Local Rides

I looked up a local bike club called the Arctic Bike Club who organizes all different kinds of rides (racing, touring, MTB, Road).This past Tuesday I went on a local park ride and a mountain ride last Saturday in Chugach State Park. The ride today was a 2 hour singletrack ride in a park called the Campbell Track. Lots of roots and some cruzey trails in the woods. It was a good workout.

Here’s more details about the Saturday ride…there were about 12 guys in the group. It was obvious from the group leader’s description that it was a difficult trail. When I surveyed the group I had some doubts about the riders’ skill levels, but, hey, it’s Alaska, right? The stock boy in the grocery store probably runs marathons.

I have included some pictures and a map so you get a feel for the lay of the land. We started out from a parking area (2200 ft) heading up a gradual incline in a u-shaped valley toward what was referred to as Powerline Pass and also Indian Pass (3600 ft), so I don’t really know the official name. There was a mountain-bike race following this same route so we were passed by about a half dozen riders. Our group was a little strung out on this section and the leader forgot his biking shoes. He went back home to get them while we started the ride. We regrouped (without a leader!) about mid-valley and headed for the pass. There were some in our group already straggling. I hung with a guy named Stephen who knew the trail well and was a good rider. There were some important choices to be made about how to get over the pass. About five of us made it to the top and waited for a couple of others. It was gorgeous. There were two guys who decided to go the “pay me later” route which was a sheer climb up very loose gravel. Now the leader showed up and offered no real help for the bikers-now-climbers. We waited about 40 minutes and could take it no longer… Stephen and I went down the sheer gravel and carried the one biker-now-climber's bike up to the saddle.

The leader then explains to the group that trail will now become more difficult! It was going to get steep as the powerline drops back down to sea level… so steep that your rotors will turn blue from the extreme heat. He wasn’t kidding! I washed out around a switchback and went tumbling once, but other than a big, bouldered stream crossing I made it down…blue rotors and all…without much trouble. I passed a bunch of guys in the group walking down the steep scree, but I thought someone was ahead of me. I chose to stay on the power-line all the way to the Seward highway. I popped out at a little town called Indian over looking the Turnagain Arm only to find no one down there. About 5 minutes later Stephen comes out to the highway and says the rest of the group was walking and wouldn’t be down for while. The kicker was that the group was planning to ride 14 miles back to Anchorage after all of this!

Luckily, Stephen had a car parked in Bird because his wife did a road ride from Bird to Girdwood that morning. We hopped in his car, picked up his wife, and headed back to town. Of course passed the group starting out on the highway and let them know we were not lost.