Monday, February 17, 2014

President's Day Bike Ride

First blogpost in a few months. My novel infatuation with Instagram and the dregs of winter marked by darkness and lack of snow have, untill now, stifled my desire to  write here. Having enjoyed several hours of sun soaked bike riding, I felt compelled to revive the blog. 

The darkness of winter is gradually waning leaving more hours to enjoy the snowy single track around my neighborhood.  Had a great afternoon riding with my buddy Nate, and even scored some epic views of Denali.
The relatively flat flowy trails of the Cambell Tract were amply groomed by midday from recent snowfall.
  As the fatbike boom has contined to accelerate over the past two years, narrow winding trails that used to be soley used by a limited number of winter bikers "in the know" are now bussy thoroughfares.
 
Finding fresh tracks becomes harder to find, but not impossible. Nate has been slowly building his own secret connector trail. 
The camera adds 10 pounds, damn those tires look huge! 

In search of more freshies and elevation gain, I turned westward to the hillside trails. After passing the bustling Hillside ski area, I was treated to an assuredly deserted trail system with a couple inches of fresh untracked powder only to be shared with a local coyote. 
I was surprised to find these trails untouched; they are typically quite busy during skinny-tire season, offering much in the way of mellow meandering hill climbs, and rewarding fast banked descents.

Gaining roughly 1000 feet of elevation over the city, I was afforded a clear view of Denali to enjoy while layering up for the descent.  


Down in the flatlands of Campbell Tract,
a large clearing of marsh with icey layers of overflow served as canvas and medium for intrepid artists to create some Goldsworthyesque ice arrangements.

Photoshopped because it looks nicer.

Meanwhile I was creating my own ice arrangements in my facial hair, which proved less than impressive due to the warm afternoon temperatures. 

Over to Nate's for coffee and cookies. 

And I still had daylight in the form of a firey orange sunset for the ride home. 




Monday, November 25, 2013

AK Winter

Winter has finally arrived in Alaska!
Been out riding a fair bit. 


True fatbike season has begun.


The uncompromising beauty of ice.



This picture tells a short story.


Ticket to ride.

 Winter is here to stay.  

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

September-October Photo Dump

I've been neglecting the blogosphere as of late. Here is a photo dump of the last 2 months of bike related shenanigans, as biking really does make everything a whole lot more enjoyable.

Scored a new ride on craigslist: Scandium Salsa Motorapido. The sheer carbon footprint of manufacturing this rare-earth-element frame will force me to ride bikes long into my old age to offset the carbon deficit, but is sure is light and pretty.

Fall began. Riding in crunchy dead leaves is a special feeling.

Flew to Colorado to visit friends and family, and learn a little about traumatic brain injury, and hopefully ride bikes.



Zomba.


After drinking 650b flavored coolaide the past two years it felt good to get back on a 29er.  Raleigh XXIX. 

Durango dust.


The sky is bigger here.

Just standing near these jumps caused a fracture to my clavicle.


"Some times you just need to look at some bikes." -Douglas G.




Colorado waterfalls are somehow superior to those in Alaska, but far from compatible to anything in Iceland. 

Brainiacs. 
Listening to booring lectures for one day was a small price to pay for getting rad with my best friends, road tripping across the state with my mom, buying cheap avocados, and gourmet donut holes.






God bless America.

Back in Alaska:

Gold Mint Trail; Hatcher's Pass.




Fun with Photoshop app, but not as fun as the ride.


I was out of town on beaches, mountain tops, or shredding desert single track for almost all the cyclocross races this year but I did make it to the final race as a fan. Loaded up the xtracycle for some BBQ action, in town adventure by bike. 


Badass fat-tire chariot. 


Bike wash. 

Cyclocropcircle.



The trails had a very spooky feel to them this past weekend, must be close to Halloween.


Holding on to fall as long as the snow stays away...

I think all the radiation from Japan is making the sunsets more beautiful.