Jon has now started his epic ride!  Check out his “Where Am I?” page to chart his progress.

…in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska! Arctic Ocean visited! If weather ok, plan to start riding tomorrow…it’s snowing!

Hi everyone, this is Jason. I’m helping Jon to keep his site up-to-date. One thing that would help keep the site looking good is if the comments you post have your avatars next to it.

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums.

This is a free service, just sign up at http://en.gravatar.com/

In other news, the Route page has been updated and now shows that Jon is no longer in Essex!

“Leaving, on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll…” well ok, by 12th June. Fly with bike on 27th May to cycle from ‘Prudhoe Bay’, south!

Fairbanks is still HOT!

Courtesy of www.SladeRide.com…

Well, phew, I’m here, Alaska.  Fairbanks.  Check out ‘Where am I‘ option at Sladeride.com to see my latest location (uses a GPS tracker thingy seeing as I’m a bit of a wayward child and need to be monitored!).  I fly to Prudhoe Bay (‘the top’) with the bike on the 27th…

Leaving the UK was of course hard and … Read more »

Jon Slade

Hi there, my name is Jon (Slade).  Despite being old enough to, I’m sure, ‘know better’ I’m heading to Alaska with my bicycle ‘Charles’ to attempt to ride solo and self-supported from the northern Arctic coast at Prudhoe Bay, south and then, well, ’see how it goes’…

Why?  As big a cliché as I’m sure it sounds, I really do think that if it is indeed true that we only get one chance at ‘loiyf’ then we need to do things when we can and I can certainly feel the subtle grasp of  a ’settled existence’ (whatever that means) edging closer.

Having always been a bit loopy about biking, mountains and the outdoors in general and through reading the likes of Newby, Bonington and others, the desire to embark on an adventure such as this has been sown as a seed for many years.  Whilst I’m being very cautious about the expectations I set myself the blighter ( idea / dream / nightmare / delusion / fantasy / temptress ) just hasn’t gone away!

So, I have an opportunity, it feels like its in my blood and, Charles made me do it.

Have I done this before?  All the bits (‘activities’) on their own or in some combination?  Pretty much yes.  All of it together?  No.  But, as my great friend (The Sage) Lee says ‘from discomfort comes growth’.  Thank you Yoda.