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

Susitna 100 - 2018 edition

Short version 

I got 6th Place! Go me :D

Longer version

Another year another Susitna 100 in the books. See my previous versions here (2015 Su100, 2016 Su100) This was a good one for me. 

When I signed up for the race I set myself some goals. 

• Have fun
• Finish strong
• Keep moving
• 115% of winner time wise
• Race own race don't get sucked into other people's strategies.

I have been training hard for this year's event however, unlike previous years where my only training has been cycling. This year I have been going to a gym (Elite Sports Performance) to work on my core strength. I have also been riding a trainer to try and increase my power for when the trail gets soft. All of this extra training seemed to work for me as I had my best performance at this event ever.

The race

As seems to be the way with this race it started off relatively quickly. Josh (1st Place) and Tim (2nd Place) had set off at a good pace and slowly increased their gap on all who followed along.

Josh and Tim in the distance, following Tom and Nico 

Looking back before saying bye to Megan

Frosty selfie

Around 25min into the race Megan passed me and jumped up towards Nico and another rider. I didn't have that pace in me so maintained my pace and rode mostly with Tom though to check point 1, Laura Fox had caught back up along with Mike Estes. We arrived arrived at checkpoint 1 around 3 min after Megan and 9 min after the leaders.

After checkpoint 1 we get on some really straight trails through to checkpoint 2 at Flat horn.

Chasing 

Smiling

Still straight 

We all arrived at Flathorn around 10 min behind Megan and 18min behind the leaders. Tom took his bike up to the checkpoint (I didn't know you could do that) and that was the last I saw of him.

After leaving Flat Horn whilst trying to eat a burrito I almost crashed on some overflow on the lake. As I rode through the Dismal swamp Laura caught back up to me she had stopped to get water at the checkpoint. The trail was getting pretty soft as we approached the river. Once on the Su the trail was a lot firmer although bumpy. Laura and I set about trying to catch the people in front of us. We passed scary tree and the non racer in me stopped to get a photo.

Scary Tree

Selfie ;-)

As we got into 5*tent camp on the Deshka river we had caught up with Dusty Eroh. He was about to leave before we were ready however, when asked if he wanted to ride with us he said yes.

finally off the river and onto the swamps

Now the three of us started working together to try and catch those ahead/maintain our position in the race. We were sitting 6th through 9th at this point.

We rolled into Eagle Quest having passed another racer (not sure on their name) who was dealing with cramping on the river.

At Eagle Quest we were still around 9 min back on the group in front of us, another quick stop and we were off to Cow Lake.

This is us rolling out of Eagle Quest, thanks for the support Clint!

Swamp miles

Sunset is aproaching

This is fun with only 30 miles to go. 

A reroute this year took us on a trail called Stevies trail, no pictures but It was steep. We dropped onto Red shirt lake then took a right and before we knew it we popped out at Cow Lake. We were now 20min back on the group in front of us.

A little longer stop here to get water and hope that the trail to the finish was solid. We were chugging along pretty well and dealing with the mechanical issue that Laura's bike seemed to have developed. I stopped to put on my light and looked back and a guy called David Berg had caught up with me. I followed him and let him do the work until we caught up with Dusty and Laura. We rode well as a group of 4 when we came across Andy Duenow on the course who was out taking photos.

I stopped to chat with Andy and he asked where Megan and Tom were? I said "ahead of us". He said "nope, I have only seen Josh and Tim riding the course and I have been riding the course in reverse." I quickly started back after the group to tell them we were now chasing 3rd place and really we should get a move on in case the group we had been chasing caught back on. It seems that Megan, Nico and Tom took a wrong turn on the course which is really sad, but it is also part of this race.

We worked well together though the last checkpoint and carried on taking 0.5 mile pulls through the finish to maintain our pace. At mile 98 I was done and could no longer hold the wheel of the riders in front of me, I also really needed to pee. I let my fellow racers battle it out and I pushed on after a short pee break. This years edition was definitely tougher than the 2016 edition though not as bad as my first year.

All done and a little shell shocked - PC Clint

But happy I have finished 

Results vs goals

I achieved all of my goals with the exception of the 115% one. I was 116% of the winning time.

I am so stoked, even if Megan, Nico and Tom hadn't gotten lost I would still have been top 10 which is way better than I expected when I initially signed up. Go me :D

Full results should be at the following link

Holy crap 6th Place

What wilI I do differently next time?

The burritos I took were to big, though super tasty next time I will take smaller ones. My food seemed to work well. I would take more mix for the bottle though and fill it more frequently. My hydration pack worked well but I want a Wampack from Revelate Designs. It was to much of an issue to get the hose out as it is behind a couple of zips.

And finally

A huge thanks to all who put this event on, it is a blast and really well organised. I really couldn't do this type of event without the support of friends and more importantly family. Amanda once again I am eternally grateful for all that you do.

Strava file