The road trip...

The planning is starting for our summer road trip. These are just initial top my my head scribbles, time to do some research.
It's a long way to Oklahoma, especially when you take the indirect route..



We will be travelling down in "Baby Groot"

Baby Groot's first trip, alas no camping due to work constraints. 

Yes we have a motor home, this one is 24' and can sleep 6 at a real push or 3 really comfortably.

First meal in the motorhome.

someone was sleepy on the way home. 

That's all for now folks.

Bike to work day 2018 - Anchroage

Anchorage has been really upping their game when it comes to bike to work day. Sure the weather isn't always going to be amazing as we are often dealing with the tail end of winter still when it comes around but the turnout always seems to be healthy. This year we once again matched up with national bike to work day in rest of the USA.

With so many stations (see map below) hitting them all is never really going to be an option.

Bike to work 2018

The game is always get to as many as possible whilst hitting up some key don't miss stations. This year I'm not working and was unsure as to whether I was going to partake in the bike to work events. I got a message yesterday from Josh who asked what I was planning on doing and would I like to join him and some of his colleagues (Matt and Tom) as they made the rounds. 

We met at Elmore and Abbott at 06:30 and headed north on Elmore. This meant coffee and House of bread put on by the Trek store was our first stop, less than 0.5 miles from the meeting start point. Following this it was the Police stop, Maple and Bacon donuts. Then it is the Blueberry stop with Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. We then cruised around onto the paved bike path network to hit up a few stations including roasted marshmallows, before the main deal. As ever the Bacon station didn't disappoint. Whilst there we were informed by some friends that we had missed out on Fire Island Bakery, a quick back track took care of that then it was back past the bacon station again, though we didn't stop for seconds. One more station Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage then it was onto C street to head towards my riding company's work location at Klatt Elementary. C-street has stops on both sides, we stopped at only the west side stops and hit up a couple of stops before getting to Alaska Fish and Game for some tasty salmon.  Following this is was a quick dash to our last stop at Anchorage Sand and Gravel who had breakfast burritos. 

All in all a feast of a 20mile ride. The weather was a little damp, some might say wet at times but the turnout was still impressive.
Finally thanks Amanda for taking care of the little one so that I could do this.

Photo dump

Stop one
Tom, Matt,  Me andd Josh. - PC Trek Store Anchorage

side walk cruising

Josh with the selfie

Tom, Matt, Me and Josh
random guy photo bomb in background :D

Roasting Marshmallows - PC Tom 

Gorilla butts

NSAA - last stop on Chester Creek

Interactive map

The Strava Data

The transfer is in progress

As school draws to a close, so too is this chapter in our life where we live in Alaska. Amanda has been transferred to Oklahoma City, funny how things come full circle. When we were in Colombia we were being transferred to Oklahoma City then that changed and we ended up in Alaska. 

We have been up here for almost 5.5 years and have loved it. We have made some amazing friends and really tried to get involved in the community. I managed to get a part time job at a local bike shop to feed my habit. 

One from a "real" winter

We have lost a cat, bought two cars, a house, many bikes and adopted a dog. All in all life is pretty sweet up here. Sure the summers aren't that warm and since we have been here (we are not taking the blame) we have had a couple of warmer winters.   But we really think this is the place we would like to end up. 

The decision to move was the toughest one we have faced together. Moving half way across the country is not an easy choice however it is the one we have taken. 

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy for us with selling our house up here and organising things, visiting places we have failed to get to in the five years we have been here. All before we move to the lower48, current target is to be heading south at the end of June.

For now I will keep the updates coming, we plan on driving down to Oklahoma over three to four weeks and explore on the way down. Ticking of some of the remaining fifty states of running ;-)

Stay tuned all, we will be back :D

The family rides will still happen, though probably sans bears, moose and snow pants. 

Susan and Mort keeping an eye on things

We have had an Incredible time.

Double glacier tour

As spring marches into Alaska the longer days and warmer weather give opportunity for some spectacular riding. Visiting a glacier is always a cool experience and seeing reports online of trips people were making fuelled my interest to get out for myself.

Amanda has had a busy work schedule and it seems if she isn't working has been sick with whatever plague Fiona brought home from school. I haven't been hit nearly as badly so I seized my opportunity on Sunday while Amanda and Fiona rested. 

Skookum Glacier

The plan was to head out early and visit Skookum Glacier, this tends to be a lot quieter than Spencer which is in the next valley over. The main reason for this as far as I can tell is it's not as spectacular. 

It was a last minute decision to take this trip and many of my friends had been out on the Saturday to see the glaciers but I did manage to convince Ryan and Oscar to join me. 

We arrived at the Placer river parking pullout around 08:15 and by 08:25 we were rolling out to head for the Glacier.

It was a pretty cold start at around 8F and got colder as we pedalled out along the river.

Heading out towards the river. 

After around 30min of riding we turned left on a snow machine trail to head out towards Skookum Glacier. We followed the trail all the way to the glacier and arrived around 1hr 20min after setting out.

The first part of Skookum we arrived at. 

At the face of the glacier we rode around until we found some interesting features. We were not disappointed. 

Ice cave

I see Ryan

Cool ice feature

my bike leaning

Ryan again. 

Ryan got some great photos of Oscar and I, see all his photos here

Silhouettes 

riding into the massive cave

Look at us we are so insignificant

After exploring here for a little while we headed up for a little riding on top of the glacier. The sun was just coming over the mountains and it had warmed up significantly. It is still a little early for crust riding but there was a little bit to be had. Oscar and I rode around whilst Ryan got some snaps.

heading up on snow machine trails

the ever amazing crust riding

Having a wheelie good time. 

My photos of the same area

Ryan heading up

Up we go

Oscars on crust you can see where we are
punching through in the background. 

Crusty

The crust was a little punchy so we called it a day and headed back towards the vehicles.

Back down the valley

All smiles

On the way we passed some of Oscars neighbors and as we hit the Placier river we stopped to talk  with some people to give directions. It was still early and Oscar and I hadn't been out to Spencer. Ryan suggested that Oscar and I head out and check it out. Oscar and I decided that it was a great idea. Although neither of us had been there before we had directions from Ryan and a great highway of bike tracks to follow. 

Spencer Glacier

Spencer sign, at least we know we are going the right way. 

There she is... 

crossing the lake

still crossing the lake

Airplane

The thing with riding in Alaska is, everything is big and further away than you think. Riding across the lake took around 10min. 

Spencer Glacier really took my breath away. We didn't explore as much as some others have done. Here are some shots of what we saw. 

I believe this is called the Cathedral

It's pretty big

Blue ice

more blue ice

the face of the glacier

carefully leaning bikes

so blue

Silhouette 

blue crack and blue sky

more of that blue ice

and again

more cave

more blue ice

another silhouette

The two of us

After looking around we headed back a slightly different way which took us under two bridges and thus no crossing of the railway tracks. 

Bye Spencer Glacier you were fun

Bridges

Catching up with friends on the way out

The last section from the river to the road. 

It took Oscar and I around 1 hour to ride back from the glacier. Last weekend the trails were fast, who knows how they will be this week. 

All in all doubling up on the glacier trip was a blast. If you can only go to one I would recommend Spencer however if you have the chance Skookum is well worth a visit. 

GPS track of our trip