Anchorage to Phoenix Bike Ride: Day 1

Paul and I started our long bike trip on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 8am. I put the finishing touches on packing my Bob trailer and ate breakfast with my mom. I said goodbye to my family.
I rode to Paul's house to meet him and he was still packing. He said he had been packing since 3am. His gear was in white plastic kitchen garbage bags and they were held on to his trailer by ropes and bungee cord.
We started riding but we turned around after 50 ft so Paul could repack his gear. He made adjustments and then we started again.
The weather in the beginning of the trip seemed to parallel my emotions perfectly. There was light rain at the house when I left and said goodbye to my parents. It was a grey morning.

Once we got going, the rain stopped, the sky cleared up, there were patches of blue sky, and the wind was at our back. We felt hopeful for the adventure to come. My dad and stepmom followed us in a car taking pictures and Paul’s girlfriend and sister followed us to see us out of town. Half way across Anchorage I looked over my shoulder and saw the faint colors of a rainbow that appeared to land right on my house where I had left.

When we were about 15 miles outside of Anchorage I had a sudden feeling of being free.

We encountered heavy rain in Eagle River, but the rain died down and after 50 miles of riding the sun came out and the sky was blue.

Our first crash of the trip happened just before Sutton. Paul was following me down a long hill and we were going about 30 miles per hour. I didn’t see Paul coming up behind me. He tried to brake but his trailer pushed him and he skidded his rear tire. He was thrown off his bike over the handlebars. He flipped and hit his hip on the ground, bounced, backflipped, and hit the top of his head, scraped his leg, and landed on his feet. Luckily he was wearing his helmet. His trip would have ended there if he didn’t have a helmet on. His leg was bleeding. After a couple miles we stopped and cleaned his wounds and put Neosporin on them.

Our plan was to go 80.7 miles to Long Lake, but after riding 81 miles, we were in Chickaloon. I think I miscalculated on Google Maps.

We found nice people at a small diner in Chickaloon. They let us use running water, camp in the back of the restaurant, and clean up in the bathroom. I washed my hair in the bathroom sink.

Paul had only got 3 hours of sleep for the past several nights and he was in a daze at the end of day 1. I cooked dinner and cleaned up and Paul went straight to bed. I followed right behind him.