Day Negative 19

Welcome to my 2008 Great Alaskan Adventure blog ! My plan is... well, I don't actually have many plans for this year's trip to the North. I have bought a plane ticket, purchased a BOB Trailer for my bike, and just this morning I packaged up my trailer, bike, and some camping gear in cardboard boxes. My plan is to just go where my nose takes me. Perhaps to Denali again, perhaps north to Fairbanks (and beyond?), perhaps east to McCarthy, or perhaps south again to the Kenai Peninsula.

Although many complain of the oftentimes poor customer service and grumpiness of postal employees, it is much cheaper to send packages via the United States Postal Service rather than pay the airlines to carry large items like bicycles and bike trailers. There is one catch, however. To qualify for a 'cheap' package price, the sum of the length of a package plus its girth must be less than or equal to 108 inches. Otherwise, packages cost roughly $120 to send instead of around $30-35. I snagged a cardboard bike box from a local bike shop a few days ago and its dimensions measure 54 x 27 x 8 inches. This means the length plus girth would be 124 unless the box were modified. I would have to lop off 16 inches from the length, which is about a third of the box!!

I ran into my neighbor (manager of University Bikes here in Boulder) this morning and I asked him if he thought I could fit my bike into a box that was only 38 inches instead of 54 and he was a little skeptical. Nevertheless, I attacked the box carefully with my box cutter and within minutes I had a 38 x 27 x 8 inch box. I disassembled my bike. Umph, it was close but the frame barely fit and then with the wheels and front fork and handlebars inserted it fit, although a bit bulging in the middle (I'll sweet talk the ladies at the post office on Moorhead - one of the nicest bunch of postal workers I've met! - into letting this box slide...). At the post office the lady measured the box in my car (she doubted that it would pass so told me to leave it in the car) but it was exactly 108 inches! Nice work. The other package (my trailer) passed easily.

Well, while my bike and trailer setup are traveling to Alaska I will be doing some traveling of my own down in Central and Southern Colorado. The blog will resume at or near June 23rd!