day back on the bikes!
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Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 9,715 km (6,033 miles)
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