Paved With Mud
Elapsed time 6 d 21 h 47 m; Distance travelled 1150 km (715 mi)
“They’re not paving the road, but they’re resurfacing it with… like… mud? I think it’s supposed to be dirt, but it’s mud, they’re bringing in mud. I don’t understand why you would pave a road with mud...”
Three shades of Alaskan mud
From gritty hike-a-bikes up and down Alaskan passes that are “paved with mud”, to sleeping in a locked pit toilet with bear spray in hand and one eye open, the first week of Ashleigh's Pan-Am ride has had no shortage of adventure! After putting the notorious Atigun Pass behind her, Ashleigh was surprised to find out that there were more notable passes standing between her and paved roads. Here’s what she had to say about the steep muddy slopes of Beaver Slide:
“My GPS said 2%, it’s 10%. It’s insane. I couldn’t get traction on my bike, I couldn’t ride it, there was like 40km/hr winds sustained all day, in my face, pouring with rain. I could barely - even on the downhill - I could barely keep my bike straight … it took like an hour and a half to get up that thing”
The first 3 days of grit and grime have already cost her two sets of brakepads, but the conditions could have been much worse. When she arrived in Yukon River on Day 4, she learned that the Jim River that she had crossed on Day 3 had flooded in the heavy rain and washed out the road she’d crossed on. Not only that, but the start point of Prudhoe Bay has been experiencing winter conditions that would’ve derailed her start date if she’d left any later. “One day later and I would have been stuck in the North” she says in her audio diary, laughing.
The town of Fairbanks on Day 5 offered resupply, refuge from the rain, and a chance to wash her bike. The kind folks of Sven’s Basecamp Hostel upgraded her stay to a private room, which surely felt like the ultimate luxury after two nights of sleeping in pit toilets.
Five Star Pit Toilet
Sven’s Basecamp Hostel
Drying out after days of rain
The conditions might be grim, but spirits are high, especially as she leaves the final stretches of gravel roads behind.
“[I’ve] doubled my speed on the climbs, which is wild. I’m so excited to not have the road zap all my energy out by it being muddy conditions, […] it really takes a lot of your momentum out, and that’s like not what needs to happen right now [laughs]”
Day 7 sees Ashleigh closing in on the first border crossing of her trip - we expect that today she’ll cross from Alaska into the Yukon, where she’ll have approximately 3,050 km of riding in her home country before crossing back into the United States at the Alberta/Montana border.
- Aryn & Jessie
This ride is supported by: Augustine House; Arkel Bike Bags; Fluent Frameworks; Long Alley Bicycles; Anytime Fitness Halifax; Acadia Sport Therapy; Showerspass; Night of Adventure; Every person who's donated through the Go Fund Me page; A strong support system: friends, family, and the outdoor community in Halifax.