June 4, 2025

Gerstle River Bridge to Harding Lake State Park

If you see lug nuts along the shoulder of a road, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Me too.

With the progress I made yesterday, I wondered “Can I do it again today?” I didn’t know if I could, but because my planned overnight campground in Delta Junction was only 37 miles away, it seemed too short of a ride. I would likely ride farther than that.

Not long after leaving my overnight wayside, I spotted another southbound cyclist. Jan was from Germany and started his trip in Fairbanks. He planned to ride to Mexico. One thing I am noticing about many of these southbound international bicyclists is their bike set-ups. Most seem to have one thing in common: they are part of the bikepacking trend. Their set-ups reflect hours of watching every You Tube video on bikepacking, then incorporating all the bags and racks that shout, “I’m a bikepacker!” Those influencers must be raking in the dough.

When I first arrived in Alaska (1979), it was an ambitious time for Alaska. The coffers were full of oil revenue money and many new agricultural projects were “shovel ready.” One example was the Delta Junction Agricultural Project with the regional goal of becoming a large-scale barley producer. In fact, the Alaska Railroad planned to extend their tracks to Delta Junction from just outside of Fairbanks. They contracted grain rail cars to be built and constructed grain silos in Delta Junction and, for export, in Valdez. Unfortunately, many of these investments didn’t pan out.

The planned ag development was located on the north side of the AlCan, just east of Delta Junction. On the south side of the AlCan is the Delta Junction Bison Range, “… a 90,000 acre parcel established to provide winter range and forage for the Delta bison herd.” Needless to say, once the grain was growing, the bison found the barley fields attractive and became a nuisance. Additionally, the project never reached the production levels necessary to justify all the infrastructure investments. Despite the challenges, enough farmers continued to steer the course to become successful. Today, the area has diversified somewhat. There are cattle herds, dairy herds, and barley and oats are grown.

On the other side of AlCan, however, the State is practicing several mitigation measures to keep the bison away from the agricultural fields and to keep them healthy. So far, the State has had success with their goals of maintaining a healthy herd and keeping the animals away from the farms. It could all change if the Alaska legislature decided to discontinue funding the mitigation efforts required to make this work for farmers, hunters, and the bison herd.

I made it to Delta Junction in time to decide I wasn’t going to stop here for the night. It was only lunch time. A small farmers market was open and across the street was the Buffalo Center Drive-In. Seeing as though I was out of fresh bakery items and craving a burger, I decided to spend a few minutes contributing to the local economy as well as my own caloric needs … which by now were enormous. I noticed the local newspaper in a stack at the drive-in, The Delta Wind. Of course! I would have named it the Delta Zephyr, but who am I? Also, Delta Junction is one of the “ends” of the AlCan, so there was the obligatory photo that had to happen at the monument. After all those boxes were checked, I headed back to the road, now the Richardson Highway, with some sense of where I could be by the end of the ride, but uncertain if it was possible.

I encountered a couple of highway construction projects. The first one consisted of spraying oil on sections of the road, so cars and trucks had to wait for the pilot car. They must have deemed me expendable because I didn’t have to wait for a pilot car. I did get to bike while vehicles had to wait for the pilot car, though. Not much further up the road at the second project, I had to wait for the pilot car and received a five-mile ride for my patience. It all worked out.

At this point, I could tell I was going to surpass yesterday’s distance and felt even stronger, if that’s possible. Must have been the buffalo burger. I was on the bike until 7:30 last night and today, I wasn’t worried about distance. I passed Birch Lake State Park, but not before stopping to chat with a couple of fishermen from Fairbanks just off of the highway. They were having fun casting flies and catching Rainbow trout which they promptly released. It was still breezy and the air was cold, so I didn’t stick around for too long. I asked how far it was to Harding Lake State Park, one of them said about 15 miles. Plenty of light. Plenty of energy. There was no reason to quit now.

After about an hour, I turned off the highway and into Lake Harding State Park. This was supposed to be my stop for tomorrow night. After accounting for the five-mile pilot car ride I logged 82 miles. It was a good feeling.

Mitigation involving forest removal and planting Brome Grass for the bison.

Original equipment from the early days of the Delta Ag Project

A sign said it was a private bison range, but the fence didn’t look strong enough.

Enough grain is harvested for farmers to earn a living, all of it sold in Alaska.

Who would expect cattle at this latitude?

Alaska pipeline, now running at 25% capacity.

Today's ride: 82 miles (132 km)
Total: 1,739 miles (2,799 km)

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