Bike Alaska!(Alaskan Bicycle Adventures company information) (Brief Article)

• Author: MORGAN, BARBARA

John Conrad, a special education teacher with the Anchorage School District, and Rochelle Smith, a mechanical engineer for Coffman Engineers, enjoy a bicycle trip near Kincaid Park in Anchorage.

Walt Rowland, owner of Alaskan Bicycle Adventures, spends his summer out of doors most of the time. In fact, when he is not organizing his bike tours and taking care of company business, he is bicycling the Alaska Highway or the California coast. Each winter he takes at least one long trip. This last year he bicycled the Mississippi (1,550 miles) from Minneapolis to New Orleans. This trip took 25 days at the rate of 65 miles per day.

With revenue of almost $1 million a year, ABA has six vans and 100 Touring Cannondale bicycles that are provided and maintained for the clientele. Customers have a choice of many different tour combinations. The Alaskan Adventure Tour (seven days and seven nights) combines half days of bicycling with canoeing, hiking, sea kayaking, a spectacular drive across the Denali Highway, and an awesome glacier cruise across Prince William Sound. This trip averages 30 miles of biking per day.

Bicycle Alaska (eight days, eight nights), with an excursion into Denali National Park, averages 65 miles of riding per day to include 360 miles down the spectacular Richardson Highway.

Hike and Bike Alaska (eight days, eight nights), the most leisurely tour, averages 15 miles per day. This tour includes canoeing, sea kayaking, hiking and a beautiful cruise across Prince William Sound.

The Kiondike Gold Rush Adventure (eight days, eight nights) bicycles the Yukon with a day hike on the Chilkoot Trail, a canoe ride on Braeburn Lake, a railroad ride to the top of White Pass, and a tour of the town of Skagway with Dawson City as the ending destination. This tour retraces the route of the Gold Rush of 1898.

The Alcan Highway Expedition (12 days, 12 nights) tours from Juneau through Canada, ending in Anchorage-averaging 65 miles per day. Sights to note along the way include St. Elias National Park and Worthington Glacier, as well as a cruise through the beautiful Prince William Sound.

The Arctic Ocean "Ride of Pain" (11 days, 11 nights) starts in Fairbanks and runs along the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. This trip crosses the Yukon River Bridge, passes by the Brooks Range and Atigun Pass, runs along the Arctic Tundra and ends in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay. This tour, which rates as the toughest of all the rides, is not for...