Happy Camper

The view from camp

The Little man and I snuck out of town the beginning of this week for a little father/son adventure.  Mrs. was off an a quick paddling adventure so we decided to have a little fun on our own.

I had initially planed a little alpine, bikepacking adventure up Powerline pass, but the forecast was calling for winds in the neighborhood of 50mph.  Above treeline, in a tent, with a toddler didn't seem like a place I wanted to deal with that much wind, so plan B was head around Turnagain Arm for a little car camping.

End of the road in Hope, AK.

 Wind and light rain tempered some of the more ambitious trail riding and fishing plans we'd had, but we still did a little of both and spent a lot of quality time lounging around the campfire.

A pretty accurate portrayal of the blur that he typically is on his little bike.

I probably shouldn't be, but  I continue to be amazed, not just by Little wRider's improving balance, but by the amount of sheer joy he gets out of zipping around on two wheels. 

Cool and rainy, who cares?  Loving the good life.

You Know They Are There

You know they're there.  I pack pepper spray much of the year, just in case. 


But it is rare that you get a good look at one.

I was cruising down the bike path, over the South Fork Campbell Creek bridge,  with Allman when we spotted something moving through the grass below us.  At first glance I thought it was a young moose (a relatively common sight).  A second glance confirmed it was a shaggy brown bear (grizzly, if you will) out on the town. 

Unfortunately the squeal of disk brakes spooked it a bit, but not before we got a good look.

Pretty cool to see such a massive wild animal from a safe vantage point when you're out riding around  at 11:30pm.

Midnight Road Ride

I love summer night rides in Alaska.
I had the itch to ride the Bridgstone speedcycle all evening.
Mrs. was working, but Biermag is living here so I've got a built in babyminder.  It was later than I'd hoped, but once I was confident Little wRider had settled down to sleep for the night I got myself out the door for a little ride.

11:55pm and I pointed my bike uphill.

Midnight.  No flash.  I love Alaskan summers.

Nice 30min climb with a short break to wait on momma moose and her twins to move off the road.  Then I pointed it down and went faster than I have in quite some time.

Cute set of twins.

Aside from the driver who elected to cross the double yellow and make a good swerve at me it was an awesome evening ride.

Tweed Ride 2012

While I am generally not all that into changing into special clothes just to ride my bike I do like my friends and am inclined to take part in most any bike related shenanigans they might initiate.

AK Tweed Ride 2012 was a success.  I'll spare you too many more words and instead bombard you with pictures:

We saw people partying all over town. This party had sumo suits and plans to smash a car.

Some blue sky and one strange building on our ride to the ride.

A couple of the ride's co-conspirators.

Didn't take long and the kids in the crowd were imitating these moves.

The man behind the ride showed up with a new toy for himself.

Pashley Guv'nor. He's been eying this thing for a couple years now.

Gotta let the friends try the new bike.  I rode it.  It was very nice.

Rickshaw lets everyone get in on the action.

Softride tandem and heels.  Never thought I'd see all that in one place.

Handlebar mustache and one rockin' trackstand.

Mid ride regroup.

The Guv'nor himself.

Just a bonus when you can hook the kids up with some bouncy castle time.

Argyle and green grass.  Must be summer.

Summer Evenings

Got my errands around town done for the day.

Put out a quick message to see if anyone was interested in an evening ride, with little man in tow. GSC hit me up right away, LO'L was in a few minutes later.

Now were off for a group ride.

Happy summertime

Summa' Time

Not even two flats, and a granny gear headwind could put a damper on a summer afternoon ride along the inlet.

Summer

Biermag is staying in our guest room these days. We've refused to let him pay rent, so he insisted on staying home with Little wRider so we could get out of the house. Mrs. wRider suggested we go ride the insect themed trails on the Hillside.
I've had the chance to ride these trails before, but with life, baby, winter, etc. . . she had yet to get out and explore them.
The singletrack was all built by a local mountain bike crew, specifically for bikes, and it shows.
Mrs. was not disappointed.

I can't tell you how much fun it was to get out and ride with her. We still had sunlight at 11pm, we had the trails to ourselves aside from bumping into moose twice and we kept up an impressive falsetto BECK medley to let the bears know we were out there.

Happy Summertime.

Screen shot

Here is what a good portion of my evening looked like.

Making plans.

It will be more work than fun, but I'll be sure to make it plenty of fun.