Anchorage to Valdez via Girdwood and Whittier 28th - 29th July

August 3, 2007 by Naomi.

We set off from Anchorage in cloudy weather and were amazed that we managed to get all our stuff into our eight panniers after the all the shopping we did. A bikepath took us all the way out of town and we then had to join the main traffic on the New Seward Highway. Although we did have a wide shoulder to cycle on, there were an awful lot of RVs (recreational vehicles - holiday homes), which resemble large buses and are very intimidating to share the road with. I thought RVs were the same as SUVs until I saw the RVs trailing the SUVs - can vehicles get any bigger? I ask myself!

The tide was low in Turnagain Arm (the body of water that we were travelling along) and was all mudflats (see photos for 27th July). Unfortunately, despite warning signs, people have made the unwise decision to walk across the ‘Arm’, and got into quite serious trouble. Apart from the risk of the tide coming back in, the mudflats are made up of fine silt and clay from melting glaciers, and have similar qualites to quicksand.

The road from Indian found us on a lovely cycle path that was a bit more hilly than the road and was surrounded by lots of foliage and berries and all sorts, at which point I started tinging my bell to keep the bears away. As the weather gradually cleared up, layers came off and we got some spectacular views of the mountains and glaciers around us.

 On entering Girdwood we heard a ‘Welcome to Girdwood!’ shouted out from the bikerental shop, and thankfully found our cosy B&B without much ado. After a lovely meal and a couple of drinks at Jack Sprats, we slept beautifully.

The following day brought us some much closer and better views of glaciers, especially on the road leading up to the Whittier tunnel. On our way there, we met a Swiss couple, Tim and Angela, also cycling around Alaska, and they had some very interesting stories to tell, especially from their last trip from Switzerland to Kazakstan (see www.rulatrip.com) although only German speakers will understand the text, the pictures have their own story to tell.

Our arrival at the Whittier tunnel confirmed that bikes were indeed not allowed through the tunnel (it’s only one way and the lane is shared with motor vehicles and the train), which left us with only one option, and that was approaching someone with a large enough vehicle for two bikes who would be kind enough to give us a lift through it. Luckily, we met Dana and Brian (from Arkansas) and their son’s father-in-law on their way for a spot of fishing in Prince William Sound and we swapped some stories during the short journey (see photos 29th July). We got an especially good history of Whittier, a very isolated fishing village on the west side of Prince William Sound.

After a very small tour of Whittier and Begich Towers, pretty much the only habitable building in town, we boarded the ferry in beautiful weather, despite being told that the weather in Whittier is always shittier! Once we got going we had glaciers literally coming out of our ears, but most impressive was Whittier glacier and the one opposite. Further on in the trip we got to see a whale, dall porpoises, sea lions and a fair few (but rather small) icebergs. The weather did indeed get shittier towards Valdez (renowned for being one of the wettest places in the States), where we were met by Mandy and Tom Hale, our wonderful hosts in Valdez. We stayed with them for a couple of days while we waited for the never-arriving new bicycle fork and prepared ourselves for the long cycle northwest to Tok.

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