Happy New Year!! It's been a while since my last update. We've been on a few trips and most notably is the recent Denali National Park Bikepack to Teklanika River. We followed the Spring Trail for much of the trip and found the conditions to be pretty good. Occasional wind blown snow would slow us down but it's good training right? I am starting to dial in some of my gear and am trying to get as much saddle time in on the weekends as possible.
Quick notes: we brought way too much clothing. Temps were in the low teens when we prepared and I was guessing that we would see single digits. This was not the case. :-) My Bedrock Bag is a great addition and along with my Jerry Can has really opened up the room in my Revelate Designs Frame Bag for items that I would like quicker access to.
We brought enough food, enough fuel and were happy to sleep under the stars. Laura and I picked a great spot to camp that was out of the wind and right off the river on the bank. The wind would come through the Tek river area in waves. Hard to explain, it would wake me up but I wasn't bothered by the sound. I guess I've never really heard wind "waves" in populated areas.
One of two herds of caribou we ran into. They too like the Spring Trail.
For some reason we want to ride heavy bikes into the wilderness. I'm still trying to figure that out.
Laura is making some spruce needle tea. ;-P
Tek River. We spent almost two hours riding 5 miles. Practicing route finding on overflow really boosted my confidence. We might need it this year.
Photo courtesy of Laura Fox. She sure does have an eye.
My fatbike leaning against...
Frustration capture courtesy of Laura Fox. I had just fallen over again up to my knees and had a "moment." Ha ha :-)
Tek overflow photo courtesy of Laura Fox
My favorite riding buddy Laura Fox (only she could capture this image)
The amount of daylight in the Park is short but man is it awesome.
Morning coffee and oatmeal captured by Laura Fox
Wolf Tortilla Shells as captured by Laura Fox
Photo courtesy of Laura Fox. This is me standing next to the legend Kristin Gates just before we departed. Certified Bad@$$
As many of you know the weather in Southcentral Alaska has been a little short on the snow fall side of things. I enjoy riding hard packed trails, snowmachine trails, even the occasional softer fat bike trails. One type of trail that I don't find too appealing is ice. Lately Anchorage has had a blanket of the drink chiller all over it and has even delayed the start of the Frosty Bottom. A couple of weeks ago Laura suggested that we try out Anchorage Yoga and Cycle spin class.
http://anchorageyogacycle.com/
We gave it a "spin" and it wasn't all that bad. I've spent a little bit of time on a trainer and this is by far much more fun that just sitting and spinning. They have great facilities and nice spin cycles and great motivators. The atmosphere is upbeat and that helps when your just sweating buckets and starting to feel an unfamiliar burn in your legs. The price is a bit executive but they appear to have full classes all the time. Perhaps that is warranted. I ran my Garmin Forerunner 25 to capture my heart rate data and it doesn't really work well for indoor cycling. You'll see that my heart rate spiked high and I guess that's good.
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