Today we will leave Whitehorse heading towards the airstrip at Kluane Lake and then trying to fly in to our base camp. Yesterday we spent time shopping, food and gear checking and distribution, as well as socializing with the expedition team members (2 guides + 3 clients). Now we are ready to go.
I have updated the Logan page with some details, photos, thoughts about our expedition and other Logan related links. This is also the page where I will detail the expedition.
A detailed weather forecast for the Kluane Lake area can be obtained here. The current forecast is medium for tomorrow, but then 5 days of pretty good weather, so chances are good that we will at least get to fly in without major weather delays at the airstrip.
Chances are that I will be offline for up to 3 weeks – the only updates will come from my SPOT tracker. You should hear some news the latest by Jun-1. The Canada West Mountain School should have the most details about our trip, as we will be in satellite phone communication with them throughout the expedition.
In 2 hours I will be leaving for the airport and the adventure will finally begin! I will be flying to Whitehorse, Canada, and joining the Mt. Logan expedition from May-9 to Jun-1.
There was a lot of gear to pack into the bike box, backpack and duffel bag.
t-3 days: Later this week (May-7) I will hop on an airplane to Whitehorse, Canada and the adventure will finally begin!
I spent the last couple of days with final preparations, ordering the brochures and business cards (for some increased publicity to increase charitable donations), and final health insurance adjustments.
By now my road-rash from the crash 2 weeks ago during a training ride near Lake Okeechobee has healed nicely, and otherwise I can say I’m departing in excellent physical condition due to frequent training rides and gym visits over the last several weeks.
Tomorrow I will start packing and sending out the brochures. The first two months I will probably be out of touch for several weeks while up on the mountains, but thereafter you should see regular updates to my Blog. You can also follow my location via my SPOT tracker page (see Link section) or follow me on Twitter (tlausser). I will also use loopt on my iPhone to provide location updates in addition to the SPOT. I will hike and ride far away, but I won’t hide…
Any feedback and/or donations are always appreciated.
I wanted to do one more serious training ride on the Seiran recumbent bike. There was always this idea of riding coast to coast in South Florida, and this Tuesday and Wednesday (Apr 28-29) would be good weather, albeit with a strong Easterly wind. The first day would be a lot of fun – I love long tailwind rides – but how about coming back into the wind the next day?
Google Map of route across Florida
As expected, day 1 was great, with average speed over 30 km/h and a total of almost 9 hrs on the bike. Crossing the bridge to Sanibel Island in the late afternoon was a real highlight.
Toll Bridge across to Sanibel Island
I stayed at a hotel in Ft. Myers, where I shared my room with my recumbent 🙂 Next morning at sunrise I was on the road again starting to battle the wind. First I took a wrong turn – Hwy 82 East instead of Hwy 80 East – so I had to cut North through Lehigh Acres to get back to the correct route. All along, my wife and friends were following my progress on my SPOT tracking page…
Day 2 was harder; one central section between Labelle and Clewiston was a bit dangerous as there is no shoulder and there was increased traffic due to a temporary closure of I75 (Alligator Alley) because of smoke caused by some brush fires. Once I chose to run off the road into the grass because the trucks from behind – good thing I have my rear-view helmet mirror – wouldn’t slow down and there were other trucks coming the opposite way – not the place you want to be with the bike…
Coming back on the levee at lake Okeechobee
The last 40km I rode the Palm Tran bus as I did many times before. Still, I had ridden 175 km into the wind for 8 hrs! After a total of 425 km and 17 hrs on the bike in 2 days I now feel ready for the long stretches of the Alaska Highway!
With my new Flip Mino HD mini digital video recorder I captured some HD footage and did some editing on the iMac at home. Here is a 4 min HD video of Day 1 of the trip:
