Greeeeen!

It's finally that time of year when all of the snow is melted in town and the trees start to burst with green. Last week was the city wide cleanup, so the winter trash is mostly gone and the we have been having many blue sky days over the past week. Spring is here!



After a brief hike with Niko on Sunday (he didn't get to join us on our gully adventure the day before), I headed out on Brian's cross bike. I always forget how much fun a road bike can be. As much as I hate riding on the road, riding on a road bike on paved trails can be exhilarating.

I headed out the door of my house with the intention of riding for 3 to 4 hours, taking lots of green pictures and exploring some paved trails that I have never been on before. I wanted to see how far I could get up to the Glen Alps or Upper DeArmoun area on a bike without actually riding on the road. I'd like to be able to combine biking and running as much as possible this summer, so it would be nice to be able to ride to the trailheads. Since the dirt trails are not dried out yet, I would have to do it via mostly paved trails.



I thought I would cut through the APU area on a new trail that I found this winter, but I quickly hit a swampy area and had to turn around. This trail is a snow highway in the winter, and my direct route to University Lake and FNBP. But in summer, not so much.

I eventually ended up on Elmore Rd, which has an awesome bike trail that runs the length of it from 36th all the way up to Abbot. In no time I found myself at Abbot Road and then at service high school. Road bikes are fast!



It was fun spotting all of the new growth around town. As much as I love winter, when spring arrives I start to feel full of energy again. I don't realize how much the darkness wears on me until I feel the sun on my face for hours and hours at a time. It stays light out past 10pm now.



I took the bridge over Abbot Rd to the Birch Road trail. This trail was a great hill workout. I followed it all the way to the end near Huffman and then followed a road that led to DeArmoun. I realized that I was really close to the Rabbit Creek Trail head. It was just about another mile on the road, but my goal was to stay off the roads so I turned back and road home the way I came.


It's nice to know that I can get to most of the trailheads in the Chugach now by bike and not have to drive or ride on the road. I'm hoping to have many multi-sport days this summer.