[japhyr]

When was he in Fairbanks?

I bicycled around North America for a year in 1998-1999, and finished in Alaska. It was wild to live on a bike for a full year, and then meet people who had been living that way (on bikes and on foot) for years at a time. There were a lot of people just starting out on aspirational long trips, but there were also a handful of people who had already gone a long long way. Fairbanks was an interesting meeting point for many of those travelers.

[K0balt]

Honestly, I don’t really remember. More than a decade ago, but I think maybe I was already working on my sailing adventures by then and working the summer in Fairbanks? Or maybe that was before, I’m not really sure. Too many relationships, kids, and big life changes between here and there to have a sense of the thing. I’m sure you can look it up? IIRC he was in Fairbanks for quite a while. Was a bit of a fixture at the coffee house.

[hatradiowigwam]

I spent alot of time in Fairbanks throughout 2006 and 2008, doing aerial surveys from plane. Fairbanks was a good airport to get stuck at, and you do meet some interesting non-traditional travelers. I've never met the guy in the article, but I've met a few bike/hike travelers there who were either moving horizontally or vertically across Alaska (no small feat at all), and I always thought it sounded like an adventure.

[JKCalhoun]

Interesting. I hitchhiked through Fairbanks four decades ago… Kind of the gateway to the Arctic Circle for a lot of travelers I suppose.

Perhaps this guy was waiting out the weather—for it to turn favorable to continuing his travels.

[K0balt]

Iirc he was there for more than a year, flew home for a while, came back? Not sure. I do remember him being there during a summer and also during winter. I think one year the ice was impassible and he was waiting. But I don’t really remember, such things might have been mere conversation crystallized into memories. He seemed a kind and pleasant man , though, of that I am sure.

[tomrod]

I would be interested in learning about the logistical details. Calorie requirements? Sleeping? Costs? etc.

A blog or a book format would make for killer reading!

[japhyr]

I read a book called A Walk Across America in college, by Peter Jenkins. I liked the idea of traveling under my own power, but I didn't want to spend years walking. I kept when I got my driver's license, and I was bike commuting in NYC at the time, so biking was a natural fit.

I was teaching at the time, so the first summer without any obligations I rode across the northern US. Then I rode across the southern US the next summer. I loved it, and wanted to live outside for all the seasons. So the next year I quit my job and circled the continent: Seattle to Maine, down to Florida, across to California, then up to Alaska. I moved to Alaska a few years after the trip ended and spent 20 years there. We moved to North Carolina last year, because dark southeast Alaskan winters were getting old, and all our family is on the east coast.

I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to do that trip in the era of paper maps, and truly being out of touch for so much of that time. It pushes you to meet so many new people in all the places you visit, instead of staying in constant contact with people you already know. It was also nice to not see satellite imagery of the road ahead. Every day was a surprise. :)

I did write a book, The Road to Alaska: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Alaska-Eric-Matthes-ebook/dp/B07...

One of my claims to fame is writing one of the best-selling Python books of all time (Python Crash Course), and one of the lowest-selling travel books of all time. :)

[macintux]

A Walk Across America was amazing reading when I was college aged. I've never forgotten the story about the accident when he and his (then-girlfriend?) were walking along a quiet highway, I think in Nevada, and they decided to walk on the wrong side of the road, against his usual rules, because it had a shoulder.

And, she landed in the hospital after a car hit them.

[japhyr]

I think they got married in New Orleans, before they started the rest of the walk together.

Peter and Barbara didn't do so well after that trip. One of their kids took a road trip with his mom recently, retracing their route from New Orleans to Oregon. He wrote a book about their road trip, and it was a pretty interesting read: https://www.jedidiahjenkins.com

[LorenPechtel]

American Discovery Trail. Coast to coast, Delaware to California, 6,800 miles. There's actually one glitch in the trail, water that can't be crossed with the resources at hand. Other than that, it's actually a lot more forgiving than the three big north-south trails as you're mostly near civilization.

[jraby3]

I rode a bicycle from Canada to Mexico (in about a month) with a close friend. We bought a book called Bicycling the Pacific Coast (before smart phones).

I had a cheap $150 univega bike and my friend had a $3000 cannondale. His broke mine didn't :)

We were amateurs. We hitchhiked to a bike shop near San Francisco to fix it. Had some saddle bags with our tent and sleeping bag, clothes and water.

It's very doable. Hardest part is just showing up.

[LorenPechtel]

America, definitely doable. He's got that cart and he's going through civilization as much as possible, so long as you do time it reasonably there shouldn't be any major problems. Darian Gap, though, wow! Likewise, the Bering Straight.