knucklehead

mileage: 7/25-7/27 10; 7/28 16.8

time: 73 minutes

temp: 55 degrees F

total July mileage: 131.8

After posting about our trip this morning to the Eagle River Nature Center, I was sort of bored. I had cleaned the house after Steve left for work at 6:30am and didn't feel like reading. So I went for a bike ride. I just wanted to go for a short one, to scout out a route from my house to the Glenn Highway bike path. I just wore my cycling shorts, Smartwool socks, with a base-layer and fleece-ish hoodie; but I ended up going back for thin gloves. It was chilly! I warmed up pretty fast as I headed through the busy downtown streets.

Once I got to Third Avenue, it was a straight shot through Mountain View to the bike path. Problem is, it was a straight shot with about a million stop lights and intersections that I had to be very careful crossing. It was only about 5.6 miles, but it felt like forever. That part of the trip took about 40 minutes because of its stop-and-go nature. Annoying.

I went about two miles down the highway, then turned onto Muldoon road and followed it up to Debarr. Bad idea. There is still construction on the sidewalk, which means most of it is loose gravel, plus lots and lots of plywood "bridges." Add to that the multitude of crazy and pretty much incompetent drivers speeding by and it was somewhat of a harrowing ride. Debarr was actually quite a bit better, and that part of the trip flew by.

I turned into Russian Jack Park and hooked up with the East end of the Chester Creek Trail system there. I wish I would have stopped to take some pictures there, it was dark from the heavy tree cover, and the wide, paved path was still completely wet from the last week of rain. I didn't see another cyclist on those paths, and I made a mental note to go back soon. I hit an extremely brutal patch of the greenbelt after meeting up with the Chester Creek Trail - I had to slow my pace to 14 mph, which felt teeth-jarringly fast over the large roots that had split the pavement on that patch of trail. It was smooth sailing once I got past Lake Otis, and I was at Westchester Lagoon within minutes.

Happy to be on the familiar (and much less teeth-jarring) end of the Chester Creek Trail.

Pretty quiet at the Lagoon for a non-rainy day...

This reminded me that I need to tune up my roller skies and start training for ski season, problem is, I'm having too much fun on my bike...and since a Surly Pugsley is in my relatively near future, I don't know how much skiing I'll be doing this winter ;)

I haven't really decided yet which route was better. Maybe I should try the Chester Creek Trail and get to the highway via Boniface rather than going down to Muldoon? I guess I'll have to go on a test ride.

Unfortunately, about half way into my ride, I realized there was a knucklehead ride scheduled at work this evening that I had planned on joining. The plan was to leave REI at 6:30, take the Chester to UAA, take the Elmore overpass to Tudor Rd, then Campbell Airstrip road up to Stuckagain Heights and back. Hmmm...we'll see what happens. Not sure I have much motivation left, especially since Steve is home. Maybe I'll have to postpone till next Wednesday's knucklehead ride.