Lost Coast Bike Expedition

We went back and went south.

2011-07-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Bikerafting Alaska's Lost Coast: Yakutat to Glacier Bay. from lacemine29 on Vimeo.

Lost coast complete.
next up...

2008-12-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

slowly learning Final cut pro, it does not help with getting sleep...
here is "The Dark" trailer :

Lost Coast Trailer from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

2008-11-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Here is one trial clip I re-formatted from the slide show:

Lost Coast Sitkagi Bluffs from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

ADN

2008-10-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Melissa DeVaughn wrote a nice article about the trip that was just in the Outdoor section:
link here

Video

2008-10-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to downloading the 2.5 hrs of footage from the trip onto my hard drive. So once I learn some new software I'll post a short clip of it on here.

2008-10-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

Bike thoughts

2008-09-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

-Singlespeed was the only way to go for sure.
-24-22 gearing was great or 22-20.
-No brakes, the grit & sand destroyed the bb7's in less than a week and we eventually took them off. We didnt really need them anyway.
-Fixed is not a bad idea at all, For pugs, running a fixed on the front as backup is the way to go, the bmx freewheel stopped turning by hand after a few days due to lack of seals. That being said, both our freewheels (shimano & DT) worked fine the whole trip.
-Phil wood bb's are still spinning slop free - This is nothing short of totally amazing.
-Chains took serious abuse, stainless might be the way to go for longer trips.
-Surly tubes are bomber, zero flats and their ease of patching was good piece of mind.
-OMM Racks were bomber as expected, they were beat up hard and held up great.
-Checking the tightness of chainring bolts is pretty darn important...

Back Home

2008-09-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Dylan and I made it back to Anchorage today after a ferry ride from Cordova, then a hitch in the rain back to Anchorage, and brakeless pugsley singlespeed ride across town with a stop for proper re-hydration at Speedway.

How do you sum up almost 3 weeks of wilderness travel?

you don't. In the end we really had a fun filled trip and did not want it to end when we reached the Cordova road. Adventure mountain biking with the right tools is limited only by one's imagination. A simple joy comes from mountain biking in places they have never been before. The untangables that come with traveling through and experiencing these raw, wild, awe inspiring landscapes is what motivates us and will keep us coming back again and again.

Some photos below to should give a taste.

An enormous thanks is due to:
Jill ! - For transcibing these rambling scratchy sat phone calls and adding super cool content.

Greg Maytas and Speedway cycles for making things happen in a huge way when mechanical chaos ensued. Greg really pulled through when we needed it - huge thanks man.

Les Hartley of Alsek Air - Supercub beach landing crank arm delivery and route beta.

George Davis of Icy Bay Lodge - For feeding us twizzlers, scones and a huge slab Halibut we cooked on the fire

Kim Menster !! Codrova super hero - Gave us a ride in her fishing boat across Controller bay in really bad weather, fed us till we were stuffed and hosted us in Cordova. Kim is our new best friend!

Erin and Hig - Tremendous inspiration. Detailed route info and planting the seed in the first place.

Dave Grey and the crew at Surly for their support and passion.

Jon at OMM for the killer racks.

Cheers!

Click on the photos for a larger view:

Paddling up Russel Fjord:

Day and a half Bushwacking attempt to avoid Hubbard Gap:

Exiting Hubbard (aka Terror) Gap:

Endo's and grizzly tracks:

Boulder fields on Sitkagi Bluffs:

North of Icy Bay:

Perfect Beach near Cape Yakataga:

North of Cape Yakataga:

A stormy day near the Seal River:

Skirting Cape Suckling:

Mud on the end of Okalee Spit:

In the Copper River Delta:

Biking up the Copper River Delta:

Bar hopping nearing the end:

Dylan and Eric made it to Cordova!

2008-09-08T15:25:00.001-07:00

Sometime Sunday. Expecting a full report soon.

Another broken call

2008-09-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Eric called sometime Thursday evening, and again, only the first 11 words were clear. I heard: "Hi, this is Dylan and Eric of the chronic wet and ..." after that it was really too garbled to make out syllables let alone full words. Maybe if I had some bomber sound equipment, but I am just using a standard answering machine (not voice mail, answering machine.) So I'm probably just going to have to leave it at that and hope they call back with a location soon.

Pugsleys float

2008-09-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

Eric called at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday from the end of Okalee Spit, where the guys were waiting to see if the wind calmed down and created a window for crossing Controller Bay. Here's Eric's report:

Hey, it's Dylan and Eric. We're at the end of the Okalee Spit on Controller Bay. It's been a wet and windy last three days. We left Cape Yakataga and were crossing the Kaliakh River and Dylan's bike slipped off his boat. So we found out Pugsleys actually float. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Let's see. Um, pretty slow going getting to Seal River. We had to push most of the day yesterday. Um, yeah, lots of wind and crazy surf. Today we made it to Cape Suckling and across some crazy boulders and stuff. Then we rode out the spit today and were kind of intimidated by the crossing to Kanak Island. So we're going to wait here and see what it looks like tomorrow morning. We have a bail-out by taking a fishing boat across the center nearby. This is kind of a long one, sorry. I hope you're well, and we'll talk to you from somewhere in Copper River Delta.

Eric told me before that he suspected Pugsleys could float when he and Dylan rode from Hope to Kenai. Dylan walked across a slough that was deeper than he had anticipated and discovered the bike bobbed beside him rather than sinking to his side. Those big balloon tires float great atop snow and sand ... now we know they also float in water. I'm guessing that's a pretty reassuring thing to know when the bicycle with all of your survival gear strapped to it has just slipped off your packraft into a deep river.

Okalee Spit to Kanak Island is a long open crossing based on the map - about five miles. There could be some mud flats in there, but any kind of wind and weather is going to kick up big surf, completely exposed as they are to the Gulf of Alaska. The weather forecast is not looking good for calm seas. Wednesday's area forecast calls for rain with highs in the upper 50s, and a southeast wind from 15 to 30 mph with local gusts to 45 mph in the morning.

Icy Bay

2008-08-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

At 9:40 p.m. Saturday the guys called to report smooth sailing and happy riding. Here's Dylan's report:

Hey, it's Dylan and Eric. I don't know if our call got dropped yesterday or not, so quick recap: As we crossed Icy Bay, it was bluebird, it was awesome. Fuckin three-hour packraft, open-water paddle. It was amazing. We did some hero biking yesterday and today on the sand. It was flat. We got to Cape Yakataga. We got our resupply. We got fire. Everything is great. We're going on to Cordova tomorrow. We're in good spirits. Over and out. Goodbye.

The guys have a bit of distance to cover before they reach Cordova, but from Cape Yakataga, they do have a long stretch of sandy beach to look forward to, based on the map. And if they don't feel like sand biking on the beach, there's a road, an actual road, that leads into the Yakataga State Game Refuge. After that things may get a bit rougher, with lots of wetlands, marsh and mud, followed by the promising slog of the Copper River Delta. But after that, they're on the Copper River Highway and a heartbeat away from the grand prize.

Brief contact

2008-08-30T19:04:00.001-07:00

Eric called at 9 p.m. Friday, but his call cut out before he was able to reveal to much. "Hi, this is Eric and Dylan of the Icy ... " was all that came through. I have been waiting to see if they would call back, but they have not yet. I hope this means they're safely across Icy Bay. Anxiously awaiting the next call.

Sitkagi Bluffs

2008-08-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

(photo from groundtruthtrekking.org)

Eric called at 10 p.m. Wednesday from Fountain Stream after fixing his crank and starting back up the coast. Here's his report:

This is Dylan and Eric. How's it going? We're about a mile and a half east of Fountain Creek, on the west end of the Sitkagi Bluffs. Anyway, yesterday ... beautiful last two days weatherwise and we got a box from Greg at Speedway with the cranks and a fine bottle of Belgian beer and Doritoes, so we put in a good half day of excellent fun biking and then, yeah, today it was pushing and ( ... call cuts out and words are garbled). Anyway, I think this is cutting in and out but I'll talk to you later. We got to get over to Icy Bay. See you.

Sounds like where they were at 10 p.m. was about 20 miles east of Icy Bay, which is their big open water crossing. I imagine they're moving late into the night to try to hit Icy Bay as early as possible Thursday, if winds are favorable. The weather forecast for the area calls for light winds and a 40 percent chance of rain. Could be favorable conditions for a packraft crossing if all goes well.

Crank disaster

2008-08-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Eric called Monday afternoon from a cabin near Kame and Sudden streams, pictured in the center of this Google Earth image. The guys are stalled out right now with a major mechanical. Here's Eric's report:

We are at Kame Creek and Sudden River, basically the outlet of Malaspina Lake. We had a good day riding. It's pouring rain and so we actually found this little old fishing cabin that we holed up in for the night. Then we left today and like five minutes down the beach my crank self-destructed. Uh, so the granny gear basically stripped down to the bolts and ripped the threads out and broke in half, so we're ... screwed. But, luckily we have this little sat phone so I actually called Speedway. They're going to send another crank for repair that's hopefully going to get here tomorrow on the beach. We might be back in business in less than 24 hours, but that's a best case scenario. Anyway, so we're just, yeah, hanging out. It's a little rainy. But all is well. Talk to you later. Bye.

After I listened to the first part of that message, I was sort of hoping Eric would tell me about some kind of amazing field repair he engineered right out there on the beach. Like Gilligan's Island and the coconut radio. But it's great that this is the new millennium and stranded cyclists can call in for emergency repairs and supplies from any remote corner of the world. I hope they will be spinning again soon. Maybe the waiting period will give them time to scout out their route around the Malaspina Glacier, a glacier so large it can be seen from space. I believe this is the glacier Eric told me reportedly has a small oasis of vegetation growing in the sediment on top of the ice. It would be a nice, gravelly place to ride a bike if it exists.

Disenchantment Bay

2008-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: I am trying to post the guys' reports verbatim. So there's a little bit of coarse language in this call-in, and I'm expecting a lot more as the trip progresses. :-)

Dylan called in from the north side of the Hubbard Glacier at 9:23 p.m. Saturday. Here's his report:

Hey Jill, this is Dylan of Dylan and Eric. We're somewhere near the Galleano (?) Glacier. We're on the coast after we packrafted through Terror Gap, aka the Hubbard Gap. That shit's fucking gnarly. Um, we bushwhacked for 10 hours yesterday and did like half a mile, um, like eight tenths of a mile. We've seen four bears in the last two hours, and we're about to go sleep in terror. Um, everything's fine. It's not raining, and we'll talk to you later. Bye.

I'm not sure what Dylan means by Galleano (at least, that's what I think he said) Glacier. Maybe it's some pet name the guys have given to the beast they just crossed. I'm guessing they're somewhere between the Hubbard and Valerie glaciers. Sounds like they had quite the adventure getting around that thing. Hopefully that's one of those stories they'll be lucid enough to tell when all is said and done.

Hubbard Glacier

2008-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Eric and Dylan made their first satellite phone call at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday from the south end of the Hubbard Glacier. Here's Eric's report:

We're camped 100 yards in front of the violent calving face of the Hubbard Glacier. We were going to try to get across today, but it was too gnarly so we made a camp and we're going to bushwhack over the Hubbard Gap tomorrow. We built a nice campfire that took us two and a half hours to build. The first two days were really nice out of Yakutat. We rode a bunch - basically packrafted and walked a lot. Today it was raining most of the day. We'll try to call on the other side of Disenchantment Bay.

I'm a little foggy on when exactly Eric and Dylan started riding, but I think Thursday was the end of day three, which means they began their journey on Tuesday, Aug. 19. They embarked from Yakutat, a small town marked by the gray square in the bottom left of this Google Earth image. They made their way up the coast all the way to that gray square in the upper right. It appears they're making great time for Southeast Alaska's brand of rocky, rain-slicked, cliff-studded coastline. From weather reports it seems they had some exceptionally nice days Tuesday and Wednesday, but the weather forecast for the next several days at least is more typical - rain and wind, with temperatures in the 50s.

Disenchantment Bay is their first major obstacle - a huge, iceberg-filled water crossing near the calving face of a glacier. The Hubbard Glacier is Alaska's largest tidewater glacier, with an open calving face more than six miles wide. Suffice to say - pretty daunting in a small packraft next to a crumbling wall of ice threatening raft-tipping tsunamis and no options for a swift exit. Before their trip, Eric told me they were thinking about trying to ride their bikes across the top of the glacier rather than cross by sea. From their call-in, it sounds like that may still be their plan. Looking at the map and trying to imagine what the conditions are like out there, it seems their trip is front-loaded with huge challenges. Hubbard is one of the big ones. But Eric sounded upbeat about the crossing, so here's hoping we hear from them again soon.

Updates

2008-08-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Horray! we leave today ( the 18th). bikes boxed, food in bags, bills paid. yahoo!
We'll try to call in updates every few days.

About The Trip

2008-08-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

The Lost Coast is a stretch of wild coastline along the Gulf of Alaska starting from the eastern end of Prince William sound extending some 400+ miles to the south and east. Bordered on one side by thousands of miles of open ocean and breaking waves and the high glacier covered Chugash and St. Elias Mountain ranges on the other. It is not protected by islands and is fully exposed to the brunt of the sea and weather systems that swirl in the gulf building power, then slam into the mountains to the north. With that said, it is a incredibly beautiful and wild stretch of coastline.

Starting on August 18th, we will attempt to make the journey between the towns of Yakutat and Cordova. Biking the beach when we can, foot when we can't and use packrafts to cross the large bays and portage the numerous glacier fed rivers. Our route is front loaded with challenges. Close to Yakutat we will need to cross the Hubbard Gap - a massive calving tidewater glacier bordered by steep & rocky shoreline. Heading North we encounter the Sitkagi Bluffs and the worlds largest piedomont glacier, the Malaspina. Next up is perhaps the biggest challenge of Icy Bay. A 3 mile crossing of a bay chock full of icebergs. Continuing northward is cape Yakataga, the mid-way point and food drop that will be delivered by a bush pilot.

Miles of beach later we reach the barrier islands and the beginning of the massive Copper River Delta which we must finally stumble across to reach to town of Cordova about 300 miles of wilderness from where we started. Fun!

Gear

2008-08-06T23:39:00.001-07:00

This trip incorporates three methods of travel. Bikes, Packrafts, and foot. All gear must be able to be used and packed for efficient travel in all three modes. Evenly distributed on the bike for riding, totally waterproof for packrafting, and quickly and easily packable in a backpack for easier bike pushing when walking. Most of the gear is simple lightweight backpacking stuff, but with keeping the principles above in mind.

Bikes:

We are using Surly Pugsley frames with 80mm rims and 3.7 Surly Endomorph tires. Wheel builds by the big hoop Guru's at Speedway Cycles in Anchorage AK. The bikes are set up as simple as possible - low geared singlespeed, platform pedals, phil wood bottom brackets and one avid bb7 disk brake mounted on the front for easy removable of the rear wheel in the horizontal dropouts.

For packing systems we are using high volume Epic Designs custom made frame bags, with waterproof fabric and water resistant zippers. The frame bags sole purpose will be to carry many pounds of food. Custom made heat sealed drybags are used inside the framebags for easy removal and to keep food water tight and yummy.

Rear Rack's were chosen over seat bags due to the ability to carry drybags and wet packrafts with ease. Old Man Mountain White Rock rear racks were chosen for their simplicity, and bomb proof reputation.

We plan on biking with the packrafts and paddles simply strapped to either the handlebars or rear rack for easy and quick access.

Packrafting:

Alpacka Packrafts - The one and only and best. These boats weigh 4-5 lbs and are amazingly durable. I'm using a 2003 vintage llama with spraydeck, while Dylan has an old Alpacka size without a spray deck. We both have 4 section Kayak paddles. Due to the "big" water nature of the Icy bay and Hubbard Gap Crossing, we are bringing real PFD's with us that will also serve as vests for warmth and sleeping padding. I'm using a prototype 2-piece light weight drysuit from Alpacka Raft which also serves as wind and rain gear. Dylan is toughing it out with simple REI rain gear.

Foot:

We will carry light weight but large volume packs which will only carry sleeping gear and clothing when biking, but will be able to carry all gear and food for when a light bike is needed to push and bash through boulder fields and thick bushwacks.

Montrail and Soloman trailrunner shoes used on the feet with sewn in stretch scree gaiters. For socks we will use neoprene socks, wool socks and some random pair of sleeping socks.

Camping etc:
All cooking will be done on driftwood fires without a stove. So only basic cooking tools are needed. We will each bring a 1.2L Titanium pot since we eat allot and never learned to share.

Shelter - Blackdiamond Megalight. A silnylon version of the megamid. Floorless 4-sided pyramid. Light, simple and tons of room.

Sleeping - Synthetic sleeping bags, The remains of a bear attacked therma rest pro-lite 3, which repaired still holds air but is now a 3/4 length, closed cell foam for Dylan, packpacks and life jackets.

Photo Gallery

2008-08-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

All Photos here were taken by Erin McKittrick and Brentwood Higman in November 2007 on their Seattle to Aleutian trek. After the trip we'll post our own.

About us

2008-08-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Dylan Kentch - All Terrain Madman. Unemployed Genius. Enjoys multi-month singlespeed vacations, uncooked Ramen noodles and Fugazi. Extremely durable. Official Packrafter.

Eric Parsons - Specialist in worldly domestic farm animals. Underemployed seamstress. Enjoys spending time outside, sunshine and cookie dough.

Some of our prep for this trip:
Hope to Kenai

Stampeede Trail