loch caillte

twice since returning from my work induced tropical paradise i've gone somewhere for the weekend+, and twice now it's rained the entire time. during my first outing i found my future hometown, during this one, i got to ride what i can now confidently refer to as the best singletrack that i know of in alaska.

i went for 30ish mile ride/informal race called chuckapalooza - spawn of soggy. half of the race is on one of the kenai classic singletracks that i had yet to ride, and i was about to get a very soggy introduction to it.

i procrastinated as much as possible on friday, which i'm very good at. finally shut the door of my truck and got rolling at around 3:00, which should have put me in the primrose campground at 6ish, and it would have, if i hadn't had so much trouble finding an accident-free intersection while driving through anchorage. finally pulled in a little closer to 7 and found no other riders there. i just figured they all had more sense than i did and would stay home to avoid the rain and mud. i did, however find out that the campground is free after labor day, after most of the tourists have stopped touristing.



the fungi were going nuts in the campground.









hot fungi on fungi action...



carlos, the organizer, showed up after a bit. food was eaten, beer was consumed, and a stellar's jay, which is the only bird i've ever seen with eyebrows, blue ones no less, landed right on carlos' handlebar to pose for a few photos.





next morning the ground was wetter than it was the night before.a couple more riders had shown up later in the evening, and nearing the start time, it was looking like a 3 person ride. start was postponed a half hour just in case more people showed up, and within fifteen minutes a bunch of people arrived from different directions. by the time we started there were at least 13 riders.





the monkee had offered to show me the way if i got lost, since we seem to be of similar pace inclinations of late, and are both from the only state out there that can trump the greatness of alaska. as we were all lining up for the start, he suggests, quietly, that it might be better if he and i ride the loop in reverse. i have absolutely no idea what we're in for, aside from crappy weather and slippery trails, so of course i agreed.

we snuck off from the pack, and only almost mislead 1 other rider, taylor. the long lake trail is fairly new, and in an area where the loamy, rooty layer can be several feet thick, so mineral soil isn't always an available option. basically, where the trail surface wasn't the consistency of a wet mattress (most of it), it was the consistency of butter, and it was criss-crossed by numerous water bars and roots, which were slick enough to make me think they were buttered. there were quite a few opportunities for play though, with rather wide stumps cut down near ground level and assorted other goodness. after a year of traffic, it's going to be a kick ass trail.


the trail out of the campground:











more fungus amongus





from there it was a 5ish mile road downhill coast-a-thon to the lost lake trail head. lost lake is the one everybody calls they're favorite. and it didn't disappoint. the surface was firm, the grade was mellow enough for enjoyable ss climbing, even with my legs starting to burn, and there were enough rocks to keep it interesting. i put myself on a cliff blok and water diet for the ride, and it worked pretty well. i went through 4+ packets(6 bloks per pkt) and a sweet and salty granola bar, and was never hungry, never cramped.



in addition to all the other wonderful attributes mentioned in the previous paragraph, once you break treeline, the views are killer, even on a foggy, cloudy day like yesterday. waterfalls, canyons, the bay, multi-colored hills.









that last photo shows part of the lake the trail is named after. there are very few photos of the trail from this point on, and that is because, despite how undeniably great it is, lost lake trail is not my new favorite alaskan trail. primrose is. as soon as we split off onto the trail, it got twistier, steeper, chunkier and rougher with more opportunities for fun lines. i was having an absolute blast from that point on to the finish. it's rolling for a bit up on the 'top', but eventually you crest one last little hill and can see kenai lake in the distance, way below you.



from that point on, it was almost entirely downhill, and got steeper, rockier and rootier. tons of fun. the monkee steered me right, and we rolled across the finish line into a magical land of pork ribs and beer, lots of beer. and later on whiskey as well. delicious whiskey. despite taking what may(or may not) have been the more difficult direction, we still managed to finish somewhere in the middle. chuck d crushed us all of course, finishing in a bit over 3 hours, parker showed up with a nasty case of swine flu and managed to finish just 15 or so minutes down on chuck. a few more riders and then we finished in a few minutes over 5 hours. riders kept rolling in for several more hours after us.

it was definitely a sloppy, slippery ride, but well worth the drive down and i'll definitely be doing it again. big thank you to carlos for everything he does for the mtb community up here.

my bike



i swapped out all my fun components for my less heavy and more racery ones, and it was a good idea. the tires rolled faster and lighter and i was more comfortable. only issue was a few instances of rear brake induced axle slippage on the primrose downhill, all within about a 5 minute span.

the view from the start/finish area.

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.

ag imirt ar mo rothar.