June 27, 2019 to July 02, 2019
My mom was flying into Anchorage for a vacation with friends and we planned to meet so I had a few days to wait.
Years back I was on my Garmin and entered Big Lake (city I am from) and saw Big Lake, AK being 2,000 miles away. That was the first time I ever thought Alaska was close enough to be ridden on a bike. Fast forward, I forgot about Big Lake, AK but riding, I saw this. I rode thru town but nothing like my town. Now I know...
I saw a sign for Hatcher Pass and with a short time of being open, it looked like a road I wanted to ride.
The western side was gravel and east side was tar and much more crowded.
The road followed a river and many people were camping. I came across an area that cars/ RVs couldn't cross so it looked like a nice, private area to camp. It was a bit early but there was some dark skies. I wanted to try a rain shelter set-up in case I was somewhere needing to wait the day for rain to pass. I didn't have more than a few drops of rain but it was good to know how my set-up would be.
After the rain cloud passed, I had a perfect evening camping along side the river.
I decided to ride to Homer, AK. There were forest fires in the area and the smoke made all scenery not worth a photo. The smoke cleared as I got to Anchor Point.
Off of the road was a beach and Gulf of Alaska. I wanted to make it a bit more west than the most westerly point in North America so I went onto the beach. I started sinking quickly and was looking for any area looking like a hard pack, trying to not get stuck. I crossed the beach area and found an area that was safe to stop for a photo.
I was concerned the fires could increase and cause a road closing, so I headed back towards Anchorage.
I found a camp ground the night before my mom was flying in and figured I needed a real shower.
We live 20 minutes apart and have lunch every Sunday when I'm home and was really nice to see her during one of my rides.
Waiting near the airport, I stopped into a small airport nearby. Never saw something like this but looks like a great idea.