Nothing New

Nothing super exciting in my world.

The wind continues, the weather is non-cooperative. Funny, the wind stops me from riding but snow/cold temps don't.
Maybe I need to re-evaluate the wind issue.

Bike Boy #1 definitely blew out the upper seals in is fork. Bike Guy has it torn apart, last Thursday was the *target* date for the repair to be completed. Nope, it's not done yet but Bike Guy now has 369 bikes outside his shop waiting to be tuned up for the summer. People just don't learn and it's a bad time to have a major bike failure.

I have 3 neighbors who all have approached me wanting their bike's tuned up. They will PAY me. I start on the 1st one today. I am careful to explain I am doing a basic tune-up, not repairs. I will recommend professional help (bike and mental) if necessary.

I have been riding the Zing at work during lunch. It makes me happy! A good thing to do since the wind is still keeping me from commuting.

In a nearby field, a pair of eagles were munching down on a Canadian goose they cause. Feathers everywhere.

The Dr. gave me some news last week which has a major impact bike riding, as well as any other sustained exercising. Pisses me off. Maybe I will share more later, maybe not. Either way, I WILL NOT STOP RIDING MY BIKES and getting old is a bitch.

Ready to Ride

I got my commuter bike all ready to start riding to work. I added bar ends and decided to get a seat post mounted rack instead of using the standard pannier style rack. My K2 commuter bike is a road bike with riser bars instead of the drop bars, it has no bolt holes in the drop out area so I had to modify my old rack and mount it with the rear wheel skewer. I just wasn't really comfortable with the this set up, although I never had any problem. It just seems like it was on the outer limits of the skewer length. I also went ahead and mounted the Cygolight Dual Cross Li-ion but probably will take it off as darkness is becoming scarce.

I took the Zing out for another ride yesterday, so far every ride on it has been a battle with the wind. It's blowing so hard I ALMOST had to drop into the granny gear when going into it at the end of the ride. I took the K2 out today after getting it all tuned and loaded, I had just jeans and sweatshirt - no helmet (stupid, I know). I just was going to take it out for a quick spin to make sure the gears/brakes are functioning smoothly. I went a little farther than I initially planned, the bike is riding smoothly and I was enjoy myself. The ride back was into the cold, cold wind. My ears and head were hurting by the time I got back and the thaw out was even worse. I am ready for the wind to stop. It's worse than winter riding. I will ride to work tomorrow if the wind behaves. If not, I will delay the commute. Also since I am soo out of shape, I will start at the halfway point of my commute. I will park my truck at Lowe's and will ride from there, about 4 miles. 4 miles is no big deal, but hills are and there are some bugger hills on my normal 8 mile ride. A gallon of gasoline produces almost 20 pounds of CO2. I will be saving the environment about 16 pounds of carbon dioxide round trip just riding 8 miles a day to work.

I have been watching Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. Pretty amazing stuff.

I forgot to add the sunrise picture to my last post!

Mountain Sheep

The sheep are moving down from the mountain tops. We saw quite a few on the drive home. Crazy sheep, hanging off the side of cliffs. If you don't see it right away, it is located in the lower right part of the photo.

I also saw an awesome shooting star. The stars up there are incredible because there is no light sources around at all. Billions and Billions of stars, northern lights, planets shining brightly. It's amazing.

Cabin Pictures

The cabins are nice and secure for the summer. A few people thought it was strange to close up a cabin for the summer, I never thought of it like that.

We go to the cabin in the winter and not in the summer because:
1) Bears, they will eat you if they can
2) Bears, they like to break into cabins, refer to #1
3) Bugs, masses and masses big, blood suckers
4) Tundra, very difficult to walk on, ride on, anything on. "In" is a better word, tundra is very spongy and wet. Boggy. In the winter it's all frozen and covered with snow, snow machines cause no damage to the tundra with adequate snow coverage and it's much easier to get around.
5) Lakes, go around in the summer, over in the winter. Also the water is cleaner in the winter than in the summer when the water is stirred up.
6) It's 90 degrees there in the summer, danger of wildfires from lightening strikes, bugs and smelly outhouse. Everything is frozen in the winter so the outhouse doesn't smell.
7) Summer transportation to the cabin is by float plane. Very expensive. Winter is by snow machine (mobile).

The temps at the cabin got up to the low 50's. Everything was melting FAST. There were some bare spots on the trail with tundra showing, that means no going back this season. The nesting pair of Eagles are back, fixing up the nest, eagle down floating all over the place. I found some fur bits around the area they nest, which is close to our cabin. The lakes are all frozen still so they are eating varmints. They like to come hang out in the trees around our cabin and watch what we are doing. Either that or they are trying to decide if KC the Wonder Dog is too big to eat.
A porcupine wandered through our area also, it sure was cute! Then it climbed this tree and hung out for awhile before moving on.
No fish caught this trip. But spent a beautiful day on the lake soaking up the sun. I didn't wear my snowsuit/Refrigware the entire trip. I started off wearing it on the ride into the cabin but got soo hot I took it off half-way there. All I wore the entire time was wool longjohns, jeans, polar fleece shirt and a sweatshirt over that, a light hat or ear band. My freckles started coming out. Ohh, I love the sun!

Only a few patches of snow left here at home, everything is all brown. I am looking forward to green. The run-offs (white water tubing below) are dried up. Fields of soggy, muddy brown. The wind has been blowing so it's still cold outside and below freezing at night.

Here is a picture of the sunrise this morning. The mountains are much bigger, I cropped out the building and stuff cluttering up the bottom of the pictures.

Killed in Action - Bonus

While I was at the cabin, I called my daughter. It was one of those weird mother/child connection moments, I knew I had to call her. I had been thinking of calling her earlier but didn't. So I called her on the 13th around 5 pm.

She answered the phone, sobbing. Trying not to freak out, I am in the middle of frickin' no-where and something is very, very wrong with my daughter. At 1st I thought something happened to my son, Bike Boy #1 "no...he's fine" (he was at his dad's house). She then told me that "Bonus is dead".

John Borbonus was a friend of hers, a soldier who was stationed at Ft. Richardson in Anchorage before shipping out to Baghdad. Bonus was only 19 years old, same age as my daughter.

He was killed by an IED, according to the Department of Defense news release.


This war sucks. I don't want to go into the politics of the war here, this post isn't about that. It's about my daugther's friend, Bonus, 19 year old kid and only child from Idaho and my daughter's pain. We have quite a few friends/family over there. Bonus will probably not be the only death that hits home. Shit.

Back to Winter

We are heading up north to close up our cabin for the summer. As my life gets busier, the less I go up there. Sometimes being an adult and responsible is just a bummer. I want to PLAY.

I took the Kona Zing out for it's maiden ride last sunday. It is way different actually riding to actually ride on the ROAD than it is to pedal on a trainer.

Drop bars are at totally different kind of ride. I felt insecure, not familure with how it handles, not used to being so far forward, unfamilure hand position and my thumbs kept cramping up. Even with feeling like that, it was a very smooth, fast ride. I went about 3 miles and was frozen by the time I got home, the wind was blowing and it's COLD.

Today I got off work a little early and the sun is out, releasing it's still weak warmth, the nicest day we have had so far. I got the Zing out and took it for a ride around the Springer Loop, a 4.2 mile square road system I live on. As it was before 5 p.m. the traffic was pretty light. I had on my hi-vis jacket because Alaskan drivers tend to get white-line fever whenever they drive and just don't notice anything that is smaller than a moose. The drivers noticed me and all except 1 guy went wide around me. That was soo much nicer than the normal 10 inch pass they usually do.

This ride was in strong, cold wind. The Springer has no hills, barely any incline at all. Hard wind is a fair substitue for a small hill, except it make you cold instead of hot. I am feeling much more confident on this 2nd ride. I have learned from mountain biking that it's good to trust the bike and just ride. So I trusted that I wasn't going to crash and had a nice ride. I think the insecurity comes from feeling like I am not holding on to the bars....riser bars my hands are gripping them, with the drop bars I am more leaning on the bars rather than gripping them...does that make sense? There was one spot where I was turning a 90 degree corner and went over a pile of road sand that had piled up...a nice side-slip. Not good. I could have totally wiped out in the middle of the road, but I didn't and so now I am reminded to be more careful. My thumbs still cramped up a bit, I am sure it will stop when I am more used to this bike. I think I am pushing outward on the hoods with my thumbs..squeezing them. I just figured this out at this moment. I will have to watch for that on my next ride.

Bike Boy's newest bike in at Bike Guy's shop. He over pressurized the fork and blew the seals. Bike Guy will order a rebuild kit, it will take a couple weeks before it's ready. Bike Guy is getting into the psycotic season...this is a bad time for a major mechanical problem. So Bike Boy is on his hardtail for now.

Hopefully it will green up a little by the time I get back from the cabin. Time to start commuting to work pretty soon. The nights are still below freezing so there is still ice in the morning. I would rather have the ice gone, I don't want to wipe out on my way to work...or anytime. Ride on :)

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Winter White Water Tubing Pictures

The pictures wouldn't load last night. Later Bike Boy 1 & 2 got out the neoprene fishing full body bibs and raincoats and were perfectly warm. Today they are going down to the Matanuska River behind our farm to raft a very mellow tributary. Do we know how to have fun or what??

Winter White Water Tubing

It's spring break-up time in Alaska. It can be an ugly, muddy, frustrating time of year, dirty snow and ice, pond-size mud puddles everywhere. No more winter riding as the snow is rotten and slushly, not yet summer riding because there is still snow and ice around. A person has to be creative and make their own fun this time of year. Not being afraid of getting cold also helps.

The weather has been in the 40's (nice!) and it rained pretty heavily last night. The snow is melting really fast so we have a LOT of melt-off from the snow in the fields. We have 2 temporary "rivers" running through our fields right now.

Bike Boy got out his tube and he and I decided to do some white water rafting. It was a lot of fun but the water was COLD! My butt and legs got pretty soaked and only felt cold for a moment before going numb. After that, it's all good :)

Bike boy had to grab me before going too far into the woods where stick and trees made the river impassable.

The afternoon was beautiful and the sunlight has warmth in it. Slogging back through a foot of slush is a good workout and warmed us up right away.

Now the boys are starting a fire outside so we can enjoy the beautiful evening. It's not getting dark until after 9 pm now. I'm drinking a Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale and the feeling is returning to my legs and butt. Pins and needles - oh yeah.

I had a BLAST! WooHoo!

It's Warmer!

My couch problem has been fixed. I contact the store director and it was settled in 3 minutes...I wish I had gone that route in the 1st place. I had a new couch that evening. Of course I had to get the broken one loaded into the truck and drive back to Wasilla but it was worth getting it all finished up. The director said there is no "24-hr time limit" and I should have never been given this kind of run-around. Lets hope his employees get correctly trained, this isn't good for anyone - consumers nor businesses.

The temperature has actually reached 40 above! It's later than normal. The snow is ugly and dirty but it's MELTING! I can actually see bits of the bike paths! Still too much snow to ride them, but I think in about 2 weeks they may be ready to ride IF it doesn't snow between now and then. Alaska doesn't have bike lanes, but the 90 corner shared with the path is technically a bike lane for that section. I much prefer separate bike paths

In response to the comments on my last post - Is Alaska a dangerous place? I'm sure it's all subjective but it seems the humans are now more dangerous than the wild life, violent crimes rates are
rising here faster here than elsewhere in the U.S. I have run across some in-breeds that give me the creeps in secluded spots during my rides.

I didn't get the Zing out for it's maiden ride. Too busy with the couch issue and then a drive into Anchorage for some supplies not available here in the Valley. I am still spinning my wheels in my bikeshop, going nowhere.

The bike boys invaded my shop Monday and Tuesday...the results were not good and I am starting to lock the shop. Monday I came into my shop, my nephews bike was drip drying off my workstand but it was not put on the stand correctly and the stand looked like it was going to break. Then there was garbage all over the place, the floor and carpets were wet. I did my ride and as I was going into my house, I noticed my entire bottle of bike cleaner was laying empty on the ground. Bike boy 2, my nephew decided to wash his bike an dry it in my shop. I wouldn't have minded IF he had cleaned up after himself, didn't leave garbage around, etc. So I clean it up. Then yesterday I come home, go into my shop for the ride and an odor hits me. Bike boy was showing a girl the cows and then decided to show her my shop. They had cow poo all over their shoes and did a good job of grinding it into my carpets. It took about 2 hours of scrubbing carpets but Capt'n Balance took care of it all, he didn't want bike boy 2 there. We "tried" talking with bike boy 2, but he just gave a blank stare...so now he has lost shop privileges.

Here is a picture of a sunset a few days ago, the ice crystals in the air caused the rays to shoot up. Pretty. I hope to get on the road with the ZING this weekend!

Commuting Dreams and a Broken Couch

I purchased a new couch from Fred Meyer's last week. Capt'n balance pointed out that the frame is broken - the arm isn't connected to the base. I never noticed it, the only visible signs are a slight wrinkle in the fabric at the base of the couch, on the side, not visible to you while sitting on the couch and he noticed the arm move out when Bike Boy sat down on it. I called Fred Meyer, they said it has to go through the manufacturer, who would come out and either fix it or replace it. I finally get in touch with the manufacture (not in Alaska), they say I have to go through the retailer - Fred Meyer. I call Fred Meyers, they say it's not their problem because it's been 2 weeks since I purchased it. I tell them it's not been 2 weeks since I 1st contacted them, I spoke to 1 male employee, who put me through to a lady employee who told me to contact the manufacture. It took a few days to get the manufacturer due to weekend and my work hours, the time differences caused delays, the manufacturer tell me to go through the retailer so I'm back where I started. So today, the department supervisor is on vacation and the assistant supervisor is not in today, maybe he will be there tomorrow. I have my receipt and all other paperwork, there is NOTHING that says there are no returns except within the 1st 24 hours. As I tried to explain to the 2nd person I spoke to today at Fred Meyer, THEY have been giving me incorrect information, based on THEIR directions, they have responsibility in this not being resolved in time-limits which they don't tell consumers about. I still have a broken couch, have not been able to talk to a single person who can actually help me and no end in sight. I am NOT happy about this.


I want the snow to be gone, the air to warm up. I want to start riding to work. BUT there is still snow on the ground, the air still has a chill, the bike path is still lost under snow.

I told Capt'n Balance that I am really looking forward to riding to/from work again. He isn't excited about it. He is concerned about me crashing on my skinny tires, getting hit by a truck, kidnapped and anything else that can go wrong. I certainly don't want anything to go wrong. Those are all possibilities. I all the precautions that I can. Probably the most dangerous part of my ride is crossing a main road, the bike path is in a really bad spot, not at a corner or a stop and I have to cross 5 lanes. It's a poorly thought out cross. Then about a hundred yards from that cross, the bike path becomes part of the road and a 90 degree turn is shared. This is a bad design because the only thing separating the road from the path is the painted yellow line, which wears away very quickly and the vehicles end up using the entire bike path as part of the turn. As this is an on-ramp, the road and path continue up a pretty steep hill. Going the opposite direction on this section, I can pick up a lot of speed, this hill is long and the steepest part of the entire ride. Going this direction, the hill ends at the 90 degree turn. Since vehicles are on the bike path 95% of the time, extra caution is required going both directions. There is no signs up showing the bike path is there and once the paint is gone, it's easy for the drivers not to even know they are on the bike path, so I don't blame them.

I then go through 2 more major high-volume intersections but I feel pretty ok there because vehicles have to stop, everything is well-marked and I am hard to miss with my hi-vis clothing.

The next problem area is another well-marked intersection BUT it is near a high school so there are a lot of stupid teenage drivers who don't know pedestrian laws, may parents who are dropping off kids who are in a big rush, etc. These drivers tend to look right through me, make right turns without looking and are just plain stupid.

One section is also regularly covered with a few inches of gravel and rocks kicked up by 4-wheelers, there is so much gravel you can't even see any pavement. My skinny tires can't ride that so I have to go into the road until it's cleaned off.

I recently purchased a hi-vis illumnite jacket and a Cygo-lite li-ion dual cross light. The small battery is GREAT! I won't need the light until fall, soon it won't get dark at all.

I'm thinking of taking the Kona out for it's maiden ride outside today. The road near my home is dry and ice-free, traffic shouldn't be too bad if I get out early enough. I have a few things to do today so it depends on if I have time.

I Need a New Coffee Cup

It's snowing....

I think my coffee cup has some sort of weather juju going on. It's the graphics, I'm sure. This is my favorite cup but I'm willing to give it up.

Someone send me a cup that has summer juju.

18 inch Lake Trout, too small, released it
Bikin' at the Cabin

Picture 1) Matanuska Glacier
Picture 2) Arriving at the Cabin
Picture 3) Crosswind Lake
Picture 4) Knot Art butterfly

Cabin Time

We went to our cabin on Crosswind Lake on the 10th, got back yesterday. I was feeling pretty sick Friday the 9th and wasn't looking forward to being sick in the middle of the wilderness. I went to the dr, got a prescription even though the dr thought I had the flu. Dr said don't take it unless I really feel like I need to and if it was the flu, the antibiotics wouldn't help.

We drive north 2.5 hours to Lake Louise, spend a long time loading sleds to pull behind the snowmachines. We had TONS of stuff to haul in - lumber and shower stall for a new bath house/sauna, windows and a couch for the guest cabin as well as fuel, food, a small ice-fishing house made out of a truck sleeper - in which my dog K.C rode in on the trail, and the ice bike. A very fast snowmachine/mobile ride (1 hour) on a PERFECT trail into the cabin, nice and smooth. It has never been that smooth and fast before.

The temperatures were way down there, it took hours for the cabin to warm up. Finally got everything unloaded, the cabin warm, dinner cooked, a few drinks and went to bed. Everything was great until I woke up the next morning, I was SICK.

Really sick. I am woozy, feeling like I will pass out every time I stand up, etc. I am telling Capt'n Balance he may need to bungee me to an sled, hook me up to a snowmachine and pull me out to Glennallen to the hospital if I don't start feeling a bit better, it was THAT BAD. I choked down some food and coffee and didn't feel like I was going to die, so that was an improvement. Spent the day being miserable and the cabin is no place to feel miserable. We are in the middle of NOWHERE. The wind is blowing, windchill is 25 to 40 below 0, REALLY cold. The kind of cold that makes my fingertips feel like they have been smashed by a hammer after being outside for only a few minutes. Oh yeah, we use an outhouse and being a girl, lets just say I use the outhouse more than the guys (It's a very nice outhouse, big open window for ventilation) and the outhouse is a ways away from the cabin so I have a little walk to it. So I am suffering....I get the medication the dr prescribed, still in the bag from the store with the paperwork on how to take it.

I read how to take it and then notice the pharmacist has a big red circle with a question mark around the allergy alert. It says I am not supposed to take this medication if I have had an allergy to another related medication and the pharmacist circled that I DO have an allergy to the related medication. Great...so what do I do now? I decided to take it anyway, telling all the guys to watch me in case my head swells to the point of exploding. No reaction and I finally started feeling better by day 4.

Temps continued to be COLD, 37 below 0 F. at night, no wind chill. I caught an 18 inch lake trout (too small, released it), took Bike Boy snowboarding, jigged for more fish, drank beer, ate rabbit (Bike Boy got his 1st rabbit, hunting only allowed if it is going to be for food, not sport), ate more food, slept, drank a little, drew on the walls - butterfly with a bike. (Knot Art, using the knots in the plywood for noses, is all over the walls of our cabin - Capt'n Balance is an artist).

Capt'n Balance and I had our own little Crosswind Ice Bike race around the cabins. No one else wanted to brave the cold and the snow. We were frozen by lap 3 but warmed up nicely with Tequila shots afterwards. This is the very 1st bicycle to EVER be at Crosswind Lake. Yeah, I'm famous on the lake now and maybe we will get more bikes up there and make it an annual ride, the winner is who can do the most laps without getting frostbitten. Notice I had on slippers, I was find while riding, but putting my feet down when stopping, the slippers lived up to their name.

I can't get any pictures to download, will post them later.

Bike and Beer T-Shirt Gallery

I recently did a Google search on Bike and Beer. Lots of interesting sites came up.

This one is pretty cool The Beer-Bike Tee Shirt Gallery.

I didn't know Oscar the Grouch drank beer!

Frigid Moose Drewl

Bike Boy, Capt'n Balance aka "The Sweeper" and I did the 1st Annual Frigid Moose Drewl race yesterday and it was a whole lotta fun!

The weather was PERFECT. We had been having some very high winds but they died down and the race was on!

Bike Boy was on his weekend visitation with his dad in Wasilla, so I headed out there to pick him up. I grabbed all the clothing, bikes and other gear I could think of. In the rush, I forgot his COAT. Darn. Fortunately his dad let him borrow a coat, so all was good. We get to the race location and the REAL RIDERS were showing up. Bike Boy and I spent some time trying to decided how may layers to pile on. I decided to go for more layers than I had originally planned. Bike Boy was good to go, even in his tennis shoes - that kid doesn't feel cold, blessing of youth I guess. He did have 2 pairs of socks on - one was a woolen pair.

Then Carlos and Mark, the organizers, start talking about the courses, I'm trying to listen and finish getting my gear on when Capt'n Balance suddenly appears! He wasn't going to come because he had too many other things to do. He decided at the last minute to come and be the course "sweeper", hence the helmet he made from the hand broom we use to sweep up ashes around our wood stove. He cracks me up, what a goof. He's almost always there to support me in my attempts to do this kind of thing. He knows how frustrating it sometimes is for me to be what I am now, because I still remember how it felt to be tough and kick ass like I used to.

The race starts, the most of the real bikers are on fat tire bikes, a few on regular tires. We have on our studded tires. The beginning of the trail was churned up a little then was nicely groomed but full of post holes from horses and moose. This is our 1st real winter trail ride (I mostly ride around a icy, paved road around my home), a new experience. I have to say, those post holes suck. They are not hugely difficult to ride over but they definitely ruin a nicely groomed trail.

We got past the post holes and then the fun really started. Nice, smooth packed trail, little ups and downs and corners - the kind that make me want to yell "WooHoo"! Just plain fun. Then we got to a frozen swamp and it was just beautiful! I just had to stop and look around. That is one of the things that makes me a slow mountain biker. I HAVE to look around. The sun was shining, the mountains were beautiful, it was just perfect. Then Capt'n Balance got out the camera and had me back track a few times for some pictures. Bike Boy took off ahead so we didn't get any pictures of him - he takes racing seriously - HA!

We finished the race, which was a race-at-your own pace, for us, anyway. It was a great ride. It's a lot more work riding snow but packed trails than icy roads. I loved it. Those are not staged smiles!

We chatted with Mark of
Wildfire Designs Bicycles and Carlos of Anchorage's Frigid Bits, I got to plug into some of Carlo's knowledge - Thanks Carlos!

The famous Frigid Bits burn barrel was fired up and I have to say, this is the coolest burn barrel ever. Customized for the Frigid Bits SnoBoys, made by a rider called Thirsty Work. He also made Frigid Bits Burn Barrel Ale labels and relabeled some beer bottles with them. They are really cool also. The best part (to me) is the Government warning on the label. Instead of warning pregnant women not to drink or whatever, these say "GOVERNMENT WARNING: DON'T WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT"

That is like a message from GOD or something...ok, not near that profound, but pretty darn funny. I'm going to take the label to work...I work for the State government issuing federal and state benefits. It can be a grind on a persons very being. We need all the laughs we can get. I think most of my co-workers will get a good laugh.

It was a great day, a great ride, my world has expanded a little. I hope to someday do the long course, it would be great to be as fast as the real riders but for now I'm happy I got out there and did it.

Now Bike Boy wants a Wildfire fat tire bike. Maybe when he stops growing...that should give me a few years to save up some $$.

Check out more pictures of
the burn barrel and the post-ride party

Who's Yo Daddy??

My parents came over to my house last weekend. I was showing my dad my bike shop. I was explaining to him WHY I have so many bikes, the purpose for each one, when I came to my little winter bike.

He thought the winter bike set-up was pretty cool and and decided to take it for a ride. OKAY...I was a little concerned, he is pretty inactive and getting a little long in the tooth. I am sure he will never read this blog, so I feel pretty safe saying "long in the tooth" :) . But he is still THE DAD. So he off he went.

He rode around the barns and was pretty impressed with the grip of the studded tires. He said he went up and down some icy snow berms and the tires started to slip out but then the studs gripped and he was back on track (thank GOD, it would have been awful if he got hurt).

He really enjoyed his little ride, he had a big grin on his face when he was bringing the bike back into the shop (I missed that picture-darn).

Dad and I had a micro-bonding moment.

Watch out Frigid Bits Boys, Dad just might take you guys on....and you better let him win :)

The wind is still out of control here but it's supposed to end tonight, just in time for the Frozen Moose Drewl race tomorrow. It is a race-at-your-own-pace. I have just about talked myself INTO doing it, the hardest part for me is actually getting the guts to show up. I'm not fast or a technical mountain biker. I figure I will be the last rider out there....which is OK because someone has to be last, right??? And being last in a bike ride is better than not riding at all...right? Right.

I just read the Alaska Forum on MTBR.com. Sounds like trail conditions will be good. I only have studded tires, no fat tires or whatever else the real winter riders use. Tomorrow will be interesting!

1st Annual Frigid Moose Drewl Winter Mountain Bike Race

Yep, you read that right. This weekend there will be a winter race put on by a guy with the Valley Mountain Bikers and Hikers (who co-exist and work peacefully together promoting self-propelled activities, trail protection and restoration) - maybe the Wilderness Society should look to the for examples) and Anchorage's Frigid Bits crew. There will be beginner's and advanced courses.

IF I am home this weekend, I think I will participate in the beginner's race. We sort of had plans to go into Anchorage for the Fur Rondy activities. Truth be told, I would rather do the race than go to Anchorage.

WaaaaHOOOOOO! It's FUN in the Valley!