Jackson Two neighbors ready to bike across Alaska

By Brad Flory Jackson Citizen Patriot JACKSON, Mich. (AP) -- If you need proof people near age 60 can maintain a strong appetite for adventure, meet Tom Clark and Joe Muscato of Waterloo Township. The two neighbors are fully aware some people may consider their plans for a July bicycling tour to be slightly -- what's the right word? -- crazy. They intend to pedal nearly 2,400 miles south from the north coast of Alaska, starting far above the Arctic Circle and crossing some of the most rugged and remote country anywhere. On their bikes, they will carry all supplies for eating and making camp, but no firearms. "Polar bears won't be a problem once we get a few miles from the coast," said Muscato, a 59-year-old grandfather. "Maybe grizzlies." "What I am most afraid of is mosquitos and trucks," said Clark, 61, a retired information technologies manager for Consumers Energy. Muscato, a personal trainer and retired tool-and-die maker for Ford Motor Co., lives less than a mile from Clark. They met three years ago through a shared interest in bicycle touring. Clark has pedaled across Iowa but his touring credentials, he concedes, are small compared to Muscato's. Twice Muscato crossed the continental United States on a bike, and he has also traveled the length of both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. "When Joe started talking about riding across the United States, I started to drool," Clark said. "It sounded like a great adventure." A great adventure, indeed. But having done it twice, Muscato wanted a new challenge. He hit upon a route starting at the North Slope of Alaska. Clark, who has visited Alaska five times on vacation and hunting trips, jumped at the idea. A third rider, 64-year-old Peter Cornell, a retiree from Ann Arbor who lives in Florida, will join them on the bike trip. "We're not quite at geezer status yet," Clark joked. Flying into Deadhorse, Alaska, an oil town near the Beaufort Sea, the three will assemble steel-framed touring bikes and head south July 1 on a pipeline road called the Dalton Highway. No one will trail them in a car to make sure they are safe. Even hard-core bikers are not likely to consider such a trip, Muscato said. "Some of the (oil company) truckers will probably wonder, 'What are these crazy people doing up here?'" Muscato said. Each man expects to carry 50 or 60 pounds, including tents, sleeping bags and dehydrated food. The first leg of the route, about 500 miles to Fairbanks, will be almost entirely on gravel roadway through very secluded territory. Crossing mountains of the Brooks Range, the three bikers must climb 4,700 feet from sea level. They don't know where they will make camps, but they assume suitable spots can be found. On the plus side, they will have plenty of daylight at the start, because the sun never sets so far north in early July. But even in July, the daily low temperature in Deadhorse is cold. "It will be 35 degrees up there," Muscato said. "But we've been riding in worse than that around here." To ward off grizzly bears, they have pepper spray if needed. "I'm not really afraid of the bears," said Clark. "The Alaskans say the biggest thing is to make noise. Don't startle them." To make sure his group is loud enough to be heard by bears from a distance, Clark said he will leave his hearing aid home so the others must shout at him. That was a joke, I think. Deadhorse to Fairbanks is the most rugged and physically demanding leg of the route, so the men plan to cover what they consider to be a modest distance, 55 miles a day. After a brief rest in Fairbanks, they plan to continue on better roads another 1,877 miles at 80 miles per day. They hope to stay in motels by that point. From Fairbanks, they plan to cross into Canada and pedal through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia before reaching the final stop, Edmonton, Alberta. Their flight home from Edmonton is scheduled Aug. 6. No matter how isolated they may be, Cornell has a GPS device that can send an email "all-is-well" message each night. If necessary, they can send out an emergency call for help. It may sound a little crazy, but the men are very sensibly training and preparing as meticulously as possible. "If I could jump on the plane right now with my stuff and go, I would," Muscato said. "That's the way I feel about it." When the trip is over, it might not be over. "If we finish this and we are still talking to each other and our wives have not put all our stuff out by the road, this is just the first phase," said Clark. "The second phase, next year, will be to go back (to Edmonton) and ride to Key West, Florida." That's 3,200 more miles, finishing a diagonal crossing of the North American continent. Adventure is powerful stuff, even for guys with grandchildren and hearing aids. Published: Wed, Jun 15, 2011