Alternative Tour of Anchorage

On Sunday 6th December I was lucky enough to be able to ride all day.  The only reason I was able to do this was that Amanda agreed to look after Fiona and let me go and play.
A friend (Clint) who is trying to get some long miles in as training for a big event was planning a big day out and I joined him, along with a few other friends.
We started as a group of 5 at Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop I highly recommend this as a starting point for around town loops, not only are they close to the trails but the baked goods provide some great sustenance for riding all day. Over coffee, cakes and scones a route around town was quickly hashed together.

Getting ready to leave (Laura, Nico, Chuck, Tony and Clint)
Tony didn't join us this time as he had his own ride planned. 

One of the huge advantages of being this far north in the winter is the ability to get out on a ride before sunrise and still not actually have to get up that early.

This was taken a little after 10:20am

Another advantage is the golden hour light which pretty much lasts all day, you will see this in the photos later on.

Our route took us along the coastal trail to Point Woronzof where  the 100stone project is placed.

100 Stone Project

We joined the beach for around 10 miles of riding.  The "beach" is a mixture of coastal mud flats, frozen sand, rocks and icebergs. 

The start of the beach, lots of icebergs

Playing around on the icebergs

Selfie/watching out for icebergs, its a lot harder doing these off road.

Big Iceberg - Photo credit Laura Fox

Me riding some frozen mud flats - Photo credit Laura Fox

Confirming that the snow hasn't bonded to the ice, I think we all crashed once. 

Shortly after some sketchy unbonded snow we joined up with another friend Ryan who guided us around the rest of the beach to our exit point at Campbell Creek.

More iceberg fun - photo credit Ryan Greeff

Another golden hour light photo opportunity 

Looking out over Campbell Creek tidal section
- Photo credit Ryan Greeff

After a fuel stop at a local supermarket our route took us across some lakes and swamps before heading back across town on one of the local green belts to Campbell Tract and Bicentennial Park for more swamp riding and a little singletrack.

Supermarket refuel

Riding on frozen lakes

Swamp riding

Swamp riding selfie

Bridge on green belt

New blue dot trail

discussing route options 

Riding the last section of swamps before we all headed home
- Photo Credit Ryan Greeff

Sunset

All in all a grand day out with a good variety of everything that fat biking can offer. If you live in Anchorage and the tides and weather play in your favour I highly recommend going for a ride amongst the icebergs it was a lot of fun.

The weather still sucks... but some riding opportunities have opened up.

The weather pattern appears to be holding which means we still have no snow.  The good news is it has cooled off which has opened up some interesting riding opportunities if you have studded tyres on your bike.

We met up at the trail head on Elmore road and took the trails to the swamps.  The pace was relaxed as we headed out for some swamp/lake  riding.

After about 25min of riding and a tough climb if your only bike has only one gear, Kevin I still think you can't claim your bike as a single speed just because you only ride in one gear at a time. We arrived at our first swamp/lake.
In case anyone was wondering (for my Mum really) 4" of ice is enough to support a person, this ice was way thicker than that and if we did go through it would only go up to mid thigh at the most.

Swamp ice

With some of us getting used to the traction that studded tyres offer it was a learning experience to discover the limits of traction.

Skids are for kids :)

Andrew is a pro, tripod method

Kevin first attempt at a 360 degree spin

After tooling around on the first lake we rode onto the second lake,  

Onwards to the next lake

Wheelie on water

Ice ring

The circle which someone on skates had left gave Kevin an idea, a game of foot down shortly followed.

Riding in circles

still going

Once we had completed that game Kevin and Andrew deciding some resistance training was the order of the day.

Mush!

return trip

This is a short video of us riding on the lake. 

Alas our time before work was as limited as ever and given three of the five people who were riding needed to go to work we finished up our ride with some fun trails back to the trail head.  

In case any locals are reading this studded tyres really work well for the Campbell tract and bicentennial park areas right now, if you have them get out there and enjoy the snow free time, sure beats riding a road bike!

Strava plot of where we rode