It's been a while...

Okay, my original plan was to update this blog every day. Unfortunantly, my computer had other plans, as the hard-drive decided to peace-out on me. I am now in Anchorage and start work on Monday. Between now and then, I will endeavor to update the blog for the rest of my trip. Anchorage is beautiful although it has a propensity for rain and sunlight at odd times of the night.

Day 3 to Anchorage

Hello! I am currently at the KOA Kampground outside of Glacier National Park in Montana. It is about 20 miles to the Canadian border. As I'm writing this it is 9:30 pm and still plenty of light out to see, and sundown will only get later as I travel north. It's a little weird because I feel like I'm stuck in that 8:45-type light that you would get in Texas. I am amazed at how cold it got (around 40)! When I left Salt Lake City this morning it was around 65 degrees and stayed in the 70's all day until I got close to Glacier National Park and into the mountains. The view here is quite awe inspiring. There are snow-capped mountains in all directions! I have always loved the southern rockies, but I think it's northern counter-part might out-do it!

Today I stopped in some random town to go on a road ride. I was getting really bored of driving and I saw this small road to the side of the highway while going over a mountain pass. I thought it looked very interesting, so when I got to an offramp of the highway I took it and ended up in this podunk town in Southern Montana. It was beautiful weather and the whole town was outside mowing their lawns or grilling bbq for Memorial Day. They looked at me like I was crazy as I changed into my cycling gear and took my bike out of my car. I headed for the road that I had seen. I quickly realized that I was not in shape for this altitude! Also, the road was about a 10% grade for 6 miles, so that might have also been why I was so out of breath. I struggled to the top, panting the whole way. Now, the fun part. I had never gone down a big descent on my Orbea and was itching to see how it performed. It handled better than I expected, and the bike makes a really cool whirring sound while descending. I haven't put a computer on my bike yet, so I don't know my top speed, but I estimate it to be around 5000 miles/hr.

Also, today in the car I finished listening to "Rant" by Chuck Pahilniuk (sp?). It was a great read and I highly recommend it to people who like his edgy style.

Tomorrow the plan is to ride part of theGoing-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. I plan on riding about 7:30 or 8:00. It's going to be a cold ride for sure!!!

Second Day to Anchorage

After eggs, toast, and watching the Monaco Formula 1 race, I started out for Moab. The drive was beautiful, even though there were ominous looking rain clouds on the horizon. Luckily, by the time I got to Moab, they had dispersed and the weather was perfect for mountain biking.



Once I got to Moab, I headed to the trailhead of the Slickrock trail. This trail is one of most famous mountain biking trailis in the US and in Moab it is considered a must. It is a pretty popular trail, and because of it being memorial day weekend, it was REALLY busy. There were a lot of families out trying their luck at the sandstone trail. The trail is unique because the majority is just bare rock. The idea is that you go down one steep hill and then you pedal like hell to get up the other side. Most of the families were walking.

Check out that great mullet!! I'm definitely starting to mullet strong.

Because of my stubborn pride, I of course HAD to ride every steep hill. Because of not being on the bike for about two weeks (sinus infection) and the high altitude, I was really dying at the top of every hill. Luckily, it wasn't too hot and there was a slight breeze, so I was able to stay cool and recover quickly. One thing I quickly learned: puddles are fun, but destroy your traction, which is important when you are going up a 45 degree hill made of slickrock. The best part by far was riding along the above a huge gorge, where the dropoff just a couple feet to my left led about 300 ft down to the Colorado river. Scary and breath taking! And by the end I was so tired, I was walking along with the families.

After three hours it was time to start driving again. It started to rain on me at about five and didn't stop until I got to the hotel in Salt Lake City, UT. Now I'm at the hotel watching "To Catch a Predator."


There were also lots of Jeep tours going on around the rocks in Moab. Here's a video of a Jeep doing some rock crawling:

First Day to Anchorage

Well the summer has officially begun because I started my seven-day journey to Anchorage, Alaska. I am going to Anchorage for a summer job and lots of cycling, backpacking, and fishing. The main reason for starting this blog is to document my summer in Anchorage, but I plan on keeping the blog after I get back.

So actually as I am writing this, it is the second day. The first day I drove to Farmington, NM, which was about a 15 hour drive from Dallas. This was definitely the longest drive I have made in one day, and I have 6 more days of driving to go. The drive, mostly through extremely flat parts of Texas was uneventful and boring, making it a little hard to stay awake. I listened to books on tape because it's interesting and it's like someone is there talking to me. I stayed with my friend Dave, who lives in Farmington. It was good to see him again and chat about how life is going. I went to bed early because the plan is to drive to Moab, Utah tomorrow and do some mountain biking.

It's amazing how far Anchorage is. Over 4000 miles. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is half way. This means that the last half of the trip will be spent in Canada, mostly in the Yukon Territory. My plan is to drive about 9-10 hours a day and get a bike ride in every day to break up the monotony of driving. Wish me luck!