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A family bike trip in Denali NP

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

It seems like every time I go to pick up the twins they feel heavier – they seem to be growing like little weeds. Little weeds who are now big enough to start hauling themselves on trips… and so we found ou selves setting off on a bike tour with the twins on the Denali Park road. I have always enjoyed biking the Denali park road – it is quite scenic, fairly well maintained, and once you get past the first 15 miles the only drivers you encounter are running tour buses. The tour buses always seem to give bikers lots of room and are fairly courteous. Our plans for the weekend were relatively modest – to bike the 30 miles or so into the Teklanika campground, spend the night, then bike back out the next day. The first 15 miles or so are paved and while there are hills, there is nothing tremendously steep so it should be a good introduction to bike touring with the twins.

The twins were very excited about the trip and were very eager to get started and have the adventure begin! After doing all the initial check in and paper work that visits to Denali NP seem to require these days, we started pedaling and were off!

The twins were riding their tag-along bikes , which are sort of a half tandem bike that attaches to the parent’s bike seat post. Nancy and I were hauling the gear in standard panniors, though for such a short trip not much gear is required. We have done bike trips with the twins before, but in those bike trips the twins spent all the bike time in a child hauling trailer – with the tag-alongs the twins could help power us along, as they could now pedal. The pressure was definitely on, because, as Molly pointed out, if they were not pedaling we could tell, as the free wheel makes a clicking noise while freewheeling. Molly and Lizzy are slightly different sizes these days, so they girls each get their own tag-along, and as they are a bit of a pain to swap back and forth, the girls did not swap back and forth between parents. Molly rode with me, and Lizzy with Nancy. The girls were quite good sports, chugging away while we biked up and down the hills on the first several miles of the road. After 7 miles or so a snack break was called and everyone pulled off the road to have a little something to eat. Biking is hard work when your legs are less than a foot long!

Eventually we reached Savage River where the pavement stops and the road is closed to the public. We waited in line with the other vehicles and eventually had our turn to get our passes checked and received permission to continue.

I should point out that we were definitely an oddity – we saw one other biker while biking in, a heavily laden European fellow who looked a bit shocked to see us. I expect passing two five year olds doing a similar bike tour to you makes your experience seem a bit less “epic”. The first section of the park road is open to the public and gets a fair bit of vehicle traffic. The girls had been instructed to wave at the passing cars, and took this to heart, waving to all the buses, RVs, and other random vehicles traveling the roads.

The last 15 miles or so of the of the road from Savage River to the campground we were staying at are on a fairly nice dirt road. When we were there it was in great shape, without a lot of mud, dust, or washboarding. It has some hills but nothing particularly steep, and having the twins help power up the hills was very nice – I could definitely notice when Molly was pedaling.

The riding with kids is a bit slower than with adults, as they are not quite old enough to snack on the bike, and of course need the occasional distraction. We stopped every 7 miles or so for a snack break. The twins got very good at spotting the mile posts along the road.

We also stopped to let them explore anything interesting on the side of the road, like culverts waiting to be installed.

One of our stops was at a pull-off with outhouses that is also used by the tour bus companies. When we arrived there were several buses pulled up and a the tour guide (perhaps color commentator is more appropriate description) was well into giving a talk about life in Alaska. Sometimes I wonder how the tour companies select these folks, as the talk mainly seemed to involve oil tax regimes and was given in a AM radio talk show style a-la Sean Hannity – riveting. The vistors were milling around and since we were doing something interesting like biking with kids and not talking about such exciting subjects like oil taxes a fair number of people came up to say hi and say how impressed they were we were out biking the road. This was fantastic positive reinforcement for the twins, as here real live grownups were saying they could never do this as it would be just too hard. It was also a bit depressing from my point of view, as really this trip was not particularly epic, and almost everyone I saw would have been capable of doing what we were doing, and a fair number of them would probably even enjoy it more than riding in a cramped bus. Such is life.. Eventually we arrived at the campground.

We biked around the two loops that form the campground, found a spot, and unloaded. The twins were very excited as our campsite was surrounded by small spruce with enough understory they could play under them – it was almost like having their own tree houses. They had a great time exploring and were very busy running around and checking things out. Nothing was left unexplored, even a random pile of gravel near a tent site, were they found a rock that could be used to draw on other rocks – exciting stuff!

Eventually we set up our tent and made dinner.

After dinner we joined the other campers and attended a talk put on by an interpretive ranger that included a wide range of subjects and ended with half the audience getting blindfolded and hugging a tree. Lizzy did the honors for us.

After the talk we headed back to our tent and got everyone ready for bed. While we were getting ready one of our campground neighbors who arrived in a large RV came by and talked to us for a bit. She seemed very baffled as to how we could survive the night and asked us “What do you do when it rains?”. She seemed very baffled by our attempts to explain that we had rain gear, and a tent, so rain was no problem. Eventually everyone was ready for bed, but alas sleeping in a tent is a bit exciting, so it took a while for everyone to calm down enough to go to sleep.

It took a while though.

It rained on and off all through the night and was still raining when the morning arrived. The twins were unfazed, as they have rain gear, sandals with plastic bags covering their socks, and rain paints, making them very rain proof.

The biking was quite good on the way out, and a fair bit faster as this section of the road has more downhill overall on the way out. It was a bit more muddy though, which Molly enjoyed, but Lizzy less so due to Nancy’s lack of fenders.

The road was still in good shape though and everyone had fun even with the mud.

When we reached the pavement we started seeing motivational signs and the occasional aid station – it turns out we arrived just before a half marathon was to start.

The last miles on pavement zoomed by, as they are almost entirely down hill. By the time we reached the parking lot everyone had impressive mud stripes.

After visting the bathroom for a little “de-mudding” we headed off to glitter gulch to get some pizza and ice cream. This was a fantastic trip – everyone had a great time even with the wet weather. Our first bike trip where everyone pedaled was a success, which bodes well for future bike trips. There are so many wonderful roads in Alaska to explore and as the kids get bigger I am looking forward to doing some fun bike adventures with them.

Major kudos to Molly and Lizzy for being such troopers!

Tags: bike touring, biking, denali np, family, mellow, Nancy, teklanika, the_twins
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The 2011 Whites 100

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

“Let’s take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won’t you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!”
– Electric Car, They Might Be Giants

I am not sure why folks need music players on long races. I am so busy keeping the bike on a fast line, eating, thinking about the trail ahead (checkpoints, huge hills, etc), and generally “being there” that I have never had need of music to keep my mind occupied. I have now done three “ultras”, all with a music player of some sort stuffed into that mp3 player pocket jackets seem to come with these days and have never turned it on. Perhaps someday the player will be required, as I am pretty new to long races, so I will, I expect, keep taking a player along. I am not sure it will ever be required though, as after several hours have gone by music just starts to randomly play in my head, and fortunately I always seem to like the songs. During the last hours of my Whites 100 I had several They Might Be Giants songs stuck in my head from albums I have been listening to with the Twins. Somewhere between the final checkpoint and the trail shelter the “Electric Car” started playing in my head, keeping me entertained while I pushed up the Wickersham Wall and a short while later finished the 100.

The race started on a Sunday morning, so on Saturday I packed up the bike and got everything ready to go. I took a short test ride around the local trails and bumped into the eventual fourth place finisher who was on a similar quick jaunt to make sure the wheels still spun and other bike bits all still worked. Everything seemed in order, so I loaded the bike into the truck, and spent the rest of the day with the twins and Nancy. In the evening I headed to bed early, but soon found I was much too excited to actually sleep, and so I kept Nancy up with my tossing and turning.

Eventually the morning arrived and we headed out after leaving the Twins still sleeping away in their beds with a friend. We headed out of town after picking up Tom, and in a little less than a hour we arrived at the start of the race. The trailhead was full of excitement and activity, with folks unloading their bikes, skis, and sleds. Eventually everyone lined up at the start, and after a count down everyone was off. The start of the race was a bit of a mad house – lots of skiers and bikers heading up hill on a narrow trail. I ended up pushing for the first quarter mile or so before things thinned out enough that the folks were actually moving fast enough to warrant riding. The trail was very, very fast – wonderfully hard and good riding.

My goal for this race was to push my self a bit more than I normally do – the last two 100 mile races I have done I did in a pretty mellow conservative style and didn’t push to hard in order to make sure I didn’t completely collapse before the end. The end result was I finished with quite a bit of energy left and the feeling that perhaps I should have gone a bit harder, so for this race the idea was to push a bit harder and see how things go. I hoped to reach the high point of the race, the Cache Mt divide, before the afternoon when I expected things to get pretty soft and warm. Once over the divide the trail is sheltered by mountains and trees, so I expected it would remain pretty firm even durring mid day, so the riding would still be good durring the warm part of the day. Or so I hoped anyway. I reached the first checkpoint fairly quickly and past a number of skiers on the way. The skiers were really hauling, but the firm snow definitely gave bikers the edge.

After about two hours I reached the first checkpoint, where I signed in and out right away, and headed back out. Soon after the checkpoint I dropped my camera after passing a skier and that was the end of the photos. I passed several skiers and one biker before reaching the next checkpoint around noon. Checkpoint number two, Cache Mt cabin, was staffed by several happy souls, including one fellow, Bob, who had skied the race the year prior. I did a quick check in, topped off with water, grabbed a foil wrapped baked potato, and headed back out. The next 10 miles of the course are gradually uphill and eventually lead to the highest point on the race, Cache Mt divide. This section of trail always seems to take forever on skis, but zoomed by on a bike in the race. I had pretty much assumed I would be pushing up this hill, and was very, very surprised it could be almostly completely ridden. It appears from the tracks that the leading bikers rode the entire way up – alas I was a bit to wimpy for that and pushed in a couple of spots. Amazingly at least one skier skied the whole way up, and appeared to have double poled up several steep sections where the trail was narrow. Just before I reached the divide I was passed by a skier, Cory Smith, who was slowly skating up the divide. Slowly skating, but going quite a bit faster than I was pushing.. The divide was marked by a snow sculpture this year, which I assume was put up by some of the race staff. Just before the divide there is a little tiny windswept tree with a single marten set in it – when ever I pass it I always wonder what the trapper was thinking, as all the marten are safely back down the hill a mile or so back in the trees.

The ride down the divide to the ice lakes was a exciting exercise in punchy snow riding, with several crashes and lots of flailing. Just before the ice lakes started I was passed by three skiers going full bore. It would be another two hours or so before I would catch up with them again. The trail at this point was fairly soft and marginal for riding. A biker caught up with me and suggested I air down while passing me, and taking his advice let some air out. I probably should have aired down right after heading down the divide, as it made riding much easier, and before I knew it I was back in the shade of the trees and the riding sped up again. I made a brief stop at checkpoint three, Windy Gap cabin, getting more water and a bowl of meatball soup and then headed back down the trail.

I have done the section from the ice lakes to Windy Gap cabin several times before, but only in the dark, and was very, very impressed by the wonderful views. I will have to get back this way again some time in the daylight again. The next twenty miles of trail were super fast. I caught up with the three skiers who passed me and eventually got by them and on to the final checkpoint, Borealis Cabin. I checked my GPS just before I passed the final skier and was amazed to see them going a little under 15 miles an hour, on an ever so slight downhill – amazing! I ducked into Borealis, signed in, drank some Coke, had some chips, and headed out again, just in time to see two of the skiers arrive. They were making quite good time – I think they averaged almost 10 miles an hour from Windy Gap to Borealis, which is pretty darn fast. I think I have skied this in section in around 5 hours before, and they had just did it in around 2 – mind numbingly fast!

The next section of trail was a bit harder for me, as my legs were starting to feel the effort, but it was not too bad. I stopped at the Trail Shelter, an “unofficial checkpoint”, chatted a bit with the Kat the volunteer staffing it, and then headed out. I finally passed the “let more air out” biker at this point, and soon caught up and passed another biker just before the final big climb, the Wickersham Wall. She was the last racer I was to see until I finished.. The last miles of the race were a bit of a slog – it started to snow a bit and the trail got to be pretty soft, making for slow, uncertain riding. Eventually I reached the parking lot a little after 9pm and I was done. Alas, I didn’t get to hang out that much as I was in a hurry to get home and take over Twin care, but I did say hi to the racers hanging out watching folks come in. After a couple of minutes of hanging out I packed the bike up, and drove home find to the Twins snorting away and relieved Amy of her child care duties.

I was super happy with my race – I felt good the entire time, with no energy or stomache troubles of any kind. I attribute this mainly to my race mantra of “When In Doubt Drink, Eat!” If I started feeling even a little bit low energy I chugged down more water and gobbled up some food in an attempt to stave off the monsters of dehydration and bonk. This appeared to work pretty well. I could have gone a bit harder in a couple of sections, but all in all I think I did a fairly good job of pushing myself, so I was pretty happy. I got to bed at 12pm or so, and made it up in time to take the Twins to school the next morning. In the afternoon we headed back out to the start and end of the race to wait for Nancy.

Nancy was very surprised to see the whole family waiting for her. She had a great race and I think enjoyed herself immensely – go Nancy go! You can read her account here.

This race is very fun, and highly recommended! The folks running it really understand how these sort of races should be put together, and it shows. Hopefully they keep at it, as this race is sure to be a major hit in the coming years.

Tags: biking, race, snow biking, white mountains, white mountains 100
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The Susitna 100

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

I biked the Susitna 100 last weekend and had an amazingly good time. I didn’t finish in all that impressive of a time (17hours or so, which is nothing compared with the 11 hours times the leaders posted ) but it was sufficiently fast to make me happy.

The Susitna 100 is super well organized, but alas with all this organization comes at a bit of a cost. The race requires you to carry 15lbs of gear, including a -20f sleeping bag, a foam pad, 64oz of water storage, a bivy, and you need to leave the last checkpoint with 3000 calories of food. These rules are enforced with a required gear check two days before the race, were the race officials fondle your sleeping bag to check that its actually -20f and check the other required items, and weigh your stuff, making sure you are over the 15lbs that is required. I ended up with 17lbs of stuff, which seemed like a lot, but I talked to a skier who had over 30lbs of stuff, so its all relative I guess. My 17lbs of stuff included a fair bit of extra bike junk (two tubes, multi tool, extra chain, tire levers), a change of long underwear, a heavy long underwear top, extra socks, first aid supplies, a light insulated jacket, and random extras. And food of course.

I also brought a small hydration pack, with a 100oz hydrobak hydraytion bladder. The hydropak bladders are really quite nice – easy to clean, fill, and are very leak free. I passed the gear check without any trouble, and after the gear check attended the pre-race meeting. The pre-race meeting was best described in one word – DOOOOOMMMM! Pictures of frozen feet were displayed, tales of woe were related. The skiers were told to walk down the steep hills. A weather forecast was issued with the prediction of 4″ to 12″ of fresh snow, and the predicted trail conditions were listed as “challenging to extremely challenging”. The race director said that the last time the conditions were like this half the field scratched. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned. I drove to my folks house were I was staying after the gear check and pre race meeting were over, thinking that this whole thing might have been a mistake – pushing my bike 100 miles was not something I was all that excited about. The next day I had nothing planned, so I visited the trail head were the race starts to check out the trail. There was some fresh snow, but not a lot – about 3″ of snow on the trail, with a very hard base under that – not too big of a deal for biking. I had brought skis on the off chance things got too soft to bike, and the evening before the race I waxed them up and tossed them into the truck just incase. This turned out to be unneeded. I headed out to the race start a little early to check out the trail and was pretty happy with what I saw – it had quite a bit of traffic after the snowfall, and was fairly hard. I parked the truck and got my bike out, then talked to several of the racers who were parked nearby.

Rumor had it that a lodge that serves as a checkpoint for the race had called the race director and related no snow at all had fell recently, and since it was below 0f, the trail was fast and hard. I was quite relieved, and kept the skis in the truck, and soon enough I was lined up at the start line with all the others, and then we were off! The first several miles were complete madness – lots of skaters and bikers flailing around on a narrow punchy trail with small rolling hills. I let two skaters by, then instantly regretted it as they slowed down to a crawl while climbing the several short hills. Eventually I clued in and just started passing folks as soon as they slowed down, which made things much faster. After three miles or so the course turned onto a hard packed road for several miles, and there I kicked into high gear to get passed as many of the skaters as possible, in hopes of not getting stuck behind them again. They appeared to be moving along at a fast clip, and I tried to give a positive word each time I passed one of them. That got me several stink eyes and one flabbergasted look. For the most part attempting to talk to folks was a bad idea – I have a nervous caffeine driven motor mouth, and it was out in full force. The trail turned off the road onto what appeared to be a very wide survey cut or road of some sort, and then eventually though some swamps and narrowish trails before dumping onto a slue connected to Flathorn lake.

Up to this point the trail had been very ridable for the most part – it was occasionally a bit punchy, but otherwise was pretty nice. The first several miles were pretty soft, but since everyone was going so slow, it didn’t make a difference – if I bogged down I just jumped off and started pushing. I could apparently push my bike faster than the folks in front of me were riding, so it was not a big deal. One I hit flathorn lake things really sped up – the trail on the lake was rock hard and with all the bikers in front of me, it was easy to follow the most productive lines.

I made it to the first checkpoint, then checked in and out, and was back on the trail as fast as was possible. The next bit of trail was pretty scenic, but a bit boring.

It was completely flat, except for one short drop onto the susitna river.

Up to this point I was wondering about the hills of doom they warned us about at the pre-race meeting. There had been several little drops but nothing scary on a bike, and only one would have been anything to think about on skis. The drop onto the Su is called the “wall of death”, so I expected something pretty spectacular. Alas, I was disappointed – it was a very short (perhaps 20ft or so) , moderately steep decent with a huge runout at the bottom. It was no problem on a bike and would have been fun on skis. Perhaps it is different other years – I didn’t ask anyone as I was not sure how to politely ask if this was the hill everyone was all excited about. After the Wall Of Death the I continued up the Susitna River, until the confluence of the Yentna River, then headed up the Yentna to Luce’s. Riding on the river was a bit strange – very, very, flat, a bit windy, and super bright. I had never biked on anything quite like this before, so I was a new experience for me. The trail was very hard and fast during this section, making for nice and fast riding. Just before the hitting the Yentna, another biker from Fairbanks, Kevin B, blew past me speeding away. For rest of the race I would see his tracks, as he was one of two racers on narrowed tired bikes. Upon reaching Luce’s I headed up the bank, ducked into the lodge, and bought two Dr Peppers. I chugged them down, then headed back to get on down the trail. I was actively attempting to keep my time at checkpoints down to as little as possible – last year in the Whites 100 I spent a ton of time malingering at the checkpoints and I am not sure it was all that productive. The other major thing I learned from the Whites 100 was “Eat, Drink, Eat!” – I got fairly dehydrated in that race and it really took a toll on me, so while doing the Su I made a effort to drink a lot, and eat when ever possible. When it doubt – Eat, Drink! It seemed to work pretty well – I felt really good the whole race, and never suffered from energy problems. After leaving Luce’s the trail continues up the Yentna, then turns off and heads up into some swampy spruce forests to Alexander Lake. The trail on the Yentna past Luce’s was quite a bit softer but still quite rideable. Once the trail turned off the river things got pretty soft and punchy.

This was not helped by the several packs of large snow machines on the trail that kept the trail pretty churned up. I ended up pushing quite a bit in this section, which was slow but not the end of the world. It felt pretty slow, and I kept thinking that everyone would pass me by, however no one passed me. In fact, on the way in I only saw racers coming out. The lead racers, a trio of bikers, were in a tight pack with determined expressions on their faces – they looked pretty intent. I said something along the lines of “Wow – you guys are zooming!” to the last of the three and got a “ARRRGGGG!!!” out of him in response. They did not look like they were having fun.. I however was having a blast – the trail was pretty soft and it was a bit windy, but it was nice and sunny, with great views of Denali in the distance.

Eventually I made it to Alexander Lake, but not before encountering Sean Grady heading out. I read Sean’s blog, but had not meet him in person Sean appeared to be in touring mode due to the his upcoming trip to Nome during the ITI. Alexander Lake was very windy but very scenic. I hit the lake just as some riders were heading out, and seeing them ride across the lake though the blowing snow was pretty epic.

(This is the last picture as it was soon dark and I finished before dawn. )
I ducked into the cabin at the checkpoint, drank several cups of cocoa, a cup of soup, filled up my hydration bladder, and headed back out. I spent about 25 minutes or so at the checkpoint. The ride back out to the Yentna River was much more fun than the ride in – the wind was at my back and it had gotten a bit colder, letting the trail firm up a bit, and it was now largely ridable. On the way out I past lots and lots of racers heading the other way. I tried to give a friendly word to most of them but alas, I am not sure it was all that appreciated that much – I got off the trail to let the lead skier by and as he passed congratulated him on making good time and got a loud groan in response. The skiers looked miserable – the first pack were attempting to skate and it appeared to be a bit of a slog due to punchy trails and hard, cold snow. Eventually I reached the Yentna and there I encountered my first runner (or walker as was in his case). The Yentna was much more firm than on the way in, and with the super nice tailwind I zoomed downriver to Luce’s, were I ducked in for spaghetti and two more Dr Peppers – yum, yum! Luce’s had some folks in it, but it was not as busy as I expected – there were a handful of skiers and several non-race related snowmachiners hanging around. I talked to several skiers who appeared to be having a good time. After eating I headed back out, and started back down the trail. This point of the race was pretty sureal – the race course was now illuminated by all the racer’s headlights heading up river – it looked like stream of little fire flies. The trail was now pretty hard hard and fast. I should have stopped to add air to my tires, as it was getting a bit colder, but didn’t. I checked my thermometer while on the river, and I think the coldest I saw was -10f or so – really not all that bad. Before I knew it I was back at the Flathorn lake checkpoint. As I headed up to the checkpoint, which as on the bank above the lake, I past a house next to the checkpoint that appeared to have a disco going on inside – the Talking Heads were blaring and lights were flashing away. The checkpoint was pretty welcome – at this point my legs were starting to feel the effort and I was really looking forward to the jambalaya that was suposed to be served here. I dashed inside, were I was surprised to see Sean Grady again. He was relaxing in a chair talking bike stuff with the checkpoint staff and hanging out while his stuff dried. I plopped down, had two or three bowls of jambalaya, two cokes, and after a little over a hour of malingering, I headed back out to the finish line. I probably should have spent less time at this checkpoint, and perhaps eaten a bit less, as I was so full I could hardly bike. The next three hours were pretty boring – a brief ride on the lake followed by some long sections though black spruce on wide road like trails. I kept looking for northern lights but didn’t see any, alas. Eventually I stopped to air up my tires and make a less than pleasent discovery – as I bent down over the bike water started spraying all over my chest and bike, due to the bit value on my hydration bladder falling off. Yikes! I got the flow stopped and but when I bent down again to start airing up the tires again the water started spraying again, this time on my chest. As I fumbled around attempting to stop the spraying water I realized my jacket was froze shut and wasted quite a bit of time attempting to get the zipper moving before bailing and just yanking my jacket and pack off over my head without unzipping. At this point I was pretty annoyed and was starting to get a bit cold, and since I was pretty well hydrated I just stood on my pack to squish all the water out then tossed on an additional layer and got back on the bike, leaving the tires as is. The remainder of the ride went by pretty fast. A mile or so before the finish i pulled off the trail to pee and was passed by a speeding racer. I got back on the bike and followed him to the finish line, were I had a fantastic burger!

I learned some interesting lessons during this race. First of all, I need a lot more practice riding in soft-ish trail conditions. When on the Yentna past the checkpoint at Luce’s I was keeping pace with a rider, only to have him zoom away when the conditions got soft – he was just a lot better at riding in the soft conditions than I was, and thus was a lot faster. Definitely something to work on. I also learned that I should probably ramp up the effort during races – I did this race at a fairly conservative pace – I should probably have ramped things up quite a bit. Much like the White Mountains 100 last year I ended the race not very tired – my legs were still pretty strong and I was not sore at all. Some things I did worked out pretty well – I tried to keep the time in checkpoints down, and that appeared to work great. I drank a lot, and didn’t have stomach issues of any sort.

I would really like to do this race again next year, though I think I will ski it classic style – if its is warm with fast snow I think it would a lot of fun.

This race was very fun for me, and is something I would love to do again. The riding was great, I had wonderful clear weather with lots of sun, and it was not very cold. Others might have disagreed about the “not too cold” part, but really lows of -10f at night is not a big deal, and it was pretty nice and warm during the day. One of the only bummers of the race is the pre-race meeting and gear check – it’s on a Thursday night, and required me to come down a day in order to make it. Too bad they don’t do it the night before – that would have made my life a lot easier, but such is life, and it was not that big of a deal in the scheme of things.

Tags: biking, snow biking, Susitna 100
Posted in Races, trip reports | 3 Comments »

Thoughts on Skiing vs Biking

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

I have been spending a lot of time on the snow bike and not much time on the skis. This is bit unusual for me – normally this time of year I spend almost all my outside play time on skis, and has got me thinking a bit about the differences between snow biking and skiing. There is a local 30 mile loop made by combining two local trails, the Eldorado Creek trail and Oconner Creek trails with a a couple of random connector trails that start at the door of my house. Its a pretty fun loop, with a bit of altitude gain and a long downhill.

If you live in the area these trails are well worth exploring – lots of good skiing and biking, with enough variation in the trails to keep things interesting.

The two main trails are connected at the top by some trails run along the power lines that run near Old Murphy Dome road at the top..

And the Goldstream Trail at the bottom.

The Goldstream Trail is often the coldest part of this loop, and can have some very funky cloud and inversion formations.

I take a couple of smaller trails to get to the start of the loop, including a trail called the “Dredge Swath” trail, which was originally a trail made to haul gold dredges from Ester to the some mines along Goldstream Creek. For a long time I thought folks were calling it the “Dread Swath”… perhaps because I am hearing comprehension impaired. I did spend some time thinking about what was dreadful about it though..

This loop has become my default bike or ski route when I am looking for a longish day trip. On skis it takes about 7 hours, on a bike it takes between three and a half to four and half hours. I do this loop once or twice a week, and it is very fun. On a bike do the loop in a counter-clockwise manner to I can ride up the less steep climb on the Oconner Creek Trail, and down the much steeper Eldorado Creek trail. When skiing I do it the other way – ski up the steeper section and down the less steep hills.

Hills feel very different on the bike vs the ski – on a bike long downhills are very cold as the only thing I have to do is ride the brakes. On skis downhills require quite a bit of lower leg effort which keeps me nice and warm even for long cold downhills. Going up on the bike is a lot more work, mainly because the more effort I put in the faster I go, while on skis there is not much more reward for expending extra effort, so I tend to just cruse. This means I can really wipe myself out on the bike, yet never really seem to get tired while skiing. I am sure if my ski form was better, or if I could skate things would be a bit different.. but with my current skiing form its hard to get wore out.

Other surprising differences include how easy it is to duck under low hanging branches while skiing and how hard it is to dodge those branches while biking.

Bikes are a lot more complicated mechanically than skis are, which means the chance of breaking something is a alot higher. I have not had any troubles so far, but perhaps I have been lucky. The worst thing that has happned to me so far is icy brakes, which look pretty troublesome, but still work fine.

Skiing is much faster when the snow is soft, but when the snow is cold and hard it much faster to bike… both ways are fun though.

Its hard to face-plant on skis, but its happens amazingly fast on a snow bike. Several times now I have been zooming along on a snow machine trail only to punch though in front and have a over the bars experience.

Overflow is fun on a bike and skis, though in different ways. On skis it is pretty easy and fast to double pole though frozen or wet overflow, so long as you can slow down enough when required. With metal edges slowing down is no problem. On a bike overflow is pretty fun, however it is a lot easier to slip on the ice on a bike when the ice is hard and smooth. Wet or textured overflow is no problem on the bike, as the texture gives lots of traction. The bike does not ice up much, unlike skis, so once you are off the overflow happiness returns and there are no “memories of overflow past” in the form of slow iced ski bottoms.

Enough randomness for now, hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Tags: biking, eldorado creek trail, oconner creek trail, skiing
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A Snow Bike Tour to Borealis-LeFevre Cabin

Monday, January 17th, 2011

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With Nancy and the Twins off on the east coast visting Nancy’s half of the family, I found myself with a weekend free. I had planned on a two night trip, but bailed on the first night due to the weather. On the second night Ms Marsh and I headed out to Borealis-LeFevre for a quick overnighter.

The trip was largely uneventful, though a bit cold. It is roughly 20 miles one way and the trail was in great shaping with very fast biking conditions. Alas, Ms Marsh on skis had a harder time, as the snow was cold and slow. Borealis-LeFevre cabin was its normal welcoming self, and once we got the fire going warmed up nicely.

Marsh and I spent the evening talking and generally lazing about in the warm of the cabin. The next day we headed out back to the trail head. The thermometer on the bike had a very pessimistic view on the weather.. though I think it might have been off by a bit.