At the start of their 16,000-mile cycling trek for charity, Ben Cunninghamand his teammates faced unexpected setbacks but, luckily, were eaten only by mosquitoes, not grizzly bears
ON JUNE 9TH the four members of our team flew from Dublin to Boston, where we picked up our support vehicle, including a trailer for our gear, and linked up with our support vehicle driver, Niall.
On June 12th, we set out on the 8,050km drive from Boston to Alaska. This was a gruelling journey in itself and gave us an indication of the vastness of North America. From the smog and industrial high-rise of Gary in Indiana to the wide open plains of the Saskatchewan province in Canada, the diversity of terrain we would later encounter on bicycle was laid open before us.
We eventually arrived in Alaska on time to begin the cycle. In Fairbanks, the second-largest city in Alaska, we collected the first two participants in "Leg With the Lads", Cillian and John. The road north of Fairbanks, the Dalton Highway leads to a town deep within the Arctic tundra, Deadhorse. This was the starting point for our cycle. The road itself was built to act as a supply line to the oilfields that exist off the coast in Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic Ocean, and are not paved. Depending on the weather the roads are either extremely dusty or very muddy, neither good for cycling.
After assembling all our gear and fine-tuning our hybrid touring bicycles we were ready to start the first of 25,750km on June 20th. However, it was during that evening that we encountered some problems that greatly changed the beginning of the cycle. Niall received some bad news and had to return to Boston. This became our priority and so he turned the vehicle around and went back to Fairbanks to get the earliest flight.We were now faced with taking on the first 800km of the journey unassisted.
Adamant that we should start the cycle on time, we stripped our equipment down to the bare minimum. We eventually started the cycle on July 21st, the day of the summer solstice: the longest day of the year for the beginning of a journey down the longest road in the world.
The cycle down the Dalton Highway was one of the most difficult experiences of our lives. The landscape is extremely harsh and rugged, with few animals even coming this far north.
On a diet of tinned tuna and bread, constantly being ravaged by mosquitoes, and with the threat of grizzly bears around every corner, we took on some of the toughest road cycling in the world. They were the worst roads that any of us have ever cycled on. With a constant flow of trucks coming to and from the oilfields it also makes for dangerous cycling.
The terrain of the Dalton Highway is extremely mountainous. Taking on ascents such as the Atigun Pass and Beaver Slide meant the cycling was exhausting in the extreme. With the disorientation of 24-hour sunlight we also had difficulty sleeping.
Despite our setbacks we have completed the Dalton Highway on time and have added another 800km onto our trip after Fairbanks on far flatter, less demanding roads, bringing us back into Canada. Fundraising is going well, and, thanks to d4hotels.ie, we have already managed to send €20,000 to Kenya.
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