Still pumping those pedals

A lot has been going on and not much time to write...that will all change as I'm now on call for the graveyard shift.



I've been biking a bit up in the hills now that they've "dried out." Sept is really bad for rain here.



If you get onto the trail in the early part of the day, the mud has frozen and it's pretty good riding. Getting towards dusk after the sun has cooked the mud all day it can get pretty messy.



That was how it was for me riding between 4 and 5:30 tonight. At one point you couldn't see any links on my chain, it was just one big mud grabber. That was some serious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup mud.

The mud that is actually fun is the shapeshifter: looks wet but is hard and vice versa.

The biggest thing I don't like about riding right now is cleaning the bike afterwards EVERY STINKING TIME!!

But I gotta get in my rides to make up for lost summer...even at 30F.

Back in MN

I'm typing this from my home in Minneapolis. I must admit, I missed the relative warmth here compared with Anchorage. I left Anchorage on Tuesday the 26th and with training in Seattle last week, I haven't been back yet.

I had my bike back long enough to get in two rides before I left and now I'm salivating at the thought of some longer rides this month.

Thanks to my good, no GREAT friend Rigtenzig I was loaned a bike to use while I've been home. It's his wife's hardtail which I have all dialed in now, just in time to give it back.

Yesterday I rode on the river bottoms trail (four whitetail deer, lots of squirrels including one albino, and a garder snake that tried to kill itself by going towards my front tire but managed to escape un-tread upon..I list these only because they are not seen in Alaska, except for the rare squirrel). Today I will take it on Lebanon Hills trail. Last week I got to ride with Rigtenzig on the Murphy single track and that was really fun. I tree-ed a coon on that ride. Then there was one in my neighbors basement egress "pit" last night. They are everywhere down here, not so in Alaska.

With all the different bikes that I wind up riding, I'm not sure I know what my "feel" is anymore. I'm getting good at making whatever I'm riding work. Even my gear is pretty whacked: almost all of it is in Anchorage right now. It's almost fun riding in my old pair of Sketchers, but I miss my clipless pedals.

Eklutna Lake

Right before the Mrs. left Alaska we went camping as our last adventure before the school year started. It was car camping which was really nice since we could bring a lot more crap than we could if we went in a canoe or kayak.

Eklutna Lake feeds all the drinking water for Anchorage. It also is set between some really gorgeous mountains and is a state park.

When we got there it was raining. I set up a nice shelter to sit under using a tarp (lean-to??) and then it stopped raining and didn't rain the next three days we were there! That's pretty good for Alaska.

We hiked a bit of the Bold Ridge trail after biking to it. Then we went for the full-monty and biked all the way to the Eklutna Glacier (26 miles round trip) the next day:

My commuter (the MTB was not back in service at the time) has a knobby front tire and a smooth road tire on the rear (so as to power the tread turning knob for the lights). There were LOTS of rocks on that trail and, well, that old rear tire gave out right after the Bold airstrip. I changed the pinch flat (tube was under inflated and I was stupid enough not to check before the ride).

A few miles later, another pinch flat. I couldn't get enough pressure into the tube with the cheap hand pump we had so I wound up using all of my tube patches to nurse it back to camp. We were within a mile of the glacier when we turned back because we were running out of time and didn't want to be stuck out there over night.

Of course the way back was MUCH faster and it turned out we DID have time to see the glacier, but better safe than dead. On the way back we ran into a big group of bikers who had a floor pump and I was able to get the correct PSI into the tire. It hasn't gone flat since, although it does have my signature minimum two patches on it.

The next (last) day we rented a tandem sea kayak for a couple hours, had lunch and then hiked up the Twin Peaks trail. Here is the Mrs. levitating at our lunch spot:

The picture doesn't do it justice because from that angle it really looked like we were floating over the valley.

When we got to the top (2.5 miles and 2000 feet) it was all alpine tundra. It was really gorgeous, one of the best views either of us has ever seen.

We saw a bunch of dall sheep on the way up and then as we started back down we saw this:

A big black bear which was about 20-50 yards from the only trail back to camp! It was nice to see from a distance as it was the biggest bear either of us had seen outside a zoo. We made a lot of noise hiking back to camp.

We also saw a bear in camp on our second day, but it was being chased out by a ranger and wasn't in any hurry to get into a tussle with anything but a picnic basket.

Mrs. goes/ Steed comes

The Mrs. left today to return to MSP to start school. It started as a sad day, but then:

I got my steed back! I brought my MTB to the LBS on 6/ 19 to solve a chain suck and shifting problem only to find out the frame was cracked.

2 months later, Gary Fisher has finally replaced my bike which was under warranty. It looks pretty good no?

The bike is leaning in some raspberry bushes. They tasted really good!

I had to upgrade to disc brakes (BB7) and new front (XT) and rear (LX) derailleurs to make this frame work with all of my old parts. The new rear shock is really cool!

I was able to get GF to pay for about 1/2 the labor (initially it was all on me!) and a new good friend nicknamed Slowpoke on AKspokes.com gave me the wheels (so as to fit the disc rotors) so I was only out $200 to basically upgrade my bike by A LOT!

I did loose a lot of time on the bike. It wore on me a lot this summer not being able to ride the dirt. I think if there is a next time I'll buy a used bike and sell it when I get my steed back.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to get in a big ride but I'm chomping at the bit right now. I just went for about 40' tonight to make sure all was well. It is.

More from the commute

This is one more video from the Mrs. commute. I really like this spot because it has a street lamp in the shape of a fishing lure and a blue target sign embedded onto the pavement. Me thinks the new Target in town may "donate" in order to make it a red lure and sign to get a bit more advertising:

Today I had to go grocery shopping. Lot's of people comment on how big my basket is. Why would I want a smaller one when I can do this (I know: another alcohol reference, but this is really about the basket, not the two 12-packs that were on sale! And yes, that is a sack of groceries next to them):

Sometimes I get to pass other bikers while riding my Dahon fold-up/ compact/ travel bike (with 20" BMX tires) and it just feels good.

Today I was heading up a pretty good hill and a guy on a MTB was in front of me. I sucked up to his rear tire and after a while he smiled and said "Nice!" when he saw my little bike. I chose that point to pass him:

Mrs. on commute

After doing my hill workout I decided to meet the Mrs. and ride home with her on her usual commute. Here is a sample of the grinding monotony she gets to ride to and from work every day:

Here is a shot I took trying to give some perspective to how steep the hills are when I've reached the 2/3 mark of up (I start about 100' above sea level):

We found a grazing moose for the Mrs. to pose in front of. Not sure what it's barfing up, we didn't stick around to find out:

4th of July

Yep, I'm finally getting caught up. We went to Seward for the 4th and watched the fireworks at midnight of the 3rd (it was sort of dusky, the clouds helped) and sang patriotic songs as they exploded in the air between the mountains.

We camped in my roommates parent's yard and we went down in the morning to watch our friend Aubrey take 4th in the race...no, THE RACE!

The mount marathon race is a race up, then down a mountain. It's so steep that every year tourists have to be rescued off of it: http://www.adn.com/front/story/477169.html

The following are pix from the men's race (we couldn't get ourselves up early enough for the women's except to be at the finish line).

Here they are going up the part that you can see from the bottom:


Here is a few guys flying down the cliff face on the way back down (click on the pix to make it bigger):


And here is the winner running down the shale:

There is snow at the top so they kind of skid/ slide down on their butts until they get back to dirt and rock.

We also got to meet the Mrs. distant cousin who was coming though on a cruise. He is the district attorney for a huge area in northern Minnesota encompassing Duluth. He wrote a very nice letter of recommendation to help get her into law school for which we are very grateful.

The drive down and back were gorgeous between the mountains and next to the sea.