North To Alaska

This is a route map of our Five For Alaska Tour de Cure generated by Bob Brown, our route planning guru. Bob has spent countless hours over the past few months researching any aspect of our intended route of travel for safe roads, lodging, and services. It’s no small undertaking in logistics to get all of us safely on our way each day and to plan for contingencies that might arise because of weather, mechanicals, or other acts of nature.

Yesterday, Bob, his wife, Diane, and his son, Derek, took off on the eastern leg of the journey from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are roughly following portions of the Northern Tier and Lewis and Clark bike routes into Butte, Montana. We all meet up in Butte around the 13th of June, stage the 14th, and depart on the 15th.  Our route traces north on the western edge of the Montana Rockies passed Glacier NP and on into Canada through Banff and Jasper. Then we’ll skirt the Canadian Rockies along the border of Alberta and British Columbia, cross the NE corner of BC into the Yukon, traverse the Yukon and drop SW into Anchorage, then turn  back north to Denali NP and finally into Fairbanks. The return trip to Montana will take us a little further south of our outbound route into the Yukon and cross most of SW and Central British Columbia. Everything we see, do, and experience will be posted on this blog. So, stay tuned for an epic adventure and the unraveling tale of some crazy cyclists who seek adventure on two wheels.

Too Busy To Blog, But That's About to Change

Seems that in the last several months I've found little time to post anything on this blog. So much as gone on that I have kept to myself. But, I've also been so busy training for my two month long Five for Alaska Tour de Cure ride that I felt I really hadn't much to add to the conversation.

Well, I completed the Nevada portion of my training a week ago. Now after some 3,033miles, 223.5 hours of saddle time, and 167,675 ft of climbing, I've relocated to our summer home in Montana to resume training at our starting altitude. I hope to get in some quality time on the bike, but having bought a home here late last summer there were so many tasks and projects left undone. With the anticipation of two months on the road, there has been a compelling need to launch myself into these unfinished projects that have to get done. Well, progress is being made and I'm beginning to feel a little breathing room now.

This coming Monday I start back at the Outdoorsman working just three days a week until my departure from Butte on the 15th of June. It's a mixed bag of emotion for me this summer. I'll miss two months of grandchildren and family time. I'll miss my wife's birthday, I'll miss Father's Day, and I'll miss a family vacation to the Oregon coast. The older I get, the more important these family times become. But, it also a time when my physical conditioning, general health, and mental preparation are pecking to make an unbelievable event come true. It's a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity I will not let go by. After all I have been through since 2009, I'm going for it. It's going to be a life changing event without a doubt. I've worked hard over the last 7 months to steel myself for the adventure, and I have the full love and support of my family.

I have led a blessed life and continue to enjoy every day I have been given. I shall not and can not let any sunrise pass without a day of adventure.

So, tomorrow it's back in the saddle for a long distance ride up through Elk Park or to Basin, Montana.