Saturday, July 10, 2010

Weekend of great weather




The weather this weekend was incredible. Friday morning I took my new bike for a ride just to see how it went and I was able to bike to work and back to the cabin, a total of 25 miles in about a hour and a half. There are two major hills on the road so the way into work is a blast and mostly downhill - it's the way home that's a bit rough. But I enjoyed the ride and am looking forward to many more rides.
It's a GT Avalanche 3.0 Mountain bike. I've ridden 37 miles in the first week and so far am absolutely loving her! I'm planning on biking the Denali Park Road in two weeks which will be 92 miles. I want to catch a bus out to Kantishna (the furthest point in the park) and then bike all the way out. I'm planning on doing it all in one day and just doing it through the night so there won't be any buses on the road. This week will be a good week of testing my endurance and get me in shape. I'm looking forward to it!
In other adventures, last night my friend Austin and I rode his motorcycle out to the old Denali Hwy. (I sat in the super sweet sidecar.)

The drive was amazing and the views were spectacular. I really enjoyed riding the bike and experiencing my surroundings in a whole new way. We went 25 miles on the gravel highway then pulled off and set up camp. Thankfully the weather was great and it was so beautiful. I was able to enjoy the colorful sunset and the light rain that woke me up this morning.

The worst part of it all was the mosquitos. For some unknown reason they seem to love my blood more than most and I was eaten up.