Dallas Texas to Hyder Alaska
May 21st - 30th, 2002
Epilog: We completed the 49 states in 9 days, 4.5 hours and the lower 48 in 8 days, 20 hours. We then took the next day to get to Hyder. I have a ride report and pictures if you are interested. Just click on the underlined to see whichever...
The ride home from Hyder took us almost 3 days, getting home on June 4th at 8pm, two weeks, two hours and 12,255 miles after we left the starting point of the 48+ ride.
The map below is the actual route and stops. The route is unchanged from the original but the stops ended up being slightly different (by about 4 hours riding time from Buffalo onward.
If you would like to see an account of how the ride went, you can go here. I was calling home periodically and giving my wife, Sandy, an update which she proceeded to put in an email and post to the unofficial 48+ ride site.
Norm
Overview
The Iron Butt Association has set up a couple of new rides in recognition of Ron Ayres' world record ride covering all of the lower 48 states and then going to Hyder Alaska in just over 7 days. The new IBA events are not to designed to match or exceed Ron's time but to ride through all of the states in ten days or less. Each year, on the first weekend in June, long distance riders gather in Hyder on the anniversary of Ron's 1998 ride. It is called Hyder Seek. This year, several people (currently ~18) are going to attempt the 48Plus ride, timing it to arrive in Hyder for the Saturday dinner. Two of the riders committed to this endeavour are Bill Thweatt (my long distance riding partner) and me. I have not made it to Hyder Seek so, for me, this will be a double whammy, completion of the 48+ ride and participation in the Hyder Seek celebration. My mouth can already taste those fish and chips......
This ride is a tad over 8900 miles and we expect to complete it in nine days or. The route above is our current which has us on freeways 90+% of the time. Why freeways you ask? Why not take to the back roads and see America? Well, when you are trying to ride 8900 miles in nine days, you want the most expeditious route possible. Someday I will ride Route 66 from Chicago to San Diego (or at least the parts of it that are still rideable) but the objective here is to visit 49 states in the allotted time.
Bill Thweatt and I have put much planning into this ride but there is much yet to do. At this time we are planning on leaving Dallas May 21st at 6pm. We have now got the ride down to a day by day plan. Our objective is to ride 18 hours/day which will get us right around 1000 miles.
The following links will take you to each day's ride if you care to follow along.
| May 30th |
Another rider, Kenn Clark, has set up a web page with more details involving as many of the 48+ riders as wish to participate in the web page. He has also arranged an 800 number for the riders to call in to and report their progress which will be updated on a map located on the site. This should be very interesting. When Ron rode his 49 state ride MANY long distance riders followed his progress as he called it in to his wife Barbara and she would post to the LD rider list. Although the site is in its infancy, you can visit it at:
http://www.biographicdesign.com/48plus/
Planning is shaping up really well. So is my achilles tendon and my bike. One problem remains - getting my communication system fully operational so I can call the updates home.
Norm and Bill.......
Postscript - Ron Ayres has put together a collage of HyderSeek 49'ers finishers in a frame that he is sending off to Hyder for mounting on the Sealaska Inn wall. Here is a photo of the collage.....
