Monday, July 30, 2007

Bicycling Alaska

It’s been 4 weeks since I returned from our Alaska and the Yukon Tour and I already long to go back. I have never seen such unspoiled land and clean water, or experienced such solitude and beauty.

This tour has everything – good cycling on traffic-free, beautifully paved roads, 24-hour daylight, geological wonders like fjords and glaciers, Gold Rush history, and wildlife I’ve only ever seen in zoos – bears, moose, Dall sheep, beavers and eagles.

It’s truly wilderness as I’ve never experienced before. I didn’t let the camping scare me off. I admit that it’s weird to not have running water or a flush toilet -- or any toilet for that matter. But it’s so cool to hear no sounds of anyone else. No traffic, no radios, no voices other than our own. Just the sound of the wind through the trees and our crackling bonfire. Putting off showering for a night wasn’t so bad when I knew I’d get one the next night.

There’s a reason all the license plates read, “Alaska – the last frontier.” It really felt like it was. Everyone should go someplace that is so unspoiled. It’s made me think a lot more about saving the beauty that still exists here back home.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

WomanTours Featured in WSJ

WomanTours cross country cyclist, Holly Edwards, was featured in Saturday's issue (July 14, 2007) of the Wall Street Journal. In the retirement section of the daily paper, the article "Round and Round" discusses how the best way to see the world is often from atop a bicycle seat.

Holly has biked twice across the country with us -- in 1998 on our Southern Tier tour and this year on our Meandering Mississippi. Watch her short video with the Wall Street Journal here.