I'll be getting a ride to Portland early tomorrow. I've been hanging around Jack's horses for a week and I feel I'm as out to pasture as they are. With bike repairs, road fatigue and lingering aches and strains, ambition recedes. Only when you stop do you realize how beat you are, and that there are limits to what you can and want to do. Continuing to ride on to Portland, in high summer, across hot, dry, windy country, with long distances between towns and then bad roads and traffic along the Columbia River, just lost its appeal. 40 years ago I did this route in reverse, in September, after riding in rain south of Seattle and coming down with a cold that eventually turned into bronchitis. I got a ride the last 90 miles after a waitress took pity on me and my hacking cough and arranged a hitch with a truck driver heading to Spokane.
As for Alaska, there was a front page story in today's Spokane newspaper about a cyclist chased by a wolf in the Yukon. When he tried to out run it the wolf attacked the guy's packs, even as he sprayed it with bear repellent. The wolf was only driven away when other people stopped and threw rocks at it. The details can be found here: http://www.tinyurl.com/bike-wolf
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