The Rise Up Ride: Day 71-73, No Way Across the Gulf of Alaska: Pivot and Retrench
Date: 2-4 July 2021
Start Location: Haines, AK
End Location: Juneau, AK
Distance by Ferry: 137 km
The situation unfolded quickly this morning. The message said that the ferry had broken down and I would not be sailing on the MV Kennicott at 10:00 am as planned. Time to pivot… again. Stay calm, breathe, think, evaluate, improvise, act.
Leslie Ross, the owner and delightful innkeeper at The Inn at Haines
The MV LeConte, my ride down the Lynn Canal to Juneau, backtracking my way around Canada
Two days ago, after being turned away at the border due to COVID-19 restrictions, I’d decided to backtrack from Haines and take the route further north around closed Canada, through Juneau, and across the Gulf of Alaska. I booked a boat leaving in three days for Whittier (the nearest port to poorly-named Anchorage), where I could catch another ship to Valdez to begin riding up the Richardson Highway to Mt. Denali. On Friday evening I boarded the MV LeConte for a cruise back down the Lynn Canal and a short bike ride north from the ferry terminal to meet my Warm Showers hosts at their home on the shore of Favorite Channel in the Tongass National Forest. All set and ready to put Canada and my plans to ride through Atlin and north to Alaska behind me, and take off on a ship across the Gulf of Alaska to continue my adventure.
These last two nights I was lucky enough to be Judy and John Neary’s very first WarmShowers guest at their home, close to the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Terminal. Both of them seemed to be as excited to have a guest as I was to be hosted. As this city is “landlocked” (perhaps the correct term is “water-locked”) there are few cycling tourists since there are no roads from here to anywhere. They had just returned from cycling self-contained on the Richardson and Denali Highway route from Valdez into Denali National Park and were a fountain of fresh information on the services available as we sat and planned my ride across the vastness of the Maclaren and Sustina River Valleys. John set up his workshop bike stand for me to use and Judy created scrumptious meals, made with lots of healthy produce from her impressive garden.
This stay was the eighth WarmShowers family who has warmly welcomed me into their home on this trip. I’d like to express my thanks to all of my hosts along the way in Ivanhoe, MN (Dana & Jeff), Huron, SD (Eric), Gillette, WY (Jim & Beth), Darby, MT (Curtis), Missoula, MT (Shawn & Arlen and Wendy & Jim), and Polson, MT (Andrea & Doug). This adventure has been enriched by the best "trail magic" ever while staying with and getting to know my WarmShowers hosts! My stay in Tee Harbor was really lovely, watching the bald eagles, enjoying the view of the Inside Passage without any cruiseliners, sharing stories of travel in Africa, admiring their spectacular natural wood home, and diving deeply into the current social and political issues. It was an engaging and uplifting stay and I was ready to say my farewells when I looked at my phone.
The call from the Alaska Marine Highway office had come in while I was sleeping. After two nights staying with Judy and John, my panniers were packed and I was ready to roll off to the ferry terminal when I read the voicemail transcript on my phone over breakfast tacos. The MV Kennicott was not bound to Whittier but instead for the drydock in Ketchikan. My booking was canceled, leaving me high and dry in Juneau. As this city has no land connection with the rest of the world, my options were limited: a) stay in town to wait for another possible ferry to arrive more than a week from now (expensive and uncertain); b) pack up my bike and gear in boxes to fly on to Anchorage or Fairbanks (an expensive hassle); or, c) use some frequent flyer miles to fly somewhere for the interim to wait for the next sailing.
I shared my predicament with my hosts and called Pam at home for her advice. Lots of options, many possible directions, but for sure I wasn’t riding my bike or taking a ferry out of Juneau this week or maybe next week. If I was going to have to wait for the next ferry, why not do it from somewhere at the end of an airport runway? Why not a quick extraction back to the comfort of home? There was a Delta flight from Juneau for not too many air miles and I could be back home in ten hours. Yes, I could keep my stuff in their storeroom until I returned. The Super 8 near the airport had a 3:30 am shuttle the next morning and Judy offered to drop me there on her way into town.
The pathway before me appeared quickly and I booked the motel and the flights. By tomorrow night I’ll be home in Riverdale, Bronx. Today was a very sudden “pivot”, turning my second travel setback in several days into a positive retrenchment, using my stockpile of frequent flyer miles to fall back and plan the next deployment from behind the lines. Going from the laidback rhythms of coastal Alaska into the frenetic weirdness of New York City through Seattle and Detroit back to La Guardia should be a shock. This adventure has been and should continue to be a wild ride. As soon as I can book my ferry out of Juneau, I’ll be back.
