Tatalina Creek to Fairbanks – Day 8

07.08.12 Day 8 Tatalina Creek to Fairbanks 55.4 miles, 499.8 trip miles 9.2 avg mph, 43.6 max 5:57:50 ride time All pavement Rain. Lots of sun and wind. Day 4 of rain I woke up today in about the same mood as yesterday. I was pretty beat down and not looking forward to riding the bike. It didn’t help that it rained all night. The thought of packing a wet tent was not appealing. After a quite breakfast Mike and I broke camp and as you would guess, started climbing again. The Elliot is now flatter than the Dalton. It’s safe to say we’ve been climbing around 9000′ a day since Atigun Pass. The climbing is so tough on my irritated IT band. As a result I did my best to spin and keep pressure off the pedals not an easy job with all the hills. At the top of our longest hill we got our first cell phone reception in 8 days. We each called loved ones and let them know we were alive. I have no shame so I will just admit I cried when I talked to my folks. It was so good to hear their voices. They mean the world to me and it was tough. Usually they are a big part of my trips but this time they are not. With Alaska being so far out there and Canada being international shipping me stuff isn’t feasible. They are left with following my Spot map and waiting for phone calls. After the phone calls we got rained on and it was cold! We road with rain gear a while. It finally had to take it off. Just a few miles shy of Fox we had another long drawn out hill. Luckily his one had a store on top. We went in, got drinks and pepperoni Hot Pocket and chips and as a result skipped a rain storm. Great timing! The last miles into Fairbanks were sunny and probably added to my burned nose. I looked like Rudolph from all the sun I’ve got. We made a stop to learn about the pipeline at a rest stop the climbed the last hill to Fairbanks. The last bit was on a real highway and it was a bit stretchy. Once to town we got a room, ate BBQ and had some beer, got more beer the went back to the hotel to do laundry and use the jacuzzi. It’s once again almost 1 am and I’m still up and so is the stinking sun! That guy never quits! Glove count: 15 Tie down count: 20 Scatman