burntpig

I'm interested in riding north, possibly from San Francisco, to Alaska. I'm looking for any information in regards to the time frame that it is safe and sane to bike in that general area. Is May - September the only time I can make a trip northward (or southward from Alaska for that matter).

Any help would be great, thanks.

B. Carfree

I'm lousy at the search function, but somewhere either in the touring subforum or in this one about two years ago a person from Arizona (I think) created an entertaining thread about his adventures riding an ordinary (high-wheeler) from S.F. to somewhere in AK. He was re-creating a famous trip from a century ago. He had an extended stay in Eugene to rebuild his wheel, but I managed to miss him. If you can find his thread, then you'll have a good start.

If you want to go south to north on the coast, you have two choices. You can have mostly dry weather and head winds by traveling between May and October. Or, you can have lots of rain and tail winds by traveling during the other months. Pick your poison. Winds have more variability inland, but the overall pattern is much the same.

Sounds like a fun and challenging trip. Have fun and let us know how it goes.

Mountain Mitch

Well as a resident of the biggest obstacle on your trip, British Columbia, I can tell you that you can't ride a bike up the coast of BC to Alaska. If you want to ride ferries most of the way, then it might work. The more usual overland way is to head inland and ride up the Alaska Highway which passes through NE BC and the Yukon. It would be a super-ambitous ride and require a lot of planning. I'm in the southern part of BC and you can only ride here from about Mid-April to Mid-October so up north where you are planning to go you will have a much smaller window of opportunity. There's a ton of information about the Alaska Highway on line.