Cycling Alaska and Western Canada

The Dalton Highway, from Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks, was some of the hardest cycling I´ve ever done, but was also some of the most incredible sights I´ve ever seen, too. Alaskan Tundra, Yukon wilderness, Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, Cassiar Highway, the funky town of Hyder, Whistler-Blackcomb area, and Victoria all made for an amazing first 5000 kilometers of cycling. Check out our website for everything: maps, photos, journals, etc. www.bikeamericas.schoolaccess.net

Quick Tips:

The Dalton Highway has only one place to stop for over the 500 miles it crosses, so bring everything you need. The Alaska Highway has heavy traffic consisting mostly of RVs and motorhomes, and the Cassiar Highway is a great alternative...less traffic, more scenery. We could camp just about anywhere we wanted, too. There were a lot of bears, though.

Best Way To Get Around:

While most people seemed to prefer a 3 mile per gallon 40 foot motor home, we made use of bicycles and enjoyed it to the fullest.

Cycling the Dalton Highway from the Arctic Ocean to Fairbanks, Alaska, we had to pack all our food (consisting of beef jerky, GORP, and dehydrated Mountain House meals) and camped primitively for 9 days. The road´s sole purpose is to bring supplies to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay and is supposedly going to be removed after the oil is gone. Because of this, it is all gravel with steep grades and no services except for one truck stop 260 miles north of Fairbanks.

Because of this, we were able to pitch a tent wherever we wanted to. With the midnight sun on our side, we would usually cycle until we found a place that looked cool. It was tundra until we crossed the Brooks Range, then it turned to the more typical northern woods feel. Sleeping on tundra could easily be accomplished without a ground pad, but the mosqitoes can get brutal. Absolutely amazing scenery from start to finish. There is one campground located right on the Arctic Circle, but we just rode right in and didn´t have to pay. We hadn´t planned it, but we were on the Circle at the summer soltice, so we got to see the sun barely brush the horizon and start rising again. I´ve lived in Alaska my whole life and I´m used to having long summer days, but seeing that was something else...

Hyder, Alaska is more like Canada than Alaska, but the 600 residents don´t want to admit it. Only accessible by small float plane or boat through Alaska (although the ferry stopped going there from lack of interest), the majority of the travelers going to Hyder opt for the easy way: driving from Canada. From the Cassiar Highway, head west at Meziadhin Junction and 40 miles later you´ll be in Alaska. We cycled it without too much trouble, less the rain that hit us hard for an hour or so. The scenery was amazing, complete with glacier fields, the bright blue Bear Glacier that is surprisingly close the highway, waterfalls cascading down the steep mountains, and lots of bears. We saw six of them cycling in.

At first you come to the quaint town of Stewart, which is a humble little town with nice rows of houses, all laid out like a 60s suburb or something. A pleasant main street with an excellent Pizza Place, and a little park with some playground equipment.

The road takes a sharp left and goes between cliffs and the small harbor with freshly cut logs and small fishing boats moving slowly through the waves. A right turn brings your first view of Hyder: a beat up street with a big "Welcome to Alaska!" sign hanging proudly over the border with Johnny Horton´s "North to Alaska" music blasting out from one of the few gift shops in town. The town is comprised of maybe three restaurants/bars, a couple gift shops, a camp ground, and a couple of hotels.

There was a rugged charm to the town that made me proud to be Alaskan. All the bars offer the oppurtunity to show your hardcoreness by getting "Hyderized," consisting of taking a shot of their special drink. We stayed in a place that was probably an old brothel judging by the layout, with a bar downstairs that kept going until the wee hours.

There is a bear viewing area a couple miles out of town, but we didn´t make it past the town limits. Not a whole lot to do there, but it is well worth a quick sidetrip just to experience the funky atmosphere of a town apparently trapped in tiem. The locals are also fun to talk to since they are so proud of their Alaskan Heritage, although Hyder is not on Alaska Standard Time and they us Canadian dollars.

I highly recommend checking it out. The drive is breath-taking and Hyder is town like no other.