luain lasrach, toin lasrach....

Big group ride up over Hatcher pass and down to Meadow Lakes yesterday. Last year's iteration of this ride saw more than a foot of snow on the ground, this years, barely any. It also saw me making a hasty retreat with frozen toes before even making it to the parking lot at Independence mine. This year saw 14 riders, 12 fat bikes, 11 bikes with fat tires, two different fat tire tread patterns, @60 miles, over a pass, beer, bar-b-que and good company.

I set my alarm for 5am in order to get myself and the Karate monkey shod and ready for the ride, after spending most of Friday breaking a sewing machine. Got up at 4:59, before the alarm, and was then woken at 8:11 by a phone call from Mark, of Wildfire cycles, offering me a lift to the 10AM start. So it was a speedy shower, breakfast, try to find clean riding clothes appropriate for the weather, and through the only completely assembled bike I have (the SSStump) in the back of the truck and try not to forget anything important...

We barely made it to the parking lot before the group took off. Quickly got the bikes together, restaged the group start photos, and took off, immediately hitting a steep, 2 mile climb in the cold alpine air. That one hurt the lungs a bit, and while the SSStump is, in fact, a girlie multi-speed contraption, it's easiest gear is a 32f x 24r, so I was soon walking at about the same pace people were riding



It was refreshing to see a variety of fat tire tread patterns in the snow.







colorful fat bikes



colorful people





From the top of the pass, it was an incredibly fun ripper of a downhill. @3600' of elevation lost. Perfect trail conditions, frozen and fast without a hint of ice.







The group was dramatically reduced in size after the bar, and the rest of the ride was on bike path. My thighs were starting to burn by the time we got there, 30 or so miles in. The bacon cheeseburger and beer didn't help that as much as I though they would.

just your everyday team of huskies pulling a four wheeler down the bike path....


About ten miles from the Frank's cabin(the finish), we rounded a bend into a direct Matanuska head wind, laced with airborne glacial silt. My burning thighs became cramping thighs, and the SSStump was relegated to the wussiest two of it's 4 working gears. It was during this stretch that I also really began to regret forgetting to apply some shammy butter... We soldiered on through it though, and were rewarded with a feast of chili, brats, baked goods, beer, coffee and a warm cabin, all courtesy of our hosts and friends.

The finishers: beer, bar-b-que and excellent hospitality were the reward.

sneachta bui

wintumn has arrived in the matanuska-susitna valley. it rained down in the valley all day yesterday, and the one time i left the house, the hills were all obscured by low hanging clouds. it was a very grey day. looked out the window this morning after watching the salton sea to spot a newly snow-capped pioneer peak through the yellow and gold. ran some errands in wasilla, and upon leaving lowes, i noticed that wasilla baldy was blanketed with a thick white layer up top. i almost crashed into someone pulling into the post office parking lot because i was looking up.

got home and debated my options over a beast ice. i've been wanting to check out the april bowl trail in hatcher pass, so that seemed like a reasonable option. got some light hiking clothes on and headed out the door. in had stopped raining for the most part, so i had an enjoyable drive to the little su, lots of folliage. as i continued on i ascended through at first a dusting, then enough to cause some slush on the road. the views were really inducing of giddiness. i actually jumped and skipped a little back to my truck after taking one of the photo stops on the way up.

up past archangel mine road, they had been plowing. kept going. indy mine parking lot. debated the pass. the gravel road looked maybe slippery and someone had been backing down in an suv when i passed it. i locked the hubs, put it in four X and went for it. i was relatively certain that my cracked negative terminal clamp would rattle loose at some point up the washboards, and it did. but not untill i got to where i turned around. once the actuall pass was in view, i pulled over to let a descending truck pass. got out to take in the view, and when i got back in there was no ignition response. simple matter of popping the hood and re-attaching it. the pass was getting dumped on though, so i knew there would be no hike, and likely no view. a look back where i came from told me that it was also now snowing again down below. so i called it as good a spot as any to turn around and head back home.













a few more of these and it'll be here to stay.

let it snow!

suas 'is suas, 'is suas aris.

so, i did get in a little road(bike path) spin last night. headed out down the palmer - wasilla hwy to the lake wasilla overlook/fishing dock type thing and got a photo of the killer sunset at about 8:45pm. i felt pretty ok for the whole ride, but i definitely lack the power in my legs that was present last year. standing sprints up short hills hurt really bad right now. seated grinding not so much.



then i did quite a bit today, believe it or not. or not. but i did do some things. after wasting only most of the morning, i managed to get on the bike and out the door by about 11:30ish, with the intention of riding up toward hatcher pass and deciding on the pass proper or archangel mine as a goal for the day when the time came. i overpacked with water, packed just the right amount of food, and forgot my legs at home.

palmer fishhook is a nice easy spin, and a good warm up, as is the incredibly scenic hatcher pass portion of it, where it starts heading uphill for real. i stopped a couple of times for photos on the way to the gold mint trail head, because i really just can't get over the views. once at the trailhead, and with much trepidation about the increasing steepness of the next 4ish miles, i pedalled lightly around in circles while eating a sweet and salty nut bar. it was deliscious, as they always are. i debated just hitting up gold mint instead, but i've done that before.

photos up to that point:







from the gold mint trailhead and now defunct(and for sale!)mother lode lodge, you ride past the avalanche gates and immediately start the real climbing. there are two short shelves of relief for the next mile and a half or so till the grade behaves itself a little bit. the turn off for archangel mine is halfway up this section. i needed only one episode of soft-pedaling in circles for a few seconds about halfway through this section, and my legs actually felt not so bad for the first little bit. at the second shelf, i soft pedaled to recover a smidge. the road pitches up fairly steeply here and around a bend. not la ruta or manayunk steep or anything, but steeper than the previous climbing had been. i went to stand and pedal and it just hurt. my thighs did not want to support my new and improved girthy waistline, an exaggerated photo of which(fully clothed, sorry), you'll see in a bit.

fyi, the slower you go, uphill, the slower wtb stouts, f & r, roll.

i switched back and forth between standing-dancing on the pedals and seated grinding till it just became way to sucky to go in a straight line anymore. so i started that silly zig-zag crap that you always watch people do and say to yourself, "what an ass, he's riding twice as far.". and i was, for that little bit, but it did seem to allow me to recover enough to get to the next pull out where i definitely needed to stop and take a 39 photo panoramic....



from there to the hatcher pass lodge, the pavement mellows out a little bit, but still climbs fairly steadily. it was manageable, but i was definitely in a world of hurt. the old sean, at this point, would have said, "yep, close enough. i'm in pain and the summit will pretty much always be there."



but, i hung a left onto the gravel and soldiered on. it was actually refreshing to be on the gravel, and the tires felt much more at home. i stopped to take another photo that i really, really needed.



kept riding a bit, then got to a too steep climbing turn, and dismounted to walk it. that was pretty much the end of my riding upwards. i got on and tried pedalling a little here and there up the rest of the climb, but the legs weren't having it. so the last mile and a half or so were a hike for me, this time.



forget the look of desperation on my face, check out that belly! sweet! i was actually seeing spots at this point.



the top in view.



and a screwed up panorama from my top of the pass picnic spot.



auto stitch is to blame for that missing chunk. it was there in my photos, but the pano came out all screwy when i tried uploading all of the photos at once. i tried removing one section, hoping it would use that to define the ends, but instead it used it to define the center. i've gotta get better at using that program. it's pretty much awesome. every panoramic shot of mine you see was stitched together from a bunch of photos i took by autostitch.

heres that missing chunk in case you don't believe me.



i didn't linger too long at the top, as i had a speedy, 10ish mile, 3500' coast ahead of me back down to the rolling parts of palmer fishhook. even with the pain and suffering, and stopping and spot seeing, i still managed out the 40ish miles in about 3.5 hrs. that was acceptable to me, all things considered. i wont be satisfied though, till i can comfortably ride all the way to the top without stopping on the mtb.


so i got home, and sat myself outside in my carving chair and got to work on a rather large piece of cottonwood bark. as i was chopping away at it with my scorp, i heard some rustling in the bushes at the back end of the yard. i looked over and saw some grasses moving about, realized it wasn't a moose so i sat still and waited. finally the little head of the porcupine poked out, and it proceeded to scurry across the lawn in front of me. they walk really awkwardly, though i suppose i would as well if i had a bunch of needles sticking out of my ass. once it was past me, i went inside and told sam to keep the dogs in, grabbed my camera and headed outside. my attempts to photograph it failed and actually resulted in me driving it into the (unoccupied) dog run. one way in, one way out. little retard was now trapped. sam came running out to see and mentioned something about the quills shooting, which i didn't believe, but it still made me a little wary. i followed it around the pen for a while, taking photos. it found the alleys between the dog houses to be convenient hiding spots.







it really was cute.

finally i jumped up on top of and started kicking the dog houses to try to get the thing out of there. it worked, and it scurried off out the gate, stepping twice into the water bowl.



i then proceeded to make possibly the worst carving of my life, which will be cut up and re-carved significantly.

and now i'm going to bed. my legs feel surprisingly ok after all that abuse today.

siul sleibhe

been riding a bit since i got back, but mostly being a shiftless layabout and wasting my money buying things i don't need on the internet. my legs were pretty dead from having a month and a half without the bike, but they came around quick enough. went for a hike/scramble today up in independence mine state park. really, really foggy. went as far up the one ridge as i felt comfortable doing with noone knowing my whereabouts. basically that means i got to a point where realized my inner pussy, went a little further, took some pictures, then turned around and gingerly made my retreat to a less mellow grade. it was fun though, and i got some good photos out of it.