After the short break in Paxson, I had a very beautiful ride along the Richardson Hwy. It was like the classical Alaska-Picture in my head – forest, hills, river, lakes and in the background the snow covered mountain peaks of the Alaska Range. Here I made my ‘Alaska Picture’ – me cycling up a hill with the mountains in the background (at the present just available in ‘undeveloped-slide-format’ so not to see here yet). Since I had to make the picture with my little tripod and, in order to ‘adjust’ it the right way, I had to lay the bicycle and myself on the road. It must have looked like I had an accident, because one care stopped and asked whether I was fine (it was the only car that passed at that time). I explained him that everything was okay and thanked him for stopping.

Because I was not able restock my food supply in Paxson, I left in the morning once more without breakfast. It was not that I had now food at all anymore and I could have bought some more 15 miles south of Paxson, but there were some red dots on my map, indicating a village or at least a roadhouse. There, so I thought, I sure could get some syrup-soaked-pancakes or Muffins – so why bother to eat cereals. After a one hour I reached this red spot, on my map named with ‘ Gulkana’. ‘Gulkana’ turned out to be not actually a town but a petrol-station with a small souvenir shop. Unfortunately for me, the whole thing was closed, so nothing to eat.

It toke me a bit over one hour to get to Glennallen and there I went into the first restaurant I came along. I ordered – no, not Muffins (I actually asked for some but they did not have any) or pancakes – for a change I had a cinnamon-bun and got it warmed and with melted butter on top. It was delicious but not that cheap. I could have had a ‘special breakfast’ with toast, french-fries and eggs for less money – but then I would not have had the experience of a cinnamon-bun with melted butter.

The next day I picked up the letter from home and went on towards Copper Center. There I would have my ‘second breakfast’ – sourdough pancakes – apparently the specialty of the old roadhouse there. As I tried to order them she told me “Sorry, but we are actually at lunch now and not at breakfast anymore.” Okay, no ‘second breakfast’ for me then and I toke of. (It would have been the ‘second breakfast’ because before I left Glennallen I went pack to the place I had the cinnamon-bun. No, I did not have an other cinnamon-bun but the ‘special breakfast’ which was not that special after all.)

Somewhere along the road I decided not to go directly to Valdez but make a bit a side trip to McCarty, ‘The Heard of the Wrangell-St. Elias NP’ – just 90 miles from the main road, 60 miles of it on gravel road. Did I enjoy it to cycle on the previous gravel roads, this one was not nice at all. The first part was newly made and not really packed. Cycling in the deep and soft gravel was really strenuous. The middle part was just like a washboard and the last few miles were newly made again. Because it started to rain on these last few miles, the road was just a big muddy, messy and slippery something.

Reaching McCarthy I checked out the hostel place and hoped I could camp there but I couldn’t. The only place he had available was a bed in a tent style hose which was actually a bit over my ‘Budget for accommodation in Alaska’. I thirst thought about camping somewhere else but somehow I liked to have a place to seat inside and meet other people and as I heard that there was also a sauna, I went for the deal.

It happened then, that I run into Jules (she and Nicola gave me the ride from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay) It just happened that she was in McCarthy with Chris, a friend of here, at the same time. We had some beers and she told me that she would like to go for a few days trekking in the surrounding mountains. I was actually not rally into that but over a few more beers she had talked me into it. The next morning we meet and went to a agency to see what sort of treks there were in the surrounding. We actually did not intend – mainly me – to fly to a location and doing trekking there. However, we ended up booking a flight to the Iceberg Lake in the Chugach Mountains and it ended up to bee a nice flight. It was really need to see Alaska for once not from the saddle but from the air. Even we had not perfect weather, the 20 minutes flight was really scenic. It was amazing to see all those small lakes and rivers in the flat areas and all the glaciers up in the mountains.

The first day of trekking was then not much of trekking – it rained all day long and we did not leave the tent till about 5:00 PM and then also only to cook dinner. The second day paid for the day before. The sun was out and we could see all the surrounding glaciers. Did we intend to trek up to a pass and stay for one night at a lake up there, we were now just able to undertake a day hike to the pass.

We did actually not intend to cross any rivers but there was just now way around it – we just could not find a passage where we could have jumped from one stone to an other and cross the river that way. If we really liked to go to the pass we had to walk through the icy-glacier-river, there was just no way around. Because Jules did not bring here sandals, we thought about to piggy-bag here to the other side – after all it was just one river. So we thought at least. There were more rivers to cross and I ended up carrying here across of about 5 rivers. This crossing toke some time and it was already midday as we reached the pass. Nevertheless we toke the time to enjoy the scenery and explore the surrounding a bit. Then it meant to go back to the tent – crossing all those rivers again – and the next morning we were already picked-up again and flown back to McCarthy.

Back in McCarthy Jules and Chris gave me a ride back to the main road since I was not too eager to cycle all the way back on the gravel road. From the intersection I picked up my way to Valdez again. Before I would get there I had to cross the Thomson Pass apparently one of the tougher once to cycle over. Fortunately for me, that is mainly true in the south-north direction. For me, coming from the north, it was barely a pass at all and I made it to the summit without minor problems.

I camped that night at the summit and the next morning it was drizzling a bit. Looking towards Valdez it was even less promising. There were just clouds to be seen and they moved towards the pass. Because of this and the faint memory of something I read once ‘Dress yourself in raingear for the long ride down the pass to be protected from the wind and rain which occur the most of the time on the south side of the pass’, I wrapped myself in all my raingear. It was fun riding down the pass even it really rained.

Soaked I reached Valdez and thought about what to do. I first intend to stay for a few days in Valdez and go then with the ferry to Seward. Because it rained, Seward sounded more attractive and the fact that one of the few monthly ferries would leave the next day, I decided to go on the next day.