The Alaska Journal: A Bicycling Adventure Across North America

By Lincoln Steward

About the Book
The Alaska Journal is an exciting day-by-day account of author Lincoln Steward’s four-month-long solo bicycle tour from Nazareth, PA, to Homer, AK, and back again.
Join him in discovering the planning of the trip, the routes he traveled, the places he ate and slept, and the people he met along the way. Cyclists with an interest in long-distance touring, and non-cyclists as well, will enjoy seeing how Lincoln tests his own physical and mental fortitude by getting out of the comfort zone of his normal everyday surroundings while having interactions with people of all walks of life during a time when people are very divided by political issues. For cyclists thinking about trying a similar adventure, this is an opportunity to learn from his experience.
About the Author
Lincoln Steward is a 51-year-old, single, self-employed man who lives alone, which is a big reason why he had the opportunity to take the time for such an experience as his bicycle tour. Aside from being an avid cyclist, he remodels homes, mostly bathrooms and kitchens, specializing in tile setting. He tunes up bicycles as a side gig and occasionally does some artistic woodworking as a hobby.
Mostly known for bicycling, Lincoln has ridden over ten thousand miles a year for the last decade, including many endurance events, several multi-day “bikepacking” adventures, and three self-supported cross-country tours. He rides with a couple different cycling clubs in the Lehigh Valley, PA, and has worked in a couple different bicycle shops.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Jan 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890276469

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The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2023 by Lincoln Steward

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

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ISBN: 979-8-89027-148-8

eISBN: 979-8-89027-646-9

Dedication

In memory of my Nana, Dottie Duby, the inspiration for this book.

Prologue

Why on Earth would anyone want to ride a bicycle an extremely long distance, into areas that some would consider remote wilderness, with absolutely no support? As crazy as it may sound, I find an appeal in getting back to survival skills. I’m not talking about disappearing into the wild and living off the land, but rather getting away from the comfort of my normal surroundings and concentrating on what it really takes to live from day to day. As a human being, like most other animals on this planet, there are only a few things we require to exist. Apart from clean breathing air, I believe these can be simplified to three basic needs, which are hydration, nutrition, and protection. A person absolutely must have clean water to drink, food to eat, and a way to shield themselves from the elements of their environment, in the form of clothing and shelter. Anything beyond this can be considered convenience or comfort, but not necessary for survival. For the most part our needs can be taken for granted, and since many people don’t need to worry about them, they concern themselves with amenities instead. Life has become too easy and doing without luxuries for an extended period makes you appreciate them more. Over the course of this trip, my main concerns would be making sure I was carrying enough food and water until I could find a place to replenish my supplies and finding a suitable place to sleep each night. I would also be carrying clothing for all seasons, as I would most likely be experiencing an entire year’s worth of weather conditions over the next several months.

Another reason for this adventure was to test my own fortitude. This would be the longest amount of time I had spent entirely on my own, and the farthest from home I had ever ventured on a bicycle. Do I have what it takes to get through this experience, where there will almost certainly be difficulties along the way? I was purposely getting out of my comfort zone to see if I was mature enough to face adversity without outside help. You never really know what your limits are until you push yourself beyond that which you think you are capable, and this trial would help determine if I really am the man that I would like others to think I am. I only get to live once, and I want to make the most of my life experience.

This journey is also a means of escape. It seems the American news media concentrates on the bad news in the world, and domestically they would have you believe we’re on the brink of a civil war. I know there a lot of political issues dividing our society, but I think people should focus more on finding some common ground. The recent COVID-19 pandemic was a chance for people around the world to band together to defeat a common enemy, but even that became an issue of political division. Whenever I have taken trips like the one I am about to embark on, I have found that I pay less attention to the news. I would still tune in just enough to know what is going on in the world, but without allowing myself to get wrapped up in the drama that comes from media outlets having to fill an entire day with programming. I would meet people from all walks of life and be reminded that everyone wants the same things, and the majority of us are genuinely kindhearted. By getting out and experiencing different settings where circumstances might affect the way people feel about various issues, I am able to better look at the big picture of the world, rather than getting stuck in the echo chamber of what I’m surrounded by every day.

I had been planning this trip since October, about six months before my departure. It started almost as a joke when one day I decided to tell ridewithgps (my go-to bicycle route planning application) to plot a course from my house in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, to Anchorage, Alaska, just to see if the program could handle a track of that length. It gave me a route, and after taking a closer look at it I began to think that it was not as ridiculous an idea as I had originally thought. I decided to look with even more detail to see if it might actually be able to be accomplished. From there, it took on a life of its own. I used the original ridewithgps course as a starting point and began altering it slightly to force it to pass through specific points along the way. This was in an effort to make sure I would end up at a suitable place to sleep each night, and also have a couple stops where I could visit friends. Once that part of the route was finalized, I used a similar technique to plan a course for the return trip home. Rather than just turn around and double back on my outbound route, I decided to plot a course from Anchorage, through Denver, Colorado, then back to Nazareth, so that I could visit with more friends along the way.

With the route finalized, I started pouring over it in much greater detail so that I could generate a list of what services would be offered along the way. Being that I was concerned with surviving this adventure, it would be necessary to know where I could find resources like campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores. I would also need to know how much distance I would need to cover in between these places of support. I put all this information into a spreadsheet to use as a reference while in route. This part of the planning was completed long before my intended departure date, so I began looking into some side trips, additional exploring I was considering adding to the trip, but unsure if I would have the time, money, or physical ability to complete. Because I had some extra time in the planning phase, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give myself the option to see as much as possible while I was already so far away from home.

After the course was laid out and my means of support along the way established, it was time to figure out what gear to bring along. This is when I contemplated the difference between bikepacking and touring. In my opinion, bikepacking is a more minimal experience. It is about keeping your equipment as light as possible and carrying only the bare necessities needed to survive the trip. Touring, on the other hand, allows for more comfort and convenience items. This means carrying more weight and extra baggage, which will make the ride much slower but allow for a cushier experience. The more comfortable I could keep myself, the longer I would be able to continue riding great distances every day, but I needed to be careful to not carry so much stuff that it would become burdensome to carry. I began compiling a list, obviously starting with essential survival items, then adding the comfort items. There were many cost-versus-benefit analyses that occurred during this part of the planning phase. For example, carrying more clean clothing would mean having to do laundry less often, but then I would be carrying more weight and have less space for other things.

I suppose the bicycle itself could be considered one of my comfort items. I could have just as easily packed a backpack and walked, but that would have taken forever, comparatively. The bicycle allowed me to more efficiently cover greater distances and gave me a more convenient method of carrying all my equipment. Of course, bicycles require maintenance, which means more gear to carry in the way of tools and spare parts. I needed to be prepared for any mechanical malfunctions that could occur since I may have been very far from any place where I would be able to find parts or service. This began another debate about which tools and parts would be needed versus how much they weigh and how much space are they take up.

In the weeks leading up to my departure, I took several practice trips locally, with my bike packed exactly the way I thought it would be for the actual tour. Each time I would modify my list of equipment based on the experience. I would add items that I did not bring but wished I had and removed ones that I was sure I would not need. I would also alter the locations of various items based on their ease of access. Things that I would need to grab quickly or often should be handier, so that I would not have to unpack an entire bag to get them. Other items, like those that I would only be using while camping, could get buried at the bottom of a bag.

I also did a lot of research on the environments I would be traveling through. Because I would be so far from my normal home environment, I felt it necessary to educate myself on details such as the weather conditions I could experience, what kind of wildlife I might encounter, and what different types of road surfaces I would be traversing. Since I would be crossing an international border, I also needed to know what would be required to expedite that part of my adventure.

With the planning completed, it would soon be time to hit the road. All I could do at that point was hope that I had thought of and planned for anything I might encounter, or that I would be able to figure out a solution to whatever situation may arise as it happened.

Part 1: Nazareth, Pennsylvania, to Homer, Alaska

Leg 01: Saturday, 30 April 2022

Nazareth, Pennsylvania, to Milton, Pennsylvania

111.47 miles, 5,568 feet of climbing, 8:38:09 riding time

I woke up at 6:30, cooked a good breakfast, and packed up the remaining items that I had needed for my morning routine. I had planned on an 8:00 departure and had put the word of my plans out to the riding community, hoping that I could get a few people to ride the first few miles with me. This would give me some company and help to ease any anxiety I may be feeling about spending the next several months alone. I already knew that Curt and Scott would be riding with me for the first several days, but I had no idea what to expect as far as other participation. By 8:00, there must have been over thirty people on my front lawn waiting to see me off; it was almost a bit overwhelming. From my standpoint, I was just going on an extended vacation. I guess it really was a monumental feat that I was about to try to pull off, and I had a lot of friends who wanted to give their support.

At least twenty of those people were there on their bikes, ready to ride out with me. We got moving just after 8:00 and picked up a few more cyclists that had decided to meet me along the route rather than start at my house. Gradually people began peeling off from the group to head back, and by the time we got to Jim Thorpe, after 37 miles, we were a group of eight. Four more people turned back at that point, and we were down to our core group of four that would finish out the day together. The pace in the morning was perfect, a nice slow roll on the flat Nor-Bath and D&L rail-trails. We seemed to pick up the effort as the day went on, but that may just be because we started hitting some more hills along the way. The weather was about perfect, a little cool in the morning, but nothing to complain about. It warmed up nicely and was sunny and clear all day.

We spontaneously decided to alter my route in Jim Thorpe to avoid riding on Route 209, a busier road with not much of a shoulder. This turned into a much larger detour than planned; we deviated from my original route for longer than we had thought we would be. In the end it shaved a few miles off, although it did add some extra climbing up hills.

After 53 miles, we stopped for about an hour at the Beacon Diner in Hometown, PA, for lunch. We had not planned on being stopped for that long, but the service was a little slow. No problem; the food was good, and we were not in a hurry. This was my vacation, not a race, and we had all day to get where we were going. After another 33 miles, we stopped briefly (fifteen minutes) in Shamokin, at the Friendly Choice convenience store, for ice cream bars and drink refills. We only made it another four miles before Curt got a flat tire. We pulled into the empty lot of an auto repair shop, he plugged the leak (a routine quick repair, as he uses a tubeless tire system), and we got rolling again after less than ten minutes.

In seventeen more miles it was my turn. I got a flat, which was frustrating, because we were only about four miles from our destination. Mine was slightly more of a pain to repair than Curt’s was, because I was running tubes in my tires instead of the normal tubeless setup that I usually use. This was because of my choice of tires, which were supposed to be puncture resistant and rated to last an extremely high number of miles, but not tubeless compatible. This was a pinch flat, not a puncture. I had hit something in the road big enough to bounce me off my seat a few minutes back, and I noticed my tire had slowly gone flat. The repair required removing the rear wheel so that I could install a new tube, which meant first unloading all my gear from the luggage rack.  This was inconvenient, but the kind of thing I had planned for, and had dealt with in the past, so we were only stopped for about fifteen minutes for the entire ordeal.

Dave pulled off to meet his wife and daughter at a campground where he had previously reserved a site for the night. Less than a mile farther, Curt, Scott and I finally arrived at Steel Steeds Motorcycle Campground in Milton with enough time to get our camp set up before dark.  It looked like a nice campground, right on the bank of the west branch of the Susquehanna River. The bathhouse was a little sketchy, but we were just glad to have a hot shower after a long day of riding. We met Camper Bob, the owner of the place, who said he would track us down a little later after we were all set up, to collect his fee. The campground appeared to be just opening for the season, and Bob seemed more interested in partying with the regulars than dealing with us for the moment.

Rather than cook the dehydrated meals we were carrying, we decided to walk next door to the Susquehanna Smokehouse for dinner. We arrived a little too late; the kitchen was already closed, and they were cleaning up for the night. The hostess took pity on us and convinced the cook to hook us up with a limited menu of things that were simple to prepare. This would be the first of many hospitable instances I would experience on this trip.

We walked back over to the campground and went to bed shortly thereafter. I had an alarm set for 5:30 A.M., hoping to be on the road by 7:00 the next morning. The campground seemed like a dance party. There was loud stereo music until about midnight, and I did not want to wear earplugs for fear that I would not hear my alarm in the morning.

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6:26 P.M., Northumberland, PA, 7:28 P.M., Milton, PA, Steel Steeds

Repairing a flat tire Motorcycle Campground

Leg 02: Sunday, 01 May 2022

Milton, Pennsylvania, to Altoona, Pennsylvania

107.66 miles, 5,572 feet of climbing, 8:10:01 riding time

I felt like I got a pretty good sleep, although I did get up around 3:30 to go to the bathroom. I put on a sweater for the remainder of the night, as the temperature had gotten cold. I got up a little after 5:00 and slowly got changed into warm clothes for