Most people would go out of their way to avoid a mother grizzly and her cub. We, on the other hand, sought her out. We had a couple of days to spare before our journey into the heart of Denali National Park, so we went back down to Cooper Landing in the Kenai Peninsula, where the salmon are running. We hiked into several key locations along the rivers where bear are known to hang out, including a 2.3 mile hike to Russian River Falls. Saw lots of salmon, but no bears. In one last desperate attempt to spot our bear, we walked along the banks of the Kenai River near midnight. The sky was still bright with the setting sun rays when Linda spotted a bear in the river. On the rocky shore was her little cub, watching mom go fishing. The pair strolled back and forth in front of us along the far bank of the river, allowing for some good photos in the dwindling light. Bear expedition successful.

It just doesn’t get any better than this!

If you’re ever in Alaska, we would highly recommend taking the Phillips 26 Glacier Cruise out of Whittier, AK. Unless you have your own boat, this is the way to see Alaska!

We are having a blast cruising around Alaska on four wheels now, seeing the sights. We’ve spent several days down on the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. Went down to the "End of the Road" at Homer, AK and had some fresh Kachemak Bay oysters. Wow! Spent the day today (Tu 7/16) waiting for the bears to show up and eat all the salmon jumping the rapids at Russian River Falls. Saw lots of fish – no bears. Tomorrow we take a 26-Glacier catamaran tour out of Whittier, AK, then ferry over to Valdez, AK. Never been there, so looking forward to that!

THE FINAL DAY! It was cool and windy as we rolled into the city of Fairbanks, with rain knocking on the door. We visited the Santa Claus House in North Pole, but apparently, Santa takes Sundays and Mondays off, so he missed out on his opportunity to have his photo snapped with us in his lap. In Fairbanks, we got a room at the Super 8 and went out to the airport to rent a vehicle for the remainder of our Alaska Holiday. Tomorrow, we take the bike in to the local bike shop and box it up for shipping home. How strange not to get back on the bike and ride again. Stay tuned to our blog for additional photos and stories from our tour of Alaska!

Woke up this morning to a killer tail wind out of the south — best of the entire journey. It was a sustained 20-25 mph. We sailed on that sucker for 85 miles, all the way up to North Pole, AK and the summer home of Santa Claus himself! We stopped for a break in North Pole and was told that the lodging in Fairbanks (15 miles farther up the road) was filling up fast because of wildfire evacuations to the north. We thought it best to take the sure thing in North Pole and booked a room at the Hotel North Pole for the night. We will complete the last 15 miles of our journey to Fairbanks tomorrow. While in North Pole, we met two other bicycle riders, Hannes and Julia, from Leipzig, Germany. We had a blast trading stories with them before they rode off into the Alaska sunset, traveling out of Alaska and heading for Vancouver.

We made such good mileage yesterday that the ride into Delta Junction today was short and sweet. Passed a young woman picking wild strawberries on the roadside – we stopped and picked a bunch ourselves! Spotted another young moose along the way. On my first two bicycle rides to Alaska, I used the Tok cutoff to go down to Anchorage and never completed the Alcan on bike. This trip, we did! The Alaska Highway officially ends in Delta Junction. From there, we will take the Richardson Highway the final 100 miles into Fairbanks and the End of the Road.

Today, we rode through an area riddled with wildfires. The smoke got pretty bad for several miles, but we eventually passed it. We were told by several folks in Tok that there was "nothing between Tok and Delta Junction," meaning, nowhere to stay except in the woods. Not real keen on that in bear country. So, we fully expected to ride the 110 miles all the way into Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaska Highway. At the 95 mile mark, 15 miles shy of Delta Jct, we happened upon some cabins and a gas station, the SIlver Fox Roadhouse. Easy decision to make — we stopped there for the night. Dan and Eva were our hosts. Dan showed us around his shop where he had on display amazing tanned pelts of all kinds of Alaska game, not to mention his Buffalo Hall of Fame! Wonderful place to stay, if you ever pass this way.

Great to be back on US soil for the 4th of July! Today, Linda and I decked out the tandem in red, white, and blue, stuck Uncle Sam in the little yellow trailer, and joined the Tok 4th of July Parade down the Alaska Highway. It was one of the best 4th of Julys I can remember 🙂 See some pictures of the parade below. Linda and I have decided to change our final destination from Anchorage to Fairbanks, both of which are accessible from here in Tok. The weather down in Anchorage has been very rainy and cold and looks to continue like that all week. Fairbanks will be sunny and warm in the 70s this week. It will take us four more riding days to get to Fairbanks, a little over 200 miles.