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.

rainy weekend

mileage: 7/23 - 15

average mph: 18

total July mileage: 105 (haven't been keeping track daily on the blog, sorry)

Saturday was the only day that Steve and I had off together, and we made the most of it. It actually turned out to be a total "bike" day. We did the maintenance both our roadies had been sorely needing. I re-wrapped my handlebars (the white I did a few months ago was nasty already - I got blue/black this time), lubed everything, swapped out my touring pedals for my Shimano clipless pedals, fine tuned my seat height and adjusted the tilt of my handlebars. Steve had lots to do on his Trek 400. He picked it up at a bike swap a little over a year ago for cheap and hasn't had time since then to give it any TLC. It needed adjustments to the dérailleur and lots of lube. We also put my touring pedals on it until he can get a clipless set up. Tonight I'm going to rewrap his handlebars since his is worn through and torn in some spots.

After getting the bike ready to hit the road, we stopped at REI to do some bike related shopping, and ended up getting some new Vittoria Randonee touring tires for his bike. He had some 700x25 inverted tread tires on and they were pretty unforgiving on the bumpy, rooty bike paths around town. The new ones are 700x28 which makes a huge difference for him. I grabbed some new Pearl Izumi bike shoes and we messed around in the parking lot for 10 minutes as I accustomed myself to riding with the clipless set up. I only fell once and it was a pretty clumsy moment. I was riding around in circles, smile wide as I thought about just how much more efficient this set up was going to be. I decided to stop, and I decided not to get out of my pedals until I had already stopped. I got my right foot out before I tipped over, eyes growing wide as I hit the ground on my left side, my foot still attached to the pedal and my hand still on the handlebar. Steve ran over as I started laughing at the ridiculousness of the spill.

We headed down to the Chester Creek trail system and headed towards Goose Lake. We decided to explore the trails around the college so I could figure out timing for commuting to school in the fall. I bike a lot last year, but never went all the way on the trail. I'd usually get off at Lake Otis and ride alongside the road. But I prefer to avoid the roads surrounding the college if at all possible, especially in when the snow flies.

We stopped at Goose Lake after looping around the various roads and bike paths that connected the two sides of campus to eat the tuna sandwiches I packed as a light rain started to fall. It looked like there were various single-tracks forking off of the main paved trail, and I couldn't wait to explore them later. That is one of the reasons I want a cross bike in the summer - it's would be perfect for commuting on paved paths and for a little off road action.

We saw a couple moose across the lake right as we were about to head back home, and we stopped to watch them for a minute or two. Watching animals in the quiet of their natural habitat always fills me with a warm sense of peace. I could watch for hours, it's often hard to tear myself away from the tranquil scene and bike or hike back to the often hectic real world.