Flying the Lost Coast
Sep 09On his way up to Talkeetna last year Cameron filmed some great views of the Lost Coast and surrounding mountains. Here’s a short video showing off some more of the terrain we covered.
Cameo appearance by Dodger.
The Final Slog
Sep 06The final 3 days of our Lost Coast trek weren’t on the coast at all actually. From the west side of Controller Bay we headed inland, through Softuk Lagoon and finally up the gigantic Copper River Delta. For the next 3 days we worked our way through marsh, thick brush and up the heavily braided Copper River.
Our campsite on Kanak Island
Riding along the perfect beach of Kanak Island
From Icy Bay to Controller Bay
Sep 05Icy Bay to Controller Bay was one of the most scenic sections of the Lost Coast. Perfect beaches, shipwrecks, the forgotten military base of Cape Yakataga and the beautiful Cape Suckling.
Riding into the sunset along a perfect stretch of beach
I want to ride my bicycle
Sep 01Our first three days were mostly paddling and pushing due to the soft ‘beach’ along the east side of Yakutat Bay. But once we crossed the west coastline was perfect for riding and we put some serious miles on the Pugsleys. For the next 3 days we cruised along the beach interrupted only by a dozen or so river crossings (and the Sitkagi Bluffs) until we reached Icy Bay.
We’ll have day-to-day details to go along with the pics soon.
Pushing up the beach along the east side of Yakutat Bay
Unloading the raft after crossing Yakutat Bay
First Pics
Aug 31Cameron is working hard to process 1000+ pics, no small task. He was using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and each raw image comes in at around 23MB. Our other camera (my trusty little Canon PowerShot) sadly succumbed to the elements on the trip.
We’ll have more details on each day of our trek soon, but for now here’s a preview of our first 3 days on the Lost Coast.
Pushing along the east side of Yakutat Bay
Thanks again to…
Aug 30Cameron and I are back in Bozeman and grudgingly returning to everyday life. Most our gear has been cleaned and put away and Cameron is starting to process 1,000+ pics. In the next few weeks we’ll have some follow-up posts on gear, pics and what should be a pretty nifty interactive map. But first we’d like to take some time to thank those who made this trip a reality (and success!).
Our Route to Cordova
Aug 26One of the most useful tools on our trek was our DeLorme PN-60W GPS. Besides guiding us through fog (on more than one occasion) and sending live updates it also recorded our route in extreme detail.
In Yakutat I configured our PN-60W to record our location every 1/10th of a mile. Finer detail was available but for our purposes every ~528ft was good enough. Then, before starting each morning I would turn on the GPS and it recorded our route for the day. 14 days later we were left with a super accurate record of our travels. Here’s our route to Cordova (you’ll need to click Page 2 in the bottom left to see the 2nd half of our route).
With the exception of a few places where we had limited GPS reception it recorded in great detail our exact route, including all the wrong turns and dead-ends we encountered. Using this we’re going to create a more interactive map showing our campsites, live updates, photos and more. Look for that in the next few weeks.
We’re baaaaack!
Aug 25Just a quick update from the Anchorage airport.
We made it to the Copper River Highway on August 22nd and pedaled the ~35 miles into Cordova, AK. Within minutes we found the Alaskan Bar and were celebrating with a few Alaskan IPAs and fried food. With few lodging options in town we camped at ‘Hippie Cove’, an off-the-grid community down near the docks.
On Monday we hopped on the ferry to Wittier then hitched a ride through the tunnel to Girdwood, a great little AK mountian town.
Today, we’re on our way back to Bozeman and with that our Alaskan adventure has come to a successful and fun end. Cameron and I had a great time and are incredibly thankful to all the people who helped make this trip a success.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting a few more details on the trip, and of course pics (several hundred of em).
Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented, and expect some more updates soon!
