Saturday, July 21, 2007

Midnight mountain biking in Fairbanks



Saturday July 21st
We're in Fairbanks!
While staying at the GoNorth hostel, Muza was just about to go and have an afternoon siesta at 9pm or so, sleepily walking out to the van someone calls out: "I think the phone is for you Kiwis". Laughing and thinking "can't be!", he answered it anyway. Suddenly the siesta was off and the local party was on. Excited at the thought that there were climbers involved, we were happy to see a bunch of older guys hanging off the side of the house and there were plenty of northern lights in the air, if you know what we mean. It only took a few bottles of wine and a small amount of interrogation before we became Alaskan Alpine Club members.
Logan, the guy on the phone, who we briefly met in a restaurant in Valdez and given us his number, lives in the cabin and tent shown on the photo with his partner Moe. They are both laywers and spend half their time on a 30 foot yacht sailing around the world.
Well this crazy guy took us mountainbiking last night. Before leaving Danielle was trying to get information out of his mates to find out what this mountainbiking expedition was going to be like, for some piece of mind. They said they didn't know either, not a clue. Through the hills of Fairbanks, a 13 mile loop, how cool.
We left at about midnight, still kinda light of course, with him and two mates after having parked our van on top of the hill at an ex-top secret Cold War missile silo and repeater station, maybe. Riding our bikes mostly downhill on an old trail through thick shrubs and trees all the way to a pub down the bottom. At about 2 am we rocked up to this pub and had a drink after which we drove back to our van on top of the hill. Got there around 4am!
Vinnie loves off-roading, look at him!

2 comments:

janine said...

Hey guys, thanks for all the updates, i really enjoyed it! It sounds and looks cool with the canoo on the roof - hope you will be using it a lot. Shame that the others have stayed behind - seems like they dont know what they're missing....

Can you add a map at some point because I have absolutely NO clue where these places are situated.

Hope to see and hear more soon! Goodluck with keeping the mozzies out...
Big hugs from Denmark

-tomorrow my holiday starts: we're heading for 2 weeks Italy& France for a little tour visiting friends around the place

Keep writing and keep enjoying your Great Trip:-)

Niels&Jos said...

Hey Daan and Duane,

Your report is amazing, I enjoyed it very much, I can even "hear" Daan's written comments. What a shame the kiwi's are missing all this and you did miss the company of driving up north together.

It's imagenable how awfull it is with the mozzies and you still enjoy!

Looking forward to another adventure a big kiss and hug from mama