Dalton Highway, Alaska ride

[captainwelch]

So I'm planning a ride on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Deadhorse and back from May 1-24. Is anyone else interested in doing this ride (or part of it)?

[saskatchewanian]

Is the Dalton Highway an all weather road?

I was planning a ride from Dawson to TOK last year for May but the Top of the World Highway was still closed for the season.

I would ride with you but I have other commitments for the May long weekend.

[captainwelch]

Yeah, the Dalton Highway is open year round I think. If not it's open by May.

[chuckaeronut]

That sounds like it'd be amazingly fun. You're going to Coker it? All 414 miles, and both ways? If you've got 24 days, it's a slam dunk; I can just imagine how cold it might get, even in summer. You've probably got a pretty hard core pannier setup... I once rode from San Francisco to San Diego on my bike, only spending 5 days and not 24, and I brought a sleeping bag, tent, change of clothes, 30 power bars, 2 burritos, loads of money, etc... but you're going to have to bring ALL your food and ALL your water with you, because between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, there's... nothing. Like a truck stop at mile 240 or something. That's a pretty crazy pannier setup. Let me know how you're carrying everything!

[chuckaeronut]

BTW, if I didn't have to stay here at college... I'd go with you. I'm serious.

[lpounds]

Yeah seriously be careful with access to civilization. I found the maximum distance I felt safe going without civilization (meaning places you could stop in case of an emergency as well as places to buy food) was about 100 miles, and I was on a recumbent. I also wonder what your pannier setup will be like.

[lpounds]

Originally Posted by chuckaeronut

BTW, if I didn't have to stay here at college... I'd go with you. I'm serious.

You work for Apple!!!!! My dream internship!

[Jordan]

Providing these were edible I think they would make the best food for self supported uni trips:


Just grab yourself a pocketful of mini alligators, add water and have a bunch of foot long meal sized alligators.



...just something to think about...

[saskatchewanian]

I have been doing a bit more thinking about this and really what is a 24 Hour race compared to a 24 day trek/tour/epic adventure?

The Dalton Highway really does look like a much better option for riding than the Top of The World / Taylor Highway ride that I was contemplating before. Better road and more importantly, much better access to water.

In May it is going to be COLD up there, I just might need to get myself another set of wool longjohns. I hoe you realize that the average high temperature in deadhorse in May is still below freezing.

I am going to have to think about this a bit more before committing but I am leaning towards going right now.

May is coming up fast and I will have to do a lot of training, I have been training for RTL but this is going to be much harder. Training in snow just might come in handly

ERIC

[tomblackwood]

This sport is evolving in very cool ways... Just recently 280+ miles in 24 hours, and now a self-supported full blown uni tour where the average high temperature is still below freezing. I wanna be a hardcore unicyclist when I grow up!

[chuckaeronut]

The 24-day adventure takes the 24-hour race hands down. Blarrrrgh I'd so love to go with you! Because of my school and job, I'm booked so far out into the future that I only have time for 2 separate weeks (one per year) of touring until 2010, which is good for about 2x850 miles on a bike, tops. I suppose I could do Dalton with you if we went 60 miles a day and I only went one way, which sounds doable, but there's always travel overhead. I'm assuming you're planning on doing somewhere around 40 miles a day, right? 828 miles in 24 days makes 35-ish, but I'm sure you'll want some leeway. I don't suppose there's much that would stop you from going 80-100 in a day, considering you're going to have all day to do it. Imagine doing Dalton in 4 days! Then coming BACK in 4 more days! LOL. Possible, though...

I'm still curious about your pannier setup, though. Do tell!

[chuckaeronut]

Actually, come to think of it, thousands of cyclists do the STP (Seattle to portland) ride every year in July, and a few unicyclists always seem to be there, too... they do it in 2 days. It's 206 miles, which means 100 per day... if they can do 100 a day for 2 days, there's no reason to think you couldn't do 100 a day for 4, or 8. ... With 50lb worth of pannier!

[chuckaeronut]

If you eat 4lb. of food per day (which I think is conservative... I eat so much on bike tours) and will spend 12 days each way, then that's 48 POUNDS of food! Plus, hopefully, an entire spare tire, spare 36" tube with tons of patches, all the tools needed to take anything apart and put it back together, plus a water filter (is there water along Dalton? I don't think so... you might need all your own water!)... I'm thinking a good 75 pounds of stuff at minimum for a 12 day trek, assuming you refill at Deadhorse. If you could cut the 12 days to 6 days and do 80 miles a day, that'd cut your food in half... which would probably mean 50 lbs-ish. I'd hate to skimp on food and water though.

[underdog]

I did the Dalton Hwy in it's entirety in '05 but on my motorcycle. I had just started riding uni at the time and would have been blown away to see a unicyclist there. I did see 2 separate people on bicycles out there. I did it in August and it was actually fairly warm (maybe 50 F for a high) and it stayed light for 24 hrs a day so you could ride whenever you wanted. Some parts, where they were doing road work would be very difficult to negotiate. I had a hard time on the motorcycle. They'd lay down about 6 " of marble sized gravel and then level it with a blade. Kinda loose. They only seemed to do this in fairly short (5 mile) sections at a time so, worst case, if you had to walk a stretch it probably wouldn't be too long. Once I got close to Deadhorse there was a pretty stiff breeze coming in off the Beaufort Sea and that dropped the air temp to 18F. So the last 10 or 15 miles was pretty damn cold. Best of luck if you manage to pull it off. Take lots of photos.

[captainwelch]

I haven't figured out my pannier set up yet. I will let you guys know when I work it out. I'm technically starting at the Fairbanks airport, so It's more like 515 miles one way. I have no problem being that far out from civilization, in fact, that's why I chose the location.

You guys do have me thinking about doing the trip in less than 24 days. It may be possible.