The Bike Boys and I are planning an overnight biking trip. For our maiden overnighter, we are thinking riding to the end of Eklutna, a long mountain lake with a trail which is equalivant to a dirt road. That will be a simple ride and will let us work out all the kinks before a longer ride. So I have been on the web searching for a light-weight tent and sleeping bags. I will also have to get racks and panniers. I sure would like to ride my Santa Cruz, its soo much more comfortable than my Cannondale but I'm not sure if panniers will work with full suspension. It will be great!!! Especially if the weather cooperates. We will go regardless of the weather, this is Alaska, gotta do it anyway.

Interesting comments on the $ put into this biking obsession: George is up to 5 figures in 10 years, Steve is up to 4 figures. I think he might be higher if he didn't do alot of his own stuff, the guy likes to resurrect dead bike parts with chemicals and electricity...hmm Dr. Bike-n-stein??

Lots of articles in the Anchorage Daily New about biking in Anchorage and commuting on bikes. I think traffic riders are really brave. I would NOT try it where I live, in the Matanuska Valley. People here are crazy, it's a fact crazy people move out here because the land is cheap (relatively) and they can go live in there cardboard box homes and do their crazy behaviors without anyone bugging them. Now meth has become a HUGE problem in the Valley. Crazy people taking drugs which make them crazier. It was on the radio news the other day that this is the METH CAPITOL of ALASKA. I ride through some of the areas that tend to draw this type of crowd. I passed 2 women (these were about my age, grow up and get some help) getting high in a wooded section just a few days ago. They were stopped in the middle of the path, sharing their dope. A few hundred yards down is a row of junk, shacks, cabin with no water or toilet facilities, rented to anyone by the month. It's a gross place. It's a drop-out, drinking/drugging/desperate/crazy place. I get uncomfortable riding past there sometimes when there's groups of people sitting outside with nothing to do but their craziness and yell at each other and at me if they notice me. So in the end, where I ride has it's own kind of dangers. I prefer my drugs to be made of metal, leather and carbon and too big to swallow. And my bikes give me my own kind of high :)