Last year around this time my buddy and I were talking about different places to go bikepacking he works 2 on 2 off on the North Slope and on one of his hitches I texted him "Denali Highway?" His reply was swift "YES!" So we started planning.  We wanted to go stop sign to stop sign we also planned on camping along the way.  The plan was to leave on a Friday morning and get picked up at 3 the following Sunday for a total of 3 days and 2 nights.  Neither of us had driven the highway in over 20 years so essentially the road was sight unseen for all practical purposes.  Weather was another factor we were planning on traveling June 10-12 ordinarily most places spring would be in full swing the Denali Highway however bisecting the State of Alaska resides between two mountain ranges, the Talkeetna's to the south and the Alaska Range to the North.  In years past an annual gravel grinder bike race has hadd to be relocated due to more than 5 feet of snow covering the roadway a week before we planned on traveling.  Wind and rain have made the ride horrific for bike travelersas well.  Being dropped off and picked up without having a chase car made things a little more interesting as there is no cell reception along the entirety of the highway.  We did look at exiting lodges along the way to help determine where we might be able to stay or get assistance if there were issues.  We were looking at roughly 30 miles between lodges and that was if they  were still open.  Roger while at work decided to ask another friend if he wanted to go which made three of us that would make the trip.  We also had decided to make the trip on fatbike instead of the more typical gravel/touring bikes that are seen or the 29ers or  27.5 plus bikes that are becoming more common.   As far as I can tell we we wound up being the first group to do the entire trip via fatbike in the summer.  The reason for choosing fatbikes was pretty simple it was the only bike that I had  aside from a cyclocross bike that I haven't gotten dialed in yet.  As we got closer to to time I got my gear dialed in.

I would be riding a 9zero7 Whiteout with mulfut rims and panaracer fat-b-nimble tires.  I was apprehensive about riding the panaracers due to the number of sidewall tears that I had started seeing pop up but they were new and I didn't have the time or money to get another set.  The bike build was their AK9 build with SRAM X9 shifters and deraileurs and Truvativ carbon bars and seatpost, grips were Bontrager foam, brakes were bb7's and seat was the Brooks B17 expecting rain I had the brooks raincover on as well, Shimano m530 pedals rounded out the componenets.  For luggage I had an Ibera rack, Revelate frame bag, Terrapin dry bag(on rack) and Jerry Can toptube bag, Blackburn Outpost gascan toptube bag and the outpost drybag from their handlebar setup (didn't use the harness).  Also on the bike I had a custom handlebar rack that was modeled after the BarYak dubbed the Muskrack and Liberty Mountain cozies utilized as feedbags. Here is a pic of my setup.

Starting at the front and working back I had my sleep system bag, bivy, pad in the hadlebar bag.  The bag was an Enlightened Equipment RevX 20 degree quilt, Borah Gear M90 bivy and a Thremarest Xlite inflatable pad.  The Muskrack had two bottle cages one carried a 20oz smartwater bottle with MTN OPS Enduro and my insulated coffee mug and a gopro that i never turned on (duh!).  The liberty mountain bottle holders carried on the left side grub sweets, nuts etc. and the right side my S&W Mountain gun in 44mag.  The Blackburn gascan contained more quick grub, my sunglasses when I wasn't wearing them, point and shoot camera and cellphone.  The frame bag contained gloves,beanie and jetboil and other misc odds and ends and bike pump.  The jerry can under the seat contained bike multi tool, spare tube, tire levers, quick links, patches.  The brown bag undeer the rear of my seat contained the custom Warbonnet Superfly, custom because I had Becker Designs in Fairbanks add zippers to the openings (works great for this application useless when used with a hammock).  The Terrapin bag on the rack contained spare socks, shirts, thermals and a pair of pants. Also strapped to the rack were the trekking poles used to pitch the superfly and sandals so I didn't have to were clipless shoes when not riding.  On my back I carried food and water filter goodness.  Food consisted of one Mountainhouse a couple butthole sandwiches (bagels with peanut butter, honey and bacon) a couple disaster wraps (they were disasters I don't want to talk about them) breakfast burrritos assorted nuts, bars and gels).  For water filter I carried a 3 liter platy big zip and had a sawyer mini inline.   I had to purchase a second mini last minute when I realized the first one was compromised and the outlet cap hadn't been glued completely and was leaking.  Aside from that the water setup worked good.

With that  all we had to do was wait for go time.  Finally the day arrived and we got a ride up to Cantwell by my buddies wife.  This was the last pic we took before the pedaling started Myself on the left, Roger in the middle and Will whom I had  just met several days before on the right.  Compared to the others I was underpacked, Roger had decided to bring his bob so he could carry fishing gear and some other assorted odds and ends.  Will lets just say doesn't do much outdoor stuff at all but that didn't stop him from coming and bringing darn near all of his worldly possessions with him.  The 50 liter pack was indeed full he had three different forms of illumination including a lantern and black and decker D-cell light canon he also packed heavy rubber hip boots.  God knows what else was in that bag I couldn't see it through the tears of laughter later that night at camp when he started unpacking.  

The first three miles are paved on the Denali highway after which the road becomes dirt and the views become freaking amazing.


Leaving the Denali Borough and Entering the Matanuska Susitna Borough.

The Brushkana River, this actually seemed like it was a major milestone when we got to it, possibly because it was the first real land mark on out list of places along the way.  At 30 some odd miles it wasn't hardly anything and was probably the best riding of the trip.  The views were still impressive though.



So sometimes you think about doing something and then decide not to and you regret that decision later.  Brushkana was one of those times for me.  I checked and figured I had plenty of water no need to get more...so I didn't.  Genius move about a half hour later that plenty of water was gone.  Moving water wasn't around either, the views stayed great and show what the water situation was like.  

The lack of water was mainly an annoyance but had the potential for getting bad.  Will had stopped at on of the many little ponds and filled his bottle and filtered it he said it tasted bad.  While I have no doubt that the mini was capable I didn't want to get warm stagnant water until it was necessary besides Gracious House was around mile 50 or so and we could get water there...right?  WRONG!  Gracious House turned out to be a giant tease their version of a billboard advertising beer and icecreamwhich both started sounding like a heavenly dream came crashing down to earth when we got there and a hand written note explained that they were closed until the 15th.  A couple of the workers were within earshot listening to us talk about how much further the next likely water spot (stream) would be and went inside never to re-emerge with a big F U to Gracious house we were back on the road.  Later we found out that the new owner had purchased it with his family as a retirement project and had just died days prior explaining why they were closed and not wanting to talk or see if we needed anything.  About 5 miles later we found a stream that was perfect.  We wound up crossing the big su on what is probably the longest modern wooden bridge I have ever seen.  A couple miles later we got to our campspot about mile 58.next to a small lake or pond that had a population of Arctic Grayling that were looking pretty tasty.

Roger in Rubber boots, Will in his now infamous hipboots.

Me in my sandals and shorts catching dinner by the culvert.

Camp for the night.

Gratuitous dinner pic, nothing beats fresh caught grayling cooked on an open fire and chasing it with some Twister Creek IPA.  Will came through with a fullblown spice kit for seasoning the fish.

Day 2 (I didn't take any pics at with the exception of a couple.) Started off chilly with some starbucks via and a breakfast burrito.  After that started climbing right off the bat and made our way the 10 or so miles to Alpine Creek Lodge.  Roger got there first and asked about breakfast $15 all you can eat they were making more just for us the menu consisted of oatmeal and eggs with sausage and bacon.  Oatmeal? Well ok I am not big on oatmeal but I eat it.  Grabbed a small bowl of it and this stuff was the BOMB!  It was a baked oatmeal with rhubarb, seriously magical stuff By the time we left we had consumed A large baking pan worth of the oatmeal and half a pan of the eggs.  We got going on headed to the MacClaren Lodge for night 2.  The weather was no where as nice as day one and we spent the entire time seemingly racing ominous looking clouds heading towards us from the south.  The low point in the trip happened halfway between Alpine and MacClaren, my rear deraileur started acting up and my shifting wasn't crisp and it sounded like there was the start of some grinding.  Roger (resident bike mechanic) looked at it and was able to move my cassette by hand in ways it shouldn't move.  My endcaps had come loose and we were able to get it tightened up without doing any lasting damage to the hub or the cassette.

Here is a pic from about 5 miles from the MacClaren.  Clouds looked worse in real life and the wind had picked up.  I was pedaling downhill just to make headway at one point.

Here we are at the MaClaren.  One really cool place with all kinds of things going on, full blown lodge with a bar, cabins, camping spots, river trips etc.  Look them up if you head to Alaska, they are open year round.  We sat down had a beer looked out and the sky opened up and started pouring.  We ran out covered our stuff and went back in Ordered the MacClaren Glacier Burger 2 patties 2 kinds of cheese bacon and ham.  Ate, paid for a shower and got our camping spot set up.  Camping is free at any of their dedicated camping spots.  We elected to set up under the bridge as the weather was coming in waves.

Being bridge people and trolls became a running joke between ourselves and the staff at the lodge.  After showers we grabbed "dinner consisting of another Glacier burger and beer this time we asked for egg on the burger.

Things were kind of funny at the MacClaren either we were looking tore up or they really liked us, first meal was full price second dinner was a couple dollars below menu price and breakfast the next day was even cheaper than menu price.  We got wood for the firepit and they brought us extra wood because the bundle had split.  they also brought us collapsible chairs to sit in by the fire since we didn't pack any on our bikes.
Sunday morning we got up had breakfast and started climbing.  MacClaren Pass is the second highest mountain pass in the state and is no joke.  After getting to the summit sign I was feeling pretty dead and upon looking around the bend decided that whoever put the sign there was a giant tool.

After turning the bend the climb continues for another mile and a half.  After that it was downhill pretty much all the way to Fingerlake which happens to be roughly 20 miles from the Paxson stop sign. In prep for the trip I had corresponded with someone who had done the trip the year prior.  I expected one hill and a nearly 20 mile coast to the stop sign.  everyone mentions one hill between Fingerlake and Paxson  For some reason the leave out the second freaking demoralizing hill that you have to climb.  Demoralizing because due to terrain it looks like the road winds down and around the mountain but no it bottoms out and immediately starts climbing again.  I used the cell phone for all the pics from day one and two, I forgot my charger and goal zero battery pack so the point and shoot was used on day three and still haven't had the pics uploaded.  We actually started loading wills bike before we remembered to take a pic of us at the end.
Here we are at the end.  Roger giving his wife the stink eye after she dropped his phone to take the pic right after he said not to drop his phone.

Probably one of the coolest trips I have been on or done.  We are planning a trip next year and planning on more people taking part.  2018 we are already planning a Denali Park road  bikepacking trip out and back to Kantishna roughly 80+ miles one way in the Park so the camping logistics will be increased with the Park rules being more stringent.

ETA:
For the next trip I plan on getting things more streamlined and use the Terrapin seatpack harness upgrade the gascan to something bigger and possibly change shelters to something smaller/lighter.  I plan on getting a small collapsible fishing rod that way roger doesn't feel the need to bring two,  Also I am not bringing as much food next time, I dumped a lot of it at the MacClaren that was no good or just not good.  While the mini filter worked I am going back to the Sawyer squeeze and using it in line the flow is more restricted in the mini and I found it was too much effort compared to the squeeze when I wanted water.

Thanks for the AAR.  I will be leaving on a bike 360 mile trip on Sept 2.  GAP/C&O canal towpath from Pittsburgh to Washington DC plus some roads.

I will be using my Salsa Fargo II with Revelate frame bag, Harness,  Viscacha seat bag, gas tank and mountain feed bag.  Also 2 salsa anything cages.

Have already used this set-up for several winter and summer trips from 100 to 500 miles.  These bags also work on my Mukluk II and I use that for some trips.  Always nice to hear what works for someone else.



36 miles in to a 400 mile /5 day trip last summer.  about 300 miles of it on gravel.

Nice bike.  I like most of Revelate gear.  Their gas can top tube bag is kind of small but I seem to like crowded cockpits.  I like Becker Gears stuff and after meeting him he is a cool guy but I have been waiting for a dio top tube bag since early december.  I'm about to just order an alpkit.com bag

My main dislike about my bike is the small triangle my next bike will be a fat back rhino as a lateral move or a corvus as a big upgrade.  I did pick up a framed wolftrax fork for $100 so that I could have the fork mounted bottle bosses.

This being my first real bike packing trip I thought it went really well.  My first was a bike based hunting trip only 50 miles of riding total ultiple night stay.

Your frame triangle does look small.  My bikes that I use those bags on are both Salsa medium size.  Small does have a much smaller triangle.  Not sure how your bike compares to Salsa. I've see some but haven't checked them out real close.  The Mukluk has a bluto fork on it.  Long distance touring and gravel racing is what I do most so my bikes are geared toward those uses.



 

Great write up.  Interesting place.  Is It cloudy like that most of the time?

I should have said that my  trip planned  for August 2017 is a bike tour of Prince of Wales  Island, Alaska

It's a medium sized 9zero7.  They have a drop top tube for extra standover height in winter which is nice but combine that with the angle of the downtube they picked for suspension correction make for a small triangle.  It's the smallest triangle I have seen for its frame size.  I was looking at the mukluk but decided on either 9zero7  and Fat back as they are both local companies for me.

I do shorter winter races on it 50k to 100k might bump up to 100 mile this winter we will see how it looks when it gets closer.  This will be my pretty much do everything bike except road races.  I don't hit anything hard enough to consider spending the coin on a bluto.

It varies greatly day one was almost all sun day two mostly cloudy and day three was overcast and sprinkled the owner of the bike shop down the road did this ride as a much longer loop and the pictures all looked like sun when talking to him it turned out most of the ride was rain but he didn't take any pics of it.
Being between ranges like the wind might not be blowing at ground level but it is moving above.  I have seen bluebird go to overcast and storming and back to bluebird in a half hour.

Never been to POW but have been to the surrounding area.  Be prepared for wet.  I don't think I have ever seen the sun while in Southeast or had a rain free day save for winter when it snowed. Daily. Moisture management is key down there, I carry down jackets and my quilt is down they are my go everywhere gear, I would change and go synthetic for all of that.

Awesome man!!!!

Looks like a great time thanks for the post .

The bikes used and the riding surface seem to be a perfect match.
No pedal induced suspension power loss but still enough suspension to smooth out the riding surface.

Looks like a great trip.  I'll be adding that to my list!

Thanks for the write up and pics.

Pretty cool op.  Thanks for the write up.

Cool, looks like good times.

The first thing I thought when I saw the picture of the stream was that I'd never get anywhere due to stopping every time I saw a stream or pond/lake and fishing it.

Then I saw you guys doing the same thing.  Must have been a lot of fun.

Awesome pics!  

What kind of temps did you see on the trip?

The first day was in the 70'S the third day was in the 50's at night it was in the mid to high 30's.



Most of the ponds and lakes don't support fish due to winter kill.  I was actually surprised the lake we caught fish had any as it is shallow I am thinking the grayling there are "migratory" moving down into the river in the fall.

I did the GAP C&O last year.  Started out in Pitt with a Surly LHT and was loaded with tent, stove, bag, etc.  Rode 75 miles to Ohiopyle and camped.  Was exhausted.  Next day on the way to Cumberland I wanted to quit.  The scenery was so beautiful however my body was worked.  Met a kid near the divide who was riding to DC from CA and we joined together for the ride.  After a mexican dinner at Cumberland and a nice hostel we set out on the C&O.  I think we did 80+ miles that day and stayed in a hotel.  The C&O path to me was not nearly as picturesque as the GAP, though there are some nice spots along the Potomac, and the lock system is amazing.  Rode into DC in 4.5 days and rented a car to drive home.  The ride in that short a time period was best served (for me) by staying in hotels and getting the bed rest/shower as the daily mileage I planned for was quite optimistic.  Overall a great ride, and I didn't really understand the whole bike camping thing, it was my first excursion.  Have a great time and enjoy the trail!