Lunch Hour Bike Paths and Singletrack

I have a job that I go to a couple days a week.
The best part of having a job is riding a bike to and from it.  In addition to commuting I've been taking advantage of the "lunch hour" encouraged by the company to get out and ride a few miles. 
Just a couple of minutes from the office and I'm on one of the greenbelts that wind through and across Anchorage.

 

Less than 15 minutes from my desk and I can snag a slice of pizza, a thermos of coffee from the Beartooth and boogie down to sea level to enjoy my lunch with a view of the Alaska Range. 

 

I've been exploring every little spur of urban singletrack spur I can find off the Chester Creek Trail.  Most of it leads to homeless camps.  Some of it makes for some pretty sweet, creekside cruising.

 

Not bad for being in the smack dab in the middle of the biggest city in the state.

 

 If I don't grab coffee from the Beartooth there's a little coffee stand a hundred yards or so from work that can fill my cup before I lockup and go back to staring at a computer for the remainder of the afternoon.  Most of the time I make it back to work without spilling too much hot coffee on my hand.

Winter Trail Hazards

I got out for a ride last night . . .  a sweet, 1,000ft of descending, 97% singletrack, fatbike ride last night.

The last little bit of singletrack is a 0.5mile piece of trail I've been trying to get packed in and rideable for the last month or so.

I'd been out snowshoeing on it the night before (and I only don snowshoes, begrudgingly, for the purpose of better bike riding) and last night it was riding better than it ever has when I came upon open water where there had been none the night before.

 

It seems a moose approached from the lookers left of the above picture, intersected with the Jumpy Squirrel trail, and punched through to a creek I didn't even know was flowing underneath the trail. 

 

From the other side.  One moose sized hole in the middle of some winter singletrack. Must have been fairly startling for the moose to suddenly be standing in flowing water, even if it wasn't terribly deep.

Since We Were Together Last . . .

Since I last bothered to update this blog I've done a few things. 
Here's a few of the highlights in no particular or chronological order:

 

 Little and I spent some quality time together.

 

He loved going out an rallying dirt trails  on his push bike.

 

A three year old working on his no handers over the table top in the 

backyard is enough to make a parent worry about what the

 adolescent years have in store.  He also showed off his 

Superman seat grab more than once.

I got the realest job I've ever had.  I'm talking Mon-Fri, 

8am-5pm, shirts tucked in real.  

Did that for a couple months and tried to quit.  

Reached an understanding with my employer, 

now I work part time.

 

Got LoL to join me for a fatbike beach 

ride I've had on my radar since 2005.

 

Ever since I talked to Pat after he and Kathy did their pioneering beach ride I've wanted to find this cabin.  

The riding, nor the cabin, did not disappoint.

 

 

This little dude mastered the combination of pedals and balance.  

Never had training wheels.  He loved it and so did dad.

Still need to work on mastering the concept of 

speed control through braking.

 

My parents came to visit and my dad left 

with his first new bike in 25 years.

(A Surly Ogre.)  We went and rode it in 

the mountains, which made him smile. 

He's been taking it out for lots of 

fun adventures since he got home.

 

We welcomed a sweet little girl into our family in July 

(part of the motivation for my parents' visit.)

She is happy, healthy and awesome. 6 months old this week.

 

I continue to perform much of my own bike maintenance.

Occasionally with interesting results. 

 

Did some fishing, but not nearly as much as we'd like.

He wanted to keep every fish we caught that day. 

I let him keep this one.

That kid devoured every last crumb of that little trout

 

Did I mention fatbiking on the beach near Nikiski?

That was awesome.

 

My brother came to visit.

We rode bikes.

 

My iPhone Tried to Kill This Blog

A new job, a new baby, and a smartphone all combined to try and kill this blog (but mostly it was the phone.)

But I still ride bikes, and I'm hoping to even write a few words and post a few pictures every now and again on this here blog.
So if anybody out there is still interested here's just a little something:

My wife's Christmas gift to me was one simple thing.  A fat, aggressive tire named after me, even though I am neither fat, nor terribly aggressive.  The yin to my yang I suppose.

It seems I change my brake pads even less often than I update my blog.
Stopping power was greatly improved when I switched to some pads that weren't worn down to next to nothing.