The Anti-Frosty Bottom

Brian and I wanted to get out for a longish ride of over 30 miles. The Frosty Bottom was being held that day, but we decided why pay 45 dollars to ride on the Tour of Anchorage Trail when we do that all the time for free.

So Brian proposed an Anti-Frosty Bottom course. He sent me the following email while I was at work on Friday.


"Check it out:

Home

tour trail

blue dot

homestead

speedway

moose meadow

black bear

brown bear

Gas line

STA

Gas line to Prospect heights

Down powerline to creek

wolverine /wolverine bowl/near point intersection

wolverine bowl trail back to creek

climb again to middle fork

middle fork to power line

south rim trail

goldern grass

powerline back to creek (3rd time)

wolverine bowl trail along creek to north rim/basher

cross road (if trail exists) to tank trail or road to tank trail

entire moose ridge loop

North Bivouc, cross over to South Biv

Gas Line down to creek

Rovers

Viewpoint

salmon run

tour trail

Home

Hot Tub

Beer"

So we headed out around 10 am that Saturday. The trails in town were crap. We had a big warm up the week before and a lot of the snow had melted. Then it got cold again and froze everything back up. But not before three million people walked all over the slushy trails.

We rode through the first half of the planned ride, bouncing and sliding along the icy, bumpy trails. Mounting and dismounting our bikes as we hit tough sections. It was actually great training for the overflow sections of the White Mountain Race. On the bike, off the bike. This takes a tremendous amount of core strength.


The extreme cold temperatures we have had this winter, have created this beautiful hoar frost that covers everything...

Somewhere before we got to the Wolverine Bowl part of the ride we decided that it probably wasn't the day to ride the Middle Fork. It was super icy and we were on fat tires, not studs. So we revised our route and headed to North Basher early.

Riding on the Basher Trail I remembered how close to a cliff the trail goes in the summer. Given the icy conditions, I dismounted my bike. Only a dumb ass would ride this, I thought.

Then I  rounded the corner and saw this...

Luckily he was caught by a tree.

And was able to climb out easily.

We found the connector trail on the other side of Basher and road down the Powerline Trail while the sun set over Anchorage. Yes, the trails were crappy and yes, I was in a bad mood, but if we didn't get out this day we never would have seen this. And that made all the effort and the misery worthwhile.