Thrive Outside

Okay, I was hoping to write you about the last journey of my 1000 miles around Alaska with the trip I was DYING to do.  It was the same route as the Fireweed race from Sheep Mt. Lodge to Valdez, AK.  However, my husband couldn't take this time off, so I had recruited four friends to bike with me.  Just before the ride about a week prior, I got the notification that 3 backed out because of circumstances beyond their control. Dang. But, I still had one to bike with me.  However, two days before we were to start he came down with the FLU. Oh no.  I had my support staff willing to drive down, but I was going to need to bike by myself.  I wasn't afraid, but with the weather looking awful (99.9% chance of rain).  I knew my spirits would not enjoy the wet ride alone. So, I called it off. I enjoyed a WONDERFUL week of rest and fun with my children and Hannah my eldest also had some unexpected time off of work.  I am so glad I stayed.  It ...

We awoke to that irritating high pitched hum-mosquitos clung to the tent.  At one point during the night, we assumed it was raining but it was only the constant thumping of the mosquito landing on the tent.  Who knew these beasts that weigh so little can recreate a rain storm on our tent fly? I felt sick inside.  James being so encouraging, helped me to get going.  And to my surprise, it was great.  The weather was perfect and only when we stopped did we encounter the swarm of bugs. The view changed slightly and we pulled off for a few minutes to take a photo. We heard there was a place to get second breakfast at Happy Valley (even showers).  However, dreaming of the refueling activity, we were disappointed to see a mostly abandoned area.  A kind gentleman let us refill our water bottles and allowed us to set up the tent to enjoy a lunch break.  It was now HOT!  We fell asleep quickly under the shade of the tent, but woke up...

Even though we had a sound night sleep and the sun was out, we both were feeling Blah.  I think my nerves kicked in because I knew we had 80+ miles to go to reach the destination of the Homer Spit into  Kachemak Bay.  My longest day before that was 53 miles.  But, at least we had some interesting things to distract us on our way. Our closest encounter with a moose.  So sweet.  However, we found that Clam Gulch had NOTHING for us.  (No second breakfast.  No coffee.) A view of the ocean from the road! I did see a humpback whale from the road! BUZZ cafe was the best!  They just got a new espresso machine from Italy.  James had a great time chatting with another biker (motorcycle).  We had no other bicycle touring people at all.  We both agreed that the road conditions and the weather (no wind AMAZING), were the BEST in the entire route from Soldotna to Homer.   We enjoyed a nice l...

The morning started early at 3 am with a car alarm going off.  Thankfully, it wasn't ours.  So, back to sleep. The rain continued and pattered on the tent making it very difficult to even think about leaving the warmth of the sleeping bag.  Thinking the rain aborted, I crawled out to begin the coffee ritual.  Everything was soaked outside.  It took some effort to light the fire.  We enjoyed a breakfast slowly.  I started getting sick.  The rain visited us again, so we had to pack up the wet tent and biking stuff. I kept visiting the loo, but my nerves had taken over and I wasn't feeling it at all.  Today was the day I was dreading because of the Pass to climb (its a 7 mile climb up).  My stomach was saying, "NO WAY are we going today". My dear friend Christina just asked me, "What is the worse that could happen?" I guess death (joking) but seriously, I could just call for help if we can't make the climb she reassured ...

And we are off at 9:30 am.  I had a relaxing time in the Word but also had a great breakfast.  We left but forgot it being Memorial Day that our bathroom breaks locations would be closed.  We headed to the big arches and were thankful to run into friends who lent us some great head coverings for our helmets in case it rains.  They were just about to come look for us.  They sent us off with prayer and we headed down the road. Getting on the Seward Highway, we were blessed with sunny skies and light traffic. Enjoying the view, we were surprised to have perfect timing to meet our friends Haley and Mark @ Indian for the famous "Bird to Gird" trail.  We enjoyed the quieter ride (minus the road noise) and loved the fellowship with other people.   Little did we know that was the last of the bikers we would see until we saw a few bikers in the town of Soldotna.   We enjoyed refueling at the station and r...